How did 26-year-old Alexis Sharkey (aka Alexis Leigh Robinault) die? Was this tragic happenstance or something else? Authorities have yet to suggest answers, but the city employee who found the body described the shocking discovery.
“It plays back in my head,” City of Houston Solid Waste supervisor John Richardson told KHOU-11 in a Saturday report. “It’s been playing back in my head every day.”
According to him, an employee called to report seeing something disturbing.
“He said he thought he’d seen a body or a mannequin,” Richardson said. “He wasn’t too sure. He wasn’t going to stop because he was scared or whatever the case may be, so he asked me to come out there and check it out.”
Richardson did check it out, and discovered Sharkey’s body. She had no clothes on. He called 911.
Now authorities and Sharkey’s family are waiting for the medical examiner’s office to finish its autopsy. Online records for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences show that matter is pending as of Sunday, according to records viewed by Law&Crime.
Sharkey (identified by Houston cops under her maiden name of Robinault), was found dead at 1000 Red Haw Lane at about 8:30 a.m. CT on Nov. 28, near Interstate 10. They were no visible wounds, they said.
“Anyone with information in this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS,” police said.
Her mother has suggested this was “absolutely foul play.”
“The way in which she was found, my child would never do that to herself,” Stacey Clark Robinault told Click 2 Houston. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
Homicide detectives with @houstonpolice are watching surveillance video from security cameras in the area where the body of #AlexisSharkey was found. There’s a hair salon, high rise office tower and Omni Hotel in the area… and a big open plot of land. #khou11 pic.twitter.com/UGtn2C8yb4
— Melissa Correa (@KHOUmelissa) December 1, 2020
There’s some speculation online that the victim’s husband Tom Sharkey was involved in her death. He denied wrongdoing in an interview with KTKR, and claimed that when he last saw his wife, he was telling her not to drive under the influence.
He said they had a happy marriage, but described her was unhappy and stressed.
“I would cuddle her to try to make her strong,” he told the outlet. “She was an amazing woman. Sir, my wife was an amazing woman. She really was. There’s always other sides to everything. I was the one holding her, cuddling her, and building her back up.”
Three friends of Alexis–Lauren Breaux, Ally Cale, and Courtney Ehninger—told the outlet that she had been worried for her well-being in the time before her death. They declined to elaborate on the source of this fear, saying they did not want to undermine the investigation.
[Screengrab via Alexis Sharkey’s Instagram account]
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