Murder Under the Friday Night Lights: Who was suspected to be Tristan Dilley's killer?

Tristan Dilley, a cheerleader from Silsbee High School, was found dead with two gunshot wounds to her head on October 1, 2017, at her Buna home. During an investigation into the case, the authorities learned that her boyfriend, Paul Audrey Adams, was at her house before her lifeless body was found face-down on the bed.

As the officials from Jasper County Sheriff's Office dug through her cellphone records, they discovered her boyfriend was a 19-year-old nursing student from Vidor, who then became a suspect in the case.

The Murder Under the Friday Night Lights episode titled A Homecoming Murder, which released on January 24, shed light on Tristan Dilley's murder. Its synopsis read:

"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."

---

What Happened to the Silsbee cheerleader Tristan Dilley?

Tristan Dilley, the 14-year-old freshman at Silsbee High School, was going out with Paul Audrey Adams, a 19-year-old nursing student at Lamar State College. The two had concealed their age difference from her parents and Jasper County Sheriff’s Lt. Ryan Cunningham told People Magazine:

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

On the evening of October 1, 2017, Tristan invited Paul over as her parents went out shopping. However, when they came back home, the victim's 13-year-old brother found her lifeless body lying face-down in a pool of blood on her bed. The gun used to kill Tristan Dilley was determined to be a .22 caliber magnum revolver.

The authorities from the Jasper County Sheriff's Office noted that there were no signs of struggle or forced entry into the room.

The officials went through Tristan's phone and found her conversations with Adams, which led them to his Lois Lane home in Vidor. The rangers who visited his home the next day searched his room to find a spent .22-caliber magazine casing in his bedroom among other usual paraphernalia. As per People, Lt. Cunningham stated:

“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.”

While the Texas Rangers were questioning his mother, Paul Audrey Adams called her and the officials tried to coerce him into giving a statement. Adams reportedly informed them that he was at Tristan Dilley's home but did not kill her. He informed them of an older white male with a beard, who he claimed broke into the house and shot her.

However, by now, Paul Audrey Adams had become a person of interest to the investigating officers. He was found to have reportedly purchased a list of items including several knives, dumbbells, duct tape, an axe, a machete, a hatchet, and a burlap sack a day before Tristan's murder, as per People.

Hence, police traced him to a campsite at a secluded area on Farm to Market Road 1135, near Vidor in Orange County, as per KTRE News. However, Paul Audrey Adams took his life with a .22 caliber magnum revolver as two deputies approached him. He left behind a note claiming his innocence.