Murdered Kyle woman honored by Kyle Police Department

KYLE, Texas - The Kyle Police Department is dedicating its victim services rooms to a woman who first started the program, Samantha Dean, and who was murdered in 2015.

29-year-old Dean was seven months pregnant with a little girl she had named Maddie when she was found shot to death in Bastrop. The killers were two men hired by then Austin Police Department officer VonTrey Clark. Investigators say Clark had Dean killed because she wouldn't abort her daughter.

Dean was Kyle PD's first victim services coordinator.

"It never gets any easier," says Kimbery Anne Dean, Samantha's mother.

"She was just a ray of light around here," says current Kyle police victim services coordinator Kelly Barron. "In just a very short time (she) made a huge impact not only on the Kyle Police Department but on the city of Kyle."

To honor Samantha and Maddie, the victims services soft interview room is now named Samantha's Space and the waiting area is named Maddie's Corner.

"This room signifies everything that she was hoping to be able to do that she didn’t," Kimberly Anne says.

Three different artists in the Kyle area designed and painted the space featuring different flowers, animals like frogs which were Samantha's favorite, and a healing hands tree.

Barron says the tree will one day have handprints on it from victims that have been served.

What happened to Samantha Dean?

On Wednesday, February 4, 2015, Samantha Dean's body was found in the parking lot at 118 Stephen F. Austin Boulevard at around 2 a.m. A deputy found her body lying on the ground next to a vehicle with its door ajar while the deputy was doing a routine check of the lot.

An autopsy found that Dean had died from a gunshot wound to the head. It was also later revealed that Dean was pregnant.

In May 2015, a search warrant was issued on the home of then Austin Police Department officer VonTrey Clark in connection to Dean's death.

One month later, in June, Kayla Fisk was arrested in Harris County in connection to the case. She was arrested for tampering/fabricating physical evidence. Police say they intercepted jailhouse phone calls between Fisk and her boyfriend, a Harris County inmate identified as 31-year-old Kevin Watson. In the jail phone calls, police say they heard Watson asking Fisk to get rid of a sweatshirt.

Unsealed court documents in July 2015 revealed details about the possible motive for Dean's murder. Clark had spoken to authorities and admitted to an affair with Dean. He revealed he believed that he was the father of Dean's child and that he had kept his relationship with Dean secret because he was involved with another woman.

Investigators also obtained Dean's personal journal in which she reportedly claimed that Clark wanted her to have an abortion.

Clark was placed on restricted duty at APD in July 2015 due to the department's internal investigation into Dean's murder, then was fired after he failed to cooperate with the investigation and left the country without permission from the department. Clark's attorney says he went to Indonesia for health reasons.

In September 2015, Clark was extradited from Indonesia and charges against Clark were formally announced. Clark initially ped not guilty after investigators say Clark conspired with several others to kill Dean.

In December 2019, Clark plead guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no parole.

Police also linked two others to Dean's death.

In 2015, the hired hit-man told detectives that Clark paid him and another man $5,000 to kill Dean because she wanted Clark to pay child support for the baby. Clark then took Dean’s body to Bastrop and staged the murder scene.

Suspected triggerman Freddie L. Smith was arrested for his involvement and Watson, another suspected accomplice, pleaded guilty.