Ron Shumway

Shumway

The mystery surrounding a dead body, a missing man and a shady real estate deal appears to be solved.

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The Dallas Police Department has issued an arrest warrant for a man they say posed as homeowner Ron Shumway to sell the man’s house in the Kessler/Stevens neighborhood. The police also told the Dallas Morning News that the body found buried beneath a concrete slab in the backyard of the house at 725 N. Winnetka is Ron Shumway, and they are treating his death as a homicide.

Police say 43-year-old Christopher Brian Colbert posed as Shumway to sell the man’s house. It sold for about $100,000, and the funds were sent to a bank account owned by Shumway and his late mother. Colbert used Shumway’s debit card to retrieve the funds, according to the warrant.

Police announced in October that 57-year-old Shumway, a former DART bus driver, had been missing since April 2015. We first connected his disappearance to real estate documents signed in June. We even speculated that the sale of the house might’ve been fraudulent.

Now that appears to be the case.

Colbert is wanted on felony charges of securing execution of a document by deception and tampering with a government record.

Here’s a summation of the arrest warrant, from the DMN:

Colbert contacted a broker in May for an evaluation of  Shumway’s house, according to his arrest warrant. He introduced himself as Shumway and signed a contract with the broker, agreeing to sell the house for $145,000, the warrant states.

Three days after the meeting, Colbert got in touch with the broker using Shumway’s email account and said he wanted to sell quickly, according to the warrant. The asking price was dropped to $130,000.

On June 22, when the escrow officer closing the sale asked Colbert for identification, he reportedly told her didn’t have his driver’s license with him but would fax it later. Investigators said he signed the closing documents, “Ronald D. Shumway.”

The next day, police said, Colbert faxed over a doctored version of Shumway’s license, one that had Colbert’s photo on it.

Real estate records show that someone also paid off a lien of $56,900 on the house a day before it sold. The house quickly flipped through several buyers and sellers over the summer before an investor began renovating the house for sale. He is the one who found the body.