The murder of Jennifer Cave occurred in the West Campus area of Austin, Texas. On August 18, 2005, Cave's body was discovered. In 2009, Chuck Lindell of the Austin American-Statesman called it the "most infamous West Campus crime".
Victim
Jennifer Rae Cave moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, in high school. She was one of five girls in her family. She attended school in Bishop, Texas, before moving to Corpus Christi in 2000. In 2002, she graduated from Mary Carroll High School in Corpus Christi and in August of that year she traveled to San Marcos, Texas, to attend Texas State University as a finance major. She dropped out after one semester and worked at a restaurant in Austin, Texas, while briefly attending Austin Community College, Riverside Campus. Before her murder, she began to work for a law firm as a legal assistant.
Perpetrator and accomplice
Colton Aaron Pitonyak was a finance major at the University of Texas at Austin, originating from Bryant, Arkansas, in Greater Little Rock. Before coming to Austin, Pitonyak attended Christ the King School and Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was a National Merit Scholar, and in 2000, Pitonyak was one of seven senior finalists at his high school and one of 166 senior finalists in the state. Pitonyak had high grades and earned a scholarship to attend UT Austin. Pitonyak had also once entered a rehabilitation program for drugs. In 2004, police found cocaine, prescription sleeping pills that he had unlawfully obtained, and anxiety medication in his apartment. He was arrested for possession of illegal drugs. Pitonyak had no previous record of violent crime. Authorities said that Cave and Pitonyak had no previous discord before the murder.
Laura Ashley Hall was a University of Texas at Austin student who at one time had been Pitonyak's girlfriend. Before Hall's re-imprisonment beginning in 2010, she lived in the area around Bandera, Texas, with her parents. She had plans to take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) so she could become a lawyer.
Murder
On August 16, 2005, Cave and Pitonyak went to Sixth Street in Downtown Austin to celebrate Cave's new job. Cave and Pitonyak went to dinner before Cave was murdered.
Jennifer Cave died in Pitonyak's apartment at the Orange Tree Condominiums, at 2529 Rio Grande Street in West Campus, Austin, Texas. Bill Bishop, a prosecutor in the Travis County, Texas, government, said "As far as murders go, this is a very clean murder. He shot her through the arm, bullet traveled into the chest, through the heart pretty much killing her instantly. It was the post-murder behavior that made it so grotesque. The mutilation was anger… it wasn't any effort to hide the body or get rid of the body. It was just playing with it, like it was a toy." Upon discovery, Cave's body had been partially dismembered and had many stab wounds. A hacksaw had been placed on her abdomen. After her death, she had been shot in the head once. Toxicology tests concluded that during her death, Cave had alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamine in her system.
Discovery of the body
On the morning of August 17, 2005, the law firm where Cave worked called Cave's family to say that she did not show up for work. Sharon Sedwick, Cave's mother, and Jim Sedwick, her stepfather, discovered that she had been with Colton Pitonyak. Pitonyak told Sedwick that Cave was not around and asked them to leave him alone. On August 18, the Sedwicks traveled to Austin and found Cave's car at Pitonyak's apartment. Jim Sedwick called 9-1-1. The police said they could not search the apartment without a warrant. Jim Sedwick broke into the apartment after the police departed. After he discovered Jennifer Cave's body, Jim Sedwick called 9-1-1 again.
Escape and capture
On the day that Cave's body had been discovered, Colton Pitonyak and Laura Hall escaped from the United States, using Hall's automobile. Authorities found that the two had crossed into Mexico on August 18, 2005. The two were in Mexico for five days. A Mexican SWAT team discovered the two in a Holiday Inn in Piedras Negras, a city on the Mexico–United States border across from Eagle Pass, Texas, on August 23, 2005. The Mexican law enforcement drove the two to the border. There, U.S. Marshals arrested Pitonyak. Hall was allowed to leave by herself.