By mid-morning on Jan. 3, 1993, Wanda Turner began to become concerned when she had not head from her daughter at all that day. She shared a close relationship with her daughter, 33-year-old Bridgitte Seidel, and had even called her work, a Houston area hair salon, that morning to see if she had shown up. Her co-workers reported that she had not.

Growing more anxious, Turner decided to head over to Seidel’s home on Seidel Cemetery Road near Rosehill. Her daughter’s car was still in the driveway, but no one answered the door. Turner quickly grabbed a nearby trashcan and climbed in Seidel’s mobile home through an unlocked window.

What she discovered can only be described as a mother’s most horrific nightmare: her daughter lying dead on her bedroom floor. Turner called for help, but it was much too late. Seidel was gone.

Above, Angie holds a picture of her mother, Bridgette Seidel and her when she was a child. Investigators are once again looking into Seidel’s murder that occurred nearly 17 years ago.

Photo by Holly Dutton 

An autopsy report revealed that Seidel had been beaten and suffocated. She had bruises on her neck and upper body. Investigators ruled her death as a murder.

Seidel would leave behind a mother, two sisters, a brother, three young children and a mystery that has remained unsolved to this day.

In less than a month it will have been 17 years since Seidel was killed. No one was ever charged in her death, and after nearly a decade without a credible lead or tip, the case went cold.

Nearly two decades passed. Then, two years ago, Adrian Garcia was elected the new Sheriff of Harris County. Garcia vowed to re-open the agencies dissolved cold case unit, giving new life to dozens of long-lost mysteries.

About two months ago, Sgt. Eric Clegg of the re-activated Cold Case Unit reviewed Seidel’s case and took a particular interest in it. A grant was given to the agency, and collaborative efforts with the Unit, the Medical Examiner’s Office and Harris County homicide investigators, have sparked a renewed interest in cases such as Seidel’s.

“I think this case has got some potential and some things need to be looked at,” Clegg said. He added that technology to analyze certain evidence for DNA did not exist at the time of Seidel’s murder, but that technology exists now.

“I do see DNA potential here,” Clegg added.

The fact that Seidel’s case is sparking a renewed interest is a comfort to her sisters, Cheryl Lamont and Connie Garrett. Since their sister’s death, the two have been frustrated at what they believe to have been a faulty investigation and a lack of arrests.

Their frustration is hightened since they are convinced of who murdered their sister.

Bridgette and Dennis Seidel were going through a rocky separation. Cheryl and Connie say Bridgette lived in fear of her husband and would often show up to work with bruises on her face. She purchased a handgun shortly before her death, something that Cheryl says was “very out of the ordinary” for her sister.

But Bridgette was a quiet, private person, Cheryl said, and didn’t reveal much about the bruises, or her faltering marriage. In the days leading up to her death, Cheryl and Connie say their sister “sounded down.” The last time they heard from her was on New Years Day, two days before she was found dead.

When she was found, and what Cheryl and Connie find perplexing, Bridgette was lying exactly as if she had been sleeping. Due to a bad back, Bridgette would often sleep on the floor, instead of the bed. She laid a very particular way, on her side, with an arm extended and a pillow folded under head, Connie explained.

Cheryl and Connie say that is the exact way she was found dead.

“I don’t think she was raped,” Connie said. “We think it was a ploy to look like a random attack.”

Clegg would not comment on whether or not forced entry was made into the home, nor on the exact time of death.

Dennis was identified as a suspect early on, as was a friend of Bridgette’s, a young man named Tim. Cheryl said her sister and Tim were not romantically involved and he was quickly dismissed as a suspect. Later on, so was Dennis.

Dennis Seidel did not return messages left by the Tribune for comment on this story as of press time last week.

For now, Bridgette Seidel’s family has moved on the best they can. Her mother, Cheryl says, “has not been the same since.” Her two sons Aaron and Adam have moved out of the area; daughter Angie still lives in the Tomball area.

“It has been very devastating on the kids,” Cheryl said.

Angie, now 21, has since given birth to two children, one a daughter named after her mother. She seemingly doesn’t mind the difficult questions about her mother, saying that “obviously, it’s really hard.”

She tends to her baby boy while thinking about the mother she never really knew.

“Like in school on Mother’s Day, when all the kids got to make cards for their mom’s,” she added. She tears up and cries briefly, and quickly wipes her eyes.

“She has her mother’s strength,” Cheryl says. “Bridgette was always strong.”

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed