--- title: Teen Arrested in Killing of Univ. of Texas Freshman description: The suspect is a 17-year-old homeless "runaway" canonical: https://time.com/4287325/teen-arrested-texas-murder/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-08T20:20:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:35:53.945Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Teen Arrested in Killing of Texas Freshman og:description: The suspect is a 17-year-old homeless "runaway" og:url: https://time.com/4287325/teen-arrested-texas-murder/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Teen Arrested in Killing of Texas Freshman twitter:description: The suspect is a 17-year-old homeless "runaway" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Teen Arrested in Killing of Texas Freshman by [Eric Ortiz & Gabe Gutierrez / NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## Eric Ortiz & Gabe Gutierrez / NBC News Apr 8, 2016 8:20 PM CUT by [Eric Ortiz & Gabe Gutierrez / NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## Eric Ortiz & Gabe Gutierrez / NBC News Apr 8, 2016 8:20 PM CUT A 17-year-old homeless “runaway” faces a murder charge in connection with the [killing of a University of Texas freshman ](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chill-campus-cops-hunt-univeristy-texas-killer-n552701 "undefined")this week, Austin police said Friday. The suspect — identified as Meechaiel Criner — was arrested Thursday and booked in the Travis County Jail, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference. Student Haruka Weiser, an 18-year-old dance and theater major, was last seen alive on the Austin campus Sunday night before she was reported missing the following morning. Her body was discovered near a creek on Tuesday, and investigators declared her death a homicide — setting off a manhunt on the campus… [_Read the rest of this story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/arrest-made-killing-university-texas-student-haruka-weiser-n552991 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4287325/teen-arrested-texas-murder/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4287325/teen-arrested-texas-murder/"},"headline":"Teen Arrested in Killing of Texas Freshman","datePublished":"2016-04-08T20:20:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:35:53.945Z","description":"The suspect is a 17-year-old homeless \"runaway\"","url":"https://time.com/4287325/teen-arrested-texas-murder/","keywords":["Texas","Murder","Crime","Courts"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Ortiz & Gabe Gutierrez / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4287325/teen-arrested-texas-murder/","name":"Teen Arrested in Killing of Texas Freshman"}}]}] ```