CRYSTAL BEACH — Hours before she was brutally killed, Bridgette Gearen spent her day hanging out at a rented beach house and traipsing down to the shores of Crystal Beach with her young daughter and friends.
The 28-year-old single mother from Orange arrived in Crystal Beach on Saturday with plans to spend the weekend with her 2-year-old daughter and a group of couples with children, said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo, spokesman for the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.
“They were just enjoying themselves,” he said.
Before daybreak Sunday, campers discovered Gearen’s body — beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted — in the surf near Monkhouse Boulevard.
On Monday, officers scoured the sand dunes behind a row of beach houses for evidence that could provide a clue into what happened during the final hours of Gearen’s life.
Shortly before midnight Saturday, Gearen and her friends planned a ride along the beach. Leaving her daughter inside, she went outside the beach house, which is at Crystal Beach and Redfish roads, and vanished before her friends followed just minutes later.
Around 6:20 a.m., campers discovered her beaten and partially clothed body in the water. According to sheriff’s deputies, she had facial injuries and it appeared she had put up a fight, Tuttoilmondo said. The medical examiner is expected to release more information about the cause of death within days.
While walking his dog Sunday, Jim Moreland spotted law officers dealing with a woman’s body on the shore. Moreland, who lives on Monkhouse Boulevard, said the law officers were taking photographs and interviewing the group of campers who first discovered the body. “The county took a bunch of pictures,” he said.
Other beach campers said they didn’t notice anything amiss until Monday.
Celina Drake and Keith Williams of Conroe grilled freshly-caught crabs, while sheriff’s deputies and Galveston police officers on horseback and with a tracking dog combed the dunes behind them for clues.
Drake and Williams set up camp at dusk Saturday between Gearen’s beach house and the spot where Gearen’s body was found.
They said they were awoken about 2 a.m. by a group of teens playing music outside their tent.
Aside from the rowdy teens, Drake noticed nothing else out of place that night, she said. The couple first learned about the killing Monday afternoon.
According to Gearen’s MySpace.com Web site profile, she spent her entire life in Orange, aside from brief stints in Nederland and Beaumont.
She enjoyed bowling, spending time with her family, riding four-wheelers through the woods and photography. She had a bad memory, short attention span, a distaste for scary movies and a pessimistic view of love and marriage, she wrote in her profile.
Tuttoilmondo said Gearen worked at a Beaumont law firm and cared for her grandfather.
In her profile, she wrote: “My Paw Paw is my hero. He has saved me in so many ways at so many times throughout my life … and has now begun to do the same for my daughter.”
Her daughter is now staying with family members, Tuttoilmondo said.
Some beach visitors said Monday that Gearen’s death has made them rethink the way they vacation at the beach. Kim and Brince Dickson have rented a house at Crystal Beach for nearly a decade and never thought twice about taking midnight strolls along the shore. Gearen’s murder has ended that practice for good, Kim Dickson said.
Gearen’s death did not appear related to a stabbing that occurred shortly after her disappearance and about a half-mile away.
The sheriff’s office last worked a murder in Crystal Beach 30 months ago, when storeowner Daniel Kohlofer was shot four times with a 9mm pistol during a robbery.
His body was found among the weeds along state Highway 87. James Earl Cutsinger was convicted of his murder in August 2006.
Tuttoilmondo asked that anyone who could have seen Gearen or who has information about her death contact his office at 409-766-2222 or toll-free at 866-248-8477.
Daily News reporter Scott E. Williams contributed to this report.
