Newsweek has everything you need to know. The Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre patch of land in League City, Texas situated a mile from Interstate Highway 45 and approximately 26 miles southeast of Houston. They were mainly the bodies of girls or young women. She vanished in 1983, and had last been seen going to use a payphone at a store, according to Texas Monthly. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The monkier is chilling enough, but once you delve into the Texas Killing Fields' murderous history, it's easy to fall down a true-crime rabbit hole. Law enforcement officials who have investigated the Texas Killing Fieldswhich are primarily abandoned oil fieldsknow this all too well, and are in a constant race against time and nature. He was sentenced to life without parole, spared the death penalty because the investigators believed he might have been involved with other unsolved murders in the Highway of Hell. In June 2022, he was extradited to Texas where he was found guilty of the murders of Smither, Cain, and Cox. He said they went to a motel and did some drugs. To say that he became a sort of guardian angel for locals would be an understatement. All four deaths had one thing in common, they were discovered alongside the interstate corridor connecting Houston and the beach town of Galveston, known as The Texas Killing Fields. All four deaths had one thing in common, they were discovered alongside the interstate corridor connecting Houston and the beach town of Galveston, known as The Texas Killing Fields. Only one perpetrator has been apprehended since early 1970s. The body of Laura Smithers had been left in the water and among harsh elements, rendering it unrecognizable but her identity was later confirmed with DNA. In 1972, convicted sex offender Michael Lloyd Self became a suspect in the murders of Rhona Johnson and Sharon Shaw. Both men were asked to indicate the whereabouts of Sikes' body in exchange for avoiding life sentences, but their directions failed to uncover it. 1-Texas Killing Fields. Additional bodies were found during a period when numerous cases of missing or murdered young women and girls were yet to be solved, dating back to the 1970s. Three days later, her body was found strangled, raped, and with her hair cut off in a field across from Dickinson High School. A man named Kevin Edison Smith was charged and sentenced to prison for murdering a 13-year-old girl named Krystal Jean Baker in 1990s. It would take decades to identify the final two victims, until a breakthrough came in January 2019. 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. If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. Shelley Sikes of Texas City disappeared in 1986 and was presumed dead after her vehicle was found abandoned in Galveston County off an Interstate 45 access road. Our Her severed remains were found near Addicks Reservoir in the same area as Colette Wilson. 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. The next victim was a 16-year-old named Laura Miller. As Schneier points out, one major element of a perfect killing field is a hot, damp climate, something that Texas has in spades. [43], 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. Favored by serial killers, gangsters and savvy locals, some are home to bodies numbering in the triple digits. And if you ran, there wouldn't necessarily be anywhere to go. There was also William Reece, who this year admitted he was responsible for the 1997 murders of Jessica Cain and Laura Smither. Miller's father is Tim Miller, who after her death founded Texas Equusearch, a search and rescue organization devoted to finding missing persons. In May 1997, he was arrested for the kidnapping and attempted murder of 19-year-old Sandra Sepo and received a 60-year sentence. He told police he carried out the rape and murder with the help of Gerald Peter Zwarst. Like many of the victims in the Texas Killing Fields, Baker was last seen alive when she was walking to a store to call a friend. Almost two decades later, in 2015, Reece's DNA was found to match 19-year-old Tiffany Johnson, who had been murdered in Oklahoma in 1997. [50] He once said he had murdered four to five women. For multiple decades on a desolate stretch of road in Texas, a nightmare unfolded. Its important for the public to know that we have not given up. Texas Killing Fields (also known as The Fields) is a 2011 American crime film directed by Ami Canaan Mann and starring Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain and Chlo Grace Moretz. . Authorities have never been able to identify the woman. Scene in 'Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields' on Netflix. [4], The film was distributed overseas by Entertainment Film Distributors, a British company. [8], Texas Killing Fields received mixed to negative reviews from critics. It competed in the 68th Venice International Film Festival.[2]. 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. Two years later, on Feb 3, 1986, children riding dirt bikes in Calder Field smelled an odor and located the body of an unidentified female, who was given the name Jane Doe. A year after Villareal-Fye's disappearance, 16-year-old Clear Creek High School student Laura Miller went missing. She had lived most of her life in Port Arthur, Texas, and was married with two sons. 26 memorials. The Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre patch of land in League City, Texas 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. HOUSTON - A Texas prisoner has admitted he killed one of the young women whose body was dumped in the so-called "Killing Fields" of League City. AG. The film was originally going to be directed by Danny Boyle before he left the project and was replaced by Ami Canaan Mann, daughter of director Michael Mann, who produced the film. The area was dubbed "The Killing Fields" and the cases were never solved. However, there have only been two convictions for murder, leaving countless homicides unsolved today. King and Zwarst were convicted of aggravated kidnapping, and received life imprisonment sentences in 1998. Nobody Sees Anything 51m Skeletons are found in a field an area where women have disappeared since the 1970s and a Texas community fears there's a serial killer at work. "[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). There has been little evidence to go on, and nothing to connect the four victims. RELATED:Is A Serial Killer Responsible For The Colonial Parkway Murders Or Are The Vicious Roadside Slayings Unconnected? One particular part of the highway, off Calder Road in League City, has gotten its own disturbing moniker: It's become known as the "Texas Killing Fields. In the movie, Morgans character prays over the bodies. In retaliation, Edward killed him and fled, but was subsequently apprehended by police. They were mainly the bodies of girls or young women. Then, on Sept. 10, 1984, she asked her mother to drive her to a payphone to call her boyfriend. These bodies joined the one other body that was found in the Calder field in 1983. document.write(theYear) He was sentenced to life in prison. 10. engagedbbw 18 days ago. Details related to these and other abductions and murders in the area which Goetschius has had experience with are further outlined in the CBS interview, a link for which is provided here. Texas Killing Fields (1,668) 5.7 1 h 44 min 2011 X-Ray R In the Texas bayous, a local homicide detective (Worthington) teams up with a cop from New York City (Morgan) to investigate a series of unsolved murders. Between December 2013 and January 2016, the two wrote more than three dozen letters back and forth. 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. In 2019, the League City Police Department was finally able to identify the two women found dead in Calder Field. She had been shot in the back, according to the Chronicle. Since the 1970s, over 30 young women and girls have disappeared or been found murdered in the 50-mile desolate area between Houston and Galveston - a stretch of land that some call a highway of. Fye's father spent the rest of his life searching for answers, ultimately dying before he could ever get one. Texas Hill Country. | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Return Policy. "I shouldn't have did (sic) what I did," Stallings said. William Lewis Reece is the only suspect to be convicted of more than one murder linked to the Texas Killing Fields. From 1971 until 2006, over 30 women were found dead along an area of Interstate 45 that runs for 50 miles between Houston and Galveston. The three-episode limited series titled Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields tells the story of the victims whose bodies were dumped (and later found) in a desolate oil field along a. Goetschius was integral to the investigation and became a guardian angel of sorts to Bakers mother in the process. day! Cars drive on the infamous Interstate-45, July 12, 1999 between Houston and Galveston, TX. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. When she's not busy watching the latest true crime docuseries, you can find her strolling through Sephora, thrifting the perfect dress, or jogging with her pup. Was The Colonial Parkway Killer Pretending To Be Law Enforcement? Unfortunately, the movie often seems to stray from such discipline. A match was confirmed, using advanced technology that was not available at the time of Krystal's disappearance. places to stay, tourism, events, lodging, and we feature Texas Hill Country info The fact that any of this occurred is unsettling, to say the least. She is known only by an artist's rendering as Janet Doe. Last seen near her apartment on Jacquelyn Street in Houston. Last seen walking near the Green Caye Subdivision on Halloween night. Last seen at a teen club with her friend, Lynette Bibbs, and a 22-year old companion. Then you may live next to one of Americas infamous killing fields. [12] On a more lenient note, James Mottram of GamesRadar wrote: "Mann Jr. shows plenty of promise in a film that doesnt tarnish the family name. Last seen leaving her job as a waitress at Gaido's beach-front restaurant in Galveston. Texas EquuSearch founder Tim Miller announces documentary Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields on Netflix. The majority of victims have been young girls and young women, aged between 12 and 25 years old. 'Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields' is the latest true-crime documentary to land on Netflix. But Grant said Stallings later recanted. She had an aptitude for music, but then she started having seizures, which impacted life as she knew it. In April of the next year, a dog dug up Villareal-Fye's bones in the rural oil field and carried her skull to its owner, The Washington Post says. Not knowing the identities of the victims was a major reason behind the stalled investigation that saw no evidence, links, or suspects. Do you have a story that I-Team should investigate? Bell lived on a property near the beach in Galveston, where he was a silent partner of a surf shop. ", There, four women were found murdered in the same rural field, posed in a similar way. [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.