Escaped Texas inmate dead after being linked to 5 slayings, authorities say

Officials in Central Texas said late Thursday that an escaped inmate serving a life sentence for murder was dead.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office, located about halfway between Dallas and Houston, announced about 10:30 p.m. that Gonzalo Lopez was “captured & deceased.”

Additional details were not immediately available.

Authorities had released additional information hours earlier about the search for Lopez, 46, who had been on the run since his escape from a prison bus last month.

In a series of tweets, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Lopez may have been driving a pickup that was missing from a home where authorities found five people dead.

The TDCJ said authorities responded to the home and found the bodies of two adults and three children after someone expressed concern about an elderly relative.

The agency did not say when the bodies were found or where the home was located, but said the white pickup was missing from the residence.

Lopez escaped from a prison transport bus May 12 after he overpowered the driver. None of the other 15 prisoners on board escaped.

Lopez was convicted of capital murder in Hidalgo County and sentenced to life in prison in 2006, records show. He was last incarcerated at a prison in Gatesville, about 130 miles west of Leon County.