WOOD COUNTY, Texas — Fifteen years following the death of Brittany McGlone in Winnsboro, evidence and new leads came together for the Wood County Sheriff's Office to make an arrest last week.
Chad Earl Carr has been charged with capital murder with a bond set a $1 million in connection with Brittany McGlone's 2007 death. The sheriff's office announced the arrest on Sept. 1.
Brittany’s father, Ron McGlone, says it’s been a roller coaster of emotions over the last decade-and-a-half. He was finally able to find some peace knowing the suspect was behind bars.
“I get mixed emotions, it's a happy and sad time,” Ron McGlone said. “We still have a long way to go still but thank God that the new sheriff is persistent and holding true to his word.”
Sheriff Kelly Cole, who came into the role in 2021, said he was a criminal investigator with the Wood County Sheriff’s Office in 2007 when the homicide investigation began.
Years later, he took the lead at the sheriff's office with a goal to help the McGlone family find answers.
“I visited with the family and talked to them quite a bit and we wanted to try to bring something to them so that they get a little closure,” Cole said.
Cole said he and investigators gather evidence by going back to square one.
“We started going through everything that was there,” Cole said. “Tracking down every lead we just started from day one again, just like it would had just happened and went through all the reports, evidence and continued to work forward with it.”
Once the case reached its 15th anniversary back in May, Cole said he was eager to make an arrest.
“Me and the captain sat down and we said, 'hey, we got to push a little harder on this and we did,'” Cole said. “We finally got to the point where we sit down and looked at everything and said okay, we’re at the point to make an arrest.”
Those leads would later lead to the arrest of Carr.
Her father said this first step to justice may not bring Brittany back, but it is a sign that the investigation is going in the right direction.
“I know she knew we'd never quit, she knew we loved her enough that we wouldn't quit,” Ron Glone said. “We weren't gonna just let this person get away with it one way or the other. She’s still with us, she’s still in our hearts.”
Cole said the next step in the investigation is to use all the evidence they’ve collected and presented it to the grand jury in hopes of getting an indictment, which would formally Carr charge with capital murder.