Brother-in-law of missing teenager facing first-degree murder charges

EDINBURG - The mother of an 18-year-old woman killed last week cried Wednesday as authorities charged her son-in-law with murder.

Said Vargas told investigators Tuesday he accidentally strangled the teen and led investigators to a canal north of Edinburg where he dumped Yuliana Reyes' naked body, according to authorities.

Lilia Reyes, Yuliana's mother, reported her missing July 9. Vargas had told her he saw the teen leaving home in a Chevrolet Cavalier, police said.

Vargas, a Mexican national, avoided looking back at the family that crowded an Edinburg courtroom Wednesday to see him arraigned on a first-degree felony murder charge. He remained in Hidalgo County Jail Wednesday night in lieu of a $1 million bond.

Investigators said Vargas told them he accidentally strangled Reyes during an argument at her family's home July 8, a day before her family reported her missing. He stripped off her clothes, wrapped her in a blanket and eventually dumped her body in a debris-ridden canal near the intersection of Seminary and Monte Cristo roads, police said he told them.

Edinburg police Chief Quirino Muñoz said there is no evidence she was sexually assaulted.

While Vargas is the suspected killer, detectives are still trying to determine the events that led up to Reyes' death, police said.

At a news conference after the arraignment, Muñoz made a point of avoiding describing Vargas' statements about the death as a confession, suggesting police don't necessarily believe the man's story.