28-year-old Texas man charged in 2014 slaying of two women in west Oak Cliff

A 28-year-old Texas man has been charged in an unsolved triple shooting that claimed the lives of two women in west Oak Cliff in 2014, police say.

On Oct. 2, members of the U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force took Christopher Joseph Gonzalez into custody at his home in Baytown, about 30 minutes east of downtown Houston.

The crime took place on the afternoon of April 7, 2014, when according to a news release issued Tuesday by Dallas police, officers responded to a shooting call in the 3500 block of Western Park Drive. News reports from that time had described the location as being in the 2500 block of Western Park, near South Cockrell Hill Road and West Illinois Avenue.

At the site, responding officers found two women shot in the head – Ammy Soumphonphakdy, 50, and Debbie Thammayongsa, 18.

Police did not specify any relationship between the two women, but neighbors at the time identified them as mother and daughter.

Soumphonphakdy and Thammayongsa both died of their injuries. An unidentified male was also found at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head; he was hospitalized and survived.

Investigators determined that two males in their 20s, driving a red Dodge Challenger, were seen arguing with an older Asian female. Multiple witnesses told police they had seen the vehicle within a half-hour of officers arriving at the scene.

According to WFAA-TV (ABC8), records showed Thammayongsa, who had just graduated from Dallas’ Molina High, was the one who called police.

Detectives believed the crime to be a home invasion robbery, saying at the time that two men, one wearing a mask, had been seen entering the residence and that Soumphonphakdy’s TV, camera, jewelry and other items were stacked near the front door “like they were getting ready to be loaded into a vehicle.”

However, the probe was ultimately halted for lack of evidence.

In November 2018, police said Tuesday, friends of the victims’ families, as well as a City of Dallas employee, contacted the Dallas Police Department’s homicide unit to inquire about the status of the investigation and whether it could be revived.

Dallas Police Det. John Valdez reexamined the existing evidence, and in April of this year he was able to identify Gonzalez as the suspect.

Gonzalez was charged with capital murder.