Remains Of Ex-NFL Player’s Girlfriend, Who Was Missing For Year, Positively Identified
Human remains found in Texas late last year have been positively identified as belonging to the missing girlfriend of former San Francisco 49ers tight end Kevin Ware Jr.
The remains, which were discovered outside Houston in December, were positively identified as Taylor Pomaski’s over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences made the official determination on Saturday.
An official cause or manner of death hasn’t been released. Toxicology results are now pending, officials said.
No arrests have been made in Pomaski’s suspicious death.
"The investigation is still open and active and homicide investigators are diligent on bringing this case to a close," Harris County Sheriff’s Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliand said in a statement sent to Oxygen.com on Monday.
Pomaski, who was Ware’s girlfriend, mysteriously vanished from a house party in Spring, Texas on April 25, 2021. From the case’s early stages, investigators have suspected foul play in the 29-year-old Texas woman’s disappearance.
Ware was arrested by the U.S. Marshals on June 11, 2021 for allegedly violating post-release conditions related to a prior felony conviction. Although Ware hasn’t officially been named a suspect in Pomaski's disappearance and death, prosecutors said he was “suspected of murdering” his girlfriend during court hearings in a separate case last year, according to KTRK-TV.
Photo: Harris County Sheriff's Office
At the time of Ware's arrest, Pomaski’s friends and family told news outlets that they were convinced she’d been forcibly abducted, noting allegations of past domestic abuse between the couple.
“She was in trouble,” Eric Zulegar, Pomaski’s ex-boyfriend, told KPRC-TV in June 2021. “There was violence, she referenced a gun being pulled on her. She was very scared, very nervous.”
But Ware’s defense team has vehemently denied that the 41-year-old former tight end was even a suspect in his girlfriend’s disappearance or death.
"The law enforcement agency handling the Pomaski investigation has not named Kevin as a suspect," Coby DuBose told Oxygen.com last year. "In reality, the only court document naming him as a suspect is a filing by the District Attorney’s Office in another county that is trying to convince a judge to hold him without bond."
His lawyer was also adamant Ware was cooperating with detectives investigating Pomaski’s disappearance.
"Kevin met with investigators who are investigating Ms. Pomaski’s disappearance and told them everything he knew," he added. "He also let them into his home. And took them room to room."
DuBose and Bryan Garris, another attorney representing Ware, didn’t immediately respond to Oxygen.com’s requests for comment on Monday.
Ware played in 16 career NFL games between 2003 and 2004 for the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington, D.C. team now known as the Commanders.
Ware is being held without bond at a Montgomery County detention facility, according to online jail records obtained by Oxgyen.com. He has past arrests for assault, evading police, theft, criminal mischief, burglary and felon possession of a firearm, online records show.
No further details regarding the open case were released by law enforcement this week.
Anyone with additional information is urged to contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office at 713-274-9100 or Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-8477.
