The Texas Killing Fields: Serial Killer? (Part 2)

Identified

Over the course of the next several years, there were many attempts to identify Jane and Janet Doe.  Authorities tried to create a rendering of what they might have looked like, but there were never any clues or tips to who they might be.  Then, something happened.  Technology advanced… and advanced… and advanced, and eventually, investigators were able to use the one thing they did have from both bodies to try to identify them; DNA. 

As we all know, there are a plethora of companies that will allow you to submit samples of your DNA and map out your family history or family tree; AncestryDNA, 23 & Me, My Heritage.. Etc.   They took DNA profiles from the bodies and submitted them to several family tree DNA databases.  Eventually, after YEARS, the FBI was able to identify both Jane and Janet Doe in 2019.

Jane Doe was actually Audrey Lee Cook.  She was born in Memphis in 1955, and at the time of her death, she is estimated to have been 30 years old.  She was last heard from in late December of 1985.   At the time she lived in the Houston area and had a history of working at various shops as a mechanic.  Her body was discovered the same day as Laura Millers.  She had a small caliber gunshot wound to her back, which severed her spinal cord.  Her body had additional injuries, including broken ribs.  

Janet Doe was identified as Donna Prudhomme, born in 1957 in Port Arthur, TX.  She was last heard from in July of 1991 in Nassau Bay, TX.  Donna had moved around TX for several years before eventually settling Nassau Bay.  It’s reported that she moved frequently because she was trying to escape an abusive relationship, and she chose Nassau Bay because there was more opportunity for employment in the area compared to other places.  After her body was discovered though, no cause of death could be determined.  

Ellen Beason and Clyde Hedrick

So, throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, League City residents were basically petrified of what was going on surrounding their town.  Young women were going missing at an alarming rate, and the police seemed…inept?   And that may not be fair to say because we don’t really know what they were doing in the background that the public was never told about.  So, all we can comment on is what is available, and from the outside looking in, it seems like the police were lost in quite a few of these investigations. 

Ellen Beason was 30 years old when she vanished in 1984.  Friends and family described her as generous and kind hearted, and her jovial nature helped her make friends quickly.  She was quite popular among her friend group and her community.  She and her friends loved to go out bar hopping, which they were doing one evening in 1984.  Her friends said that they had all gathered at the Texas Moon bar; yes, the same Texas Moon that Heidi Fye worked at.  While there, they said that Ellen met a handsome man and the two spent most of the night together.  They danced together and seemed to be having a great time together. 

When it came time to leave though, Ellen told her friends to go ahead without her.  She told them that she and the stranger had made plans to go to a nearby lake and swim, and that she would get him to take her home after.  Ellen never made it home that night.  Her family was extremely worried from the start and formed searcy parties to go to various places that Ellen was known to frequent, including the Texas Moon where she was the night before.  The police were notified and they along with the family searched all around the lake that Ellen was swimming at the night before.  Unfortunately, they didn’t find any signs or clues that would lead them to Helen’s whereabouts. 

Ellen’s friends went back to the bar and found the man that Ellen left with that night.  His name was Clyde Hedrick.  In particular, one of Ellen’s friends, Candy Gifford kept going back and talking to Clyde… for weeks she talked to him and often brought up the subject of Ellen disappearing.  Initially, Clyde told everyone that Ellen had left with a group of people that he didn’t know.  He told them that she got in a truck and left.  But, as Candy kept asking him more and more about Ellen, he got more and more annoyed and angry as the weeks went on.  

Finally, after Candy brought it up again, Clyde snapped and said, “Well, then I’ll show you where she is.”  He drove Candy to a location, near a bridge on a dirt road by some railroad tracks.  On the side of the road, there was an old sofa that someone had thrown out, with some tires stacked on it.  Clyde removed the tires, and that’s when Candy saw Ellen’s remains.  It had been 6 months since she went missing.  It took another few months for Candy to go to the police.  Some say that it was because she was scared of Clyde.  He told her that if she told anyone, she would end up the same way.  But, eventually, she told the police.  The area they found Ellen was around 25 miles from the Texas Moon.  

Ellen’s body had been badly decomposed, since it was exposed to the Texas elements all that time.  When they brought Clyde in, his story was that they were going swimming.  While there, Ellen said she wanted to go skinny dipping.  While he was on the shore, she was in the water and he looked out and just saw her floating on the surface.  She had drowned.  When he got to her he put her in his truck and started driving to the hospital.  On the way though, he claimed that he became scared that he would be suspected of foul play and that’s when he stopped and put her body on the couch, under the tires. 

Ellen’s remains were taken to the ME’s office, where they said that the cause and method of her death couldn’t be determined.  The only charge they could bring against Clyde was abuse of a corpse.  He was found guilty and given a fine of $2000 and one year in prison.  After his year in jail, he was released and free to go.  That was in 1996.  

Ellen’s body was found in Dickinson, TX, which is about 4 miles from League City.  She went missing in the same time frame as the Calder Road case.  So, it only made sense that if Clyde was a suspect in Ellen’s case, he could also be involved in the others.  The minute that Tim learned about Ellen Beason’s case, he started asking questions about Clyde Hedrick.  He learned that the house he lived in when Laura went missing was only two houses from where Clyde lived at the time.  They were basically neighbors.  He asked one of Laura’s friends about Clyde and she said when they would go out walking in the neighborhood, they would walk waaaay out of their way to avoid Clyde’s house cause Laura was scared of him. 

Flash forward to 2011, Clyde Hedrick’s ex-wife approached authorities and said that over the years, Hedrick had made several incriminating remarks about Ellen Beason’s death.  In 2012, they exhumed Ellen’s body and re-examined her remains.  In this re-examination, they ruled that she had suffered several severe skull fractures, which resulted in her death.  With the statement from his ex-wife and the findings of the 2nd autopsy, they were able to get an arrest warrant and charge Hedrick with Ellen Beason’s murder in 2014.  Hedrick was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and given 20 years in prison. 

While he was in jail, Hedrick made a confession to another inmate that he had raped and killed Laura Miller and  killed Heidi Fye.  In TX though, jailhouse confessions can’t be used to secure a conviction, and the information given has to be corroborated.  

In October of 2021, Hedrick was released from prison to mandatory supervision.  He served eight years. While he was in prison, he had come up for parole once, which people fought against and he was denied parole then.  But, the laws in effect for his case are the laws that were in effect when the crime was committed back in the 80s.  According to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles website, “Mandatory Supervision is a legislatively mandated release of a prisoner to parole supervision when the combination of actual calendar time and good conduct time equal the sentence. Good conduct time is credited to an offender for participating in work and self-improvement programs.”  Basically time served + good time earned = completion of sentence.  It wasn’t a parole thing, it was a mandatory release that couldn’t be fought.  He was free.  This law / loophole has since been changed.  In July of 2022, Tim Miller filed a civil suit against Hedrick for the wrongful death of his daughter Laura.  He was awarded $24 million.  So, Hedrick has been found civilly liable, but not criminally liable for Laura’s death.  What are the chances that Tim gets that $24 million from Hedrick ??

Robert Abel

Robert Abel was a former NASA engineer who owned land that was right next to the Calder Road oil field.  He drew suspicion from many people in the Killing Fields cases.  Partly because of how close he was to Calder Road, but also because the authorities had reached out to the FBI to create a probable profile of their killer or killers.  In this profile, they stated that they believed the killer would likely have a tendency for anger problems, sexual violence, cruelty towards animals, and an air of superiority when it came to his intelligence.  

As it happened, Abel fit many of those.  He had ex-wives who reported that he was abusive and made threats against their lives, particularly when they wouldn’t perform or meet his sexual demands.  It’s also said that he was cruel to the horses on his ranch, beating them, sometimes to the point of death, then leaving their bodies in the fields.  

He also had a tendency to try to insert himself into the investigation.  He constantly offered law enforcement his opinions on the case as well as offering to lend his equipment to search and rescue teams scouring the area. A search warrant was later executed at Abel’s property; authorities found several suspicious items, including human teeth and news clippings about the Texas Killing Fields murders. But, nothing conclusively linking Abel to the deaths was found during this search. Repeated interrogations of Abel also did not uncover any new information about the murders. 

Tim Miller caught wind of Abel possibly being involved in disappearances or murders in the area and set his sights on him.  While the police had essentially moved on from Abel as a suspect, Tim did not.  He believed that Abel was guilty; this was before the revelations of Clyde Hedrick or anything, so Tim thought that Abel was the one who killed Laura.  Tim regularly parked outside Abel’s house and watched him.  Tim said he would go and sit there two or three times a day.  He sent threatening letters to Abel and left him voice mails.  Abel went to the police and got a court order that forbade Tim from approaching him.  That didn’t stop Tim though.  He continued to make threats, going as far as telling Abel that he was going to have him kidnapped and then bury him alive in the Nevada desert. 

All the evidence that connected Abel was circumstantial and he was never officially charged with anything.  The damage had been done though in the court of public opinion.  His life was ruined because of all the scrutiny and allegations.  He ended up selling his property and moving from League City to live with a family member.  In 2005, Abel drove a golf cart into the path of an oncoming train and died.  

Tim Miller said that before Abel died, he had seen him out in town and approached him.  He told Abel that he was sorry for everything, he no longer believed that Abel was involved in Laura’s murder.  He asked him for his forgiveness, and the two men cried.   

Laura Smither / Sandra Sapaugh

Laura Smither was born in June of 1980, in Houston, Texas, and was the daughter of Bob and Gay Smither.  Laura was an athletic and enthusiastic young woman, who enjoyed playing soccer and participating in track and field events. She was also known for her kind and generous nature, always willing to help others in need.  She was vibrant and talented and made friends easily.  

On April 3, 1997, Laura told her mom that she was going to go for a run near her home in Friendswood, Texas, before they sat down for breakfast.  She never returned home.  Her family immediately launched a search for her, but there was no sign of her anywhere.  The community quickly rallied behind the Smithers, organizing search parties and distributing flyers in an effort to find Laura.  However, 17 days later her body was discovered in a retention pond near her home.

The investigation into Laura’s murder was lengthy and complex. Police found evidence of a struggle at the scene of her abduction, but no clear leads. However, one piece of evidence was crucial in solving the case: a video surveillance tape from a nearby store that captured footage of a suspicious vehicle in the area around the time of Laura’s disappearance.  The vehicle was identified as a white Mazda pickup truck. 

Sandra Sapaugh was 19 years old in May of 1997.  She made plans to meet a friend at a Houston area restaurant.  On the way, she stopped at a gas station in Webster, TX, which is about a half hour drive to Houston.  While she was at the gas station, she noticed a creepy guy staring at her.  She wanted to get away from the man and the gas station, so she jumped in her car and quickly drove away.  In her haste, she didn’t notice that her tires were slashed and she stopped at a nearby Waffle House.  A man pulled in behind her and offered to help, then quickly pulled out a knife and put it to her throat. 

The man forced her into his truck and told her to undress as he drove down I 45.  Sandra said that the only thing she could think was that he was going to kill her and that she’d rather kill herself by jumping from the truck than whatever he was going to do.  So, she opened the door and jumped out while traveling down the interstate.  She suffered severe injuries, but escaped the man.  Not only that, she was able to tell authorities several details about the man and his truck.  She worked with a sketch artist to get a picture of the man and when you see it and the man who was arrested.. It’s like a dead ringer.  They also tried to use hypnosis to see if Sandra could recall any details, and she did… she told him his license plate number.  

Using that info, they put together a photo lineup.  When she was shown a photo lineup, she picked out a man from the photos. Then, in a lineup, she immediately picked the man who had attempted to kidnap her.  It was William Lewis Reece.  

Reece

William Lewis Reece was born in July of 1959 in Oklahoma.  He was one of 13 children.  He grew up poor, and was forced to drop out of school in the 9th grade and took a job as a farm laborer.  He married his first wife in 1979 after she became pregnant, and shortly after enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard.  A year into their marriage, his wife left him, but Reece convinced her to remarry him after some time apart.  They had a 2nd child quickly.  Throughout their marriages, she said that Reece would drink heavily and was physically abusive.  In 1982, she went to the police after he severely beat her and threatened to kill her with a knife and shotgun.  She divorced him again.  Reece then married a second wife who divorced him a few months into their marriage. 

In April of 1986, Reece kidnapped and raped a 19 year old woman.  She was the daughter of a Sheriff’s deputy.  She was driving to the gym when her car stalled.  Reece pulled up behind her in his truck (he was an over the road truck driver at the time.)  He lured her into his truck by telling her he would take her to a pay phone.  He tied her up and raped her.  Then he drove to a nearby hotel and rented a room.  Once inside, she said she needed to use the bathroom and when he allowed her to go in the bathroom, she escaped and called the police.  Reece was charged and arrested but released on bail. 

A month after his release, while he was awaiting trial, he sexually assaulted another woman and was arrested again.  He was put on trial for both rapes, found guilty, and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. His attorneys appealed the conviction to a criminal court, which granted a review of his case. The results indicated that there were procedural errors in Reece’s criminal case, causing his sentence to be reduced and leading to his parole in October 1996.  After his release he moved to his mother’s home, and in early 1997 regained his driver’s license and moved to…  wait for it… Houston, Texas. 

After Sandra identified Reece as her abductor, he was arrested and eventually faced trial and was found guilty of kidnapping.  He was sentenced to 60 years in prison.  While they were investigating and throughout his trial and conviction, police began to suspect that he may be involved in other disappearances in the area.  It would take some time, but eventually, their suspicions were confirmed.  

In the early 2000s, a court order was given to compel Reece for his DNA, which was entered into Codis.  In 2015, a hit was returned to the murder of 19 year old Tiffany Johnson in Bethany, Oklahoma.  Her car was found abandoned in a car wash.  The owner told police that Reece frequented the car wash often, and Johnston’s body was found later off a dirt road off the interstate.  She had been raped, beaten, and strangled.  Reece was charged with her murder in September of 2015.  

In early 2016, he started to cooperate with authorities to try to get a deal of some type.  He confessed to three murders in Houston in the summer of 1997.  He confessed to the murders of Laura Smither, Kelli Cox, and Jessica Cain in addition to Tiffany Johnston.  He told prosecutors that he would admit fully in court to avoid the death penalty and serve his sentence in Oklahoma.  They refused the deal and used a map that Reece had provided earlier to excavate the burial sites of Kelly Cox and Jessica Cain. 

According to Reece, in April of 1997, he was driving and accidentally hit Laura Smither with his car on a rainy day.  He said that he then took her body and left it in the pond.  Later he admitted that he actually abducted and strangled her to death.  

Then he said that on July 15th 1997, he was driving from Oklahoma to Houston when he stopped in Denton, TX to pick up some whiskey.. Ya know, for the drive.  While at a gas station, he got into a physical altercation with 20 year old Kelli Cox and strangled her.  She was found buried in the woods. 

On July 26th, 1997, Reece said he stopped at the Sunshine Car Wash to clean his truck and horse trailer and accidentally sprayed Tiffany Johnston.  When she confronted him, he grabbed her and drug her into his trailer.  He raped her at gun point.  He then grabbed a horseshoe and hit her on the head with it.  Then he strangled her and drug her body to the nearby woods and left her.  It was discovered the next day.  Tiffany Johnston’s mother was actually one of Reece’s mom’s friends, he knew Tiffany before the attack.  Some theorized that he had been stalking her, waiting for a chance to attack her. 

17 year old Jessica Cain was reported missing on August 17, 1997. She was last seen alive after leaving a Bennigan’s restaurant.  Her car was abandoned on an interstate highway later that day.  Reece claimed he had approached her outside the restaurant, but she rejected him, which angered him.  He tailed her vehicle until she was forced to stop and confront him. He admitted that he beat and strangled her.

Reece said that none of the attacks and murders were sexually motivated, and when questioned about additional disappearances in the area, he denied any and all involvement.  

In May of 2021 (his trial had been postponed due to Covid), Reece was found guilty in Oklahoma for Johnston’s death.  In August of 2021, he was given a death sentence by OK County District Court.  He was then extradited to TX to face trial in march of 2022.  He pleaded guilty to all charges and was given life imprisonment in June of 2022