{"id":877356,"date":"2026-06-19T03:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877356\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:35:15","slug":"man-claims-ownership-of-heights-home-where-lee-gilley-allegedly-murdered-wife-before-fleeing-to-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877356\/","title":{"rendered":"Man claims ownership of Heights home where Lee Gilley allegedly murdered wife before fleeing to Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 A surprising development involving the former home of Lee Gilley and his late wife, Christa Bauer, came to light Thursday during a Harris County family court hearing, as testimony revealed someone has taken possession of the property despite ongoing legal disputes connected to the high-profile case.<\/p>\n

Chris Bauer, Christa Bauer\u2019s father, testified that family members visited the Allston Street home Wednesday night and discovered it appeared to be occupied. <\/p>\n

Bauer told the court that when he visited the property on May 13, no one appeared to be living there. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/b>U.S. moves to extradite Harris County murder suspect who fled to Italy, authorities say<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

When he returned Wednesday, however, he found the blinds closed and no trespassing notices posted around the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was shocking,\u201d Bauer testified.<\/p>\n

According to information provided by the Houston Police Department, officers responded to a trespasser call at the home around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Police said a man accompanied by an attorney reported that the residence belonged to his daughter and was tied up in probate proceedings connected to an ongoing murder case. The man told officers he had learned from a neighbor that someone was occupying the property.<\/p>\n

Officers attempted to contact the person inside the residence and eventually spoke with him through a doorbell camera system, according to HPD. Police said the man refused to come outside, claiming the house belonged to him and stating he would \u201cgo to court to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if anyone was actually inside the residence.<\/p>\n

HPD said the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office was contacted but referred the matter to the constable\u2019s office because it was considered a civil dispute.<\/p>\n

No one answered the door when KPRC 2 News knocked and rang the doorbell on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Property records obtained by KPRC 2 News show two days after the DA\u2019s office executed a search warrant at the home in May, the property deed was transferred to a Matthew J. Jackson and Save A Life Homes LLC; however, there do not appear to be any Gilley or Bauer signatures on the document. <\/p>\n

KPRC 2 News has reached out to the company and will update this story if a response is received.<\/p>\n

The Bauers still own half of the home and said the property hasn\u2019t been sold and no one has been authorized to live there.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>\u2018She loved Italy\u2019: Houston murder victim\u2019s friends frustrated over husband Lee Gilley fleeing U.S. ahead of trial<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The revelation came during a rehearing before Judge Angela Lancelin, who was asked to reconsider previous orders involving the children of Lee Gilley.<\/p>\n

Gilley remains in Italy after authorities say he removed his ankle monitor and left the country using a fake name and travel documents while out on a $1 million bond. Attorneys confirmed this week that Italian authorities have received a formal U.S. extradition request seeking his return.<\/p>\n

Throughout Thursday\u2019s hearing, attorneys for Christa Bauer\u2019s family argued that developments following Gilley\u2019s escape justified additional court restrictions, including pausing their visits with Gilley\u2019s side of the family. <\/p>\n

Attorneys representing members of the Gilley family argued there was no evidence showing relatives who maintain contact with the children posed a safety threat or had participated in helping Lee Gilley flee.<\/p>\n

Judge Lancelin questioned whether any new evidence had been presented that would justify changing existing court orders.<\/p>\n

At one point, the judge emphasized that concerns and speculation were not enough to support modifying prior rulings without evidence directly connecting family members to wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

In her ruling, the judge noted that the court had not heard evidence showing Lee Gilley\u2019s brother, Matthew Gilley, had threatened the children\u2019s safety or acted in concert with anyone to remove them from their caregivers or from the United States.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: <\/b>Judge to hear testimony on whether children of accused killer Lee Gilley must return to Texas<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Lancelin also addressed arguments about where the children should live, stating that if the testimony and evidence supported significant safety concerns, the court likely would have followed through with a ruling to return them to Harris County.<\/p>\n

But Lancelin determined the children can keep living in South Carolina with Bauer\u2019s parents and continue having court-ordered visits with Lee Gilley\u2019s brother and sister-in-law, based on the testimony presented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no evidence to the court that showed Matt Gilley has done anything to threaten the safety of the children or act in concert with others to seek removal of the children,\u201d Lancelin said.<\/p>\n

The family law case also has a new gag order, which the parties received from Judge Lancelin on Thursday. KPRC 2 News is told the civil order is similar to the gag order in Lee Gilley\u2019s criminal case. <\/p>\n

The custody case remains ongoing as separate criminal proceedings continue against Lee Gilley, who is awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings in Italy.<\/p>\n

No date has been set for his capital murder trial in Harris County.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 A surprising development involving the former home of Lee Gilley and his late wife, Christa Bauer,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":877357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[341675,316,4345,303140,358,24016,3187],"class_list":["post-877356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-christa-bauer","tag-home","tag-houston","tag-lee-gilley","tag-texas","tag-the-heights","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116774681235635340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}