Texas Killing Fields
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2020) |
The Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre patch of land in League City, Texas[1] situated a mile from Interstate Highway 45 and approximately 26 miles southeast of Houston. Since the early 1970s, 33 bodies of murder victims have been found along the I-45 area. They were mainly the bodies of girls or young women.[2] Furthermore, many additional young girls have disappeared from this area; these 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.[3] However, 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".[2] 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."[4] Also, despite the fact that many popular true crime podcasts have grouped the murders of Dean and Tina Clouse with these victims, Dean and Tina Clouse were actually found in Houston off Interstate 10 in the 13,000 block of Wallisville Road, not League City (the location of the Texas Killing Fields).[5]
Victims
Victim | Age | Residence | Last seen | Discovered | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
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. |
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. |
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 the body of 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 the body of 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. |
Brooks Bracewell | 12 | Dickinson, Texas | September 6, 1974 | April 3, 1981 | Last seen with her friend 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. |
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. |
Michelle Garvey | 15 | New London, Connecticut | June 1, 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 2, 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[6] | 30 | Galveston/Channelview, Texas [7] | 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.[8] She was identified in April 2019 along with Donna Prudhomme via genetic genealogy via Family Tree DNA.[9][10][11] |
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. Police found a white blouse that her family believes belonged to Shelly after one of her convicted kidnappers, Gerald Peter Zwarst, drew investigators a map of where to find her body, but no remains have ever been found. | |
Suzanne Rene Richerson[12] | 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.[13] 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.[14][15] | |
Donna Prudhomme[6] | 34 | Nassau Bay, Texas[7] | July 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.[8][16] |
Lynette Bibbs[12] | 14 | Houston, Texas | February 1, 1996 | February 3, 1996 | Last seen at a teen club with her friend, Tamara Fisher,[17] 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.[12] |
Tamara Fisher[12] | 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.[18] They had both been shot to death, but police suspect by different people.[citation needed] |
Krystal Baker[19] | 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 ask her friend if she could stay with her.[20] Two hours later, her body was found. She had been raped, strangled, and dumped over the I-10 Trinity River bridge.[21] Kevin Edison Smith, 45, was convicted of capital murder in her death in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison.[22] 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.[23][24] |
Laura Smither[25] | 12 | Friendswood, Texas | April 3, 1997 | April 20, 1997 | After telling her mother she was going on a 20-minute run, Laura was last seen jogging down her home street. Seventeen days later, her body was found in a retention pond in Pasadena, Texas.[26] In 1998, her parents established the Laura Recovery Center, a non-profit organization that aids the search for and recovery of kidnapping victims.[25] William Lewis Reece was convicted of the murders of Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain in June 2022.[27] |
Kelli Ann Cox[27] | 20 | Farmers Branch, Texas | July 15, 1997 | March 18, 2016 | Last seen at a Connoco gas station and convenience store in Denton, after locking herself out of her car and making a call to her boyfriend for help using the station's outdoor payphone. Over eighteen years later, Kelli's remains were discovered after suspected serial killer William Lewis Reece directed investigators to search an area in Brazoria County, Texas, where her remains were found. Reece confessed to and was convicted of the murders of Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain in June 2022.[27] |
Jessica Lee Cain[28] | 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.[29] Over eighteen 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,[30][31] directed investigators to search the area where her remains were found.[32] William Lewis Reece was convicted of the murders of Smither, Cox and Cain in June 2022.[27] |
Tot Harriman[33] | 57 | League City, Texas | July 12, 2001 | After mapping a route between League City and Corpus Christi, Texas, 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
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 a property near the beach in Galveston, where he was a silent partner of a surf shop. He even knew two of the victims, Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, who frequented the 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, he 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 and fled, but was subsequently apprehended by police. He posted bail several weeks later and 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 1993, 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]
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.[47][48]
Clyde Hedrick
Clyde Hedrick was named as a suspect in the 2022 documentary series Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields.[49] Hedrick was released from jail in 2021 after serving eight years for the murder of Ellen Beason in 1984. [50] He once said he had murdered four to five women.[51]
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.[52] A jury deliberated for about 30 minutes and found Smith guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison.[53]
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 avoiding life sentences, 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,[54] while Zwarst died in prison in November of 2020. [55]
William Lewis Reece
In May 1997, William Lewis Reece was arrested for the kidnapping and attempted murder of 19-year-old Sandra Sapaugh 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 Lee Cain and Kelli Ann Cox, leading the investigators to the bodies' burial sites.[56][57][58] He had been suspected of kidnapping and killing Laura Smither and confessed to Friendswood Police, in 2016, that he murdered her.[59]
In 2021, Reece was convicted of Johnston's murder and sentenced to death. The following year, he was extradited to Texas and was convicted of the murders of Smither, Cain and Cox, receiving a life term after pleading guilty to each of the three murders.[27]
Media adaptations
Texas Killing Fields (2011)
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.[60]
Screenwriter and Federal Agent Donald Ferrarone said he drew information from an interview with a kidnapping victim, Michelle Ann E. and the family of one of the murder victims.[61][62]
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."[52]
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields (2022)
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, a three-part miniseries about the Texas Killing Fields, was released on Netflix in November 2022. The series was directed by Jessica Dimmock.[63]
See also
- Gwynns Falls Leakin Park – notorious body dumping ground in Baltimore, Maryland
General:
References
- ^ "The Killing Fields: Decades Later, Investigators Still Searching for Answers in Murders of Four Women". fbi.gov. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
- ^ a b "The real-life mystery of Texas' killing fields". CBSNews.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
- ^ "'The Killing Fields': Disappearance of Texas girl still haunts 48 Hours reporter". CBSNews.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2013.
- ^ "Extra: Texas Killing Fields director on real-life cases" (streaming video). 48 Hours – via CBSNews.com.
- ^ "True crime podcast 'What About Holly?' reveals stunning new details in 41-year-old cold case - WFIN Local News". wfin.com. November 5, 2022. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
- ^ a b "Authorities reveal identities of 2 'Killing Fields' victims". Click2Houston. April 15, 2019. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
- ^ a b Powell, Nick (April 15, 2019). "Names, real-life photos of 2 'Killing Fields' victims released". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
- ^ a b Powell, Nick (December 12, 2018). "Can DNA provide answers in deaths of 2 women in 'Texas Killings Fields'?". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- ^ "FamilyTreeDNA Helps Identify Two Victims from the 'Texas Killing Fields'". PRNewswire. April 11, 2019. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- ^ "Houston-based DNA company helps identify 'Killing Fields' victims". KHOU 11. April 11, 2019. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- ^ Staff, WMCActionNews5 com. "Texas 'Killing Fields' victim from Memphis, police say". www.wmcactionnews5.com. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d Sutton, Candace (April 18, 2018). "The Texas killing fields and the highway of death". News.com.au. Australia. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 22, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)url-status=live language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=22 April 2016 - ^ "Suzanne Rene Richerson". The Charley Project. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "The Doe Network: Case File 118DFTX". The Doe Network. Archived from the original on September 29, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBSNews. Archived from the original on May 23, 2017.
{{cite web}}
:|archive-date=
/|archive-url=
timestamp mismatch; October 25, 2011 suggested (help) - ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBS News. Archived from the original on July 16, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 24, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Man convicted in 'Killing Fields' murder of Texas City teen". KHOU 11. Houston. April 26, 2012. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Turner, Allan (September 24, 2010). "DNA linking man to teen's '96 death gives her family answers". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Krystal Baker murder case featured on TV series Tuesday night". KHOU 11. Houston. April 16, 2013. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
{{cite news}}
:|archive-date=
/|archive-url=
timestamp mismatch; December 28, 2020 suggested (help) - ^ Horswell, Cindy (April 26, 2012). "Man convicted in Texas City girl's 1996 slaying". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Bill: HB 1399". Texas Legislature Online. June 14, 2019. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Krystal Jean Baker Act Aids Law Enforcement in More Quickly Connecting Missing Links in Unsolved Cases" (Press release). Texas Department of Public Safety. January 30, 2020. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ a b Hanson, Chris. "The disappearance of 12-year-old Friendswood girl Laura Smither". ABC 13 Houston. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Moriarty, Erin (July 6, 2012). "The killing fields: Disappearance of Texas girl still haunts reporter". CBS News. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Cathy Hernandez (June 29, 2022). "William Lewis Reece sentenced to life in prison for murders of Laura Smither, Jessica Cain and Kelli Ann Cox". KPRC-TV. Archived from the original on June 30, 2022.
- ^ "Remembering Jessica Cain, 20 years after her disappearance". ABC13 Houston. August 17, 2017. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Koop, Chacour (July 13, 2016). "Parents of slain girl face Reece in courtroom". The Daily News. Galveston County. Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Fischer, Courtney (February 26, 2016). "Man seen at Jessica Cain body search site linked to young girls' disappearances". ABC13 Houston. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Body found in SE Houston field confirmed to be Jessica Cain". ABC13 Houston. May 20, 2016. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Rhor, Monica (April 15, 2016). "Remains confirmed to be those of Jessica Cain, who vanished in 1997". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBS News. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Tot Tran Harriman". The Charley Project. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Rendon, Ruth (August 15, 2011). "Family awaiting news about missing woman". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on April 4, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Missing Adult Sarah Trusty Algoa, TX" (PDF). Texas EquuSearch. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBS News. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "Can you help solve these cases?". CBS News. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ Glover, Chauncy (October 31, 2018). "Dickinson family hoping for break in Halloween cold case murder". ABC13. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "October 31, 2006 Murder". dickinsontexas.gov. Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
- ^ "SELF v. STATE (No. 48622)". State of Texas. Leagle. September 18, 1974. Archived from the original on November 29, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
- ^ "SELF v. STATE (No. 386343)". September 22, 1992. Archived from the original on November 29, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ The Associated Press (September 29, 2011). "Elderly Inmate Claims to Have Committed Nearly a Dozen Murders". Fox News. Archived from the original on November 29, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
- ^ Lise Olsen (November 13, 2017). "Confessions of a cold-blooded killer". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ Lise Olsen (April 20, 2019). "Texas killer's death leaves unanswered questions in girls' slayings". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 31, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ [1]Archived January 27, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Police: No corroboration for killing confession – The Galveston County Daily News : News
- ^ Jeremy Rogalski (February 16, 2016). "Confessed killer details murder of Texas Killing Fields victim". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ Nick Powell (April 11, 2019). "League City police determine identities of 2 women found in 'Texas Killing Fields'". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ Mitchell, Molli (November 29, 2022). "'Texas Killing Fields': What Happened to Laura Miller and Was Her Killer Found?". Newsweek. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ Lopardi, Michael (October 5, 2021). "Clyde Hedrick: Man convicted in decades-old murder case in Galveston County released from prison". Click2Houston.com. Graham Media Group. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ "Galveston Co. man released from prison for 1984 killing due to old mandatory release law". ABC 13 Eyewitness News. KTRK-TV Houston. October 7, 2021. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ a b "The Killing Fields – 48 Hours – CBS News". CBS News.
- ^ "Man convicted in Texas City girl's 1996 slaying". Houston Chronicle. April 27, 2012. Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
- ^ T.J. Aulds. "Man convicted in one of 'I-45 Killings' cases dies in prison". The Police News. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
- ^ Dana Burke (October 3, 2017). "Kidnapper convicted in Texas City teen's 1986 disappearance denied parole again". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
- ^ Juozapavicius, Justin; Warren, David (August 5, 2017). "Experts: William Reece fits 'serial killer' profile". ABC13 Houston. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
- ^ Robert Arnold (June 16, 2016). "Cases against accused killer William Reece at a standstill". KPRC-TV. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ Pat LaLama (May 17, 2016). "Convicted kidnapper reveals location of Kelli Ann Cox's remains". Crime Watch Daily. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
- ^ "William Reece Sentenced". ABC-13. August 20, 2021.
- ^ Horswell, Cindy (October 20, 2011). "Detectives hope 'Killing Fields' film help solve 60 murders". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 21, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ Horswell, Cindy (February 28, 2010). "Victims' kin skeptical on film on Galveston Co. killings". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ "'Killing Fields' movie based on slain, missing Texas girls". Dallas News. October 21, 2011. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ Keller, Joel. "'Crime Scene: Texas Killing Fields' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?". Decider. Retrieved November 30, 2022.