STAFF REPORT
Body
WAXAHACHIE – Lauren Dovers, 28, of Waxahachie, was convicted of capital murder by a jury and sentenced to life in prison without parole stated Ellis County and District Attorney Ann Montgomery in a press release
On Wednesday, March 24, 2021, Jordan Von Hoffman’s sister and friends were worried about him. He had not shown up for work, and had not returned to his home for several days.
Friends knew that he had traveled from Mabank the previous Saturday to meet with his friend Lauren Dovers and return a truck back to Trenton Adams.
Dovers and Adams were dating. However, no one had heard from Von Hoffman, Dovers, or Adams since Saturday.
Von Hoffman’s sister and friends went to a location outside of Ennis where Adams was living and saw the truck, but they but did not see Von Hoffman, Adams, or Dovers.
With permission from the owner of the property, they looked through the trailer and a shed, where they found a body wrapped in contractor plastic and a tarp covered in paint and hidden in a trash can.
They called 911, and the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office arrived and began an investigation.
Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the body was Jordan Von Hoffman, and he had been killed by both compression of his neck and by blunt force trauma consistent with being hit in the head with a hammer.
Von Hoffman had severe trauma all over his head and body and had also been “hog-tied” with both his arms and legs bound behind his body. In a second trash can near the body, investigators discovered a hammer and other items such as bloody gloves.
Home Depot surveillance video showed Lauren Dovers and Adams buying trash cans, paint, contractor plastic, gloves, and other items the day before and the morning of the murder.
Laboratory tests indicated that Adams’ DNA was on the inside of the gloves. Von Hoffman’s DNA was found on the hammer and the gloves.
Phone and Facebook records showed Adams and Dovers’ phones were messaging and calling Von Hoffman – encouraging him to come over on the same day that the items were purchased from Home Depot.
Soon after the murder, Dovers and Adams fled Ellis County and traveled to San Marcos for several days.
Adams remained on the run for several weeks until he was arrested in Houston.
Dovers returned to her home in Waxahachie, and later was arrested for tampering with evidence.
While she was out on bond, she sent an email to friends explaining that she had known Adams was planning on killing someone when they went to Home Depot before Hoffman’s murder.
She also indicated Adams was jealous and suspected Dovers had an affair.
Dovers explained in her email that Adams told her she was going to “help him kill someone.”
An Ellis County jury returned a guilty verdict for capital murder – that Lauren Dovers had intentionally killed Jordan Von Hoffman during the course of attempting or committing kidnapping of Von Hoffman, or that she acted as a party to the offense assisting Trenton Adams with the killing. Judge Cindy Ermatinger of the 443rd District Court presided over the case and sentenced Adams to life without parole.
By law, the sentence for capital murder in Texas is life without parole if the State is not seeking the death penalty.
“Time and time again, the evidence showed that Dovers could have warned Jordan, stopped the killing, or at the very least, asked for help after the murder,” stated lead prosecutor Cynthia Walker.
“But she chose to continue to support Trenton Adams.
“This was a brutal crime, and the jury agreed that Dovers participated in the offense and should be held accountable for her actions.”
First Assistant Cynthia Walker and Assistant County and District Attorney Kayce Witt prosecuted the case, assisted by County and District Attorney Investigator Joe Aguillar and lead felony clerk Karen Hendricks.
The case was investigated by lead Investigator Sgt. Brian McIntosh of the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office.
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