A 47-year-old Texas man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2019 killing of his girlfriend, Tiffany Lynette Garza, whose disappearance eventually led investigators to a backyard burn pit containing human remains.
Jeffrey Lee Devorah was convicted of murder after a jury found him guilty in August. An Atascosa County judge later sentenced him to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after he has served 30 years.
Garza, 37, was last seen in the Poteet area on March 25, 2019. Her mother, Lilly Morua, reported her missing about a month later after Garza had been dropped off at a Dollar General store.
The case remained unresolved for several months before investigators received information that pointed them toward Devorah’s property. In July 2019, a tip led the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Rangers to a witness who told investigators that Garza had been killed and that her body was later burned in a fire pit behind Devorah’s home.
Investigators searched the property for several days. They found substantial blood evidence inside the home and spent additional time examining the backyard burn area.
Forensic specialists from Texas State University’s Forensic Anthropology Center recovered 14 human bone fragments from the burn pile. The remains were determined to belong to a woman, and subsequent DNA testing connected the evidence to Garza’s family.
Devorah had previously told investigators that Garza had been living at the property but denied knowing what had happened to her. Investigators later developed evidence that prosecutors said connected him to Garza’s death, including statements attributed to him and information provided by a witness.
Authorities believe Garza was killed sometime between late March and early April 2019. Devorah was not arrested until March 2023, nearly four years after Garza disappeared.
The case eventually went to trial, where jurors convicted Devorah of murder. He then chose to have the judge determine his punishment rather than the jury. The judge imposed the life sentence and set parole eligibility after 30 years.
Garza’s family and friends attended the sentencing. Her daughter, Natalie Garza, has also spoken about the loss of her mother and the years that have passed since her disappearance.
Natalie said she was pregnant with her own daughter the last time she saw her mother. Her daughter is now 7 years old, and she wrote that Garza would have loved being a grandmother.
The sentence closes a criminal case that began with a missing-person report in 2019 and took years of investigation before authorities were able to establish what happened to Garza.
Atascosa County District Attorney Audrey Gossett Louis said the sentence cannot undo the loss suffered by Garza’s family, but emphasized that the truth about her death and the significance of her life mattered to those who continued seeking answers.
