A look back at the October 2019 attack on a 78 year old Crandall area woman that ended in her death and a capital murder case that has never been solved.
Every Flashback we run tends to celebrate something. A reunion. A ribbon cutting. A football season from decades back. This week’s Flashback is different. It looks back at a crime against a Crandall area grandmother that has never been solved, because some stories need to stay in front of the public until they finally get an ending.
The Morning of October 15, 2019
Just after 9:30 a.m. on October 15, 2019, 78 year old Peggy Wright was at her home in the 4500 block of FM 148 near Crandall when she answered a knock at her door. According to the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, a woman was standing there pointing a pistol at her.
The suspect forced her way inside, demanded money, and tied Wright to a chair using the cord from a box fan, according to NBC 5 DFW. She then ransacked the home before setting a fire in the kitchen and leaving Wright bound to the chair as the house filled with smoke.
Neighbors Who Would Not Give Up
Neighbor Donna Beeman noticed smoke coming from the roof and immediately called another neighbor, Melissa Davis, before dialing 911. Davis ran to the side door and tried to get inside.
“So I open it and smoke comes out and I see flames on the kitchen floor,” Davis told CBS Texas. “I try to walk, I got into the kitchen, but it was burning my eyes, my nose and I just couldn’t do it.”
Beeman kicked in the front door, but the smoke was too thick for either woman to reach Wright on their own. Davis ran to the end of the street and flagged down a passing driver, a good Samaritan who went inside and found Wright still tied to the chair. With help from a Crandall firefighter, he was able to get her out of the burning house.
“She’s tied up with wire and rope on her wrists,” Davis said, describing the scene to FOX 4. “And her ankles were tied to a chair with both, and the chair had been knocked over.”
“She looked really bad,” Beeman told CBS Texas. “I was afraid she was already deceased, but she was moving her eyes a little bit.”
A Fight That Lasted Six Months
Wright was airlifted to Parkland Memorial Hospital and spent several days in the ICU. According to the Dallas Express, her daughter Carla Cullum later described how deeply the attack had marked her mother. “She had been tied at her ankles, at her thighs, and at her wrist, all the way down through her skin, down nearly to her bone,” Cullum said.
Wright spent the next six months battling heart and lung damage from smoke inhalation. In April 2020, she died from her injuries. Kaufman County investigators upgraded the case to capital murder.
“We promised our mom on her death bed that we would not give up until this person was caught,” Cullum told NBC 5 DFW. “That was our promise to her.”
The Suspect Description
Before she died, Wright was able to help investigators put together a sketch of her attacker. The Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office described the suspect as a heavy set woman with strawberry blonde or reddish hair, wearing a black hoodie and gold rimmed glasses at the time of the attack. Then Sheriff Bryan Beavers told FOX 4 that investigators believed the attack was random.
According to the Kaufman Herald, the suspect made off with roughly two hundred dollars. Kaufman County Crime Stoppers has offered a fifteen thousand dollar reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Still Unanswered
As of the most recent public reporting available, no arrest has been made in Peggy Wright’s death. The Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Rangers have continued to work the case.
“We still don’t understand why couldn’t she just let my mom go,” Cullum said. “Why did she have to do the things she was doing?”
She has not lost hope. “I know that someday they’ll get judged,” Cullum told NBC 5 DFW. “And they’ll have to answer to someone that’s higher than me.”
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office at 469 376 4500 or submit an anonymous tip through Kaufman County Crime Stoppers at kaufmancountycrimestoppers.org.
Sources: CBS Texas, NBC 5 DFW, FOX 4 Dallas Fort Worth, the Kaufman Herald, Newsweek, and the Dallas Express.
