2 years ago
INGRAM(AP) -- Central Texas authorities believe they've solved the case of a missing retiree after finding a body buried in his back yard and a man attempting to assume his identity. Retired investment banker Allan Kowalski has been missing since Aug. 26. Charles Lee Tidwell, a 46-year-old auto mechanic who'd been staying at Kowalski's home, is charged with murder. Tidwell was being held at the Kerr County Jail on Friday in lieu of a $540,000 bond. Authorities arrested Tidwell after a traffic stop in which he tried to pass himself off as the 52-year-old Kowalski. An attorney for Tidwell could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. When authorities went to Kowalski's house in Ingram, near San Antonio, they noticed a fresh dirt pile and recently poured concrete behind the back porch. On Thursday, they returned with a search warrant and cadaver dog and found human remains in a shallow grave. Those remains and Kowalski's dental records were sent to the medical examiner's office in Austin on Friday morning. "We're positive it's him," Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said of the body. "Because it's his house and he's the one missing." Kowalski had invited Tidwell to stay with him a few months ago, after hearing he'd fallen on hard luck, in exchange for help working on the antique cars he collected, authorities said. When a Kerr County sheriff's deputy pulled him over driving one of Kowalski's vehicles, Tidwell claimed to be Kowalski, authorities said. He knew his driver's license number, produced Kowalski's auto insurance card and had his credit cards, Social Security card and Pennsylvania birth certificate, authorities said. When the deputy pulled up Kowalski's photo ID electronically, the image did not match Tidwell's. Tidwell then told a sheriff's deputy that he was looking after Kowalski's home because he was in South Africa, and then the story about Kowalski's whereabouts changed several times. Tidwell was initially arrested on a drug warrant and a charge of failing to identify himself as a fugitive in October. The charge was upgraded to murder Friday afternoon. Two other men were charged with burglary in connection with items removed from Kowalski's home, the sheriff's office said.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
