Affidavit provides detailed timeline of what allegedly happened the night Zuzu Verk disappeared

The arrest affidavit for Robert Fabian, who was Verk's boyfriend, provides a police account of the chaotic hours and days that followed Verk's disappearance, specifically following the actions of Fabian and his friend, Chris Estrada. Click ahead for a timeline of the key events and points from the report. less The arrest affidavit for Robert Fabian, who was Verk's boyfriend, provides a police account of the chaotic hours and days that followed Verk's disappearance, specifically following the actions of Fabian and his ... more Photo: City Of Alpine, Brewster County Photo: City Of Alpine, Brewster County Image 1 of / 21 Caption Close Affidavit provides detailed timeline of what allegedly happened the night Zuzu Verk disappeared 1 / 21 Back to Gallery

In the months after a West Texas college student went missing, drivers heading into the small town of Alpine were met with a flashing traffic sign: "$200,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of Zuzu Verk."

Posters with images of Verk even reached as far as Marfa, 30 minutes west of Sul Ross State University, where the 22-year-old studied, and pleas to #FindZuzu online were the norm.

But nearly five months after Verk disappeared, when human remains were discovered outside of Alpine Feb. 3, 2017, the hope faded and the Sul Ross community began to cope with her loss.

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Video: Affidavit details why suspects in Zuzu's case were arrested

"Alpine is the last place you would expect this to happen," said Beau Marcott, a 19-year-old biology freshman at Sul Ross who didn't know Verk.

On Oct. 14, 2016, when news broke Verk had gone missing, Marcott, who graduated from Alamo Heights High School last spring, said rumors swirled on campus. Some speculated that she'd gone to El Paso for the weekend and failed to tell anyone. Others said she'd been kidnapped and taken to Mexico.

"This is so out of the ordinary," she said of the sleepy, quiet, retirement town where she attends a college the size of her high school in San Antonio.

RELATED: Human remains found in Alpine confirmed to be those of West Texas college student

When human remains were found in a shallow grave outside of Alpine at the beginning of February and arrests were made in the case, students and the Alpine community finally learned what police had discovered in the investigation.

Click through the slideshow above for a detailed timeline of what happened the night Verk was last seen alive, according to police.

The arrest affidavit for Robert Fabian, who was Verk's boyfriend, gives a police account of the chaotic days that followed Verk's disappearance on Oct. 11, specifically following the actions of Fabian and his friend, Chris Estrada.

On Oct. 14, when police finally searched Fabian's apartment, they did not find any sheets or pillow cases on his bed, according to the arrest record, and found only one of the plastic painter's drop cloths Fabian and Estrada purchased the night of Oct. 12.

The night of the 14th, when Verk's disappearance was made public, Fabian's friend quoted him as saying, "If I know a really big secret and two people know it, then the other has to be dead."

According to the affidavit, Fabian saw that his friend looked concerned over the statement so he told him he was joking.

As time passed with only few leads in the case, the feeling on the Sul Ross campus changed.

"After about a week, and two weeks, and it stretched on, we all started assuming the worst," Marcott said. "We started getting tenser and tenser."

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At the end of October, Alpine police named Fabian a suspect in Verk's disappearance. Reports from the time indicated that Fabian was not cooperating, but several witnesses came forward with pieces of the puzzle.

The initial panic surrounding Verk dissipated on campus in December — it was time for final exams at the university. But, Marcott said, it wasn't like people had forgotten about the 22-year-old. People just got busy.

"And that's just kind of how it was," Marcott said. "We didn't hear anything for so long, we all just figured she passed away."

And when the new semester started and border patrol found human remains Feb. 3 in a shallow grave near Alpine, later confirming them to be Verk's, things changed at Sul Ross.

"A lot of people got freaked out," Marcott said.

Fabian was arrested Feb. 4 and Estrada was arrested Feb. 6 in Arizona. Both were charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in concealing a human corpse.

RELATED: West Texas police arrest 25-year-old boyfriend in Zuzu Verk case

"I want forensics to do everything they can, I want them to be able to find every bit of evidence they can, because this was not a natural death," Lori Verk said.

Investigators confiscated digging tools and soil samples from the home of Fabian's sister, a person of interest in the case, the same day they took Fabian into custody. Authorities said Fabian's mother and brother are also persons of interest in Verk's disappearance.

A cause of death for Verk was still pending two weeks after the body was identified.

"It was closure. It was closure. I mean to know, just to know," Lori Verk, Zuzu's mother, told CBS7. "This is still going to go on for a long time, but just to know there's no more question."

Sul Ross students decorated their campus with ribbons in honor of Verk, who "everyone I've talked to about her said she was really sweet, she was lively," Marcott said. "She was really bubbly."

Verk was a couple years ahead of Marcott in the biology sequence.

"I'm still taking core classes," said Marcott, who just finished her first semester in college. "But I can't wait to get there."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5