New Dateline episode to revisit the Arlington ‘Bathtub Killer’ murders of 1996
A new episode of Dateline will premiere Friday at 8 p.m. CST on NBC, highlighting the 1996 Arlington, Texas murders tied to Dale Devon Scheanette, also known as the “Bathtub Killer.”
Scheanette was convicted of killing Wendie Prescott, a 22-year-old teacher’s aide in Mansfield ISD. He was also charged but not tried in the killing of Christine Vu, a 25-year-old Arlington elementary school teacher, according to previous Star-Telegram reporting.
The women both lived in the Peartree Apartments and were found raped, strangled, bound with duct tape and left in half-filled bathtubs.
Both murders went unsolved for over three years due to lack of fingerprint matching at the murder scenes to anyone in criminal databases.
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Christine Vu and Wendie Prescott
Christine Vu’s death is said to have occurred on Sept. 17 between the hours of 4:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. when based on the time Vu usually arrived home from work.
Vu was discovered that same evening by her boyfriend, Thang Chi Khuu, whom she lived with in the apartment.
Khuu was deemed as a suspect early in the investigation due to discrepancies in his statement, but was later ruled out as a suspect..
“The boyfriend is a suspect: We have told him and he understands that,” police spokesman Dee Anderson said during the Star-Telegram’s initial reporting. “There are some discrepancies with some of the things he told us and what we saw at the scene and heard from other people.”
Khuu did not hire a lawyer, stating he wanted to cooperate with police. He even provided the police with several DNA samples, took a polygraph test and allowed for the police to search his vehicle. He was eventually ruled out as a suspect.
Wendie Prescott was found early Christmas morning. Her body was discovered in her apartment bathtub, the same as Vu was found, after relatives came to check on her when she did show up for the family’s Christmas Eve gathering.
Several residents of the complex called dispatch services shortly after 12:20 a.m. after hearing the screams of Prescott’s relatives upon discovering her body.
Following the murders of the two women within a span of three months in the same apartment complex, several residents reported to the Star-Telegram feelings of apprehension around staying in the complex.
“This complex is the last place that I thought something like this would happen,” resident Tim Captville said.
Another resident and employee of the Arlington school district, Mikie Randell, said she was moving out of the complex because she was concerned for her safety.
Death row execution
Scheanette was sent to death row and executed by lethal injection on Feb. 10, 2009, at the age of 35, becoming the seventh murderer executed in Texas in 2009.
When asked for a final statement, Scheanette said, “My only statement is that no cases ever tried have been error-free. Those are my words. No cases are error-free,” according to the Associated Press.
After his words, he told the warden to continue with the execution. Scheanette was then pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.
Despite having selected no witnesses, his execution was attended by six relatives of Prescott and Vu.
The new episode of Dateline, titled “Dark Intentions,” will air Friday at 8 p.m. CST on NBC. The episode will delve deeper into the murders with interviews of others involved in the case.
