The Texas woman’s death led not only to a murder charge, say police, but also to felony accusations against the suspect’s father and brother.
ABILENE, Texas — A homicide investigation in Abilene quickly became a broader manhunt case after police said a murder suspect fled the city, two relatives helped conceal him, and U.S. Marshals arrested him in Fort Worth a day after a woman was found dead on a south-side street.
At the center of the case is Cristopher Covington-Smith, who police said is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Corrisa Trowbridge. But the official account did not stop with the killing allegation. Abilene detectives also arrested the suspect’s brother and father on charges of hindering apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, saying both helped hide a relative wanted in a homicide. That expansion changed the story from a single fatal investigation into a multi-defendant case with separate criminal tracks.
Police first announced the widening sweep on March 14, when they said detectives had arrested Anton Demarcus Covington, identified as Covington-Smith’s brother, and Shannon Dwayne Covington, identified as his father. Each was charged with third-degree felony hindering apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. The department said the arrests happened on Friday, March 13, and described both men as having helped conceal the homicide suspect. The release did not spell out whether police believed they gave him shelter, transportation, information or some other form of assistance. Even so, the accusation itself showed how rapidly the investigation had expanded in less than 24 hours. By the time the public learned that relatives had been arrested, the suspected killer had already become the subject of a regional search involving multiple agencies.
That search ended in Fort Worth. Abilene police said the United States Marshals Office out of Abilene arrested Covington-Smith on March 13 on a Taylor County warrant for first-degree murder. In announcing the capture, police said he had fled after being identified as a possible suspect in what they called a vehicular homicide. The department thanked partner agencies and said he would be extradited to Abilene to face the murder count. The release also referred to him as a wanted and dangerous individual, underscoring how urgently police viewed the search. Public statements did not say where in Fort Worth he was found, how investigators tracked him there or whether the information that led to his arrest came from witnesses, electronic evidence, tips or officers already working the case on the ground.
Only after the manhunt details were public did the fuller outline of the killing allegation emerge through police statements and court records described by local media. Trowbridge was found dead just after 4 a.m. on March 12 near the 1800 block of Corsicana Avenue in south Abilene after officers were sent to a reported hit-and-run. Police said she had severe injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle. Court records later cited by local coverage said Trowbridge and Covington-Smith had argued shortly before the collision and had a history of prior domestic disputes. Investigators also said surveillance video captured the driver reversing, accelerating and striking Trowbridge with her white 2016 Ford Expedition. Officers later found the SUV at a nearby residence, according to those reports, with damage, a missing side mirror and suspected blood evidence inside. Police have not publicly released the footage or described the nearby house in detail.
Seen that way, the case developed in two layers. The first was the killing itself, with the roadside scene, the damaged sport utility vehicle and the allegation that the victim was run over with her own car. The second was the aftermath, when detectives said the suspect left the scene, was hidden by relatives and was later caught in another city. Those two layers matter because prosecutors may end up presenting them differently in court. The murder case will likely focus on intent, identity and the physical evidence tied to the vehicle and video. The hindering cases will instead turn on what the father and brother knew, when they knew it and what acts they took after the warrant was issued. The early public file does not answer those questions yet, but it clearly shows investigators treating the aftermath as criminal conduct separate from the killing allegation.
That separation also shapes what comes next. Covington-Smith is expected to face the murder charge in Taylor County after extradition, police said. His father and brother face their own felony cases, which means each defendant may move through different hearings, bail decisions and filing schedules even though all three matters stem from the same March 12 death. Public releases reviewed for this story did not list future hearing dates or say whether prosecutors had filed additional affidavits beyond the records summarized by local media. They also left open several basic questions, including whether the suspect and victim lived together, who owned or controlled the Expedition that night and whether any independent witness saw the impact apart from what appears on surveillance video.
The result is a story in which the alleged flight became nearly as important, in early public view, as the fatal act itself. A woman’s death on a street in south Abilene led to a murder warrant the same day, then to two hindering arrests and a Fort Worth capture the next day. That chain gave the case a wider cast of characters and a second set of legal consequences before prosecutors had even begun litigating the murder allegation in open court. For now, the most visible official message has been that investigators believed the killing did not end at the crash site.
As of the latest public updates, Covington-Smith had been arrested on the murder warrant, his father and brother had been charged in separate hindering cases, and the next clear milestone was the opening round of court proceedings in Taylor County.
Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.