A Texas woman has been charged with the murder of her husband more than two decades after his body was found wrapped in a plastic bag near a lake, police announced Monday, a breakthrough that his daughter describes as both devastating and surreal.
Lisa Honrud, 55, was arrested on Monday in connection with the 2002 killing of Frank Weiss, whose body was discovered by fishermen near Lake Lewisville in Frisco, Texas. Weiss had been shot twice in the chest, and the case went cold for nearly a quarter-century before investigators finally made an arrest.
Frisco police credited the break in the case to a combination of new information from a key witness and advances in forensic technology, though they stopped short of disclosing exactly what evidence ultimately led them to Honrud, Weiss’ widow.
Weiss’ daughter, Carla Weiss, now 44, said she believes others may also have been involved in her father’s death, pointing to his large physical build as a reason she doubts her stepmother could have acted alone. Speaking to KDFW, Carla described the emotional weight of learning about the arrest after spending more than half her life without answers.
“Hope is a funny thing. Hope has a way of strangling you, and so, at some point, I have probably accepted that there will never be an answer,” she said. “But acceptance doesn’t kill. I dreamed of there being an answer, but I didn’t expect one.”
The relationship between Honrud and Carla Weiss was not immediately made clear by authorities.
Frisco Chief of Police David Shilson praised the investigative work that led to the arrest, acknowledging the toll the unsolved case had taken on the family.
“We are thankful for our investigators who have put countless hours into this case, as well as the Waxahachie Police Department for their assistance with this arrest,” Shilson said. “For 24 years, the Weiss family has waited for answers. Today’s arrest is an important step toward justice, and we will continue working until everyone involved is held accountable.”
For Carla, the arrest is inseparable from her memories of the father she lost as a teenager. She remembered him warmly in a separate interview with NBCDFW. “The kind of guy who DJ’d my 16th birthday party and all my friends knew as Daddy Frank,” she said. “He deserved better than this, and we deserved to have him in our lives a lot longer than we did.”
Honrud now faces a murder charge as the investigation continues. Police have indicated they are not ruling out additional arrests.
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