Texas man identified from remains, suspect arrested in corpse tampering case

Human remains found off Mark Street in Sulphur Springs have been identified as Dennis Damont Weems Jr., a 26-year-old Dallas man who had been reported missing earlier this year. That identification turned a grim discovery near Texas Highway 313 and Hillcrest Drive North into a criminal case, as Hopkins County authorities said a suspect has now been arrested and brought back to East Texas.

Officers responded around 8:55 a.m. on May 2 after a report of possible remains in the area. When officers arrived, they confirmed the remains were human. Criminal investigators, with help from the Texas Rangers, searched the surrounding area and recovered additional remains, deepening what was already shaping up to be a complex death investigation.

The key breakthrough came in Dallas, where the remains were sent to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science for examination. DNA analysis identified the victim as Weems, who had last made contact in February, according to reporting tied to his missing-person case. Dallas Police says its Missing Persons Squad handles those cases and that there is no waiting period before someone can be reported missing.

That identification did more than put a name to the remains. Investigators also obtained an arrest warrant for Devarrius Damontre Richardson, 25, on a charge of tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. Texas Penal Code Section 37.09 defines that offense as altering, destroying or concealing evidence so it cannot be used in an investigation or official proceeding, and that is the legal lane police are now using as they push the case forward.

Richardson was located and arrested in Anchorage, Alaska, then transported back to Hopkins County, where he is being held on a $500,000 bond. Henderson County officials had earlier said Richardson was last seen in Log Cabin on February 2, 2026, and was reported missing by the Log Cabin Police Department. Investigators later determined he had fled to Alaska.

Police said the investigation remains active and ongoing, and they expect additional charges as more evidence is reviewed. For Weems’s family, the DNA match brought a name to the remains found on Mark Street. For investigators, it opened the next phase: figuring out what happened between the last February contact, the May 2 discovery, and the arrest that followed across state lines.