Nearly two months after a mother of four was found hanging from a dock in what police say was a fake suicide scene, someone has been arrested in Texas.
On May 31, 2022, Giselle Salazar-Tapia, 30, was discovered “hanging off a dock” at a marina in League City, Texas. That’s what the cops said at the time.
On July 26, League City police said they had arrested 51-year-old James Hart, who was named by several news sources as the woman’s boyfriend, in connection with her death.
Police said in a statement that Hart was charged with changing or making up physical evidence to harm a dead body.
Police have not named the victim, but ABC 11, The Daily News, and FOX 29 all said her name was Giselle Salazar-Tapia.
It’s been almost two months since League City cops were told that Salazar-Tapia’s body had been found in the marina.
In May, League City police said in a statement that people who called said the woman hanging from the dock by a rope looked like she was dead.
Friends and family of Salazar-Tapia told cops that her boyfriend “became very upset and would not come out of his boat.” The cops say they were able to get him to get out of the boat soon after.
Hart told the news reporters in his area that he had nothing to do with his girlfriend’s death.
He told KHOU, “It feels like a nightmare you can’t wake up from.” “It had nothing to do with me, and it never would have been.”
He said, “Justice for Giselle and myself” and that they were “together 24/7.”
At the time, KHOU, KTRK, and The Daily News reported that police said they were looking into Salazar-Tapia’s death as a possible murder and had named two people of interest.
League City police said they think she died somewhere else and that her body was reportedly staged to look like she killed herself, according to ABC 11.
Police told the news source that her body was partly submerged in water and that her arm was “suspended up in the air” with “nothing holding it there.” „That’s why we think she probably died with her arm raised above her head in that position. Rigor mortis had already set in before she was put there.”
Salazar-Tapia’s family said she was a victim of domestic abuse in a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for her funeral and child care.
Part of the fundraiser says, “Giselle was the most charming person you could ever meet. She smiled at everyone she met and made friends with them.” “Giselle always saw the good in people, even if they didn’t deserve it.”
The police did not say that Hart would be charged with domestic abuse. League City police told ABC 13 that they had been called several times about problems in Salazar-Tapia’s home.
It wasn’t clear immediately if Hart had made a plea or hired a lawyer to speak for him.
