Police say the suspect drove from Mansfield with a 4-year-old and his mother’s missing car before troopers found them hours later.
MANSFIELD, Texas — A 20-year-old North Texas man is accused of fatally stabbing his mother, taking a 4-year-old child from her home and driving out of state before officers found both of them in Missouri on Jan. 31, authorities said.
Raymond Isaac Carmona is charged in Tarrant County with murder, aggravated kidnapping and theft of a motor vehicle after investigators said the killing of 63-year-old Andrea Colgrove quickly turned into an interstate search. The case drew attention because the missing child was found alive within hours of the initial police call, while the homicide investigation remained active and unanswered questions about motive and family relationships were still unresolved.
Police said the investigation began at about 8:50 a.m. Jan. 31, when officers were sent to the 200 block of Cotton Drive in Mansfield after a relative found Colgrove unresponsive on the floor of the home. Emergency crews pronounced her dead at the scene. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner later determined that she died from a stab wound to the neck and ruled the death a homicide. As officers worked through the scene, they learned that Colgrove was the legal guardian of her 4-year-old grandson and that the boy was missing. A tan 2009 Toyota Corolla was also gone. Detectives soon focused on Carmona, Colgrove’s son, as a suspect in the slaying, the child’s disappearance and the missing vehicle. By late morning, the case had shifted from a single death inquiry to a homicide investigation paired with a missing-child search.
Authorities said the child’s name was not released because of his age. Police also did not immediately explain the full relationship between Carmona and the boy, though one local report identified the child as Carmona’s nephew. What officers did say was that the child had been entered into state and national law enforcement databases as a critical missing person while the Corolla was circulated as a stolen vehicle. Investigators developed information indicating the car had left Texas and moved toward Missouri. At some point that afternoon, Missouri authorities were asked to issue an Amber Alert tied to the case. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the alert described a light gold 2009 Toyota Corolla with Texas license plate NJV5536 that had been seen in the Ozark area. That public alert turned the case into a regional manhunt stretching well beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The search ended in Christian County, Missouri, where troopers found the Corolla parked outside a Casey’s gas station with Carmona and the child inside, according to police accounts and local reporting. Officers took Carmona into custody at about 2:40 p.m. Jan. 31, and the child was recovered safely. Missouri authorities said the alert had gone out only minutes earlier. In public statements after the arrest, officials credited license plate reader technology and tips from members of the public with helping them locate the car quickly. The speed of the recovery became a central part of the official narrative in the hours and days that followed. Mansfield police later thanked law enforcement agencies in Missouri and Arkansas for assisting in the child’s recovery and the suspect’s arrest, underscoring how many agencies can become involved once a homicide case and child abduction cross state lines in the same day.
After the arrest, Mansfield detectives traveled to Missouri and interviewed Carmona, investigators said. Police alleged that during that interview he admitted involvement in his mother’s death. Authorities have not publicly laid out a motive, detailed what led to the stabbing, or said whether there had been earlier calls for service at the home that might explain what happened. They also have not publicly described the child’s physical condition when he was found, beyond saying he was safe. The boy was later released into the care of Child Protective Services, according to police. That step left another major question hanging over the case: who will have long-term custody of the child after the death of his legal guardian. For now, law enforcement officials have kept their public comments narrow, focusing on the charges, the recovery timeline and the continuing homicide investigation.
Court and jail records show Carmona was booked into the Tarrant County Corrections Center after he was returned to Texas. Local reports said he was indicted by a grand jury on Feb. 6. He is being held on combined bond totaling $1,007,500, and a first court appearance was set for Feb. 23 in Tarrant County, according to local coverage of court records. The charges now filed against him are murder, aggravated kidnapping and theft of property involving a motor vehicle. Prosecutors have not publicly announced whether they expect to add charges or present more evidence in open court as the case moves ahead. Investigators also have not released probable cause materials describing the sequence of events inside the home before Colgrove was found. Those filings, along with autopsy findings and any future testimony, are likely to shape the next phase of the case.
The case has combined the shock of a family killing with the relief that the missing child was recovered alive only hours later. Colgrove was 63, and police said she had legal guardianship of her grandson, a detail that placed her at the center of the child’s daily care before her death. Carmona, 20, now faces accusations that tie together nearly every major turn in the case: the homicide scene in Mansfield, the disappearance of the boy, the missing Corolla and the drive into Missouri. In public remarks after the arrest, Mansfield police said the case showed how officers across state lines can work together “to protect our communities and diligently serve victims of crime.” That official message stood beside a quieter reality in Mansfield, where a family home on Cotton Drive became both a homicide scene and the starting point of an urgent child recovery effort.
The investigation remained open as of March 16, 2026. The next major milestone is the court process in Tarrant County, where prosecutors are expected to move forward on the existing charges while police continue to fill in the unanswered details of Colgrove’s killing.