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A 26-year-old Houma man wanted for questioning in connection with one and possibly two murders in Texas turned himself in to Terrebonne Parish authorities Sunday night, authorities have confirmed.
Jerret Jamar Allen, 26, was wanted on a warrant for credit card theft, but Harris County, Tx. detectives also wish to question him in connection with a murder for which his cousin is already charged, and the disappearance of the man whose credit cards he is accused of stealing and using.
“The cases most likely are linked,” said a Harris County Sheriff’s Office Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliard.
Investigators were believed headed to Terrebonne Parish Monday, to talk with Allen.
In both cases, Gilliard said, dating apps – among them Scruff and Grindr, both popular with gay men – were believed used to lure men who were then robbed. In one case and possibly two, the victims were killed, Gilliard said.
Allen’s cousin, 19-year-old Brandon Alexander Lyons, also from Houma, is currently at the Harris County jail, charged with one count of capital murder, in connection with the death of 36-year-old Glenser Solimon, who was a nurse at St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Solimon went missing Feb. 18 and his body was discovered Feb. 25. Authorities said his BMW was driven by Lyons, whom they charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and later with murder. While robbing Solimon, court papers allege, Lyons caused the man’s head to strike an object, and also strangled him.
On March 31, 26-year-ol An Vinh Nguyen went missing from his Houston family’s home, on the eve of a job interview for which he never showed up, and authorities were notified.
Nguyen’s Jeep was recovered a week later near a Houston apartment complex. Investigation determined that his credit card had been used for a $500 bank withdrawal April 1. A combination of photo and palm-print evidence caused authorities to suspect Allen; he was also implicated in the pawning of a laptop belonging to Nguyen at a pawn shop in El Paso.
Nguyen is presumed dead by authorities and a search continues.
Investigators say it is possible that the hook-up sites may have figured in other robbery cases, but did not give indications that additional murders are suspected. The investigation continues.
Records in Terrebonne Parish could not be immediately located for Allen. But Lyons was confirmed to have been a student who played football and basketball at Evergreen Junior High until he went on to study at H.L. Bourgeois High. He left Houma in 2015, shy of his senior year, transferring to a school out of state.
He is believed at that point to have joined his cousin in Texas.
A woman who identified herself as Allen’s mother called a Houston television station last week and said that she did not believe her son would be involved with such a crime, nor her nephew, but she did not leave her name.
