Murder Under the Friday Night Lights: What happened to Paul Audrey Adams?

The nursing student from Orange County, Texas, Paul Audrey Adams, had been going out with an underage cheerleader, Tristan Dilley, who was found dead with two gunshot wounds to her head on October 1, 2017. Paul and Tristan had kept their relationship a secret from the latter's parents.

Trigger Warning: This article contains references to self-harm. Readers' discretion is advised.

During an investigation into the case, the police located Paul Audrey Adams' Vidor home but he was not present there. Officials then learned that he was at a secluded camping ground in the woods, where he took his life after being cornered by law enforcement, as per People.

The recent Murder Under the Friday Night Lights episode titled A Homecoming Murder shed light on the 2017 case on January 24, 2024. The synopsis read:

"The family of a high school cheerleader finds her murdered in her room the night after the homecoming dance; detectives surmise that she knew her killer, and because so many people are back in town for the big football game, everybody is a suspect."

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Paul Audrey Adams reportedly shot himself with a .22 caliber Magnum revolver

Paul Audrey Adams, a 19-year-old nursing student at Lamar State College, was in a relationship with a 14-year-old cheerleader from Silsbee High School, Tristan Dilley. He visited Dilley's Buna County Road 784 home before she was found murdered with two gunshot wounds to her head on Sunday, October 1, 2017.

Paul and Tristen allegedly met through an older relative, who advised the former to leave Dilley alone as she was too young for him, as per Beaumont Enterprise. Dilley introduced her boyfriend to her parents as a 16-year-old high school basketball player named Adam and the two scheduled their meetings over Facebook and call.

Jasper County, Texas, Sheriff’s Lt. Ryan Cunningham spoke to People saying:

“Both kids were deceiving the parents. He [Adams] knew he was too old to be seeing the child.”

On October 1, 2017, Tristen returned home after spending the night at a friend's house after a school dance. After her parents left to go shopping, she invited Paul Audrey Adams to her home. She was later discovered face-down on her bed by her 13-year-old brother with gunshot wounds to her head.

There were no signs of forced entry in her second-floor bedroom and neither were there any signs of struggle, prompting the officers from Jasper County Sheriff's Office to believe that Adams was a suspect in the case.

The deputies searched for him on Sunday night but were unable to locate him. However, Tristan Dilley's cellphone records placed him at a Lois Lane home in Vidor.

The following day, Texas Rangers visited his home and spoke to Adams' mother. She claimed that there was a break-in at Tristan's home, after which she was allegedly shot by the intruder. During the interrogation, Paul Audrey Adams called his mother and the Rangers tried to convince him to give a statement. He refused and hung up the phone.

The Jasper County, Texas, Sheriff's Lieutenant Ryan Cunningham shared:

"He gave a description of an older white male with a beard. He said he hid in the shower and he could hear Tristan screaming, ‘Get off of me.' He said he heard two gunshots and heard the man running out of the house. He waited a couple of minutes and then found Tristan dead and he didn’t know what else to do, so he ran."

The suspect was soon tracked to a camping site on a secluded stretch of FM 1135 in Orange County at around 11:30 am local time on Monday, October 2, 2017. He had set up a tent and parked his Toyota Corolla by the road, as per Beaumont Enterprise. As two deputies approached him, Paul Audrey Adams reportedly shot himself with a .22 caliber Magnum revolver and took his life.

Preliminary evidence proved that the same weapon was used to kill 14-year-old Tristan Dilley.