Inset left: Tiffany Thomas (Harris County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Troy Koehler (Harris County District Attorney’s Office). Background: The 4400 block of Rosegate Drive in Harris County, Texas (Google Maps).
The mother of a 7-year-old boy who was found dead in a bloody washer at the hands of his adoptive father has learned her fate.
Court records show Tiffany Thomas, 38, was sentenced on Friday to 10 years’ confinement in prison. She had pleaded guilty in February to the charge of injury to a child.
Thomas’ husband, 45-year-old Jemaine Thomas, pleaded guilty to murdering young Troy Koehler in the summer of 2022, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced. The man was sentenced to 50 years in prison in July.
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As Law&Crime previously reported, on July 28, 2022, Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at a home on the 4400 block of Rosegate Drive due to a report of a missing child. Investigators later found the child – Troy – in a washing machine, and he was pronounced dead, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at the time.
Additional details concerning law enforcement’s arrival at the home revealed the distressing discovery of the body.
A probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime after Jemaine Thomas’ arrest disclosed that the search, which included the use of drones and dogs, ended when a deputy found Troy’s body at the bottom of a tub inside of a top-loading washing machine in the house’s garage and utility room.
Tiffany Thomas said she’d last seen her son when he was put to bed before 9 p.m. the night before, according to the affidavit. Jemaine Thomas told investigators that he last saw the boy between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. the previous evening and only realized his son was missing at about 4 a.m. when he woke up to get ready for work.
Once the child’s body was found, an investigator is said to have “yelled out to other deputies and tried to assess if [the child] was breathing.”
“While doing so, [the deputy] stated he was pushed out of the way by Jemaine Thomas, who reached into the washing machine and pulled the child out of the washer,” the affidavit read. “[The deputy] stated Jemaine Thomas was instructed to place [the boy] on the floor and CPR was immediately began by other deputies.”
An investigator at the home said the child’s arms and legs were “warm to the touch but his torso was cold.” The authority also noticed blood around the child’s nose and a large bump on his forehead, over the right eye. There was a smell of urine “emanating from the body,” and the boy’s clothing was damp, the affidavit added.
Furthermore, his “pants were pulled down to his knees, exposing his underwear and the presence of bruises on his upper legs,” the document stated. Authorities also believed the washing machine was not turned on while the boy was inside given the presence of urine and visible blood at the base of the tub.
After Troy was pronounced dead, a forensic examiner investigated his body. The boy had suffered from “asphyxiation” and possible drowning – as well as “both remote and new blunt force trauma that was indicative of inflicted trauma.” The examination, paired with the sheriff’s office’s preliminary investigation, indicated that the death was a homicide.
Upon being interviewed, Tiffany Thomas allegedly said that at about 1 a.m. that morning, Jemaine Thomas sent her a text saying Troy was gone and the front door of the home was open. However, she said she remembered locking the doors before leaving for work at approximately 6:30 p.m. the previous evening. She also said she tried to contact Jemaine Thomas but he didn’t answer, per the affidavit.
Jemaine Thomas reportedly later admitted to punishing the child on July 24, 2022, by hitting him on his buttocks with an open hand, saying at one time he “missed” and hit him in the back.
A review of the parents’ cellphone records also appeared to show evidence of motive. In a text thread between the two, the parents “expressed deep contempt” for the victim, the affidavit stated.
Tiffany Thomas is said to have told Jemaine Thomas that Troy “told her the truth about eating her oatmeal cream pies only because she ‘threatened to put him in the stove and turn it on.'” Jemaine Thomas allegedly told Tiffany Thomas, “when he learned [Troy] had eaten his donut sticks, that ‘I need to get the (locks). I’m going to end up kill him. You going to come home and he going to be hanging from the f– tree outside,'” the affidavit states.
On July 7, 2022, Tiffany Thomas allegedly said, “F– that. I’m for not doing s— for his birthday. I’m so sick of this boy. Like I’m really tired of him and don’t want him in this house no more.” On July 25, 2022, three days before Troy’s body was found, she reportedly wrote, “This boy got life f–ed up. Why I come out the restroom from taking my shower and his funky a– in the living room watching TV.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has recalled how Koehler would have been a fifth grader this year.
“As Troy’s beloved former first grade teacher, Sheryl Reed, said in court this morning — ‘now, we will never know what he could have become. His future, his dreams, his life — were stolen by someone who was supposed to love, protect, and nurture him,'” the district attorney’s office said. “Ms. Reed’s victim impact statement will forever stay with those who heard it in the 184th district court this morning.”
