HOUSTON – The husband of 26-year-old Alexis Sharkey, a social media star who was found dead in Houston last year, has been found dead in a Florida home, U.S. Marshals said.
The social media influencer was found dead in November 2020 by a Houston Public Works employee. A news release stated that her naked body was found on Nov. 28, 2020, in the 1000 block of Red Haw Street around 8:30 a.m. Sharkey was previously listed as a missing person. Her mother shared news of her disappearance and death on social media.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences determined the cause of death of Alexis Leigh Robinault Sharkey was strangulation. The office said the manner of death is homicide.
Nearly a year later, Thomas Sharkey was wanted for the murder of his wife Alexis after Houston authorities issued a warrant for his arrest and the Marshals were called to help locate him, according to officials. On Wednesday morning, he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the Florida residence, according to U.S. Marshals.
Alexis Sharkey had moved to West Texas, where she met and married Tom Sharkey and became a full-time social media influencer. They moved to Houston in January of 2020.
Details leading up to Thomas’s death
Houston police held a press conference hours after Thomas’s death was announced.
Houston police detective Michael Burrow said no specific evidence will be discussed until the family of Alexis knows the details. Burrow did say that Thomas was the only person who had the means, motive and opportunity to commit the murder. He said there was a history of domestic violence in the marriage.
Although there was no filing of divorce, Burrow said the relationship was ending and the couple was separating. He said evidence also showed that Thomas was not being truthful in his statements where police were able to develop enough evidence to develop a cause against him.
Burrow said Thomas became a suspect after he left Texas not long after the homicide. In one example, Burrow said when police tried to obtain DNA samples from him, he agreed but never showed up to give the samples and came up with a bizarre story on why he disappeared.
On Sept. 29, an arrest warrant was issued and detectives went very quiet about the warrant and planned to charge Thomas with murder for the death of Alexis. The U.S. Marshals helped locate Thomas’s whereabouts and discovered he was staying with a relative in Florida. Burrow said once officials made contact with Tom, he ran upstairs and shot himself to death.
A relative on the scene was able to identify the body as Tom’s.
Burrow said they have obtained enough evidence to rule out any other suspects involved and that Tom acted alone in the murder of Alexis.
The U.S. Marshals released the following statement:
The U.S. Marshals adopted a warrant for Thomas Sharkey, who was wanted out of Harris County, Texas, for murder. The U.S. Marshals Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force received a lead from the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Task Force in Houston that Sharkey was in the Fort Myers, Florida, area. U.S. Marshals located Sharkey at a residence in Fort Myers and later found him dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot inside of the residence.
Previous stories on Sharkey’s death: