LA Police Make Arrest in Connection to Death of Gay Dallas Man

Los Angeles police arrested a man in connection to the death of a Dallas resident, who went missing nearly a year ago, the Dallas Voice reports.

Dallas police announced Thursday Christopher Brain Colbert, 43, was arrested in L.A. and is the suspect in the murder of Ronald David Shumway, 57. Colbert, though not charged with the murder, is currently awaiting extradition. Colbert was booked on warrants for tampering with a governmental record, securing execution of a document by deception and money laundering.

Shumway was last seen alive in April 2015, shortly before his supervisors at Dallas Area Rapid Transit received an email purported to be from him. In the email, Shumway resigned from his job as a driver. Not long after that, his home was put up for sale and a man claiming to be Shumway appeared at the closing deal in June, the Dallas Voice reports.

The new owner of the home found human remains of a man in a plastic bag beneath a concrete slab in the backyard of the house in September. Local police then launched a search for Shumway and discovered Facebook posts he made after he supposedly quit his job. Authorities believed he moved to Austin, Texas to live with a man he met online.

Investigators, however, concluded through DNA testing that the remains found in the backyard were Shumway. The Dallas Voice reports witnesses identified Colbert as the man who represented himself as Shumway during the closing sale of the house last summer.

Towleroad reports Colbert also allegedly ran up $40,000 in purchases on Shumway's credit card. Colbert has not been charged with Shumway's murder but is being held on $300,000 bond.