Police Log Hints At Troubled Life For Austin Man Found Dismembered

NORTH AUSTIN, TX — The man whose dismembered body was found along a stretch of North Austin walking trails last month had a long list of interactions with law enforcement before being found dead.

The remains of Robert Sepeda, 67, were found in different locations in North Austin in late July. A leg and foot were found on July 31 at Daffan Lane and Johnny Morris Road after police received a call by some bicyclists using the trails who came across the body parts. Securing a cadaver dog to assist in the crime scene, police located the rest of the body off Old Manor Road two days later.

Police have not disclosed whether they have a suspect in the killing.

Related story: Austin Police ID Dismembered Human Remains Found At Bike Trails 2 Weeks Ago

In an open records request, Patch asked the Austin Police Department for a list detailing any criminal history Sepeda may have had in life. Patch asked for a compilation of all interactions with the Austin Police Department and a criminal check. Two weeks after the request for information was made, Public Information Sgt. David Daniels provided the information.

The long list of some two dozen run-ins with police suggests a troubled life for a man whose end would be met in grisly aftermath. The police interactions listed show transgressions largely of a minor nature— but consistent enough to suggest he was not unfamiliar to local police— dating to 1986.

As it happens, that year—when Sepeda would've been a young man of 36—brought the most serious charge against the deceased man. According to police records, Sepeda was arrested for assault the day after Christmas 31 years ago.

From that year on, a series of other transgressions would yield a dubious constancy in a life that would end violently. Yet the law enforcement diary of sorts interchangeably casts Sepeda as both victim and suspect at various points in his life in an accounting listing 46 different police interactions.

In some of the police blog entries, it's not clear for what reason Sepeda was arrested. But it's a long list dating from 1992 to 2016, with police listing 15 separate arrests. Other police transactions are more detailed:

• On Aug. 26, 2016—just under a year before Sepeda would be found dead—he would emerge as an assault victim, according to police records.
• The month before, on July 16, 2016, Sepeda was named a suspect in a criminal trespass incident, a status given him two years prior in June and January 2014.
• He reported having had a bicycle stolen on Nov. 16, 2013, and emerged as the victim of assault on Dec. 15, 2012.
• Sepeda was named a suspect in a case centered on delivery of a controlled substance incident Aug. 30, 2012. Two years before that, he would be arrested for possession of a controlled substance on Sept. 7, 2010.
• In July 2004, he was named a suspect on a possession of drug paraphernalia charge in July 15, 2004.
• The week before that, Sepeda would emerge as a suspect in an accidental death case according to a July 8, 2004, incident logged by police.

Other interactions included various calls for service to police. Among the last of those calls was one that occurred April 26—a mere three months before Sepeda would be found dead. Another handful of interactions would have Sepeda emerge as a "suspicious person," the label giving someone who is the object of a police call.

The list is hardly a full accounting of a life, but given the frequency of police interaction depicts a troubled, itinerant life. Sepeda would meet a grisly end in July—as it happens, two weeks prior to his 68th birthday—marked by a final police interaction as investigators took to the grisly task of removing his dismembered, decomposing body parts from the scene.

>>> Robert Sepeda booking photo courtesy Austin Police Department