BEXAR COUNTY, TX - A man in his twenties allegedly set his girlfriend's body on fire back in 2019, but was not arrested until this past Sunday, November 1, when new technology allowed police to mine incriminating data from his cellphone.
The alleged suspect, 24-year-old Joey Emiliano Tovar-Vargas, is accused of tampering with evidence, namely a corpse, in the death of 20-year-old Meagan Gonzales, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office (BSCO). Gonzales was last seen with Tovar-Vargas in her truck on November 11, 2019, in San Antonio, Law & Crime reported.
She was reported missing four days later, Sheriff Javier Salazar said. Authorities recovered her truck on December 2, 2019, at an apartment complex in the 5300 block of Northwest Loop 410. Blood was inside the vehicle and the next day, police found her body in a field in the 12000 block of Wisdom Road, more than 20 miles away from her vehicle.
Salazar said her body was burned, badly decomposed and wrapped in a blanket with "distinctive" patterns that would later prove key in arresting Tovar-Vargas several years later.
Investigators long suspected Tovar-Vargas in Gonzales' death, but had been unable to collect any evidence against him. That changed when the cold case took another look at her disappearance in 2025. New technology allowed them to further analyze data collected on Tovar-Vargas' phone, which yielded a "treasure trove" of new evidence, Salazar said.
Location data showed the alleged suspect was in the area where police recovered some of Gonzales' property, the sheriff said. Detectives also learned that he allegedly searched "how long fingerprints last" along with other information such as ways to delete social media.
Several photos also showed the blanket that wrapped the body inside the alleged suspect's home, Salazar said. In addition, a witness came forward to say they saw Tovar-Vargas dumping evidence in the days following the homicide. Although police gathered enough new evidence to charge him with tampering with a corpse, they have not yet charged him with murder.
"In a criminal investigation, there's what you believe happened, and there's what you can prove happened," Salazar said. "So while we believe we know what happened, we believe that obviously that Mr. Tovar is … responsible in what ultimately happened to Meagan. What we can prove at this point is that he disposed of her body."
Tovar-Vargas was booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $200,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for March 29.
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