On May 4, 2026, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 65-year-old Bobby Charles Taylor Sr. for the 1986 capital murder of 16-year-old Deanna Ogg. Ogg, a student at New Caney High School, was last seen on September 27, 1986, walking to a convenience store in Porter, Texas, to find a ride to a family gathering. Her body was discovered just two hours later by children in a wooded area off Old Houston Road; she had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and stabbed.
The arrest marks a major breakthrough in a case that saw one of Texas’s most high-profile wrongful convictions. In 1990, Roy Criner was convicted of sexual assault in connection with Ogg’s death and sentenced to 99 years in prison, despite a lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime. Criner served 10 years before DNA testing on biological evidence found at the scene exonerated him in 2000, leading to a full pardon by then-Governor George W. Bush.
Investigators credit the breakthrough to advanced DNA technology and modern forensic testing that allowed them to re-examine long-stored evidence. Taylor, who was 20 years old at the time of the murder, is currently held in the Montgomery County Jail on capital murder charges. Authorities, including the Texas Rangers and the FBI, scheduled a news conference for May 6, 2026, to provide further details on the investigation and the specific evidence that led to Taylor’s identification.