Dead Ringer: The Savage Murder of Jacqueline Vandagriff
Life’s Slender Thread
On the evening of September 13, 2016, twenty-four-year-old Jackie Vandagriff walked into a bar located across the street from the University of North Texas in Denton looking for a job. Early the next morning, her mutilated remains were found smoldering in a park some twenty miles away. What happened between the time she entered the establishment, and the moment that the grim discovery was made, is every woman’s nightmare.
Surveillance video taken at the bar showed that Jackie had been approached by another patron, a man later identified as Charles Dean Bryant. If the footage was any indication, the pair had quickly hit it off. After spending some time getting acquainted, they had left together.
Once outside, rather than going their separate ways, they had gotten into Bryant’s car and headed to another nightspot where they continued their impromptu date. At around 11:00 p.m., they were captured on video exiting the bar. These haunting images would be the last time Jackie was seen alive by anyone other than her killer.
The following morning, members of a maintenance crew in the city of Grapevine received word that smoke had been seen coming from Acorn Woods Park. When they went to investigate, they discovered what appeared to be remnants of a child’s…
