When authorities found the body of Robert Dodson II inside a burning SUV at a gas well in rural Johnson County last month, how he wound up there was a mysterious. It was easy to wonder whether it had something to do with a June incident in which a 17-year-old acquaintance, Claudia Hidic, was shot to death on Dodson's back porch after an apparent extortion attempt. Police later learned that Hidic, who had sold Dodson a gun a few days before, had enlisted the help of two men to stage a kidnapping and have Dodson pay the ransom.
Dodson, a 44-year-old father of three and the vice president of Dallas' Buckley Oil Company, wasn't home at the time, but several other people were. One had a gun, and Hidic was struck in the ensuing shootout with her captors.
It still not clear whether Hidic's and Dodson's deaths are connected. What's become clearer, thanks to arrest affidavits obtained by the Star-Telegram are the circumstances surrounding Dodson's death.
According to the affidavits, on October 28 Dodson went to the home of Joseph Dodson, 31-year-old Aryan Brotherhood member (aka "Short Sight") on parole for dealing meth. . The affidavit does not say whether the men are related or how they knew each other, according to the Star-Telegram report.
The Dodsons were joined in an upstairs room by a third man, 47-year-old Dean Allen Walden, and they talked and smoked a joint. Walden described what happened next in a statement given to investigators and included with the affidavits.
As they finished smoking the joint, Robert Dodson got up to leave. He shook hands with Walden and, as he did so, was grabbed from behind by Joseph Dodson, who threw him to the ground. Joseph Dodson took the arms, Walden the feet, and together they hog-tied him.
Joseph Dodson sat on Dodson's back and strangled him with an extension cord, Walden told police. After taking his cell phone and credit cards, they covered the body with a blanket and carried it to Robert Dodson's SUV, which Joseph Dodson drove to the Johnson County oil well where it was later found.
Walden joined him in his girlfriend's pickup with a can of gas. Walden told investigators that he waited in the car while Dodson set it ablaze. Both Joseph Dodson and Walden are charged with capital murder. Their motive isn't clear.
