2019-03-21 Hogue

Husband arrested in connection with 1994 Texas cold-case murder

A man accused of killing his wife in a small community northwest of Amarillo was arrested in southern Colorado nearly 25 years after her death.^[1]

Jesse Hogue, 73, was taken into custody Thursday afternoon after Pueblo County sheriff’s detectives and federal marshals spotted him driving near Platteville Boulevard and North Raymont Drive in Pueblo West. Officers stopped his vehicle and arrested him without incident.

Hogue is accused of killing his wife, Jackie Hogue, in Bishop Hills, Texas, in 1994. Jackie’s teenage sons found her shot to death in her bed. Investigators determined that she had also been sexually assaulted.

There were no signs of forced entry, and detectives ruled out robbery as a motive.

Jackie’s sister later said the family struggled to understand why anyone would want to hurt her.

“Someone went in her room and killed her. You want to know why, but the reason will never be good enough. I can’t imagine a reason good enough to do that.”

Investigators reopened the case several times over the following years but were unable to identify a suspect.

The investigation gained new momentum in 2018 when producers of the Oxygen television series Cold Justice contacted the Potter County Sheriff’s Office about featuring one of the county’s unsolved cases. Investigators suggested Jackie’s murder, and the production team met with authorities to review the evidence.

After witnesses were interviewed again and evidence was reexamined, investigators identified Jesse Hogue as a suspect. Authorities presented a probable-cause statement to the 47th District Attorney’s Office and obtained a warrant for his arrest.

Hogue’s Colorado roommate, J.R. Gonzales, said the two had been friends for years and bonded over the deaths of their wives. Gonzales said Hogue mentioned that his wife had been killed decades earlier but did not provide details.

When Hogue called to say he had been arrested, Gonzales initially believed it might have been connected to a previous arrest for driving under the influence.

Hogue was held without bond in the Pueblo County Jail pending extradition to Texas.

The Cold Justice episode examining Jackie Hogue’s murder was scheduled to air as the program’s season finale on Oxygen.