Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is the third installment in Netflix's Crime Scene documentary series.
Across three episodes, The Texas Killing Fields explores the unsolved murders of four young women, whose remains were discovered along the interstate corridor connecting Houston and the beach town of Galveston, which has become known by that grisly name.
More than 30 bodies have been found in the area since the 1970s. They were all girls or young women aged between 12 and 25 years old.
In the documentary series, families of some of the victims talk about their grief and fight for justice. Other families have spoken to the press in the past. Here Newsweek takes a look at what the families of Texas Killing Fields victims have said over the years.
What the Families of Texas Killing Fields Victims Have Said About Murders
Colette Wilson
One of the first victims found in the Texas Killing Fields was Colette Wilson.
She was 13 years old on June 17, 1971, when she was abducted from an intersection in Alvin while waiting for her mother, Claire Wilson, to pick her up.
Claire Wilson immediately suspected foul play when she arrived and her daughter was not at the intersection or at a friend's house nearby. Police assumed Colette had run away from home, however.
Five months later the teenager's remains were uncovered in the Texas Killing Fields. The bodies of 14-year-old Brenda Jones and 19-year-old Gloria Ann Gonzales were discovered nearby.
Claire Wilson later told Kathyrn Casey, author of a book about the killings: "The police weren't worried. They said she was probably taking drugs or something, that she'd run away.
"We knew Colette. We knew that wasn't true. But they wouldn't listen to us."
When the teenager's body was found in November, Claire Wilson was reported as saying: "Colette was dead, but we could bury her," according to Grunge.com.
Colette Wilson was buried at South Park Cemetery in Texas, alongside her father and siblings John and Ethan.
In 1998, Edward Harold Bell, a convicted murderer who was serving 70 years for killing a Marine and then fleeing to Panama, told prosecuters he had also killed 11 girls in the 1970s. He said he could not remember all the names of his victims, but they included a number of those whose bodies were found in the Texas Killing Fields: Colette Wilson, along with Debbie Ackerman, Maria Johnson, Kimberly Pitchford, Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw.
Bell died in prison in 2019 but was never charged for any of the Killing Fields murders.
Laura Miller
On September 10, 1984, Laura Miller, 16, disappeared a short distance from her home.
In February 1986, her body was found near Calder Road, on the same patch of land where the body of a missing 23-year-old, Heidi Villarreal-Fye, had been discovered in April 1984. Laura Miller's killer has never been brought to justice.
As seen in The Texas Killing Fields on Netflix, Laura's father Tim Miller and other victims' parents didn't believe the authorities were doing enough to track down the killer or killers. Often, they were told their teenage daughters had run away from home.
Taking matters into his own hands, Tim Miller became a volunteer search-and-rescuer.
In 2000, he established Texas EquuSearch, a volunteer organization that helps families try to locate missing family members. According to its website, the group has worked on more than 2,000 cases and discovered over 300 bodies and 400 living people.
Tim Miller suspects his next-door neighbor, Clyde Hedrick, was responsible for Laura's death. In July 2022, Tim Miller won a wrongful death lawsuit against Hedrick, which he had filed in 2014. He was awarded $24 million in liability and damages.
After the hearing, Tim Miller told treporters: "I filed the wrongful death suit to let Clyde Hedrick know that, 'Clyde, I'm still here, I am still here, and I'm not going to quit until the day I die.' I want to let Clyde know that, 'I know what you did to my daughter, and I'm not going to let you rest until we have you where you need to be for the rest of your life.'"
He added: "As time goes by and the more information I get and, the more information I am continuing to get, I have no doubt in my mind Clyde Hedrick is responsible for Laura's murder."
Despite the civil suit, Hedrick has denied any involvement in Laura Miller's death and has never been charged in the case.
He was convicted of an involuntary manslaughter in 2014 and released from prison in October 2021. His current whereabouts are not known.
Shelley Sikes
Shelley Sikes, 19, was last seen in May 1986 as she drove home from her job at Gaido's Seafood Restaurant on the beachfront in Galveston. Her body has never been found and she is presumed dead.
Gerald Zwarst and John King were convicted of her aggravated kidnapping in 1988. They were later sentenced to life in prison, where they both died. King died in October 2015 and Zwarst in November 2020.
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Zwarst had been denied parole in 2012 and 2017. Ever since Sikes' disappearance, her family fought to ensure the two men remained behind bars.
Ahead of Zwarst's 2012 parole hearing, Sikes' sister Dana Wild told the Bay Area Citizen: "Even if he gets denied parole this time and gets put up for five more years, I know that in five more years we're going to be doing this again.
"Every time that the sore begins to heal, then something scratches the surface off and it's bleeding all over again."
Suzanne Rene Richerson
Suzanne Rene Richerson, 22, was last seen alive on October 7, 1988.
Sixteen years later, in July 2004, her parents Clyde and Kathy Richerson hoped they might finally get some answers when bone fragments were retrieved from under a home in Galveston.
The bones came from the former home of an unnamed suspect in her disappearance. An anonymous caller had contacted police with a tip, saying she had seen two men move Richerson's remains from a grave under the home to another location in 1992.
However, after investigation, the bones were ruled to be of animal origin.
Speaking to The Houston Chronicle, Clyde Richerson said: "We're very disappointed. We were hoping we would find something real this time."
Donna Prudhomme
Donna Prudhomme's body was identified in 2019—28 years after she went missing. The 34-year-old was last seen alive in July 1991. Her remains were uncovered in the Texas Killing Fields two months later, but she was "Janet Doe" for almost 30 years until her DNA could be matched.
Speaking to ABC 13 in April 2019, Prudhomme's sister Diane Gonsoulin-Hasting said it was a "big relief" the remains had been identified.
She added: "I've looked for her with detectives and everything and to find out that she [Prudhomme] was just right here all this time. It's really a lot of peace and a lot of healing for our entire family."
In 2013, convicted kidnapper Mark Roland Stallings confessed behind bars he had killed a young woman in 1991 and dumped her body in the Texas fields. This is thought to be Donna Prudhomme.
Stallings hasn't been charged, but he reportedly remains a suspect in the deaths of Prudhomme and Audrey Cook, whose body was discovered in February 1986 close to the remains of Laura Miller. Cook was also identified in April 2019, via family DNA testing.
Krystal Baker
The body of 13-year-old Krystal Baker was discovered under an interstate bridge in Chambers County in March 1996.
Her killer was caught more than a decade later, thanks to advances in DNA testing. In 2009 a man was arrested on a minor drug charge in Louisiana and was required to submit a DNA specimen. This matched DNA found on Krystal's clothes.
In April 2012, Kevin Edison Smith was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life without parole.
CBS reported that after Smith's sentencing, Krystal's mother Jeanie Baker said: "I dream about her mostly when she was a little girl. And every once in a while when she's a teenager.
"She told me one time, she says, 'Mama, I'm just out here hangin' out with my friends. Everything's OK.' And I woke up the next day. I wished I could have stayed in that dream a little longer.'"
She continued: "I had given up hope, and I just assumed the guy got away with it. I'm thankful. It was a miracle. It was just a miracle that he got caught."
Laura Smither
In the Crime Scene documentary, Gay Smither recalls the moment her 12-year-old daughter Laura went missing on April 3, 1997. Laura's body was found on April 20, 1997.
In June this year, serial killer William Reece was convicted of her murder. Reece was already in prison when he confessed to killing Laura and two young women who also went missing in 1997: Jessica Cain, 17, and Kelli Cox, 20.
In September 1997, he had been convicted of the kidnapping and attempted murder of Sandra Sapaugh, 19. He received a 60-year sentence.
Almost two decades later, in 2015, Reece's DNA was found to match a sample on a dress belonging to Tiffany Johnston, a 19-year-old murdered in Oklahoma in 1997.
Reece was convicted of Johnston's murder in August 2021 and sentenced to death. Gay Smither attended the Johnston trial and told Texas television station Khou 11 that justice had been served.
She said: "He's going to go to death row and be in a cell for the first time in a long time and maybe in that isolation he will start to think about his life and meeting his maker."
This year, Reece pleaded guilty to the murders of Laura Smither, Jessica Cain and Kelli Cox.
List of Texas Killing Field Known Victims
- Brenda Jones: Body found July 2, 1972
- Colette Wilson: Body found November 26, 1971
- Rhonda Johnson: Body found January 3, 1972
- Sharon Shaw: Body found January 3, 1972
- Gloria Gonzales: Body found November 23, 1971
- Alison Craven: Body found February
- Debbie Ackerman: Body found November 17, 1971
- Maria Johnson: Body found November 17, 1971
- Kimberly Pitchford: Body found January 5, 1973
- Suzanne Bowers: Body found March 25, 1979
- Brooks Bracewell: Body found April 3, 1981
- Georgia Geer: Body found April 3, 1981
- Michelle Garvey: Body found July 1, 1982
- Heidi Villarreal-Fye: Body found April 4, 1984
- Laura Miller: Body found February 3, 1986
- Audrey Cook: Body found February 2, 1986
- Donna Prudhomme: Body found September 8, 1991
- Lynette Bibbs: Body found February 3, 1996
- Tamara Fisher: Body found February 3, 1996
- Krystal Baker: Body found March 5, 1996
- Laura Smither: Body found April 20, 1997
- Jessica Cain: Body found March 18, 2016
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