Bastrop, Tx–A state grand jury on Tuesday handed up indictments against two men charged in the beating and/or stabbing death of a Paige cook late last year.
Dustin Dickman and Dennis Leetch were arrested late in Januray in connection with the death of Michael VanDyke, 23, who had been working as a cook at the Old Frontier restaurant in Paige before his disappearance about the middle of December. Sheriff’s department investigators believe the two assaulted VanDyke outside the Paige area residence he shared with Dickman and Dickman’s girlfriend, who has not been charged in the case.
Investigators also believe that VanDyke was initially buried in a shallow grave near the residence but later moved to a rural site near San Marcos where the body was burned, possibly beyond identification, over a period of perhaps 36 hours.
Dickman and Leetch are both being held in the Bastrop County Jail under $500,000 bail each. An indictment by grand jurors sends the case to trial but is not evidence of guilt.