Cell phone records helped Dallas PD find alleged killer of Dallas transgender woman

DALLAS - Arrest affidavits explain how cell phone records tie a man to three murders -- including the death of Dallas transgender woman Muhlaysia Booker.

Police arrested Kendrell Lyles, 34, on June 5 and charged him for shootings on May 22 and May 23.

According to arrests affidavits, Lyles' phone records show he was communicating with victims just before their deaths and was nearby when they were shot. Those records helped detectives connect Lyles to Booker's death on May 18.

Police found Booker's body on the side of the road behind the Tenison Park Golf Course after she was shot to death.

We're learning that Booker's own cell phone played a key role in leading detectives to identifying Lyles as her accused killer.

The affidavit states phone records show Lyles and Booker were together before she was killed and their phones stayed in the same place for several hours after her death.

Booker's cell phone was not on her when her body was found.

Detectives were able to determine Booker's cell phone was still active and that the “suspect was still in possession of complainant’s phone.”

"It further put him around Spring and Lagow at the time Muhlaysia was picked up on May 18, and later at the scene of her murde," said Dallas PD Major Max Geron.

The arrest affidavit also said Lyles frequented an area near Spring and Lagow to meet transgender prostitutes.

Booker's cell phone records place her in that exact area at approximately 3:30 a.m. the morning she was picked up in a light-colored Lincoln LS, later determined to match the description of a car Lyles drove.

Booker's body was found hours later.

“I hate to think that there's someone out there who’s essentially hunting,” said Leslie McMurray, with Resource Center Dallas.

McMurray is glad an arrest has been made in Booker's case.

But with the murders of two other black transgender women -- Brittany White and Chynal Lindsey -- still unsolved, she says it's important for the transgender community to keep the pressure on DPD.

“I'm seeing this community pull together like I've never seen before and it warms my heart,” McMurray said. “I think it's time that we stood up as a group and say ‘Enough, our lives have value.’”

Detectives are still working to learn if Lyles is responsible for a fourth murder, in which police consider him a person of interest.