In a tragic story of domestic violence, Robert Morairity, a 45-year old Texas inmate on parole, was detained in June 2023 for suspicion of murdering his wife and 11-year-old daughter.
The Wise County Sheriff’s Office was first alerted of the missing persons case by a brother-in-law of the victim, Kimberly Kellam. After deputies explored the family’s home in Decatur, a rural city approximately 65 miles northwest of Dallas, they discovered the home abandoned. Records from the daughter’s school showed she had not been attending since the prior year.
In order to arrest the suspect, the collaboration between the sheriff’s office, Texas Rangers, and Dallas Police Department led to a hotel in Dallas where Morairity had been living with his two younger children, ages 3 and 10. Initially, Morairity declared he had no idea where his missing family members were.
However, he later admitted to authorities that his wife and daughter were dead in his garage and had been for the past 5 to 6 months. According an evaluation provided by Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin, the remains were found in an attempted state of concealment.
At the time of his arrest, Morairity had recently completed his probation period, which he had been sentenced to in 2019 after confessing to two accounts of abandoning or endangering a minor. Now, Morairity faces allegation of murder, capital murder of a minor aged between 10 and 15, and tampering with evidence. He is being held in Wise County Jail in lieu of $800,000 bond.