The Murder of Anita Byington: An Interview with the Innocence Project of Texas

Murder Sheet

MurderSheet

True Crime, Murder, Unsolved Case, Killing, Murderer, Cold Case

3.8 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2024

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1991, a young college student named Anita Byington went out with friends in Austin, Texas. The following morning, she was found brutally murdered.

A man named Allen Andre Causey was tried and convicted of the murder in 1992. His confession to police was a major piece of evidence against him.

Now, the Innocence Project of Texas says Causey is a factually innocent man. The Travis County Prosecutor's Office agreed with this, although members of Anita Byington's family say that they still believe the evidence against Causey points to innocence. Causey was paroled in 2022, but he could soon receive an exoneration as well.

In this episode, we will hear from Causey's Innocence Project of Texas team: executive director Mike Ware, senior staff attorney Jessi Freud, staff attorney Chase Baumgartner, and attorney Amber Vasquez. They will explain why they believe the evidence strongly points to Causey's innocence, and who they think really killed Anita.

Listen to our interview with Anita's cousin Kristina Byington here: https://art19.com/shows/murder-sheet/episodes/3779b01f-4126-4e92-abe0-1336fd7ad890

The Innocence Project of Texas's website: https://innocencetexas.org/

Support The Murder Sheet by buying a t-shirt here: https://www.murdersheetshop.com/

Send tips to [email protected].

The Murder Sheet is a production of Mystery Sheet LLC.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Content warning. This episode contains discussion of violence and murder.
0:06.0	This episode also follows up from our previous episode, The Murder of Anita Byington,
0:11.3	an interview with her cousin Christina Byington.
0:15.2	For a more in-depth recounting of the facts of the crime, please go back and listen to the
0:19.5	introduction of that
0:25.0	on August 11th, 1991, a witness at the Spring Creek Apartments at 6407 Springdale Road in Austin, Texas,
0:32.0	made a horrifying discovery.
0:35.2	In the pale light of mourning, a young woman's body lay battered in a grassy patch in the complex.
0:42.3	This was 21-year-old Anita Byington. The Southwest Texas State
0:46.8	University student had been out the night before with some friends and new
0:50.4	acquaintances. She gave a ride to one of those acquaintances, a man named Kevin Harris, but she never made it back.
0:58.0	Harris claimed he last saw her at 3 a.m. Her 1989 Brown Honda was found at a different apartment complex and of course
1:06.6	Anita herself was discovered dead around 630 a.m. She was
1:15.0	left devastated.
1:18.0	She died of severe head drama. Her family was left devastated.
1:20.0	Kevin Harris, the man last seen with Anita, immediately became a focus of the investigation.
1:28.2	After all, he made it home and she was killed.
1:32.3	He claimed that they had had consensual sex before separating.
1:36.4	But police only had his word for that.
1:39.8	Anita was no longer around to explain whether or not she had actually consented.
1:44.6	Soon though, Harris would become less of a focus.
1:48.0	A man named Alan Andre Kause came by a group of witnesses who were clustered around the crime scene.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MurderSheet, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of MurderSheet and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.