A Beloved Texas Coach Was Found Murdered In His Houston Home

The Clear Lake Christian School football team played its first game of the 2016 season on Sept. 9, but a beloved member of the Clear Lake community was noticeably absent.

39-year-old Kevin Roman had coached the football team at Clear Lake for several years, but his teaching contract wasn’t renewed after the spring semester. He moved on to teach at another private school. Still, the players knew to look for Roman in the stands — he wouldn’t have let them start their season without him whether he was officially the coach or not.

As they scanned the crowd between plays, Roman was nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, Roman’s best friend, LD Davis, was growing more concerned by the day. He’d last heard from Roman around Sept. 1. On the 10th, Davis finally decided to drive over to the home Roman rented on Sparrow Street. Roman’s car was not in the driveway, but Davis still got out, intending to knock on the door and check in on his friend.

As he walked up to Roman’s home, the security door was shut and locked, but the interior door was open. All the lights in the home were on. Davis noticed the AC was running, and he could hear the TV in Roman’s bedroom.

In the next moment, Davis realized that the odor he’d first noticed when he got out of his car was permeating from the front door. It was the unmistakable odor of death.

Davis called 911, and responding officers found a grisly scene inside Roman’s home. The house itself was in absolute disarray, and the scene in the bedroom offered some hints about the horror that had gone on in the small home.

Lying on the bed was a deceased Black male in an advanced state of decomposition, leading authorities to believe he had been dead for several days. An officer stepped back outside to ask Davis if he had a photo of Roman. The photo was a match to the body inside on the bed.

As authorities processed the scene, they realized nothing other than Roman’s cell phone appeared to be missing, and there didn’t appear to be any sign of a struggle. Electronics, Roman’s wallet, and other valuables had been left behind. There were, however, a series of .45-caliber shells, presumably from the murder weapon. Later, an autopsy confirmed that Roman had been shot 11 times.

Two days after the murder, police got an anonymous tip about Roman’s personal life. It appeared to them that the clean cut football coach may have had some proclivities that caused him to cross paths with the wrong woman.

Find out how officers solved the case on the season two premiere of Murder Under the Friday Night Lights on ID on Nov. 16 at 10/9c. More episodes are available now on discovery+.