‘Sorry I Got You Messed Up in This’

Now, Jodi Thomas, 62, has been hit with one charge of tampering with evidence as police believe she helped Dennis Day, 66, dump the body of Rana Nofal Soluri, 47, after he allegedly killed her in June. Police have reported that Day admitted to the killing. He’s already been charged with murder.

Thomas was also questioned in the immediate aftermath, but her shifting story nevertheless seemed as if she might get away with claiming she had no involvement with the killing or attempted coverup. That is, until police found an unexpected voicemail on Thomas’ phone from Day.

According to the complaint reviewed by NBC affiliate KXAS, phone records show that Day called his friend Thomas after he allegedly murdered Soluri. She then purportedly drove to his house in her pickup truck, which is the vehicle that was allegedly used to transport Soluri’s body to a bridge about 70 miles away near Bowie, where police believe it was dumped. Soluri’s body has not been recovered.

When asked about the alleged incident, Thomas initially told police that she knew nothing about it and insisted that Day had not driven her truck, per the affidavit. Later, she admitted that he did drive her truck and said she was with him, according to police.

In this version of her story, court documents state that Thomas said she didn’t know anything that was going on and thought Day had stopped to urinate off the bridge. She further claimed she fell asleep while he was doing so, not waking up again until they were in his driveway.

Unfortunately for Thomas, though, an unexpected piece of evidence cast doubt on her version of events. First, cell phone records show that after Thomas arrived at Day’s house, the friends both left their phones in the residence before driving to Bowie, as reported by KXAS.

In their arrest affidavit, police called this “a clear effort … to deceive law enforcement and make it appear like they never left [Day’s house] in Forth Worth … when they were dumping [the] body in Bowie.”

If that wasn’t damning enough, investigators then uncovered what appeared to be an accidental “butt dial” voicemail on Thomas’ phone that had been left after Day’s phone called her. In it, a male and female voice could be heard talking as they appeared to be moving something heavy, according to police.

The affidavit quoted lines from the message like “Hey, help me,” “Make sure the lid’s on,” and, “I’m sorry I got you messed up in this.”

The new revelation and charges for Thomas come after police say Day had already confessed to the murder of Soluri. According to court records, Day admitted to killing his roommate during an altercation while she was filming him and threatening to call police. He allegedly said that he “snapped” and began to strangle her.

He then allegedly told police, per documents, that he dragged her body out to his backyard and disconnected his surveillance equipment when he realized his actions were being recorded. He then said he loaded her body into a trash can and used Thomas’ truck to take the body to a bridge and toss her over, along with other evidence.

He never mentioned Thomas’ alleged direct involvement, per the documents.

KXAS spoke with the victim’s sister, Nez, who said that Soluri had lived with Day for a year. “These people were good to her and suddenly he wasn’t,” she told the outlet. “He just became a different person.”

Soluri was first reported missing by a coworker on June 11, though she told police she’d last spoken with Soluri back on March 19, according to Fox affiliate KFDW. She said that conversation appeared to end abruptly, as if it had been interrupted. She also shared with police a video sent to her that day where a male voice could be heard yelling in the background.

The coworker said that she’d not been able to get a hold of her since, but didn’t call right away as Soluri had taken a leave of absence from work for a minor surgery and had not been expected to return until March 31. But she never did return.

Her employer, American Airlines, also told police they’d not heard from her and had been unsuccessful in making contact with her after she failed to return from her scheduled leave of absence. They said it was unlike her after five years of employment. Soluri worked as part of the Envoy Flight Service Team with subsidiary Envoy Air Inc.

Police had already been dispatched to Day’s home in May on a call to tow Soluri’s vehicle. At that time, he told them it had been parked there for nearly two months and he hadn’t seen her in that time. He further shared, per police at the time, that he’d moved her belongings to a storage unit, though detectives noted he did not “express knowledge or concern” about her whereabouts.

The following month, on June 10, police returned for a welfare check on Soluri, where Day again stated that he’d not seen her for months, with him saying that he’d tried to reach her via text and phone. He said that she’d recently bought the vehicle and then abandoned it in front of his house, leading to the tow.

An investigation into her cell phone confirmed no activity after March 21, with the last data connections coming just before midnight — until it pinged off of a cell tower about five miles east of her home nine minutes later, per KFDW.

As for Day, he initially denied any involvement or knowledge about where she might be or what might have happened when first questioned by police. But then, police uncovered the surveillance footage from his own home system that showed him dragging “what appears to be a lifeless body from the home into the backyard,” per the affidavit.

After this, he admitted that he’d “snapped” during an argument and strangled her on the kitchen floor until she died. He subsequently transported her to the bridge where he tossed her over, according to his statement, and threw her phone into the river near where it last pinged. He further said he got rid of most of her belongings, tossing her handgun into a storm drain, which police later were able to recover.

Calling her sister a “firecracker,” Nex told KXAS, “She might’ve been in a small frame, but she had a big personality. You would think she was six-foot-six, you know, she was strong, very opinionated.”

She told the outlet that while Day’s Thomas’ arrests do bring a sense of relief, they’re still lacking the closure that finding her body would bring. “It’s not just about our heritage and how we put people to rest it’s, you know — she needs that. Her soul needs that,” Nez explained. “Her daughter needs that. We need that.”

Day is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $200,000 bond, per CrimeOnline. Thomas appears to have posted bail as she is not currently listed in jail records.