Authorities have arrested and charged a suspect in connection with a woman’s brutal murder in Minneapolis in July.
Prosecutors in Hennepin County last week charged Byron Vinicio Vargas Bautista, 38, with one count of 2nd-degree murder in connection with the death of 57-year-old Felisha Smith, whose badly beaten and partially unclothed body was found outside Spirit of the Lord Church in north Minneapolis on July 14.
Felisha Smith’s daughter, Shari Smith, told FOX 9 last month that her mother lived in a long-term care facility after surviving a 2014 shooting that left her with a traumatic brain injury.
According to the criminal complaint, video footage from Metro Transit shows Smith and Bautista both exited a bus near Penn Avenue North and Oliver Avenue North on the day Smith was last seen.
Cameras on homes and buildings in the area allegedly captured Smith and Bautista walking toward the northeast corner of the church, where Smith’s body was later discovered.
“Traffic cameras at Penn and Oak Park Avenues depicted what appeared to be [Bautista] carrying [Smith] part of the way,” the complaint reads. “Footage then captured [Bautista] going back and forth to the area of the crime scene alone before ultimately leaving the area.”