A Texas man is suspected of beheading Sarah Warriner, who was found dead on May 5.
The 65-year-old woman was the mother of the suspect, 22-year-old Isaac Warriner, who was booked into the Denton County Jail on suspicion of murder, according to an affidavit obtained by the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Denton police officers went to Warriner’s apartment, where the son also lived, after getting a tip about suspicious activity. Finding the door unlocked, they went inside and soon discovered Warriner’s body. Her head had been cut off and was not in or around the apartment.
Isaac Warriner was not present, but he was arrested later in Oklahoma and taken back to Texas on May 16.
News: In response to our reporting, @DENTONPD reviewed its records & found 12 instances since Feb. where police were called on Isaac Warriner.@Chief_Dixon2746 said there wasn’t anything police could legally do b/c Isaac never said he would hurt anybody.https://t.co/PxzvZ4G71o
— Dalton LaFerney (@daltonlaferney) May 10, 2019
Investigators accused Warriner of using a hacksaw to cut off his mother’s head before rinsing the saw clean in the bathroom. The saw was left in the apartment.
Warriner was being held on the charges of abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence.
Denton Police Chief Frank Dixon said that officers received at least 12 calls from people about Warriner’s behavior this year, but said police couldn’t do anything for the man after he told officers he would not harm anyone and declined mental health resources offered by the officers.
According to the affidavit, a neighbor told officers on May 5 that Warriner was “acting weird” and had been taking cleaning supplies in and out of the apartment. That call triggered the police response that led to his mother’s body being found.
#Texas man accused of abusing mother’s corpse had mental breakdown, father says. Body found Sunday night in #Denton apartment. @DENTONPD#Readloclhttps://t.co/ucTLp5mCvV pic.twitter.com/3DsywrZjJl
— domingo ramirez jr. (@mingoramirezjr) May 7, 2019
Father, Friends Speak Out
Warriner’s father said that his son had a mental breakdown and mental health issues before allegedly committing the murder.
Kenneth Warriner, who was divorced from Sarah Warriner, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she was letting Isaac Warriner stay with her after his last stint in rehabilitation.
School records show that Warriner earned a bachelor’s degree in arts from the University in North Texas in 2018, but Kenneth Warriner said a serious car accident later in the year put his son “on the edge.” He was charged with driving while intoxicated in late 2018 and early 2019, in addition to being charged with possession of marijuana once.
“He was prescribed psychotic drugs to try and help, but that didn’t seem to work,” Kenneth Warriner said.
New: Friends and even his own mother tried to warn @DENTONPD that Isaac Warriner was heading in a bad direction https://t.co/u8wAvgNcyB
— Dalton LaFerney (@daltonlaferney) May 8, 2019
Six of Isaac Warriner’s former classmates tried warning the police about the man leading up to the alleged murder in addition to his mother, the Record-Chronicle reported.
“By my count, there’s at least four calls to MHMR and DPD,” former classmate Hannah Horick said. “I was furious when I found out how many there were and this had happened.”
Just days before Sarah Warriner’s body was found, she called the police and said her son had become upset with her and they had a fight. Isaac Warriner wasn’t at the apartment when officers got there so they left after telling his mother to call 911 if he returned.
On the same day, Isaac Warriner posted on Twitter about having suicidal thoughts, prompting a former classmate, Abbey Gross, to alert the authorities, telling them she’d seen cut marks on one of Warriner’s arms when they met up the previous week.
“He showed me his arm and it was covered in cuts. He told me he tried to kill himself the night before,” Gross said. “That’s probably something that’s worth following up on and not a quick checkup from the police.”
