Police have charged a man in connection with the death of Georgetown auto shop owner Harvey Huber in February.
Jimmy Tschoerner, 48, of Georgetown, was charged Friday with murder, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 99 years in prison.
Huber, 50, was reported missing Feb. 26 from his business, Huber’s Auto Repair at 2425 N. Austin Ave., police said. He was last seen at the business Feb. 25, drinking after work with several people, including Tschoerner, according to an arrest affidavit issued in March.
Huber’s body has not been found.
DNA evidence from several sources linked Tschoerner to Huber’s disappearance, police said on Friday.
The DNA evidence came from Huber’s shop, a tow truck operated by Tschoerner, and also from a spot along Interstate 35 where Tschoerner’s cell phone records placed him on the night Huber was last seen, police said.
A previously unidentified witness also came forward and told investigators that Tschoerner said “Harvey is not a problem anymore,” according to police. “I killed him,” Tschoerner said to the witness, officials said.
Police previously found blood and bone fragments that linked Tschoerner to Huber’s disappearance and charged Tschoerner in March with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse.
Tschoerner was having an affair with Huber’s wife since May 2019, according to the arrest affidavit issued in March. It said that Tschoerner told investigators he had asked Huber’s wife to divorce Huber several times but she had refused.
Huber’s wife said she found out Huber, 50, had disappeared after Tschoerner told her Feb. 26 that he had been to Huber’s business and that Huber was gone, the affidavit said.
Detectives later found human bloodstains on the wrecker that Tschoerner was driving, police said.
Tschoerner was previously convicted in the 1990s in Kansas of solicitation of murder, attempted rape, kidnapping and aggravated robbery, a court document said.
Tschoerner was being held in the Williamson County Jail on Friday with bail set at $1 million.
Read: Police: Blood, bone fragments found in case of missing Georgetown man