Suspect, Army private friends

HILLSBORO Investigators in Hill County are still trying to piece together the motives behind the fatal shooting of an Army soldier by an Odessa woman in what Hill County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyon called “a tragic accident.”

Lyon said 24-year-old April Danielle Thompson was charged with manslaughter after police accused her of firing a gun and fatally wounding 20-year-old Army Pvt. Cody Patterson early Saturday in his home in Blum, about 40 miles north of Waco. Lyon said investigators did not find any evidence to suggest the homicide was premeditated and deliberate, though they accused Thompson of running from Patterson’s home after the shooting and fleeing 30 miles away to Glen Rose.

Lyon said that Thompson worked at The Healthy Heart Center in Odessa since moving here in 2008 but went to high school in Blum and had a child with her late boyfriend there. She was in town visiting her child as well as Patterson, who was her late boyfriend’s best friend.

Lyon said Thompson’s boyfriend was killed in a car crash two years ago while riding with Patterson.

Thompson was still in jail Tuesday being held on a $125,000 bond for the manslaughter charge.

Patterson was on leave from a tour of duty in Iraq at the time he was killed Saturday. He was stationed at Fort Bliss.

A woman inside Thompson’s home in Odessa closed the blinds and declined to answer a knock on the door.