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this is true crime garage and this is The Killing Fields trilogy [Music] thank you
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[Music] part two the 1980s the 1970s were nothing less than tragic for the Galveston area as the dead
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bodies and number of missing girls just kept adding up there was an arrest and a conviction yet
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the murders continued still there was hope as the 1970s were drawing to a close the murders and the
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finding of bodies seemed to be tapering off Suzanne Bowers was the last of far too
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many victims of the 70s and she was last seen in 1977. the murder cases had gone cold
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and The Killing Fields were silent but they weren't empty the 1980s were Upon Us time for a fresh
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start time for a new beginning October 1983 Heidi Fey was 23 years old she left her parents house to go see her
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boyfriend she didn't have a ride so she chose to hitchhike which would prove to be a fatal mistake
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almost a year later another young lady from League City Texas would go missing this time it's 16 year old Laura Miller
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semi-witness Reports say lore may have been last spotted at the same convenience store where Heidi was last
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seen next was 19 year old Shelly Sykes whose blue Pinta was found abandoned on I-45
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in May of 1986. Suzanne Renee Richardson from Galveston was last seen on October 7 1988. combine
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these with the bodies of two Jane does both found in the killing field both unclaimed and unidentified
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the fields were not silent anymore many nights Laura Miller's Father Tim would go to The Killing Fields sitting
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alone in the dark listening to The Whispers In The Wind and waiting for his daughter's killer
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some nights he cried some he yelled and screamed and once in a while he slept the victims of the Killing Fields
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refused to be quiet and one by one they were located these are their stores [Music]
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thank you in October of 1983 25 year old Heidi FYE she along with her six-year-old daughter
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were staying at her parents house for a while on the evening of October 7th Heidi's father and a friend were
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watching a baseball game she told her father that she was going to go into town to see her boyfriend she
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thought that she could hitch a ride from someone at a nearby convenience store so she walked down to the store located
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on the corner of Hobbs Road and West Main Street this is quite near I-45 while Heidi never made it to see her
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boyfriend later the boyfriend called the house to talk to Heidi but learned that
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she was not there instead he ends up telling her parents that he had not heard from her so her father went out
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looking for her and he started with the convenience store he spoke to the clerk now to be clear this is a gas station
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slash convenience store so he spoke with the clerk and she remembered seeing Heidi and told Heidi's father that she
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had used the Payphone outside and then she had seen Heidi walk away six months later in April of 1984 at a
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home off of Calder Road this is a very rural area we have parents sitting on their front porch watching their toddler
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play in the front yard yeah as they watch their toddler play they're going to see their dog come out of the woods
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and the dog's going to have something in its mouth yeah first the parents thought
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that perhaps the dog had found a ball or something that someone had left behind in the woods well it wasn't until the
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dog got closer that they realized that this was not a ball in fact it was a skull the dog had brought it to the
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front yard and then dropped it near the toddler the police were called and they searched the area and about 300 yards
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from the house police found the skeleton of Heidi Phi and the skeleton is going to be found underneath a tree lying on
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its back yes this is in the area near the colder oil field they found her clothing and a necklace of hers nearby
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the medical examiner could not determine the car cause of death now she did have
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some broken ribs so it's been often speculated that she most likely was Beat to Death yeah and her remains are going
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to be found in a location later named The Killing Fields thirty-year-old Ellen Ray Beason who was last seen alive July
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1984. she was last seen drinking with a guy named Clyde Hendrick at a League City nightclub now Clyde Hendrick was
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there with her but there was also another couple and this couple was not super close with Clyde but the woman
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knew Ellen Beeson well and all of them all four of them had been part of the same little group that hung out at this
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nightclub you know most nights they would be there after work drinking since Beeson and Hendrick were still
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drinking when the couple had left eventually she had lost touch with her friend and not seen her friend in some
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time so she started to nag Hendrick Kyle Hendrick when he was when she would see
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him at the nightclub you know what happened to what happened to Beeson what happened to my friend where what did you
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guys do that night she was pressing Clyde Hendrick to tell her if he knew anything the woman says that Hendrick
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denied any knowledge of what could have happened to Ellen Beeson but she wasn't convinced so she figured that if she got
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him drunk well then he might talk this turns out her idea worked on a rainy November night this is four months after
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Beeson vanished Hendrick told the woman that he could take her to where Beeson was
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so she got in the car with him oh well that doesn't that seems like a bad idea yeah well Hendrick took her down Old
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Galveston Highway and pulled over into a stretch of woods not far from some railroad tracks uh he then grabbed a
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flashlight and the woman followed him down to a ravine that served as a dump for discarded Furniture appliances tires
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and old junk he led her to what news reports have consistently called a couch once there he aimed the light toward a
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nearly fleshless corpse at first the woman couldn't tell if it was really her friend Hendrick gave the body a little
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kick and when he did this the body shifted a bit and now the woman could see something she recognized around the
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neck of the body this was a necklace one that she had given to be yeah and at this point Hedrick is going to tell her
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a story and then he's later going to tell the same story to the police The Story Goes Like This he says that he and
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Beeson left the Texas Moon club that night in July 1984 and headed toward an abandoned sand pit in Dickinson that
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served as a popular swimming hole Beeson slipped out of her clothes and into the
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water while Hendrick smoked a joint in his truck then he noticed that his truck had got stuck on the way out to the
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swimming hole so he worked on this truck getting it out while Beeson continued to
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swim after a while he saw that beeson's body was floating in the swimming hole so he pulled her body from the water he
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administered CPR but she was still unresponsive so Hedrick carried her to his truck and he headed toward the
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hospital but then he panicked and feared that he might be accused of killing her
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so he took her to the spot that we just described and placed the couch on top of
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her Hedrick made one thing clear to this woman though he stated you know I hadn't
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killed Beeson but I wouldn't think twice about killing you if you told anyone ah
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so it's uh kind of a sign of guilty well this began in eight months of hell for this woman the woman said that Hedrick
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stalked her he turned up at the same stores when it was clear that he was he wasn't there to shop she would come home
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and find a piece of paper stuck in the screen door with a big c written on it as she says this is Clyde hedrick's
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calling card and even worse she said that sometimes she would come home and her two little
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boys well they would then tell her that a man had come by so whatever Hedrick wanted she gave him during this time for
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you know she was fearing for her kids lives finally on a night when her boys were
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visiting family out of town she decided to tell Hedrick she was done and she told him if you want to kill me go ahead
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and kill me because I'm not playing your game anymore the next day she led police
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to beeson's body right and at first hedrick's story makes some sense right some logical sense
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you know we were swimming uh she drowned I tried CPR I was taking her to the hospital I freaked out where it gets a
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little weird for me is once he tells the friend and then he starts basically threatening her yeah
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um and part of me as the friend would be going why would I be fearful of you if I
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believe his story why would I be fearful of him he didn't kill this girl it was an accident so chances are he's not
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going to kill me well of course the police and the prosecutors had trouble buying hedrick's story about beeson's
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death you know the skinny dipping related death uh but the Galveston County medical examiner found no
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evidence of Foul Play when he examined the body uh so Hedrick was he was charged and ultimately convicted of a
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misdemeanor of abusing a corpse he was sentenced to a year behind bars but the interesting thing here is while Hedrick
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was incarcerated right investigators with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office The League City police department
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and the FBI continued to probe the circumstances of Ellen beeson's death in September of 1984 we have Tim Miller his
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wife and 16 year old daughter Laura Miller they had recently moved into a home in League City Texas in search of a
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fresh new start for young Laura although they were they were from a town that was
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not too far away a new school is what the family was in search of and they believed that League City Texas had just
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the school and a Cozy home for them for this Fresh Start yeah you see that all the time Laura suffered from seizures uh
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for most of her life this caused some trouble for her at school she was different from the other kids and
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couldn't hide it because the seizures although infrequent seem to come at inopportune times Laura was pretty and
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very likable so she had no trouble fitting in in that sense but her parents believed the uncontrollable episodes
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first started affecting her schoolwork and then later her choice of friends a lot of the other kids parents were
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afraid to have Laura visit their home they especially did not want her to stay the night right worried that they would
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not know what what to do if she suffered a seizure at their home and a lot of the
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kids didn't want to stay at Laura's home as the seizures were just something that
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that most kids and teenagers didn't understand and of course we tend to be afraid of things that we don't
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understand I'll give you an example of a situation this poor young girl had to go
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through when Laura was about 11 or 12 she was in the choir at her school and everyone knows that the choir always
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puts on a good presentation some you know at Christmas time for the parents and students to celebrate the holiday
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season well they put on a presentation we don't know if it's good well they're all good
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um well most the time not Laura was selected for a solo and she had a seizure during her solo she was not in
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the choir for much longer after that the Miller family was stuck they were still
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unpacking at their new home they weren't quite settled into their new home yet and this is September 10th Laura asked
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her mother for a favor The Miller's home phone was not yet set up and she was missing some of her old friends and
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especially her boyfriend and wanted to talk to them and tell them about her new home and school so Laura asked her
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mother if she could take her to a nearby Payphone so she could make a couple of calls Laura's mother agreed they went to
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the gas station slash convenience store this is on the corner of Hobbs and Maine
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same one where Laura would use the outdoor Payphone to reconnect with some of her old friends
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Laura's mother waited in the car now after some time had passed it was time to leave Laura's mother had to go to
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work Laura begged her mother to let her stay reminding her that she is 16 years old and the gas station was only about a
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mile from their home and she could walk home Laura's mother agreed and after giving
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her daughter a few more quarters she waved goodbye and was on her way to work later that night when Laura's Father Tim
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got home from work he was surprised to see his daughter was not at the house as he waited for her to return he grew
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more nervous and decided to hop in his truck and go to a pay phone and check in with his wife maybe she had you know
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given Laura permission to go somewhere right um You can imagine how his nervousness
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though quickly changed to confusion and fear when he phones his wife and learned
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that she had left Laura alone at the gas station pay phone Tim raced to the actual gas station that they were
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talking about and he spoke with the clerk the clerk had not seen Laura didn't know where she was the night came
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and went and then the following day Tim drove to the League City police department and filed a missing persons
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report when the officer learned that Laura and her family had recently moved the
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officer assured Tim that the girl had simply taken off with some friends and this sort of thing happens all the time
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and it would only be a matter of time before she would turn up yeah that's your lazy answer the next night came and
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went and by now Laura's parents knew in their gut that Laura wouldn't have run away or just taken off for a while and
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they truly feared that she may have suffered a seizure somewhere or she could have been injured and unable to
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seek help you know their minds raced from thought to thought as they tried to figure out what could have happened to
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Laura as the weeks went by they began to lose any sense of hope then Tim Miller heard something that shook him to his
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core he learned that just a few months before the Miller family moved to League City a dog had dug up a human skull in
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an area off a Calder Road in League City leading the police to the rest of what turned out to be 25 year old woman who
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had disappeared in October of 1983. Heidi FYE lived with her parents as we had said but this was just about three
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blocks away from The Miller's new home right three blocks away they're also going to come to the realization that
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she used the same pay phone at the same convenience store that their their daughter used yes and so Tim Miller is
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more than disturbed by The Coincidence soon after Tim had a feeling that he wasn't really searching for Laura but
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searching for her body Miller Miller again went to the League City police department and this time he asked a
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detective if they'd search for Laura in the field where Hyde phi's body was found
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all that had been reported was that Phi was found in the 3000 block of Calder road so Tim didn't have an exact address
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or exact location of where this body was found right now the detective's response
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a dismissive eye roll right and he gave Tim a theory the detective said that Heidi FYE worked at a bar she was a
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cocktail waitress some guy probably took her out after closing time she wouldn't
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consent to sex there was a struggle and the guy killed her and dumped her Heidi phi's murder as far as he was concerned
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was an isolated incident even though that we saw her at the pay phone at the convenience store
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so so he's just making up random stuff you're going to be a lazy pile of dog dookie right
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don't be a cop okay in the days and weeks that followed Miller hounded the detectives he urged them to search the
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field for Laura or at least give him the exact location so he could search the field himself
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they told him to let them do their job and not to contact phi's family as the months then turned into a year
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Tim and his wife Jan Miller they were not dealing well with Laura's disappearance Tim began drinking quite
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heavily and then 17 months after Laura went missing Tim checked himself into a hospital that same day in February of
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1986 kids riding dirt bikes through the fields off of Calder Road smelled something rotten and they called the
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police this turned out to be the skeleton of a woman possibly 25 years old who had been shot in the back
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possibly from a 22 caliber weapon there was a bullet hole in her spine her body would have been dumped in the field
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within the previous six weeks she was described as I said as 25 years old five foot five to five foot eight inches tall
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140 to 160 pounds she had reddish brown hair and a distinct gap in her teeth she
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was lying about 200 feet from where Heidi Phi had been found they could tell that she was too old to
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be Laura Miller police had nothing to identify this woman and she had she had not been there long enough to be any of
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the other older missing women cases that we've had despite many efforts she has never been identified and is known today
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simply as Jane Doe then while the police were searching for more clues in this case they came upon
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another body just 20 yards away from Jane Doe the other body was identified as 16 year old Laura Miller no longer
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was she missing and turns out her father had been right right the medical examiner was unable to determine how or
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when Laura was killed now there there were three victims all found in that same area all had been
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killed and then placed there in less than a three-year time span they were all found lying on their backs and
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underneath of a tree someone had placed them there lying them out like they had simply gone to sleep forever under a
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tree yeah but you wonder if that means something the cases the causes of death were not considered the same Heidi had
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most likely been Beat to Death Jane Doe died of a gunshot and Laura's cause of death was unknown all three victims were
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white with shoulder-length brown hair brownish hair Tim Miller's emotions turned to anger when asked about the
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bodies being found in the field Tim Miller told the newspapers Jane Doe was killed and placed there after Laura
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maybe if the police had done their jobs Jane Doe may not have been killed and he
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said that he blames the Jane Doe's death on the police it's tough I mean with not
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every case do I want the parents or or the loved ones of the victims to go after the cops but some of these cases
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just seem so ridiculous and and again these lazy answers and this lazy uh police work you know maybe they are
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responsible for Jane Doe's death well Tim was not only angry with the police but he was angry with himself you know
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Laura was his daughter and he believed he was supposed to protect her he was also filled with guilt because he knew
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he should not have listened to the police he should he believed he should have gone against them and went to the
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fields and searched for his daughter or talked to the other you know victim's parents well if so he may have found her
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a long time ago and who knows what evidence would have come with that right a couple of months just before Christmas
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in 1986 Tim his wife Jan and their only other daughter this is uh her name is Wendy went to the location in the field
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where Laura's body was found Tim had constructed a large wooden cross they brought it to the spot now where she was
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found there is a cross the Millers believed that Laura should have two graves one of them being of their
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choosing and one in the field where she was found and the other thing we have to
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keep in mind here Captain is that at this time the police they had Laura's remains and they would not release them
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to the family for about three years wow so you know the family needed something it takes you three years to do autopsy
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and get all the information you need well in the family they believe that Laura deserved a resting place even in
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the meantime the family planted a tree at this location and placed some sentimental items around the cross but
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this would not be the last time or the last visit to the fields because for Tim Miller this area became sacred ground
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yeah this guy becomes I mean just he he almost acts like somebody in a movie what you imagine you
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would act like if this tragedy ever happened to your family well he was going to try to bury his pain and anger
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in the same field where Laura's killer had left her right Tim thought that the secret to finding his daughter's killer
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was the area you know the the location that they are now calling the killing field now let's talk about the name here
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for a second the name came from a movie that came out around this same time called The Killing Fields but it had
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nothing to do with the murders down in Texas this was about finding Mass graves in Cambodia after the Texas murder land
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near Calder field received the name the Texas Killing Field the murders gained national attention uh the killings along
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I-5 the Galveston serial killer and The Killing Fields were now big news it's just a shame that the big news didn't
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come with big results we'll get right back to part two of The Killing Fields trilogy right after this quick beer
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break [Music] all right cheers mates thanks for uh joining us in the garage well captain
00:24:36
now we have new detectives looking at these three new murders and the reason why we have new detectives is just like
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we said yesterday you know eventually our story the victims in this story will span the course of Three Counties and we
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will have many different police and Sheriff's departments investigating these murders so the new detectives that
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are looking for answers in the three killing field murders they were hindered by one of the same problems that plagued
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most of the investigations into the murders that took place in the 70s the bodies sat there for quite some time and
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evidence was lost hairs fibers fingerprints tire and shoe tracks all washed away
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but the victims in the 80s presented another problem in all three cases police were certain all three had been
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killed elsewhere and then brought and dumped in the field several investigators pointed out that they
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didn't have a crime scene to deduce what had occurred or who was to blame for the
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bodies they only had bodies to look at no crime scene let's talk a little bit more about Tim Miller the father of
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Laura Miller yeah he began spending most of his time in the field where Laura's body was found in the evenings after
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work when it was still daylight he would search the field looking for Clues looking for anything sometimes he did
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this on foot other times on Horseback after dark Tim would sit in the field or in his truck drinking beer and smoking
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cigarettes Tim believed that Laura's killer would return to the field one night and if he did well Tim would be
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there and Tim could get the guy's plate number or confront him or maybe even kill him and leave him there in the
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field well I believe he was out there with with the gun yeah many nights Tim stayed in the oil field all in the field
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all night sometimes cursing the killer sometimes cursing God and sometimes even cursing Laura uh Tim would cry out to
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the killer asking him why doesn't he come out into the field and kill him or at least try to on some occasions as you
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said Tim brought his gun with him sometimes this was for protection other times might be to kill the man that
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killed his daughter on one of these nights uh whether it was out of anger or if it was simply an experiment only Tim
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might know for sure but Tim pointed his gun to the sky and he pulled the trigger
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until it was out of bullets well then he waited and he waited and yet no one came not the police not
00:27:06
anyone at all and you know he started to wonder did anyone hear did they even hear the shots that he fired that night
00:27:13
Tim doesn't think so well and you wonder how much of this is also just I mean he's heavily drinking you know as he is
00:27:21
he uh make believe in any of this is he fallen asleep and having any odd dreams about him being out there what was real
00:27:30
and what was uh what was fictitious and all this drinking and anger turned into more drinking and then the addition of
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drugs and grief Tim lost his job and his marriage Tim and Jan's marriage started
00:27:43
to fall apart when Lord disappeared and it only got worse after they found her body there was a lot of arguing and at
00:27:50
times they blamed each other for what happened maybe if they hadn't moved to a new home or maybe if Jan hadn't left
00:27:57
lore at the gas station maybe if Tim was more understanding none of this would have happened they didn't just blame
00:28:03
each other they blame themselves and all this would prove to be too much right and like we've talked about before the
00:28:10
success rate of a marriage goes down by tons of percentage once you lose a child
00:28:16
all right we have to back up here just a little bit Captain to Memorial Day Weekend
00:28:22
1986. uh and introduced 19 year old Shelly Sykes Shelley attended the University of Texas she had a boyfriend
00:28:30
in a job she was a waitress at a very busy and very popular seafood restaurant in Galveston this is one of those
00:28:37
Captain D's no nothing like that this is one of those places that everyone says you have to try and if you are just
00:28:44
visiting the island for a long weekend to enjoy the beach well Long John Silver's this is a place that is a must
00:28:51
stop before you go home I guess this restaurant's been around since like 1911 or something like that but anyway Shelly
00:28:58
worked at this place now her father and her boy boyfriend didn't love Shelly working on Galveston they both kind of
00:29:05
thought the place to be a bit of a Sin City you know everyone travels there for fun in the sun there's lots of drinking
00:29:12
lots of parties and let's not forget Shelley's father uh would be old enough to remember all of the horror stories
00:29:20
about all the murdered and missing women and girls from the 70s so Shelley was there working late she
00:29:28
left work around 11 30 p.m that night after clocking out Shelly went out to the parking lot and hopped in her 1980
00:29:36
blue Ford Pinto she lived with her father and stepmother and would typically get home around midnight on
00:29:43
these late night shifts and hang out with her father for a bit for some late night TV before turning in well on this
00:29:50
night her father was out of town on a trip with some friends so Shelly after work intended to drive out to her
00:29:57
boyfriend's house to watch some movies well after more than enough time had passed for Shelley to arrive her
00:30:03
boyfriend Mark became concerned Mark called the restaurant and spoke with a co-worker of Shelley's only to hear what
00:30:09
he had expected that Shelley had left a long time ago worried Shelly may have had some car trouble of sorts Mark then
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drove from his house to the restaurant and back when he got back to his house he asked his father to go with him and
00:30:25
search for Shelley in the blue Ford Pinto once again they tried to retrace Shelley's route isn't that crazy that's
00:30:32
what we used to have to do 80s and 90s you know before cell phones you just you know you'd have you'd have that Gap when
00:30:41
you went from one place to another place it would be that Gap in time where now it's like you could make a cell phone
00:30:47
call well this time what they were going to do they were going to have Mark's father he would drive while Mark he
00:30:54
would keep his eyes glued to the sides of the highway looking for her vehicle eventually Mark spotted the car Mark
00:31:01
pointed out the vehicle to his father and they approached the vehicle they could see that the dome light was on
00:31:08
inside of her car all of the doors were closed they hopped out of their vehicle and ran up to of the car now the first
00:31:15
thing that they notice is that the driver side window had been smashed and there was glass on the outside of the
00:31:21
car and more lying on the inside and it makes you start to wander you know did Shelley have car problems park the car
00:31:27
leave the car maybe start walking and somebody came by and tried to break into the car the two men noticed blood this
00:31:36
is blood on the glass and blood on the car door they notified authorities Shelley's father who was out of town he
00:31:43
was notified as well police arrived on the scene and Shelley's father he was racing toward Galveston to try to figure
00:31:51
out what had happened to his daughter in her car now Shelley's boyfriend and his
00:31:55
father noticed that the responders to the situation they were concerned that there had been a car accident the
00:32:03
officers took a report and they asked Mark if he wanted to get the car off the road and return it to Shelly's home now
00:32:11
Mark he's the boyfriend his father stepped in he interrupted the officer explaining that he was convinced that
00:32:18
there had not been a traffic accident at all he believed that something awful may
00:32:22
have happened and he told them that he would not be taking the car anywhere he wanted the officer to have the car
00:32:29
picked up by one of you know somebody with the police department right so they can investigate the car and secure the
00:32:35
car and then search it for evidence after some convincing the officers agreed to do this oh they decided to do
00:32:43
their job well now the following day at the police department some people came forward having seen the blue Pinto
00:32:51
involved in some strange and alarming activity the prior night first was a couple of drivers from two different
00:32:58
cars that had seen the pinto they told officers they had witnessed the pinto in a brief but dangerous car chase
00:33:06
Shelley's car was being chased by a pickup truck after the truck pursued the vehicle and
00:33:13
forced it to the side of the road A man jumped out of the truck and pulled his shirt off he then wrapped the shirt
00:33:19
around his fist and he began pounding and punching the driver's side window until he smashed it
00:33:25
the man then reached through the broken glass and into the car and pulled Shelly
00:33:30
through the window and out of the car she's a Shelly fought the man and grabbed at the car window as the man
00:33:37
carried her Kicking and Screaming back to his truck one of the witnesses said something to the man and I don't need to
00:33:46
use any of the language that the man used that night do you want me to use it but but basically he told them uh that
00:33:52
what they had witnessed was some kind of domestic dispute it was none of their business and they should leave when the
00:34:00
witness started to speak to the man again the man then motioned as though he was going to pull out a gun so the
00:34:07
witnesses left a composite drawing was made of this suspect but neither of the witnesses got a plate number from this
00:34:16
guy's truck so of course the police they're investigating this crime but they they don't have a whole lot to go
00:34:23
on well they start investigating Shelley's boyfriend of course Mark um and he did cooperate uh in the
00:34:31
investigation he offered to assist them as much as he could in the investigation
00:34:35
now after some time it went by on this case uh Shelley's father in a moment of desperation he picked up the phone and
00:34:43
he called John Walsh now at this time John Walsh was a bit of you know he was an advocate for missing persons uh he
00:34:52
had not become a TV personality by this point but he called John Walsh and he asked him for it of advice you know I'm
00:34:59
looking for my daughter what can I do John Walsh told him do whatever you can to keep this case in the media if you
00:35:07
keep the case in the media you keep it alive in the newspapers and you keep the police officers out of the coffee shops
00:35:14
and you keep them on the streets doing their job right well after a while into the investigation police eventually got
00:35:22
another eyewitness this time the eyewitness backed up the two previous eyewitness statements but added a bit of
00:35:30
a Twist this eyewitness had seen another man inside the pickup truck right that would make sense after more than eight
00:35:38
months nothing seemed to be happening with the case they were running out of leads the family wasn't getting any
00:35:44
answers and then in another moment of desperation again Shelley's father picked up the phone this time he called
00:35:50
the FBI he spoke with the supervising agent and he said you know have you let me tell you about my daughter that went
00:36:00
missing and nothing seems to be happening with this case he asked the man do you have any kids and the kid the
00:36:06
guy said yes and he said have you ever been in a shopping mall or been in a grocery store and you turn around and
00:36:13
your kid has disappeared and that moment of fear and nervousness that just takes
00:36:19
over your body and he said yes of course he says well I've been doing this for 9
00:36:24
I've been doing this for eight months for eight months I've had this feeling I've been looking for my daughter
00:36:31
so the FBI eventually sends out two investigators to help the local officers in their search for Shelley and still
00:36:41
the investigation kind of drags on with really no new information as the one-year anniversary approached of
00:36:48
Shelley Sykes disappearance the family refused to give up hope they started pushing local newspapers to carry the
00:36:56
story again they started putting up Billboards seeking information and they put out more flyers by this time they
00:37:03
had put out like 300 000 Flyers looking for their daughter well then one month later something happened this is on June
00:37:11
22nd 1987. a man called 9-1-1 begging for help the man was staying in a hotel and he had tried to hang himself and he
00:37:21
had also slit his wrist when the police arrived they found two suicide notes in one of the notes the man wrote that he
00:37:30
was involved in the kidnapping of Shelly Sykes the man was 29 year old John King
00:37:35
King was taken to the hospital and the next day he was interviewed by the police at the hospital now King not only
00:37:43
implicated himself but implicated a friend of his as having been involved in the kidnapping as well and this is
00:37:51
Gerald's worst after King was released from the hospital he was interviewed again this
00:37:57
time at Police Headquarters and the interview would be videotaped when asked about the night that the girl had gone
00:38:04
missing King told the investigators that he and zworst had been out fishing all day they were drinking smoking pot and
00:38:10
PCP that night oh there's a problem around midnight they were driving off of Galveston Island when they spotted
00:38:19
a young girl driving in her car well they gestured at her the men were were now following her car pulling up next to
00:38:27
her and trying to flirt with Shelley eventually Shelley gave the men the bird and tried to speed away from them King
00:38:35
told the cops that zworst was driving and that he just went crazy he forced the girl off of the road and the busted
00:38:42
out her window now it sounds like some Wayne Brady stuff King wasn't able to give really great detailed information
00:38:50
or maybe he was and he was just withholding it but he claimed that he was extremely high and drunk that night
00:38:58
and he was in a bit of a drug and alcohol Haze through this whole deal he said that the men took Shelley to king's
00:39:06
parents house and took her back to the woods behind the house King said that zworst then took a shovel and Shelly
00:39:15
into the woods King didn't know how long they were gone but Shelley didn't come back right so Shelley's remains should
00:39:22
be you know on this guy's property and the thing here is Captain King wasn't really certain how Shelley had died or
00:39:29
at least he couldn't tell investigators how she had died he said that maybe she was hit with the shovel or maybe she was
00:39:36
buried alive um basically what ends up coming this comes down to is we have two guys picked
00:39:43
up for this and ultimately they would just simply blame one another they both admitted to being together that night
00:39:50
they both admitted to chasing her car and pulling her out of the vehicle but when it came to the actual events of
00:39:58
what happened once she was in the truck or once they got back to King's property
00:40:04
um they they differed on their stories of who was to blame and whose idea it was to to kill the girl there was a lot
00:40:11
of problems with this case because one thing that happened was it seemed like the guys or at least one of the guys was
00:40:19
Will willing to lead the police to the body of Shelley Sykes the problem Captain was that they both
00:40:26
lawyered up and once they lawyered up they were no longer willing to lead them to the body
00:40:33
police went out there and I mean they they searched with everything that they could anything that you could think of
00:40:38
all means they never found Shelly Sykes body what eventually happened was the two men were charged with kidnapping but
00:40:47
they were not charged with murder and I think you know that's a bit of a letdown but in a way I think it's a bit
00:40:55
of a brilliant move by the prosecutor because at that time in Texas as far as murder and kidnapping went they both
00:41:04
carried pretty much the same punishment right and here here's was the prosecutor's thought was this you know
00:41:11
without a body and now I have two guys blaming one another uh who are going to be in separate trials it's going to be
00:41:19
hard to get a murder conviction now of course they do have the death penalty for capital murder down there but the
00:41:26
problem is you know if you can't get the death penalty then you're looking at a life sentence well kidnapping carries
00:41:32
the same punishment carries the life sentence yeah so he thought you know what let's let's do this let's go after
00:41:38
kidnapping because they had a solid Surefire win case when it came to kidnapping they had a very weak case
00:41:46
when it came to a situation of murder charge them with kidnapping got the conviction and then the thought is this
00:41:52
if the body is ever recovered if they do find it eventually then they could have
00:41:57
potentially go back and seek the death penalty against one or both of these guys so we got these two clowns we've
00:42:04
got zorst and King right and we know that they're responsible for her kidnapping we both agree they're
00:42:10
responsible for her murder 100 and so what's weird about The Killing Fields is that there is this you know huge
00:42:18
timeline for one right right we got 70s 80s 90s and then we also have these cases within
00:42:26
the overall case where we know that these individuals are responsible for this murder but are they responsible for
00:42:33
maybe possibly another one right and then is this just a big Dumping Ground and so is that you know so not all the
00:42:42
cases follow under one killer but how many of them are connected I mean there could be six killers
00:42:49
well in this situation they're connected by the location where the bodies are found and like you said so at this point
00:42:55
in our story we have zworst and King who are spending the rest of their lives in
00:42:59
prison for kidnapping and like you said we know they killed that poor girl we also have uh Clyde Hedrick who is
00:43:07
serving just that one year sentence for the abuse of a corpse but at the same time what took place here in the 80s is
00:43:14
we had these three bodies that were found in that field near Calder Road and there's no there's we don't have any
00:43:21
guilty party we don't have anybody in handcuffs for one or any of those murders and furthermore we have one
00:43:27
victim that's that's remains unidentified right and we still have some of those victims from the 70s with
00:43:34
no answers no leads well and a quick follow-up before we close out the 1980s regarding Clyde Hedrick remember he got
00:43:42
the abuse of a corpse charge received one year sentence for that yeah he is the one that was claiming he went
00:43:48
swimming with his girlfriend friend he found her face up took her CPR and then put her out by the trash correct now
00:43:56
remember the medical examiner couldn't find a cause of death they couldn't find any
00:44:02
um they didn't see any evidence of Foul Play right when they reviewed the body well he ended up spending one year like
00:44:09
you said earlier he got one year in the clink well remember we said that the FBI
00:44:14
and the sheriff's department they were going to continue to look in and investigate that situation while he was
00:44:22
sitting in prison so ultimately what they ended up doing was they exhumed the body of Ellen Ray Beason and when they
00:44:30
looked at it a second time through different eyes they were able to determine that the cause of death was
00:44:36
actually homicide it wasn't an accidental death it wasn't a drowning like they had originally thought right
00:44:42
they found that she had been struck in the head there was obvious signs of of trauma to that to the skull right you
00:44:49
figured they would have got that the first time well would be many years later captain that he would ultimately
00:44:55
be sentenced to prison he would receive 20 years in prison for the 1984 beating death of Ellen Ray Beason
00:45:06
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