Editor’s Note: This video is taken from previous coverage of this issue.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Camry Wooldridge, 32, pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of tampering with a corpse, in connection with the 2024 death of Christian Rangel, 24, according to Wooldridge’s attorney Benjamin Gergen.
Wooldridge was sentenced to 10 years in prison, including 153 days of jail time for this sentence.
The personalization, where the victim’s loved ones stand to address the defendant, occurred before sentencing Tuesday morning in Travis County Circuit Court.
Rangel disappeared on the historic eclipse day of 2024. Police said his body was found in Greenbelt near a Southeast Austin neighborhood 11 days after he was last seen at a South Austin Walmart.
The state in which police found Rangel’s body made it difficult to collect forensic evidence that could lead investigators more clearly to the cause of death or a possible suspect, which “made it difficult to conduct forensic testing,” police said.
In September, Rangel’s family offered a $9,000 reward to help bring murder charges in the case.
“When you lose a piece of yourself, it’s hard to describe the emptiness you feel,” Misty Moon, Rangel’s mother, said in February. “I feel angry that this person chose to kill my son and dispose of his body as if it were nothing.”
Moon said her son “was loved by many people. He was struggling with some things, so he was very compassionate.”