Andrew Wimsatt, a friend for over thirty-five years, a regular member of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy (and the movie night afterwards) and an all-around standup guy, was murdered on Labor Day.
New details have emerged in a homicide investigation in Williamson County.
The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 2400 block of Chandler Creek Boulevard on Monday after a report of an injured person. Deputies arrived to find a person who was later pronounced dead by medics. The agency’s Investigation Division determined the death to be a homicide.
Investigators identified 26-year-old Benedict Ogbodiegwu of Round Rock as a suspect. Court documents identify the victim as 62-year-old Andrew James Wimsatt.
According to court documents obtained by KVUE, a witness called 911 after finding what appeared to be a dead person near a park bench. Authorities obtained video footage of the incident. After reviewing the footage, the sheriff’s office said it showed a Black man with braids or locks and light-colored tips and a dark goatee holding a knife in his right hand. The man appeared to approach a white man from behind and repeatedly strike him in the neck with a knife while wrapping his left arm around the victim, according to the documents.
The victim allegedly tried to defend himself but was unable to, the sheriff’s office said. The footage showed the victim was stabbed multiple times before falling to the ground. The suspect then ran toward a neighborhood area, the documents state.
Detectives later found Ogbodiegwu at a home on Matagorda Drive in Round Rock. He matched the description of the person in the park surveillance video and in footage from a McDonald’s restaurant in Round Rock following the alleged incident, where video showed the suspect leaving the parking lot as a passenger in a red SUV.
A search warrant at the home led investigators to a white trash bag in an outdoor trash can. Inside, they found a 5.5-inch-bladed knife with a wooden handle and a red substance. The substance was tested for human blood using a Bluestar identi-hem test and showed a presumptive positive reaction, according to court documents.
Documents state clothing and a knife found in the trash matched what the suspect wore and used in the fatal stabbing, according to video footage reviewed by investigators.
Following this incident, Ogbodiegwu was taken into custody and is facing a murder charge. Investigators said Tuesday they believe the attack was random and that the victim and suspect did not know each other.
Andrew was murdered by a thug for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. His mother is in a nursing home in the area, and he would regularly visit her and take her out for a walk. According to the family, he would do one walk with her, and then one walk alone, and it was during that second walk when this random thug murdered him for no reason. (His mother was unharmed.)
I looked into whether some of the themes covered by this blog applied to Andrew’s murder, but as far as I can tell Ogbodiegwu was not an illegal alien and does not appear to have been released on bail for previous offenses in Travis County.
Writing about the murder just makes me mad, so let’s talk about Andrew.
I first met Andrew through Karl Rehn, because Karl and I were both prog rock fans who traded tapes in college at UT. Andrew had been bandmates with Karl in high school, and roommates shortly after college. I remember playing P. D. Q. Bach’s “Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz” in their shared apartment, telling him it was the latest Philip Glass CD. When it got to the “Ko-Hosti-Tatsi” part, Andrew went “This isn’t Philip Glass.” Karl, Andrew and I were also in a band together whose entire point was to piss people off.
Being smart, geeky and well-read, Andrew naturally slipped into the orbit of my group of friends. In addition to his existing love of music, Andrew was easy to get involved in your own interests, be it science fiction, guns or politics. I sold him several books over the years, and he ended up driving Howard Waldrop and Ellen Brody back to Austin from the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon. Karl and I might have sucked him into politics equally, to the point he was doing some behind-the-scenes work for The Greg Gutfeld Show and the We the Fifth podcast. Andrew frequently flew across the country to catch a show for one of the many bands he followed, or for watching the taping of a political show. He was even an executive producer on the Penn Jillette film Director’s Cut.
Andrew loved all sorts of obscure bands I’d never heard of, but I was the one who introduced him to Slowdive. We saw three Slowdive shows in Austin, in addition to a King Crimson show and a very intense Filter/Everclear show at Liberty Lunch right after both those bands burst into prominence in the 1990s.
Andrew was a devoted son and brother, who helped care for both his ailing mother and his father James, a literary academic and occasional SDC member who died at age 96 in 2023.
Andrew spent his career as a civil engineer working for the Texas Department of Transportation and related entities. He spent stints in Fort Worth and College Station, but even then frequently drove back to Austin on weekends to see his friends.
I saw Andrew two days before he was murdered, when he came over Saturday to match movies with us, where he saw the giant collection of books someone gave me and we matched the MST3K version of The Crawling Hand.
His murder offers up several bitter ironies. He was a CHL/LTC holder who likely would have survived his assault had he been carrying that day. He owned a condo in the crime hotspot that is downtown Austin but was killed in nominally safe suburban Round Rock. Both his parents were long-lived, and Andrew, who frequently walked several miles a day, probably would have lived to a ripe old age had he not been cut down.
He was a sturdy friend, and I will miss him greatly.
Now that he’s gone, the years grow colder, and more silent.
Always be aware of your surroundings, and take whatever precautions you can to avoid (or survive) encounters with random criminals or lunatics. Make a will (I need to do this).
Tomorrow is promised to no one.
