An Nguyen and Glenser Soliman
Investigators didn't publicly identify the app, but said the killers may have been targeting Asian men when they went after Glenser Soliman, a 44-year-old St. Luke's Medical Center nurse whose body was found Feb. 25, and An Vinh Nguyen, a 26-year-old University of Houston student last seen March 31.
Both of their vehicles were found abandoned in the Spring area. Nguyen's credit cards were also taken, though details were not available about whether items were stolen from Soliman.
Detectives warned there may be additional victims.
"It is possible that there were other victims, or victims that did get away who could give us more information," said lead investigator Mike Ritchie at a Monday news conference.
Two cousins who lived together in the Spring area in northwest Harris County are suspected in the deaths, Ritchie said.
On Monday, a capital murder charge was filed against Brandon Alexander Lyons, 18, who is accused of strangling Soliman and striking him with an unknown object. Lyons has been held in the Harris County Jail under a $200,000 bond since April, when he was charged with stealing Soliman's vehicle.
Lyons' cousin, Jerrett Jamal Allen, 26, a suspect in Nguyen's death, is being sought on a charge of unlawfully using the student's credit cards. He was last spotted in April, using the cards in El Paso, detectives said.
Investigators have not ruled out the possibility the men were slain by serial killers though robbery appears the most likely motive, Ritchie said.
The slayings echo a recent Dallas-area case in which federal prosecutors in May filed hate-crime and conspiracy charges against four young men accused of using a fake profile on the Grindr gay dating app to carry out at least four home-invasion robberies in the Dallas area.
Ritchie and Chief Deputy Edison Toquica warned Monday that people using websites, chat rooms and apps to arrange in-person meetings should meet in public, bring along another person and avoid inviting strangers to their home or going to a stranger's home.
The detective said people should always consider "that this person might not be wanting to meet up for the same reason that you do."
Soliman was reported missing Feb. 16. Nine days later a man found his body while walking a dog on a trail in the Spring area, just five miles from the dead man's home.
His house didn't show signs of a break-in, but a friend told the Houston Chronicle at the time that his bedroom was in disarray - something out of character for the orderly nurse manager.
Nguyen's family reported him missing April 1 after they couldn't contact him. Nguyen, who was studying hotel and restaurant management at UH, also missed a scheduled job interview.
"He's very close to his family," Ritchie said. "They're tight-knit; they talk often. He had a job interview in Florida just a few days before he disappeared and he did not show up for that job interview. So he had a lot of things going for him, was a U of H student, a good family person and this is unlike him."
Deputies presume Nguyen is dead, though Ritchie said his body has not been recovered despite extensive canvassing by Texas EquuSearch.
Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 713-274-9226 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
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