Keren Martinez Ballesteros Obituary, Death: Murder victim ID’d after being found in field near Cashion.

Freeman Nonny

Keren Martinez Ballesteros Obituary, Death – Wichita Falls police have identified the woman found dead in a field near Cashion and have arrested a man in connection with her death. The victim, 28-year-old Keren Martinez Ballesteros, was discovered on Wednesday night, June 18, 2025, in a large field near Cashion Road and Carriage Lane, just north of Wichita Falls.

According to Sgt. Brett Keith of the Wichita Falls Police Department (WFPD), Ballesteros had a visible chest wound, and investigators discovered a shotgun shell wad lodged in her dress. These details suggested she had been shot. The WFPD’s Crimes Against Persons Unit launched a homicide investigation.

As a result of that investigation, 20-year-old Matison Johnathan Preville, Jr., of Wichita Falls, was arrested the next day, Thursday, June 19. He has been charged with Ballesteros’s murder and is being held in the Wichita County Jail on a \$1 million bond.

Ballesteros was first reported missing on Tuesday, June 17, by a concerned friend who hadn’t heard from her since Saturday, June 14. The friend told police Ballesteros was supposed to visit Preville at his apartment in Mustang Village that day. The friend also expressed concerns due to a reportedly abusive history between the two, who were in an on-and-off relationship.

When officers questioned Preville, he claimed he had not seen Ballesteros since Thursday, June 12. However, investigators noted that his emotional response seemed detached when informed she was missing. When asked if Ballesteros “was” or “is” his ex-girlfriend, he initially used the past tense, then corrected himself.

Preville showed officers a text conversation from June 14 in which he told Ballesteros he was on his way to pick her up. Though he claimed he never met up with her that day, one of Ballesteros’s roommates later told police she saw her leave with Preville on June 14. The person who reported her missing also mentioned that Ballesteros may have been pregnant.

In a second police interview, Preville again claimed the last time he saw Ballesteros was June 12, when they went grocery shopping and spent a few hours at his apartment. Officers noted he made a strange comment about not wanting children around his home, saying, “I don’t want no kids running around this place,” which raised further suspicion.

Using surveillance footage and cell phone data, investigators tracked both Ballesteros’s and Preville’s movements on June 14. A nearby home’s security camera captured Preville’s truck stopping at Ballesteros’s residence, with someone entering the vehicle before it drove off. Phone records showed both their devices traveled through Wichita Falls before stopping in the Cashion area. The phones remained in one location for an extended period—precisely where Ballesteros’s body was later found.

The investigation is still ongoing, and authorities are continuing to gather evidence in what appears to be a case of domestic violence that ended in a fatal shooting.

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