Detectives piece together witness information to identify hitchhiker accused of killing Temple man

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - Justin Glen Boswell, 31, is charged with murder in the killing of Rowdy Mays, 25, a man who picked up Boswell at a Taco Bell in Temple before he was stabbed and killed, an arrest affidavit obtained by KWTX reveals.

Temple Police officers responded at around 6:15 p.m. on July 28 to the 2600 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where they found Mays with stab wounds in the neck and body. Paramedics transported the victim to Baylor Scott & White Temple, where he later died.

A witness at the scene told police she stopped to help after she noticed the wounded Mays walk into the roadway. Mays reportedly told the witness he was stabbed by a hitchhiker he picked up and that the attacker took his truck.

The witness reportedly saw the hitchhiker fleeing the scene in the truck and described the suspect to police as a white man with reddish blonde and facial hair.

Mays’ mother would later provide insurance documents to police and they were able to get the make, model, and license plate for the victim’s pickup.

Police also obtained bank records that revealed Mays last used his debit card at a Temple Taco Bell. Surveillance footage from the Taco Bell shows Mays allowing a man to get into the bed of his pickup while Mays was in the drive-through. After leaving the drive-though area, Mays is seen in the footage parking his pickup and allowing the man to get into the front passenger seat. The man who entered Mays’ pickup was also seen in surveillance footage buying a drink inside the Taco Bell earlier in the day, the affidavit states.

The document further states police began receiving reports of a man displaying erratic behavior in the area. A woman who allowed the man to use her phone to call a family member was among those who contacted police. Using the information provided by the woman, police contacted the person the man called and confirmed his identity as Boswell, the affidavit states.

Back at the Taco Bell, a clerk was shown a photo of Boswell and five other individuals with similar physical characteristics and “positively identified the suspect (Boswell) as the individual in the (surveillance) video,” the arrest affidavit states.

Police then spoke with a man in Cameron, Texas who said he spoke with Boswell at the fuel pumps at a gas station. The man told police Boswell was acting strangely and he decided to write down the license plate number of the truck Boswell was driving. The license plate number matched that of Mays’ stolen pickup.

According to the affidavit, investigators claim Boswell is the man seen in the Taco Bell footage entering Mays’ truck and also the man seen with the stolen truck in the Cameron gas station footage.

Mays’ pickup was eventually found abandoned in Rockdale, Texas.

Boswell is being held at the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond.

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