Arrest Made In Murder Of Uptown Dentist
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas Police announced the arrest early Saturday of a 23-year-old woman in the murder of Uptown dentist Dr. Kendra Hatcher.
Crystal Cortes is being held on a $250,000 bond.
Cortes' six-year-old son has been placed in the custody of Child Protection Services.
"Arrestee Crystal has admitted her involvement in the murder and has given detectives information that other unidentified suspects may have been involved," Dallas Police Senior Corporal Melinda Gutierrez said.
An arrest warrant affidavit released by Dallas Police indicates a person contacted a DPD officer after seeing pictures of his Jeep Cherokee on local news reports in relation to the murder.
That person told detectives he had loaned the vehicle to Cortes. The suspect voluntarily came to DPD headquarters and talked with detectives.
"During her interview, she admitted that she conspired with an unnamed individual for $500 to drive an unknown male suspect ... and commit the offense of robbery," the warrant said.
It goes on to say the unknown male suspect shot Hatcher and took several items from her.
A neighbor who didn't want to be identified recalled what he saw and heard the night Dr. Hatcher, age 35, was shot dead inside her parking garage at the Gables Park 17 apartments.
The man said when he heard the gun go off he was headed for the elevators and thought someone had either dropped something heavy or slammed a door.
He said "I heard the shot I didn't think much of it."
It wasn't until his son who was also in the garage at the same time called frantically that he confirmed something horrible had just happened.
He added, "He told me a lady just got shot in our parking lot," about the phone call he got from his son.
The neighbor rushed back down and saw Dr. Hatcher still wearing her black scrubs laying near her car.
He went on to say "She was not breathing so we figured... we backed off and waited for the cops."
Once police arrived, he says they described seeing the black Jeep Cherokee. The arrest warrant affidavit identifies Cortes as the driver of that SUV.
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