Woman who dated suspect in Ole Miss student Ally Kostial's murder: 'That could have been me'

Alex Lasker
Updated ·2 min read
Woman who dated suspect in Ole Miss student Ally Kostial's murder: 'That could have been me'

A woman who briefly dated the man suspected of killing University of Mississippi student Ally Kostial says she fears she would not be here if she continued seeing him.

Mary Ellen Manor told WMC she met Brandon Theesfeld, a 22-year-old Fort Worth native, on Tinder this year and went on two dates with him before she ended things with the alleged killer.

Manor, an education major at Ole Miss, told the outlet she found Theesfeld to be "odd," "very sketchy" and "shady," adding that he constantly made comments that made her feel uneasy.

"When I'd try to say, ‘No, I'm busy this weekend,’ he'd say, 'Oh I'm not crazy or anything, I was just seeing what you were doing,'" she recalled of her fellow student.

The college student said she was shocked Tuesday when she learned Theesfeld had been charged in the murder of another student he was allegedly linked to romantically.

“Honestly, I almost fell down my stairs in my house," she said. "It freaked me out. I was like, 'What if that could have been me?'"

"I'm relieved that I’m ok, but I can’t believe I hung out with a dude who could be charged with such a thing, and it just made me very wary," she added.

Photos from the case:

Theesfeld was arrested on Monday, two days after the remains of 21-year-old Kostial were found near Lake Sardis in Harmontown, Miss., about 20 miles from Ole Miss's campus in Oxford. Police say the suspect had blood on his clothing and a weapon in his trunk at the time he was located at a South Memphis gas station. He appeared before a judge Tuesday and was formally charged with murder.

Rex Ravita, an Ole Miss student who says he lived in the same dorm as Theesfeld, slammed the suspected killer as "arrogant" and "misogynistic" following news of the charges against him.

"I'm not going to sugar coat it, he was pretty much a daddy's boy type," University of Mississippi student Rex Ravita told KMOV Wednesday. "Constantly had to reference his father's money, how his dad could get him out of anything, just that attitude all the time. Any type of vulgar comment he could say, any type of rude comment to anybody in our dorm, any of the women."

Theesfeld’s father, Daniel Theesfeld, a prominent doctor in Fort Worth, has hired a high-profile legal team to defend his son, who he maintains is innocent.