Texas Killing Fields (location)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre patch of land situated a mile from Interstate Highway 45.

Since the early 1970s, 30 bodies of murder victims have been found within the Killing Fields area. They were mainly the bodies of girls or young women.[1] Furthermore, many young girls have disappeared from this area; the girls' bodies are still missing.

It is believed that many of the murders are the work of multiple serial killers. Most of the victims were aged 12–25 years. Some shared similar physical features, such as similar hairstyles.[2] Despite efforts by the League City, Texas police, along with the assistance of the FBI, very few of these murders have been solved, and those that have been solved were predicated on confessions given by prisoners, or confessions given under duress from the police.[citation needed]

The fields have been described as "a perfect place [for] killing somebody and getting away with it".[1] After visiting some of the sites of recovered bodies in League City, Ami Canaan Mann, director of the film Texas Killing Fields, commented: "You could actually see the refineries that are in the south end of League City. You could see the I-45. But if you yelled, no one would necessarily hear you. And if you ran, there wouldn't necessarily be anywhere to go."[3]

Victims[]

Victim Age Residence Last seen Discovered Comment
Brenda Jones 14 Galveston, Texas July 1, 1971 July 2, 1971 Last seen on her way to visit her aunt. Her body was found in Galveston Bay near Pelican Island the next day.
Colette Wilson 13 Alvin, Texas June 17, 1971 November 26, 1971 Disappeared on County Road 99 and Highway 6 after she was dropped off by her band director. Her body was found five months later near the Addicks Reservoir, near the body of Gloria Gonzales.
Rhonda Johnson 14 Webster, Texas August 4, 1971 January 3, 1972 Last seen walking with Sharon Shaw along Seawall Boulevard in Galveston. Her skeletal remains were found in a marsh near Clear Lake.
Sharon Shaw 13 Webster, Texas August 4, 1971 January 3, 1972 Last seen walking with Rhonda Johnson along Seawall Boulevard in Galveston. Her skull was found in Clear Lake, and the rest of her remains were recovered in a marsh nearby, alongside those of Rhonda Johnson.
Gloria Gonzales 19 Houston, Texas October 28, 1971 November 23, 1971 Last seen near her apartment on Jacquelyn Street in Houston. Her severed remains were found near Addicks Reservoir in the same area as Colette Wilson.
Alison Craven 12 Houston, Texas November 9, 1971 February 25, 1972 Her mother reported her missing after finding Alison had disappeared from their apartment near I-45. After finding partial remains early on, they recovered the rest of her body in a Pearland field 3 months later, 10 miles away from her home.
Debbie Ackerman 15 Galveston, Texas November 15, 1971 November 17, 1971 Last seen accepting a ride near an island ice cream shop with Maria Johnson. Her body was found bound and partially nude in Turner's Bayou along with her friend, Maria.
Maria Johnson 15 Galveston, Texas November 15, 1971 November 17, 1971 Last seen accepting a ride near an island ice cream shop with Debbie Ackerman. Her body was found bound and partially nude in Turner's Bayou along with her friend, Debbie.
Kimberly Pitchford 16 Houston, Texas January 3, 1973 January 5, 1973 Last seen at Dobie High School while she was there for a driving test. Her body was found in a ditch two days later.
Suzanne Bowers 12 Galveston, Texas May 21, 1977 March 25, 1979 Last seen walking between the 4000 block of Avenue S to the 3100 block of Avenue P at 10:45 a.m. Her skeletal remains were found two years later in Alta Loma, Texas.
Brooks Bracewell 12 Dickinson, Texas September 6, 1974 April 3, 1981 Last seen with Georgia Geer at the U-Totem convenience store off of FM 517 and I-45. Her remains were identified along with Georgia Geer's in an Alvin, Texas ditch.
Georgia Geer 14 Dickinson, Texas September 6, 1974 April 3, 1981 Last seen with Brooks Bracewell at the U-Totem convenience store off of FM 517 and I-45. In 1976, some of her remains were found by police, but due to neglect, weren't identified as hers until a new detective took over the case in '81 and re-examined the ditch where they were originally found.
Michelle Garvey 15 New London, Connecticut June 1982 July 1, 1982 Left her home in June 1982. possibly through her window. She is believed to have hitchhiked, but it is unclear how she ended up in Texas. Her body was found hours after her death and was identified in 2014 after a Websleuths user suggested the match.
Sondra Ramber 14 Santa Fe, Texas October 26, 1983 Last seen at her home in Santa Fe, Texas. She was determined to be missing due to the fact that the front door was left open, food was in the oven, and her purse and coat were still in the house. Her case is believed to be linked to the string of murders and disappearances in the area, but she is still yet to be found.
Heide Villarreal-Fye 23 League City, Texas October 10, 1983 April 4, 1984 Last seen at a convenience store located off of West Main Street and Hobbs in League City, Texas. Her remains were found in the 3000 block of Calder Road after a dog brought her skull to a nearby house.
Laura Miller 16 League City, Texas September 10, 1984 February 3, 1986 Last seen at the same convenience store Heide Villarreal-Fye was last seen at a year earlier, using a pay phone to call her boyfriend. Her remains were found 60 ft away from where police had found Heide Villarreal-Fye the year before. The murders of Laura and Heide and five other women and girls, including two unidentified female murder victims, gave infamy to Calder Road and the fields surrounding it.
Audrey Cook[4] 30 Galveston/Channelview, Texas [5] December 1985 February 2, 1986 Discovered in a field in the 3000 block of Calder Road alongside Laura Miller, coroners estimate the woman was 22 to 30 years old and 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-8, and that she died six weeks to six months prior to being found. The woman had a small caliber gunshot wound to the back.[6] She was identified in April 2019 along with Donna Prudhomme via genetic genealogy via Family Tree DNA.[7][8][9]
Shelley Sikes 19 Texas City, Texas May 24, 1986 Last seen leaving her job as a waitress at Gaido's beach-front restaurant in Galveston. Her car was found the next day, stuck in mud, blood-stained, and abandoned on the side of an I-45 access road, south of the Galveston causeway. Her family believes police found a white blouse that belonged to her after one of her convicted kidnappers, Gerald Peter Zwarst, drew them a map of where to find her body, but she still has never been found.
Suzanne Rene Richerson[10] 22 Galveston, Texas October 7, 1988 Last seen at her job as a night clerk at the Casa Del Mar Condominiums at approximately 6 a.m.[11] Other than witnesses hearing a woman screaming, and a lone shoe found in the parking lot, she has never been seen or heard from again.[12][13]
Donna Prudhomme[4] 34 Nassau Bay, Texas[5] ca. 1991 September 8, 1991 Discovered in a field in the 3000 block of Calder Road. Coroners estimate that that female victim was 24 to 34 years old, 5 feet to 5-foot-3 and weighed 100 to 130 pounds. She died six weeks to several months prior to being found.[14][6]
Lynette Bibbs[10] 14 Houston, Texas February 1, 1996 February 3, 1996 Last seen at a teen club with her friend, Tamara Fisher,[15] and a 22-year-old male companion who claims to have dropped them off at a motel on Old Spanish Trail in Houston. Her body was found by Tamara's off the side of a dirt road near Cleveland, Texas.[10]
Tamara Fisher[10] 15 Houston, Texas February 1, 1996 February 3, 1996 Last seen at a teen club with her friend, Lynette Bibbs, and a 22-year old companion. Her body was found two days later, near Lynette's off the side of a dirt road near Cleveland, Texas.[16] They had both been shot to death, but police suspect by different people.[citation needed]
Krystal Baker[17] 13 Texas City, Texas March 5, 1996 March 5, 1996 After leaving her grandmother's house during a fight they were having, Krystal was last seen using a phone at a local convenience store to apologize and ask family to come and get her.[18] Two hours later, her body was found. She had been raped, strangled, and dumped over the I-10 Trinity River bridge.[19] Kevin Edison Smith, 45, was convicted of capital murder in her death in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison.[20] In 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law the Krystal Jean Baker Act, which permits the collection of DNA from individuals arrested for certain felonies, prior to conviction.[21][22]
Laura Smither[23] 12 Friendswood, Texas April 3, 1997 April 20, 1997 After telling her mother she was going on a 20-minute jog, Laura was last seen running down the same street that her home sat on. Seventeen days later, her body was found in a retention pond in Pasadena, Texas.[24] In 1998, her parents established the Laura Recovery Center, a non-profit organization that aids the search for and recovery of kidnapping victims.[23] William Lewis Reece was indicted with the murders of Laura Smither and Jessica Cain in 2016.[25][26]
Jessica Cain[27] 17 La Marque, Texas August 17, 1997 March 18, 2016 Last seen at the Bennigan's restaurant near Baybrook Mall in Clear Lake, dining with friends at around 1:30 a.m. She was reported missing when her father found truck abandoned along I-45 South.[28] Nineteen years later, Jessica's remains were finally found in a field off of East Orem Road, next to Hobby Airport. Suspected serial killer, William Lewis Reece,[29][30] directed investigators to search the area where her remains were found.[31] In 2016, Reece was indicted with the murders of Jessica Cain and Laura Smither.[25][32]
Tot Harriman[33] 57 League City, Texas July 12, 2001 After mapping a route between League City and Corpus Christi, Texas on a mission to search for a new home, Tot was last seen driving her 1995 Lincoln Continental along Highway 35. Neither she, nor her car, have been found.[34][35]
Sarah Trusty[36] 23 Algoa, Texas July 12, 2002 July 27, 2002 After leaving her Algoa, Texas home during the evening hours of the day, she was last seen riding her bike near the Algoa Baptist Church. The next day, her bike was found in the foyer of the church. Fourteen days later, her body was found in the Texas City Dike by fishermen.[37]
Terressa (or Teressa)[38] Vanegas 16 Dickinson, Texas October 31, 2006 November 3, 2006 Last seen walking near the Green Caye Subdivision on Halloween night. Three days later, her body was found strangled, raped, and with her hair cut off in a field across from Dickinson High School.[39][40]

Suspects[]

Michael Lloyd Self[]

Main article: Murders of Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw § Michael Lloyd Self

In 1972, a gas station operator and convicted sex offender from Galveston, Michael Lloyd Self, became a suspect in the murders of Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw. After hours of interrogation, Self confessed to the murders. He was taken to the district prison, later aiding with locating the bodies. In the following months, he retracted his confession, claiming that he had been tortured into confessing, with the interrogators suffocating with a plastic bag, burning him with cigarette butts and a radiator, as well as being assaulted by the police chief, Don Morris. Nevertheless, on September 18, 1974, Self was convicted of killing Shaw and received a life imprisonment term, despite the fact that his confessions showed great discrepancies concerning the victims' clothing, the date of the murders, the locations of the bodies, how they were killed, and various other details.[41]

Three years later, in 1976, Don Morris and his deputy, Tommy Deal, were arrested and convicted of various crimes, including torture and other misconduct against detainees. Morris was sentenced to 55 years, while Deal to 30. After this, Self regularly applied for an appeal, but was rejected every time.[42]

Michael Self died on December 21, 2000, still in custody. It was only after his death that a number of police officials, including the former Harris County District Attorney, stated their belief that Self was wrongly convicted.[43]

Edward Harold Bell[]

An investigation by the League City police and the FBI in the 1970s identified another local resident, Edward Harold Bell, a known exhibitionist, as a suspect. He had been arrested at least 12 times on charges of showing his genitals to children, but each time avoided imprisonment. Bell lived on the beach in Galveston and owned a surf shop. He even knew two of the victims, Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, who frequented his store. In the mid-1970s, he acquired a plot of land in Dickinson and lived near the place where two more victims, Brooks Bracewell and Georgia Geer, were last seen alive. In 1978, Bell, while masturbating on the street in front of a group of teenage girls, was confronted by 26-year-old former marine Larry Dickens, while his mother called the police. Dickens removed the keys from Bell's vehicle and refused to return them. In retaliation, Edward killed him. Bell fled and was subsequently apprehended by police. He posted bail several weeks later. In order to avoid conviction and further incarceration, he fled Texas and escaped from the United States, evading police for more than two decades. In 1994, he was arrested in Panama and extradited back to the United States, where he was subsequently convicted of Dickens' murder and received a 70-year sentence. In 1998, Bell wrote several letters to the Harris County Attorney, confessing to the murders of five girls in 1971 and six more between 1974 and 1977. He stated that he did not remember the names of most of his victims, but confidently stated that he had killed Debbie Ackerman, Maria Johnson, Colette Wilson and Kimberly Pitchford, as well as two other then-unnamed girls whom he had abducted from Webster in August 1971, later identified as Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw.[44]

Despite this, Bell was never charged with these murders, since no evidence, biological or otherwise, incriminated him. He remained a prime suspect until his death in April 2019.[45][46]

William Lewis Reece[]

In May 1997, William Lewis Reece was arrested for the kidnapping and attempted murder of 19-year-old Sandra Sepo from Webster. The following year, he was found guilty and convicted, receiving a 60-year imprisonment term. In 2015, his DNA was matched to the killer of 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston, who was found murdered in Oklahoma in 1997. After this revelation, Reece confessed to killing Jessica Cain and Kelli Cox, leading the investigators to the bodies' burial sites. He is additionally suspected of kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Laura Smither, but in this case, Reece insisted on his innocence.[47][48][49]

In 2021, Reece was convicted of Johnston's murder and sentenced to death. He remains to be put on trial for the Texas murders, with prosecutors confirming that they will also seek the death penalty against him.[50]

Mark Stallings[]

In 2013, Mark Roland Stallings, a convicted kidnapper serving a life term, confessed to killing a girl in 1991 and later dumping her body in the fields, later identified as Donna Prudhomme. At the time of the murder, Stallings was living and working in League City, and was near the homes of some of the girls who went missing and were later found dead. Despite the fact that his testimony shows great consistency with details, he hasn't been charged with any murders yet, but remains a suspect in the murders of Donna Prudhomme and Audrey Cook, as well as two unrelated murders in Fort Bend County.[51][52]

Convictions[]

Krystal Jean Baker case[]

In April 2012, 16 years after Krystal Jean Baker's beaten, raped and strangled body was found, Kevin Edison Smith was arrested and convicted of murdering her. In 2009, Smith had been arrested on a drug charge in Louisiana. At about the same time, a detective tested Baker's dress for DNA. A match was confirmed, using advanced technology that was not available at the time of Krystal's disappearance.[53] A jury deliberated for about 30 minutes and found Smith guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison.[54]

Shelley Sikes case[]

In 1987, 30-year-old John Robert King phoned the El Paso police, claiming that on May 24, 1986, he, together with 33-year-old Gerald Peter Zwarst, attacked Shelley Sikes while she was in her car, after which the girl was raped and strangled. After his arrest, Zwarst told the police that he had hidden the body in one of the fields, where the other bodies were found. Both men were asked to indicate the whereabouts of Sikes' body in exchange for dodging the life sentence, but their directions failed to uncover it. King and Zwarst were convicted of aggravated kidnapping, and received life imprisonment sentences in 1998. They were also probed for other such crimes committed during the mid-1980s, but both vehemently denied any involvement. King died from natural causes behind bars in October 2015,[55] while Zwarst remains incarcerated, his most recent parole bid (in 2017) being rejected.[56]

Film adaptation[]

A film adaptation of the deadly events that occurred along the I-45 highway was released on September 9, 2011, with the title Texas Killing Fields.

It was directed by Ami Canaan Mann and starred Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The film is loosely based on the murders while depicting a fictional portrayal of the struggle that local police faced while attempting to solve the murders. The film focuses on the lead police detectives, Capt. Brian Goetschius and Mike Land, who dedicated their careers to solving the mysteries of I-45. The filmmakers hired officers Goetschius and Land as consultants while making the movie.[57]

Screenwriter and Federal Agent Donald Ferrarone said he drew information from an interview with a kidnapping victim, and the family of one of the murder victims.[58][59]

Janet Miller, mother of victim Laura Miller, said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News that she was angry at first about the film, stating "I was upset because no one notified me. The parents should know what's going on." Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller, said he saw the film for what the filmmakers intended — to raise awareness about the crimes and to generate new tips.[citation needed]

In an interview with CBS News for 48 Hours, actor Sam Worthington said, "People — you never know — might just go and see the movie and go, 'Oh, I remember when someone went down in the fields, and I remember a certain car and a certain person seemed a bit dodgy.' Maybe a family can then know what happened to their daughter."[53]

See also[]

General:

References[]

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