HOUSTON — Houston police have arrested a woman charged with murder in the 2021 stabbing death of a 78-year-old Montrose man.
Court documents tell the disturbing story of Colin Kerdachi's death, a possible motive and the evidence that led homicide detectives to Pamela Ann Merritt, 43.
Kerdachi's remains were found on Dec. 6, 2021, in the backyard of a home on West Clay St. between Stafford and Taft.
On May 30, 2023, Merritt was charged with killing Kerdachi but police couldn't find her. She was arrested last Friday, Aug. 18, and she appeared in court Tuesday morning.
Timeline: Colin Kerdachi's death
Feb. 20, 2021: Multiple people who knew the victim reported him missing and said they hadn't seen him since the deadly freeze that left tens of thousands of people without power.
Feb. 23, 2021: Police interviewed a tenant who said he hadn't heard Kerdachi moving around in his upstairs residence since Feb. 15.
Later that night, another tenant called HPD and said he had returned home after a long trip to find a strange woman living in his unit and she refused to leave. The man told investigators that Pamela Merritt said Kerdachi was dead and she had killed him, according to court records. Officers took Merritt to a psychiatric hospital.
Oct. 21, 2021: A woman who lived in the house called HPD and said she had discovered large blood stains on a mattress and on the third-floor bathroom floor where Kerdachi had lived. She also found a bloody knife locked in a mailbox. The woman told investigators that she had been paying rent to Merritt and her boyfriend, whose name was Michael Brown. They gave her a discount in exchange for cleaning the second and third floors and that's when she made the disturbing discoveries.
The woman said she asked Merritt and Brown about Kerdachi and was told that he had fallen on a sharp object so they took him to the hospital where he died.
When she told them she was going to call police, they started painting over things, according to court records.
Dec. 6, 2021: The same tenant called HPD again after finding skeletal remains in the backyard.
“I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before because, once you realize, it’s kind of obvious but it kind of blended in at first," the woman told us.
Police said the remains had clearly been there a while.
A neighbor said the house hadn't been taken care of since Kerdachi disappeared.
“Garbage as far as the eye can see. Downed limbs, there’s a shopping cart back there, there’s been a bicycle back there, a children’s bike. It’s just been a mess," Cathryn Cummings told KHOU 11 in 2021.
“It’s been a kind of a rotating cast of characters. I’m not sure if any of them is paying rent since nobody knows where the homeowner is,” Cummings said.
The coroner's office later confirmed the identity of the remains as Kerdachi.
“When someone goes missing and then there’s a body you hope it’s not the worst,” Cummings said.
Dec. 7, 2021: Merritt and Brown were interviewed at HPD headquarters. They claimed the remains were a dead dog and any blood in the house was from rotten meat she had cleaned out of the refrigerator, according to police records.
Merritt said Kerdachi had faked his death to commit fraud and was probably alive in Africa.
When asked about the tenant's story about Kerdachi falling on a sharp object, she said she was the one who nursed him back to health before he went to the hospital.
When asked by the detective if Kerdachi "crawled back from the hospital and then died in his backyard, Merritt responded "I guess so," court records said.
Merritt and Brown were released without charges.
It's not clear if the investigation continued at that point.
March 2023: It was another 15 months before HPD detectives obtained the victim's bank and cell phone records which showed no activity after Feb. 15, 2021. They said records also showed the phone never left the house after that date.
Detectives pulled the autopsy report which said Kerdachi died from sharp and blunt force homicide and had been stabbed repeatedly in his head, neck, chest and torso.
May 2023: Michael Brown was arrested and charged with tampering with evidence. Police said he admitted that Merritt had confessed to him that she killed Kerdachi but denied that he was involved.
Murder charges were filed against Merritt but it took more than five months to find her.
Aug. 18, 2023: Merritt was arrested on a murder charge.
Aug. 22, 2023: A judge set Merritt's bond at $500,000.