HOUSTON – Documents show the terror one mother endured at the hands of her own son before the man allegedly murdered her, angry that she would not allow him to drive her car.
Miroslav Liliev Mishev, 30, is charged with capital murder in the death of Lilia Misheva, 69. (Note: Documents and police reports show the last names for the mother and son are spelled slightly different.)
Misheva’s body was discovered in a pool of blood inside her bedroom at an apartment complex located in the 9700 block of Stella Link on March 2.
Information listed in the documents show Misheva had a friendly relationship with office staff members. On the morning she was found dead, one of the staffers knocked on Misheva’s door and received no answer, which seemed unusual. The employee then noticed that the window to the bedroom was broken and asked a maintenance man to investigate.
The maintenance man entered the apartment, and found Misheva lying, lifeless, on the floor beside her bed.
Houston police were immediately called.
Homicide detectives arrived at the scene and documented a laceration on top of the victim’s head, also noting there were no signs of forced entry. Detectives said the glass on the outer portion of the window was consistent with the window being broken from inside the apartment with glass falling outwards.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences determined Misheva’s cause of death to be homicide by strangulation.
As detectives began working to establish a timeline of Misheva’s last known activities, they discovered a 2015 black Honda Civic with license plate L YJ8812 was registered under her name. They then learned that the car was last detected by license plate readers on March 1 in Brenham, Texas. Detectives showed a picture of the vehicle, which was missing from Misheva’s normal parking spot, to a member of the office staff, who positively identified it.
Further investigation revealed that Misheva reported an incident at her home on Feb. 23., a week before she was killed.
During that incident, Misheva told responding officers that her son, Mishev, came home that morning and told her if she did not give him the keys to her car, he was going to either kill himself or her.
Misheva told officers she believed her son would harm her and she was extremely afraid of him. Body camera footage showed the victim demonstrating how her son put his hands on her neck and tried to suffocate her to get the car.
Misheva told officers she wanted her son arrested and would pursue charges. She also told them that her son was doing some sort of drug that he smoked out of a glass pipe. After the murder, while searching the residence, detectives found a charred glass smoking pipe in the living room where the son would sleep.
That was not the only time Misheva expressed being afraid of her son.
Two days before she was murdered, she went into the front office to pay her rent. While there, she told an office employee that she was concerned about her son, who was unemployed, being on drugs and causing her problems.
Misheva also shared her concerns with her older son.
The older son was visiting Bulgaria when he received a call from detectives, informing him of their mother’s death.
He told them that he had been calling his mother’s cellphone repeatedly, but she had not answered, and the phone went straight to voicemail.
He said his mother confided in him in the week leading up to her death that she would sleep in the car as she was afraid of her younger son.
The older son said he pleaded with his mother to get an Airbnb to get away from Mishev. He also said his younger brother had given their mother a black eye in the past as well.
Detectives informed the older son that their mother’s car, wallet and cell phone were missing, and they believed the items were in Mishev’s possession.
On the day of the murder, Mishev was spotted sleeping in the Honda at a gas station in Weimar, Texas, which is about 90 miles west of Houston.
After waking up, Mishev began walking around the area, causing onlookers to report him as suspicious and possibly needing some sort of medical attention. This incident was documented in a Weimar police report.
When medics arrived, Mishev attempted to hide his mother’s credit cards under a bush in an ant pile, but they were recovered.
Police said, at some later point, Mishev stole another vehicle - a silver Mitsubishi - at a hotel a short distance from the gas station and fled west on Interstate 10.
He was stopped in Sutton County, about 400 miles west of Houston, and was clocked traveling at 105 miles per hour in the stolen vehicle. He told the officers who stopped him that his name was “Carl Smith” and he was from Indiana. He also told officers he was traveling to California and “John Adams” allowed him to borrow the Mitsubishi, according to documents.
A little while later, he gave his correct identity and was booked into the Sutton County Jail, charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He was to remain in Sutton County until extradition to Harris County to face charges in his mother’s murder.