Five details about Tristan Dilley's murder

Tristan Dilley, a high school cheerleader from Texas, was found dead with two gunshots to her head on October 1, 2017. Dilley was found lying in a puddle of her own blood by her 13-year-old brother, Colby Dilley, at her mother's Buna home. Tristan had been brutally murdered possibly by someone she knew considering that there were no signs of struggle.

Jasper County Sheriff's Office investigators found that Dilley had been dating a 19-year-old named Paul Audrey Adams from Vidor, who had been at the house before she was found dead. In a run to find leads in the case, the police tracked down Adams but were late in doing so as he took his life on October 2, 2017. He left a note behind.

The Murder Under the Friday Night Lights episode of A Homecoming Murder showcases the horrific details of the Texas murder-suicide as the synopsis reads:

"The family of a high school cheerleader finds her murdered in her room the night after the homecoming dance; detectives surmise that she knew her killer, and because so many people are back in town for the big football game, everybody is a suspect."

The episode aired on January 24, 2024, at 11 p.m. EST on Investigation Discovery

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What Happened to the Silsbee cheerleader Tristan Dilley?

1) Tristan Dilley had concealed the age of her boyfriend

Tristan Dilley was 14 years of age when she was found dead in her second-story bedroom at her mother's Buna home. Dilley had introduced her "tall and lanky" boyfriend as a 16-year-old high school basketball player named Adam to her parents.

However, investigations into her 2017 murder revealed that the two had been hiding the true nature of their relationship as Adam was originally a 19-year-old nursing student at Lamar State College named Paul Audrey Adams. According to Jasper County, Texas, Sheriff’s Lt. Ryan Cunningham:

“Both kids were deceiving the parents. He [Adams] knew he was too old to be seeing the child.”

2) Dilley died from two gunshot wounds to her head

The Silsbee High School cheerleader was shot twice in the head with a .22 caliber magnum revolver. There were no signs of forced entry or struggle in the room, which made the officials believe that Tristan was murdered by someone she knew.

Lt. Ryan Cunningham spoke to PEOPLE and said:

“She never saw it coming. You could tell from the scene there was not a struggle or a fight. She was comfortable with knowing the person.”

Tristan Dilley's body was found face down in her bed. She was not facing the direction of the gunshot.

3) The authorities found a spent .22 caliber shell casing in Paul Audrey Adams's Vidor home

On October 2, 2017, the Texas Rangers met Adams's mother at their residence in Video, where they learned about his presence at Tristan Dilley's house the previous night. However, he had informed her of a home invasion where an intruder shot his underage girlfriend dead while he hid in the shower. Adams allegedly escaped once the gunman left and did not notify the police out of fear.

As they searched his room, they did not find anything out of the ordinary, except a spent .22-caliber magazine casing. Cunningham further stated his suspicions, saying:

“We don’t know if it was from something previous, but we knew it was probably the type of round used [to kill] Tristan. We don’t know if maybe that it was a trophy-type thing. Sometimes they keep memories.”

4) Adams was located camping in the woods in Orange County

Cellphone records of Tristan Dilley and Paul Audrey Adams placed him at his camping ground in the woods on Farm to Market Road 1135, near Vidor in Orange County. He had not been at his home and had refused to provide the officials with a statement, even though they had mentioned the fact that he could be a useful witness.

Adams had called his mother while the rangers were at his home when he spoke to the officers and gave them the description of the intruder who had allegedly broken into Tristan's Buna home. Per PEOPLE's report, Cunningham said:

“He gave a description of an older white male with a beard. He said he hid in the shower and he could hear Tristan screaming, ‘Get off of me.’"

5) Paul Audrey Adams shot himself to death with the same gun used to kill Tristen Dilley

The Texas Rangers tried to get in touch with Adams after locating him at a camping site on FM 1135 in Orange County, but he shot himself to death and left behind an 8-page note claiming his innocence.

Preliminary evidence suggested that the same gun, a .22 caliber magnum revolver, was used to kill Tristan. Moreover, Adams was found to have purchased several knives, dumbbells, duct tape, an axe, a machete, a hatchet, and burlap sacks a few days before the murder.

Besides, he had also downloaded apps to listen in on police dispatch traffic after Tristan Dilley's death.