The man accused in a Lexington kidnapping and murder investigation who was caught in Texas in January, was released Monday morning to Kentucky authorities and is on his way back to Lexington, according to authorities in Hidalgo County, Texas.
Robert Markham Taylor, also known as Mark Taylor, is accused in the kidnapping and homicide of Alex Johnson, a University of Kentucky chef whose body was found in the Kentucky River last month.
Taylor was arrested on Jan. 22 by authorities in Pharr, Texas, which nearly 1,400 miles from Lexington and just blocks from the Mexican border.
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Lexington Police said they had sent local police there a photo of Taylor and a possible location at a motel. When investigators there went to check it out, Taylor allegedly spotted them and jumped into a car. He was stopped just a block from the border where police found several pounds of marijuana in his car.
Johnson went missing on Dec. 20 of 2013 form his home in Lexington. His body was recovered from the Kentucky River on Jan. 24.
“The Lexington Fire Department special operations found a blue barrel in the Kentucky River which they had been asked to look for by the Lexington Metro Police,” said Gary Ginn, the Fayette County Coroner.
Ginn said there were injuries to Johnson’s body that appeared to have been caused by a weapon or “some type of means to hit someone with.”
The search for Johnson centered around the Riptide on the River restaurant and bar, off Old Richmond Road, where Taylor had worked as a bartender for a few months in the past.
Police also searched that location on New Year’s Eve.
Lexington Police say Taylor had moved to Lexington a few years ago, and had befriended Johnson. They did not comment further on how the men were connected.
