The fight for justice in the death of 18-year-old Daniel Erving is far from over, and now another chapter has been opened in a case that confounding as it is callous and cruel.
According to CBS Texas, 19-year-old white boy Lucas Roper has officially been indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on a charge of tampering with physical evidence in connection with Erving’s death at Lake Ray Hubbard. The indictment comes weeks after BOSSIP’s reporting that Roper and a 17-year-old were arrested following allegations that they discarded Daniel’s cellphone and clothing, deleted messages, and failed to call for help after the teen disappeared back in April.
While prosecutors continue moving forward on the evidence-tampering case, Daniel’s mother, Tameca Erving, has made it crystal clear that she believes the charges don’t go nearly far enough. She continues to push for murder charges, arguing that whoever was with her son should be held accountable for far more than allegedly trying to cover up what happened afterward. Her dissatisfaction with the charges is in line with her criticism of how this case has been handled from the very beginnning.
“I didn’t get any information about where my son was. I canvased the neighborhood. I knocked on doors. I asked neighbors for video footage. I had to do the footwork, the research, the investigating. I had to do it,”
The grand jury’s indictment keeps the criminal case alive, but it does little to answer the biggest question hanging over this tragedy, what really happened to Daniel Erving? Authorities have maintained that the investigation remains active, even as the medical examiner ruled his death an accidental drowning. That conclusion has done little to ease the concerns of Erving’s family, who insist the circumstances surrounding Daniel’s final moments deserve much deeper scrutiny.
“These boys said that he drowned, he was a high school swimmer. He was on the swim team. He was a healthy young 18-year-old male, so that story that he drowned accidentally, it doesn’t add up. It does not add up, and we want the truth,” said Attorney Sean Daredia.
For now, the indictment is another legal step forward, but for Daniel’s loved ones, justice still feels painfully incomplete.
