Samuel Aquim Charon, who authorities said doesn’t have a “significant” criminal history, is accused of murdering Dramiga in September 2024 as she was on a trail.
SAN ANTONIO — More than a year after she disappeared while walking on a northwest-side trail, Bexar County officials have identified a suspect now accused of sexually assaulting and murdering 63-year-old Stacey Dramiga.
Samuel Aquim Charon, 23, was arrested “without incident” and faces charges of capital murder and tampering with a corpse after Sheriff Javier Salazar said he most likely ambushed and attacked Dramiga in broad daylight last year.
“Definitely a savage, savage crime,” Salazar said Wednesday, after Charon was taken into custody. “One of the more heinous that I’ve been associated with.”
Dramiga was initially reported missing by family members hours after she left for a walk Sept. 22, 2024, on the Salado Creek Greenway trail—something she was known to regularly do. When she didn’t return, the Bexar County Sheriff’ Office initiated a search that eventually involved San Antonio police and parks police.
The investigation intensified when partially burned remains later identified as Dramiga’s were discovered along the trail. DNA samples found on the remains and a nearby rock believed to be the murder weapon were found to be a man’s, Salazar said, but it didn’t immediately have a match in the the national CODIS crime database—that process took the better part of a year.
The breakthrough came on April 9, when Charon was booked into the Bexar County jail on a charge of criminal mischief and his DNA taken. It eventually was entered into CODIS, and authorities were notified Monday that the DNA sample they had for months finally had a match.
“Over the course of the next several months, that sample made its way through the system to where that sample popped on CODIS and we were able to identify him,” Salazar said.
Authorities executed a search warrant for another DNA sample from Charon to confirm before he was eventually taken into custody.
“Didn’t give any reaction whatsoever, even when provided with pretty grisly crime scene picture,” Salazar said about when Charon was questioned by investigators in connection with the Dramiga case. “Just completely devoid of any emotion at all.”
The sheriff credited a new state law that makes it routine for law enforcement to take a DNA sample from individuals booked on felony charges. Salazar said Charon didn’t have a “significant” criminal history before his April arrest, hence why they couldn’t find a DNA match earlier.
While he was being taken away to be booked, Charon said he was “not guilty” before adding he would remain silent.
What happened last year?
The investigation gained steam in September 2024 when the county medical examiner found Dramiga had been brutally attacked and suffered severe injuries to her head.
Her husband contacted authorities when she had not returned home last year, BCSO at the time said. Investigators attempted to ping her phone, but the area was too broad. A family iPad was used to further narrow the ping and her body was found a short time later in a wooded area off the main trail.
Bexar County authorities briefly arrested a man who tried evading authorities after being told he would be taken in for questioning; the sheriff’s office later said he provided details about Dramiga’s condition, but only a charge of evading arrest was filed against him.
Authorities at the time said it appeared that foul play was involved, sparking the search for potential murder suspects. But no additional arrests had been made for over a year, despite Crime Stoppers San Antonio offering a reward for credible tips leading to an arrest.