‘This was a strange one’: Man hired to help move furniture out of home finds body of contractor stuffed inside box, sheriff says

A antheral successful Texas is down bars aft helium allegedly stabbed a contractor to decease who was hired to bash renovations connected a home, past helium stuffed his assemblage successful a container and paid a idiosyncratic to determination it.

“This was a unusual one,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said successful a post connected X, formerly Twitter.

According to Gonzalez, deputies responded astir 11 a.m. Friday to a location successful the 4000 artifact of Tim Allen Court successful Houston for a hit-and-run. Cops aboriginal tracked down the operator who fled the country and helium told them helium saw a dormant assemblage astatine a home. He explained however a man, aboriginal identified arsenic 36-year-old Steven Eberly, paid him to assistance determination boxes and furnishings from the home.

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When helium went to Eberly’s location to implicit the work, helium recovered a assemblage successful 1 of those boxes, Gonzalez said.

The antheral fled the country successful Eberly’s motortruck — with the fishy successful the furniture of the pickup trying to get inside, the sheriff said. Eberly fell disconnected arsenic the antheral crashed the vehicle. Cops aboriginal arrested Eberly.

This was a unusual one: connected Friday, 5/16/25, astatine abt 11am, @HCSOTexas patrol units responded to aggregate calls successful the vicinity of the 4000 blk of Tim Allen Ct. Initial calls were reporting a conveyance clang wherever the striking conveyance had fled the scene.

Also being recv’d, was a… pic.twitter.com/0c8ySFNftG

— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) May 18, 2025

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Detectives determined the contractor had been moving connected location renovations. Local NBC affiliate KPRC interviewed Eberly’s woman who besides lived successful the location successful question. She said the contractor had been moving connected a bath renovation. The woman told the TV presumption she was astatine enactment erstwhile the incidental occurred.

Court records identified the unfortunate arsenic Luis Silva-Mendez. After taking Eberly to the infirmary for the injuries successful the crash, cops took him to the Harris County Jail wherever helium remains without bond. In summation to murder, the suspect stands accused of tampering with evidence. He allegedly tried to conceal the execution limb and a compartment telephone “with intent to impair its availability arsenic grounds successful the investigation,” a ailment said.

Deputies person yet to uncover a motive for the homicide. Eberly has a tribunal proceeding scheduled for Monday.