In a poignant turn of events, Marissa Grimes, a 26-year-old mother of two, made a final, fateful visit to her abusive ex-partner, Valerian ‘Will’ O’Steen, before embarking on a new chapter in her life, free from his menacing behavior.
Unbeknownst to Marissa, when she stopped by O’Steen’s residence in Texas in February 2022, she had no inkling of the tragedy that awaited her.
Earlier, O’Steen had issued death threats towards Marissa, preventing her from leaving his house. Showing remarkable courage, Marissa managed to contact her mother, who promptly alerted the authorities in a bid to rescue her from his clutches. Consequently, O’Steen was apprehended and charged with perpetrating acts of domestic violence. As a precautionary measure, he was fitted with a GPS monitoring device and instructed to maintain a distance from Marissa.
However, on the night she went to bid farewell, they visited a neighbor together, where O’Steen reportedly menaced Marissa with a firearm, as per police reports. Tragically, this encounter marked the final time Marissa was seen alive. O’Steen’s aggression escalated, culminating in a heinous act of violence where he brutally ended Marissa’s life. Subsequently, he concealed her body and continued to inhabit the property.
Following the discovery of Marissa’s abandoned vehicle near O’Steen’s residence, a search was conducted by law enforcement. During the search, a SWAT team member observed suspicious activity beneath the house, leading to the unearthing of Marissa’s remains wrapped in a blanket and tarpaulin. The autopsy revealed multiple injuries, including lacerations to her head, black eyes, as well as fractures to her arm, ribs, and nose. Additionally, her hair had been crudely cut in various places.
“There was only one individual with the means, opportunity, and motive to end Marissa Grimes’s life,” stated prosecutor Allenna Bangs during O’Steen’s trial at the Fort Worth District Court. A forensic examination by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Marissa’s demise resulted from severe head trauma inflicted during a homicide. O’Steen, while testifying in court, vehemently denied any involvement in Marissa’s death.
On September 22, 2025, a jury convicted O’Steen of murder, prompting Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells to pursue the death penalty.
Upon the sentencing by Judge Ryan Hill and the subsequent verdict, Marissa’s father addressed O’Steen, who reportedly displayed no visible reaction to the sentencing. “You had no right to take my daughter’s life,” expressed Daryl Grimes. “You had no right to deprive those boys of their mother.”
Data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice indicates that two individuals on death row have been executed in the state this year, with a total of five executions in 2025 and the same number in 2024. The United States employs five methods of execution, including lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad. Texas leads the nation in executions since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, with California, Florida, Texas, and Alabama having the largest death row populations.
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