A man who police believe sold drugs to a Southern Methodist University student who died from a likely overdose is a convicted murderer also believed to have run an underground poker room.

The body of Meaghan Bosch, 21, was found in a portable toilet at a construction site in Hewitt, near Waco, on Monday.

James McDaniel

Authorities are now seeking James McDaniel, 46, after he disappeared Thursday, the day police served search warrants at two of his Dallas residences.

Mr. McDaniel is not a suspect in Ms. Bosch's death. He is on parole after spending two decades in prison for murdering a former police officer.

Details about the case were not available, but he was released on parole in 2001, prison officials said Friday.

Police said the ex-con hosted poker games out of a rented duplex near SMU, and authorities are investigating whether he may have sold drugs to Ms. Bosch and others.

Police also have obtained a warrant accusing Mr. McDaniel of aggravated sexual assault, and state prison officials have issued their own warrant seeking to revoke his parole.

No further details were available on the sexual-assault allegation, although police said Ms. Bosch is not the victim in that case.

In a Thursday night search, investigators with the Texas Rangers, as well as Hewitt and Dallas police, found two rifles and two shotguns at Mr. McDaniel's Pleasant Grove house in the 4800 block of Derby Lane, which he shares with his wife.

Across town, they also found poker tables at the property he was renting in the 5400 block of Winton Street, which is across Central Expressway a short distance from SMU property.

Ms. Bosch, a McKinney High School graduate, was found dead Monday after she was reported missing from her off-campus apartment Friday.

Before her body was discovered, Mr. McDaniel told missing-persons detectives that he had lunch with Ms. Bosch a day before she was reported missing. Ms. Bosch had text-messaged friends that she was with a drug dealer, believed to be Mr. McDaniel, as late as Saturday.

Police are investigating whether he was with her when she died some time over the weekend.

Ms. Bosch's body bore no obvious signs of trauma, and police believe she may have overdosed and was placed in the portable toilet, then covered with a blanket.

The Dallas County medical examiner's office has not determined how she died, and until they know for sure, investigators are treating her death as suspicious.

Mr. McDaniel hasn't been heard from since Thursday evening.

Rebecca Lopez of WFAA-TV contributed to this report.