BEAUMONT, Texas — Beaumont police have charged 43-year-old Michael Denson with murder in the 2021 death of 39-year-old Shanequa Castaneda after a Crime Stoppers tip prompted detectives to reopen the case and reexamine evidence, leading a forensic pathologist to change the manner of death to homicide.

On June 2, 2021, Beaumont Police Department officers responded to an apartment where Castaneda was found deceased inside her residence. At the time, her death was not ruled a homicide.

In 2025, investigators received a Crime Stoppers tip from an individual who said Denson had admitted to murdering Castaneda. Based on that information, detectives reopened the case and began re-interviewing the suspect and witnesses.

Denson was reinterviewed on Nov. 24, 2025. Following that interview, a foren

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