The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office arrested Samual Charon for the 2024 murder of Stacey Dramiga, linking him to the crime through DNA evidence.
After more than a year of questions, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office made an arrest in the violent death of a woman who had gone missing while jogging in 2024. That man is now facing a capital murder charge.
Stacey Dramiga, 63, went for a walk on Sept. 22, 2024, near her home and never returned. Family members say it was part of her regular routine to walk around eight to 10 miles on Salado Creek Trail on the east side near the Frost Bank Center. Her car was located by investigators at Comanche Park, but her phone had pinged to Dafoste Park, when investigators located it through her iPad.
Court documents say one day later, law enforcement found her burned body with clothes that matched the description of what Dramiga had been wearing. Her death was ruled a homicide and the cause death was blunt force trauma to the head. Police say she was sexually assaulted and murdered before her body was set on fire. The DNA collected from her body and a nearby rock believed to be the murder weapon was put into a national database.
What we know about the suspect
That same DNA led investigators to Samual Charon, 23, who is facing charges of capital murder and tampering with a corpse.
Back in April, he was booked into the Bexar County jail on a charge of criminal mischief. Arrest documents say on Oct. 13, a crime laboratory received a match of his DNA to that taken from Dramiga’s body. The DNA was also tested against the DNA from the rock, and it was confirmed to be 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,” Sheriff Javier Salazar said Wednesday.
The suspect was interviewed on Oct. 14, when he denied being involved in the crime.
“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. Authorities say he lived near the crime scene, roughly a 10-minute walk, and is believed to have acted alone.
He was booked into the Bexar County jail and his bond is set at $250,000.