On May 14, 2007, Meaghan Bosch was found dead in a portable toilet in Hewitt, Texas, about two hours south of Dallas. For two years, police investigated the death of the 21-year-old, searching desperately for any answers that would lead them to her killer.
Finally, on June 5, more than two years after Bosch’s body was found, James McDaniel, 48, was convicted in the disappearance and drug overdose-induced death of Bosch, according to The Dallas Monring News.
McDaniel could face life in prison upon sentencing in September. McDaniel is the first person convicted of providing drugs that caused a death in the North District of Texas. McDaniel also was found guilty on drug trafficking and gun charges.
McDaniel was convicted after analysts presented DNA samples from the suspect found at the location Bosch’s body was discovered, according to The Dallas Morning News. Traces of Bosch’s blood also were found on McDaniel’s pants, and hair from his pet pit bull was found on the blanket wrapped around the body.
Autopsy reports confirmed that Bosch died from a combination of cocaine, methamphetamine and the depressant oxycodone – all of which testimony indicated she obtained from McDaniel, according to The Dallas Morning News.
In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Bosch was said to have been experimenting an array of drugs – some of which were provided by the defendant, according to testimony. The Dallas Morning News also lists ecstasy as another drug Bosch sampled.
McDaniel, Bosch’s dealer, was also known to sell drugs to other students at SMU through an underground gambling room he was operating at an off campus location, according to The Dallas Morning News account of the testimony.
Upon becoming involved with McDaniel, Bosch’s family told The Dallas Morning News in a May 2007 story noticed their daughter losing extreme amounts of weight, failing to return calls and discontinuing her anti-depressant medications, according to a May 2007 article in The Dallas Morning News.
In The Dallas Morning News’ article about McDaniel’s conviction, witnesses said they saw Bosch in McDaniel’s apartment near campus, snorting cocaine and smoking meth four days before she was found dead just outside of Waco. As family and friends tried to locate Bosch, it was reported the student lay barely breathing in the Winton Street duplex, in a near comatose state.
As friends of McDaniel tried to convince him to take Bosch to a hospital, McDaniel reportedly brandished a gun in front of the two men, demanding they come up with an explanation first.
McDaniel, a self-proclaimed professional poker player, was found unconscious from an apparent suicide attempt in an apartment across from the SMU campus several days after Bosch’s body was discovered.
McDaniel was arrested in 2005 for a parole violation and the death of a former Dallas Police Officer in 1979. McDaniel was paroled in 2001 after serving 22 years in prison.
