TEXAS CITY, Texas — Investigators have released gruesome new details in the deaths of a 16-year-old girl after the teen’s 21-year-old boyfriend was taken into custody last week, the Baytown Police Department said.
Kristen Nicole Fritch died from nearly 60 stab wounds inflicted on her face, neck and torso using a single-edge blade, a medical examiner confirmed. Baytown police said judging by additional wounds on her right and left forearms, the teen fought with her alleged attacker and boyfriend, Jesse Christian Dobbs.
Dobbs was charged with murder in Fritch’s death Wednesday and is being held at the Galveston County Jail on a $500,000 bond, court documents state.
The victim’s 37-year-old mother, Cynthia Morris, and her 13-year-old sister, Breanna Pavilicek, were found dead around 11 a.m. Nov. 9 at the family’s house in the 5400 block of Louise Street in Baytown. Police were called to the scene by neighbors who claimed they heard shots being fired at the home, officers said.
Morris and Pavilicek were both fatally shot, according to investigators.
After finding the mother and sister’s bodies, investigators realized Fritch and Morris’ white Chrysler PT Cruiser were missing. The state issued an Amber Alert for the missing teen while officers set out on their hunt to find Dobbs.
Dobbs called his ex-girlfriend the night of Nov. 8 and asked her to pick him up from the Shenanigans Bar in Texas City, court records said. Investigators said Dobbs wanted her to drive him to Louisiana, explaining it would be the last time he would ever see his kids. The former-girlfriend alerted authorities who used the number to track him.
Police said he was arrested at the bar the following day and held on charges of resisting arrest. Officers also found Morris’ car that day at an apartment complex across the street from the restaurant, court documents said.
Moment before walking Dobbs into an interrogation room, police claim the man paused and said, “Kirsten is dead, I killed her.”
He doubled-back and added, “Not the real Kirsten but the fake Kirsten,” court documents said.
After Dobbs’ arrest, the search for Fritch’s body continued until it ended Nov. 11 with a search crew volunteers finding the teen’s inside a wooded area yards away from the bar.
A backpack containing Fritch’s clothes, tennis shoes, her journal and a black knife were found submerged in a drainage ditch about 80 yards from where the teen’s body was found, investigators said. It was folding knife with a black, grip handle and was wrapped in the victim’s clothes, police said.
Baytown police said an investigation is ongoing into the murders of Morris and Pavilicek, in which Dobbs remains a suspect but has not been charged. Officers are still trying to determine a motive for the three women’s deaths, but said it has been difficult as Dobbs refuses to cooperate with investigators.
