The man arrested Saturday in the shooting death of a Valley Mills woman in Hill County is a Bay City, Texas, transient who had relocated to Central Texas in advance of Hurricane Ike.

Howard Lee Schafer, 37, was booked into the Hill County Jail and charged in the death of Kathy C. Todd, 60, who was found shot once in the back of the head at 457 County Road 4282, near Itasca, on Friday night.

Todd’s body was discovered at about 7:45 p.m. by Mike Smith, her ex-boyfriend who owns the property, and Diana Jo Lee, a female acquaintance, Hill County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyon said. Todd had gone there to collect some belongings from an outbuilding on the property.

Todd was pronounced dead at the scene by Itasca Justice of the Peace Tanya Seaman. Her body was taken to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

Tracks from the outbuilding led to a shed on County Road 4224 where Schafer had been living, unbeknownst to the property owner, who found him there as investigators were interviewing people in the area, Lyon said.

Sheriff’s deputies, with troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and game wardens from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, surrounded the building and arrested Schafer, who later confessed to the killing, Lyon said.

Smith’s home had been burglarized Thursday morning, Lyon said, and investigators believe Schafer shot Todd with a .270-caliber rifle stolen from Smith’s home.

Schafer previously had been convicted of burglarly and was wanted in connection with a Covington-area burglary a the time of the shooting, Lyon said. Several items taken from Smith’s home and Todd’s outbuilding were found in the shed Schafer was living in, Lyon said.

Schafer, who moved to Hill County from Matagorda County as Hurricane Ike struck the coast last year, had been working for farmers in the area, Lyon said.

Schafer is charged with murder, felony possession of a firearm, three counts of burglary of a habitation, two counts of burglary of a building and one count of burglary of a motor vehicle. His bonds total $1,010,000.

Schafer was charged with murder rather than capital murder because “the elements of the offense support the murder charge,” Lyon said.