Suspect in killing of 14-year-old cheerleader bought hatchet, handcuffs and anatomy book before shooting

Authorities believe the suspect and the victim were in a romantic relationship before he killed her and himself.

Texas Killing — Authorities believe Paul Adams (left) killed Tristen Dilley (right) at her mother's home near Buna, Texas and later took his own life with a the same handgun at a rural site near Vidor, Texas. Facebook

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old cheerleader in Texas reportedly bought a hatchet, rope, burlap sacks and multiple pairs of handcuffs days before the girl's death, police said.

Authorities said they also found MREs, dumbbells, bottled water, a water purification kit, $577 in cash and a book about human anatomy at the campsite set up by 19-year-old Paul Adams off of FM 1135 in Vidor, Texas.

"We have no idea what he was planning on doing with them," Jasper Counter Sheriff Mitchel Newman told BeaumontEnterprise.com.

The items were purchased on 28 September from a Visor Walmart, just three days before Tristan Dilley was found dead with two gunshot wounds to the head inside her mother's Buna home on 1 October.

She was found by her 13-year-old brother after her family returned from a shopping outing.

Text messages on the teenager's phone led police to believe that she and Adams, a nursing student at Lamar State College-Orange, were in a secret relationship. The two met through a relative who later told Adams to leave Dilley alone because he was too old for her, the Dallas Morning News reported.

According to BeaumontEnterprise.com, officials found a receipt and surveillance footage of Adams shopping at the store.

The sheriff said that the day of Adams' death, Texas Rangers were meeting with his mother in Vidor when he called her. Adams told them that he had been at Dilley's house at the time of the shooting but maintained he was not the shooter.

Adams claimed someone broke into Dilley's home and shot her and said he had run because he was afraid. The Rangers tried to convince Adams to come speak to him by telling him that he could be a useful witness in her death. Adams then hung up, Newman said.

Officers tracked Adams to a secluded, wooded area where he had set up a tent. As the two deputies approached him, Adams fatally shot himself in the head. Newman said Adams left a note at the scene of his death.

Newman said the gun used is believed to be the same .22 caliber Magnum revolved used in the shooting death of the Silsbee High School cheerleader.

"He ruined two families," Newman said. "Not just hers, but he ruined his, too."