Police: Hitchhiker stabs, kills man who picked him up at a Taco Bell

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - Police in Texas have arrested and charged a hitchhiker with murder after they say he killed a man who picked him up at a Taco Bell.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by KWTX, 31-year-old Justin Glen Boswell has been charged with the murder of 25-year-old Rowdy Mays.

Police in Temple, Texas, responded to the Taco Bell on July 28, where they said they found Mays with stab wounds in the neck and body. Paramedics took the victim to a hospital where he later died.

Police said a witness at the scene told them 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 hair and facial hair.

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

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-thru.

After leaving the drive-thru area, Mays is seen in the footage parking his pickup and allowing the man to get into the front passenger seat, according to the affidavit. 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.

At the Taco Bell, an employee 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.