To keep creating Copyright 2020 KLTV. Though he wasnt a regular churchgoer, Simons felt Gods hand in his work, and he often quoted from the Book of Matthew: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.. By then Schonemann had lost his most important cohort: Owen had received a job offer in Kentucky and left the TRC. The next day he spoke with Jills mother, Nancy Shaw, and her aunt, Jan Thompson, and revealed a theory that was beginning to take shape in his mind. Suzanne and two former classmates from Hawkins High School vanished May 4, 1986 during a Sunday evening drive around Lake Hawkins. Frye had been reported missing on Oct. 10, 1983, when she was 25 years old. McFadden was granted parole in 1985 after serving less than five years of a 15-year sentence for aggravated sexual abuse of a young secretary. Then, within a week, the DAs office asked for all the police files on White. Barber assisted in the search area after the victims were reported missing. VILLARREAL, Clifton Lamar If you come across them, do not attempt to apprehend them yourself. Dannen rented an expensive high-speed scanner and began uploading pages and pages of court transcripts, case briefs, and medical reports onto his computer. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. She smiled and said, That would turn anybodys head around, and let me go with a warning.. In his closing statement Feazell reminded jurors of the substantial testimony against Spence, the pain of the victims families, and the torture the teenagers had endured. On May 4, 1986, McFadden kidnapped Bryan Boone, 19, Gena. But her sister didnt answer when Rose Ann opened the door and called her name on that night, July 24, 1979. The jailer managed to escape unhurt from a railroad boxcar. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. The trial began on June 18, 1984. It was surprising when we got the initial results, Moore told reporters on Thursday. Hawkins could be described as a largely blue-collar town built on the sweat and sore muscles of the oil industry. They had come to distrust the sergeant for his tendency to build cases on his own; in a vocation that valued teamwork, being a loner didnt win him any friends. "She was very excited. (Simons would later say that it was Price who believed the wounds on Whites body were bite marks and that they agreed to get the mold after looking at autopsy photos together; Price insists that the mold already existed when she and Simons joined forces.). Yet by 2008, he was no closer to proving Melendezs innocence. Guys getting their faces shot off. Reaves, who had also represented Joe Sidney Williams, suggested that Dannen take a look at the Juanita White case. I hope that Mr. Spence is still alive when I do so. He then called the chairman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, though by the end of the conversation, he was convinced that Spence had no chance of a reprieve. Larry Pack; Company Overview. Cold Cases, Missing and Unsolved Crimes. 0 cemeteries found in Yoakum, DeWitt County, Texas, USA. GONZALES, Cornelius Alan Two years later, hed win a Texas Peace Officer of the Year award. McLemore sent out copies of the TRCs brief to journalists, trying to get attention for Spence; he also made a case for the inmates innocence in the March 1997 issue of Pardos monthly political newsletter, Capitol Watch. League City Police detectives "worked diligently" since the bodies were discovered to identify Jane Doe and Janet Doe, Ratliff said. Yet there was one nagging question: How to explain the many people whod heard him say he was the murderer? (When Deebs lawyer asked him if the store owner was still a suspect, Simons retorted, You bet your ass hes still a suspect.) He called the sheriffs office and asked if there were any openings as a jailer. Manuel Simons knew Waco well. When the medical examiners tests did not return any DNA profiles, Dannen arranged for the evidence to be sent to Forensic Science Associates (FSA), a California lab run by Ed Blake, one of the countrys pioneering DNA scientists. Deebs trial, which began on February 25, lasted twelve days and featured forty witnesses, many of whom had testified against Spence, including one jailhouse informant. (Franks was never accused of any wrongdoing.) The first DNA exoneration in the country, in 1989, had come about when the DNA of a Chicago man convicted of rape was shown not to match that of the semen found on his alleged victims underwear; since then, this exclusionary approach had led to the exoneration of dozens of others. At the time of his death, Bryan lived at the lake with his uncle, which was a positive for Suzanne and Gena, who were always on the lookout for an excuse to head to its sparkling shores. But the case went nowhere. You have permission to edit this article. They had found Raylene and Jill. I argued with his lawyer, she told me. Local schools suspended classes for the day, allowing students who wanted to attend the funerals to do so. The states case was based on the theory that Deeb had hired Spence and the Melendez brothers to kill Kelley for insurance money, but that Spence and the brothers had mistakenly killed Jill because she looked so much like Kelley. In fact, she told Dannen, though she had felt immeasurable gratitude to Simons and was convinced Spence was a low-life, she had harbored doubts about the case from the beginning. In addition, Owen hired a former president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, Thomas Krauss, to review Homer Campbells conclusions; Krauss pronounced Campbells methodology well outside the mainstream. The lawyers then found that in August 1984, just two months after Campbell had testified against Spence, he made a mistake that called his expertise into question: he positively identified the remains of a woman alongside a highway in Arizona as those of a missing Florida teenager by comparing the dead womans teeth with an enhanced photo of the teenagers teeth. They had been looking for a place to fish when theyd spotted the body near the foot of a tree, lying beneath some low-hanging branches. As Kelley, a slim brunette, answered their questions, Simons got a sudden hunch. But with the primary suspect long dead, life in the small town of Hawkins has settled into a new normal, albeit different than before. Gerald Wayne So should you.. He liked reading about everything and loved talking about religion. Other TRC lawyers who helped Owen and Schonemann with the case, such as Ken Driggs, agreedSpence may have been a criminal, but he didnt seem like a killer. Dannen wasnt fully convinced of Spences innocenceas a veteran journalist, hed made a career out of being skepticalbut hed learned enough to know he had the makings of a great story. The lawyers worked nonstop, often juggling several cases at once in a race against the clock, filing appeals and motions up until the very hour of a scheduled execution. Im still pissed offI cant talk about the case for very long before I start to get upset, Russ Hunt, the attorney in Spences first murder trial, told me. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Published: Apr. Authorities are now seeking the public's assistance to find out more information about the women before the time of their deaths. In late 1999 he felt a spark of optimism when he received a couple of visits from Fredric Dannen, who interviewed him for his book and told him about the DNA testing being done on the crime-scene evidence. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph). Dannen hoped the reporter would call before the execution took place to say a court had stayed it, but she didnt contact him until his watch read almost eight. DREW Sr. Kenneth It was around six-thirty on a summer evening in 1982, and the 39-year-old officer had just returned to his squad car after visiting his wife, Judy. It was denied. KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY-TYLER. What might it show if it was? McLemore also became uneasy. Hottest Bets. HAWKINS - Glyndia Lane of Hawkins can't make broccoli, cheese and rice casserole without feeling a sharp pang of sadness. But later he told the police that he was out driving around the parks at about eight in the evening; this inconsistency, among other details, had prompted Detective Ramon Salinas and Lieutenant Marvin Horton to briefly consider Franks a suspect. Fear spread through town, and residents began locking their doors at night and pushing for park curfews. This didnt surprise his fellow officers; it was this kind of dedication that had helped him solve difficult cases in the past. This story examines the case through the viewpoint of five people: a patrol sergeant who investigated the crime; a police detective who became skeptical of the investigation; an appellate lawyer who tried to stop the execution; a journalist whose reporting has raised new doubts about the case; and a convict who pleaded guilty but now vehemently proclaims his innocence. We were finally going to find out what happened to our kids.. Truman Simons (far right) helping carry the body of the teenagers out from the brush in Speegleville Park on July 14, 1982. Hawkins City Council members accepted his resignation. A heavy cloud seemed to descend on the close-knit Hawkins community, and all sense of normalcy came to a halt. Reaves had agreed to represent Melendez pro bono too. Schonemann had been visiting Gilbert and Tony periodically since 1991; though both had told him they had lied in their statements and testimony, they refused to speak on the record. I replied, Whats there to know, Truman? Mr. Simons said, People get killed here real easy. Then, leaning in for emphasis, he added, Even cops. Blum and Dannen were taken aback by what they understood to be a threat. Dannen and Blum also tracked down Truman Simons, who was still a sheriffs deputy in Waco. I am a peacemaker, he told the books author, Carlton Stowers. Dannen, who had read every file in the Lake Waco case, remembered the affidavit Price had given Schonemann in 1991, in which she identified a suspect named Benny Carroll. The police had seen the letter, and theyd questioned Frueh back in 1982 before letting him go. UPDATE:Tony Melendez, the last living Lake Waco murders defendant, died on Friday, January 13, 2017, at 57 at a prison hospice at the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony, not far from Palestine. Detectives eagerly uploaded the information to CODIS, the FBIs national database for DNA. Weeks stretched into years and then into decades. HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Harris County Sheriff's Office announced a breakthrough in two unrelated cold case murders Thursday morning. SOUTHERN CHARM REAL ESTATE. That dude did it, he said. Spence, unaware that he might be a suspect, offered to help the officers in their investigation. But what was taking so long? Dannen bought a Chevy Blazer and took driving lessons, tracking down sources who had never spoken to authorities or who had documents related to the case. GUTIERREZ. But this one, she said, looked shiny and brand-new, not like it had been sitting outside for two years. More Crime News Man shot, killed at north Harris County apartment complex Then, on the eve of trial, Schonemann got a surprise. MARTINEZ, Ireneo It continues to be a landmark cold case for me from a scientific perspective, that we can get a profile from evidence that is so, so old.. Spence had, however, been informed that he was a suspect by then. Price and Turk returned to their investigation in earnest, tracking down all the informants who had testified against Washington and Williams. After talking, the brothers refused to take the stand against Deeb. She served the seventy-year-old widow his nightly cocktailalong But the CCA denied Schonemanns last-ditch motion, followed by the Supreme Court and the Board of Pardons, which turned down his requests at four oclock that afternoon. It was just what Simons had been waiting fora statement from an actual eyewitness. Two others did match a mark to one of the molds, but it was not Spences. To uncover any facts that might help save their clientsthat prosecutors had concealed evidence, for example, or that an inmate had suffered an abusive childhood or was mentally disabledthe attorneys had to reinvestigate every case, searching through files and trial transcripts, visiting with inmates, and traveling far and wide to find old and new witnesses. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Authorities and scores of volunteers joined in the effort. the Murderpedia project stay alive. At that time, we'd never had anything like that happen here. At that time, we'd never had anyting like that happen here. I killed them. Though he then apologized and said he was joking, Kelley felt certain he was not. Jan Price was arresting our witnesses on the Juanita White case and holding them in the city jail, incommunicado, without access to a magistrate or attorney, trying to pressure them to change their stories, he wrote in an email.). In early 1999 he obtained a copy of Whites autopsy report, which noted the presence of semen. The semen found on Whites body had never been tested for DNA, Dannen realized with excitement. But the laws of that time weren't bent in favor of victims. After closing arguments, in which Feazell likened the store owner to Judas Iscariot for his dirty hands in the killings, Deeb was found guilty in less than two hours. hawkins texas murders 1986. After all this time, I still think about it.. The victim, he could see, was just a boy, with a wispy mustache. Six members of the Texas Seven were sentenced to death in the Dec. 24, 2000, shooting of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. There was no evidence of a boat, and there were no tire tracks around the Speegleville gate, which closed at eleven. It never goes away.. They were found just 18 metres from where police found the remains of Fye the year before. He wasnt very intelligent. Drag images here or select from your computer for Gena Lee Turner memorial. Later that day, when Simons returned to see him, he had something to say. But Melendez later recanted, saying he had only confessed because hed been threatened with the death penalty. Evans had seen plenty of murder and mayhem in her career, but nothing this macabre. Alvin The 16-year-old's remains were found in the Calder Road oil field in 1986, two years after she went missing. Their opinions were in the minority. Somebody went in there looking for something, she told me years later, recalling the strangeness of the case. He spoke as if he were getting ready for battle. Shortly after meeting up, however, the trio disappeared, never to be seen alive again. At the time of her death, she was attending Tyler Junior College and dreamed of being a nurse. Next day wed get up, start working again., He and the three other defendants in the lake murders, he feels, were easy targets. Now, putting aside any remaining semblance of journalistic objectivity, he signed a paralegal agreement to work for Reaves, who offered to help get Washington out of prison pro bono. Owen, a Harvard law graduate from Georgia, moved to Texas to work for the nonprofit in 1989; he encouraged Schonemann, an NYU law grad whod grown up in Ohio and Indiana, to join him a couple of years later. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Meanwhile in Utah, 35-year-old Joseph Mitchell Parsons was scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Friday for fatally stabbing a man. Are you sure that you want to report this flower to administrators as offensive or abusive? When they returned to Waco, Simons set about gathering information on the young man, talking assiduously to sources both in and out of jail. So they filed all the other documents they had collectedincluding fifteen witness depositionsand when Krauss sent the final results of the study three months later, they filed those too. The mother of victim Suzanne Denise Harrison burst into tears as she entered the death chamber, crying, ``He looked at me. She turned away and said, ``He took our children.. As the community mourned, authorities focused their energy on pinpointing the culprit. We have many She was a tomboy who had grown up wanting to be a cop, like her grandfather, and joined the Detroit Police Department in 1977. Though he insisted he had been in Bryan painting apartments the day of the murders, he failed a polygraph, and jailhouse informants claimed theyd heard him say he was at Lake Waco. We got the right people, he wrote recently in an email. Feazell eventually gave Dannen access to hundreds of tapes he had made of the many conversations in his office about the lake murders. Investigators in Texas identified a body found on an oil field nera Calder Road in League City on Sept. 8, 1991 as Donna Prudhomme, who was believed to be about 34 years old at the time of her death. After her familys long heartache, Thompson felt, Dannen was finally going to bring her niece true justice. Chad Beasley, 9, the son of another relative, was treated for a broken leg and released. Theyd seen Simons take over an investigation before. In January 1985 Gilbert wrote out a sixteen-page confession, pleaded guilty for two life sentences, and agreed to testify against Deeb. For all of Wacos small-town feel, Simonshimself the father of a young boyrecognized that these were big-city problems. She was beaten with a hammer, raped, and left for dead. Spence was executed in 1997, Melendezs brother Gilbert died in prison of complications from HIV in 1998, and Muneer Deebwho won an acquittal in a 1993 retrialdied of. William Porter, 51, has been charged with the 1986 murder of . He, Salinas, Horton, and another investigator on the case, Sergeant Robert Fortune, didnt believe there was nearly enough to make an arrest and were wary of Simons certainty. Story of Texas heiress Joan Robinson, who married plastic surgeon John Hill. He is mostly confined to his cell; he gets two hours daily in the dayroom, where he can watch TV, and two hours outside. He took it to the girls mother and aunt, who both said she had owned a bracelet like it. But his most revealing tattoo is largely hidden under his prison shirt. Then, in August, the journalist visited Washington in prison; he too agreed to provide blood. Upon learning of the teenager's death, Suzanne's mother's anguished cries seemed to echo through the town. I believe that. 4 min read. The two became fast allies. Simons said, What have yall heard about Waco? Blum later recalled in an affidavit. Hunt and Fuller pointed out that none of the hair or blood found at the crime scene tied Spence to the murders, and they insisted that Deeb had been joking about getting rid of Kelley and that Spence knew it. Like a legal MASH unit.. Hopper learned that police had used DNA information in public genealogy databases to identify DeAngelo. He was a man who liked to work alone, following his gut instincts; hed worked the streets long enough now to have seen many of his hunches proved right. Dannen told them he did not think Carroll was connected in any way to the Lake Waco killings, though he did consider the burglary at Whites house after her death to be highly suspicious. With Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, Farrah Fawcett, Andy Griffith. As investigators processed the scene, another body was found in close proximity but they were in "vastly different stages of decomposition," Ratliff said. Simons and Baier set out to investigate. I was going to get convicted of those murders whether I did it or not. The crime struck Price as unbearably sad. Sr. Ronald James I dont know if I want to see an innocent man get freed or if I just so deeply want to know who the guilty people are. Suzanne Harrison's grave is marked at Chilton Cemetery in Big Sandy. She was last seen in July 1991. It belonged to a housewife from Phillipsburg, Kansas. There is a problem with your email/password. I dont know why I started writing, Thompson told me, but I felt it was the thing to do. He had also recently undergone gall bladder surgery. Jan. 1, 1974. Even if someone elses DNA is found, the state can be expected to argue that that doesnt prove Tony is innocent, only that another person was involved in the crime. Rob Owen, now a clinical professor at Northwestern University School of Law, is also pessimistic about Melendezs chances, having worked similar innocence cases. The victims brother, Craig Harrison, got as close to the window as he could to see McFadden gasp and sputter twice. In a written confession, he stated he had participated with Spence and Gilbert in raping and killing the teenagers. The writ was full of typos but also cogent arguments; Deeb was granted a new trial when the court ruled that the jailhouse informants testimony that had been used against him was hearsay. Baier didnt see the resemblance, but Simons mentally filed the detail. Those kids were stabbed forty-eight times. Glyndia Lane, aunt of victim Susanne Harrison, shares her story at the Hawkins Police Department Wednesday March 9, 2016. I know that we didnt do this, he cried out in exasperation at one point. I told him, This guy is saying you told him all those storieswhy is everyone talking about it? Portland police announced Thursday that improbably intact DNA saved from under Anna Maries fingernails had at last pinpointed her killer, a man police had never suspected: Jerry Animal McFadden, a notorious serial rapist and murderer from Texas who once inspired one of the states biggest ever manhunts. Im tired of lying. Dannen was preoccupied with his article but asked the publicist to messenger it over. ), The rift between the WPD and Simons made Price nervous. Then, six days before Spences trial, they were dealt an even bigger blow: in an unexpected about-face, Tony pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence. But the judge ruled the evidence irrelevant to the case against Spence and refused to allow it. Audrey Lee Cook was born on Nov. 25, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Houston and Channelview, Texas, between 1976 and 1985, Ratliff said. He had never been violent with her or them, she recalled. On September 9, Simons walked by Salinass desk and saw the case file lying out. Though the WPD would continue to respond to new leads, the investigation, Salinas had written in the report, was now officially inactive. The lawyers also found persuasive reasons to doubt the bite-mark evidence. If a purse was inadvertently left in the car overnight, it was still there the next morning. At the time of Whites murder, in 1986, DNA testing was not yet an established practice; the first conviction in the United States based on DNA evidence did not occur until 1988, and it was only in the mid- to late nineties that genetic testing became widely used in courts. About 25 yards from the spot where Tony had said Jill was murdered, Simons was suddenly overcome by a strong feeling. Suzanne's body was located the following day and by May 6, officers stopped the suspect vehicle near Loop 564 and State Highway 37, north of Mineola. PEREZ, Robert Anthony Martinez He had now spent about $30,000 on testing, and the FSA lab had found nothing earth-shattering.
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