Just off the Interstate known as the “Highway of Hell,” is the “Texas Killing Field”. Why? Because it has become a prime dumping ground for bodies. Authorities first thought it was all the work of one serial killer throughout the 1970s. But decades have brought the discoveries of over 30 bodies in this patch marked by abandoned oil fields and marshes. In most cases, the monsters responsible for these heinous murders remain unsolved. Often the precise location of the murders is a mystery as well. The only known connection is that the bodies ended up in the Texas Killing Field.
It began with 13-year-old Colette Wilson
This stretch of land’s sinister reputation was born in June of 1971, with the discovery of 13-year old Colette Wilson. Taken from a bus stop after band practice, it seemed she’d vanished, for five months no one knew what happened to her. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, her body was found in the Texas Killing Fields.
Two weeks later 14-year-old Brenda Jones was taken
On July 1, 1971, just two weeks after Colette’s disappearance, another girl, 14-year-old Brenda Jones disappeared. She went to visit a sick family member in the hospital and was never seen alive again. Her body was found floating in Galveston Bay, like Colette, she was killed by a head wound.
The disappearances climbed throughout the 1970s
On August 4, 1971, Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw also vanished from Galveston, Texas. On October 28, 1971, it seemed Gloria Gonzales just dropped off the face of the earth. Her remains were discovered 35 yards from Colette Wilson’s.
By the end of the 70s, 11 teenage girls were found in the Texas Killing Fields
Debbie Ackerman (15-yrs old) and Maria Johnson (15-yrs old), were murdered and dumped in the Texas Killing Field. Found naked from the waist down, hands and feet bound and shot in the head. Police were sure they had a serial killer on their hands. These horrific murders continued with a total of 11 teenage and adolescent girls murdered and dumped here throughout the 1970s.
The investigation was going nowhere
These cases were a nightmare for everyone involved, there was no method to the madness. The police had very little to go on. Tragically, the wave of murders in the 1970s went, mostly unsolved.
Michael Lloyd Self was suspected of killing Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Johnson in 1971. He even signed a confession. Unfortunately, his written and verbal confessions didn’t match up, nor did his account of events. There wasn’t evidence tying him to the murders and his confession was coerced. It’s widely believed that he didn’t do it. He may have been a killer, but he wasn’t the killer they were looking for. He died in prison without ever being exonerated for the murders.
The confession of Edward Harold Bell
In 1996, Edward Harold Bell bragged about killing 11 girls in Galveston County back in the 1970s. While locked up for an unrelated murder he wrote the confession in a letter. He called them his “Eleven That Went to Heaven.” However, there wasn’t any physical evidence connecting him to the murders. He’d also “confessed” to involvement in a secret government program, that brainwashed him into becoming a killer and a rapist.
The brutality didn’t end with the decade
The 1980s weren’t any tamer. Another decade of Killing Field horrors began flooding in with the discovery of 12-year-old Brooks Bracewell and 14-year-old Georgia Geer. Both had gone missing while visiting a local convenience store. They went missing in 1974 but the case wasn’t worked as a homicide until 1981.
Another wave hit the field throughout the 1980s
In 1986, the body of 13-year-old Krystal Jean Baker – a relative of Norma Jean Baker (aka Marilyn Monroe), disappeared. Her body was discovered under an interstate bridge over the infamous stretch of land. She had been raped, beaten, and strangled to death. It took 26 years for her killer to finally be brought to justice. Kevin Edison Smith was arrested on unrelated charges and had a DNA test. Once his DNA was entered into the system, it triggered a match to the stains on Krystal’s dress and underwear. He was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life without parole in April 2012.
Laura Miller & Heidi Fye were last seen in the same location
One of the more famous unsolved cases is 16-year old Laura Miller, who vanished on September 10, 1984. The store she was last seen in, was also the last place 23-year-old Heide Villareal-Fye was seen. Fye’s body was discovered in the old oil field section of the Killing Fields. Laura Miller’s body was found in the fields by local children out playing.
Laura’s father, Tim Miller, didn’t feel law enforcement was handling the investigation properly. He’d constantly check in on them, demanding they go check the field where Heide Fye was found. They didn’t and they wouldn’t. He has spent the last 30-years trying to find the man who brutalized his daughter. He continued to search for clues on his own, even rented 25-acres near the spot Laura’s body was found.
Jessica Cain’s disappearance has finally been solved
More murders and disappearances would follow throughout the 1990s. There wasn’t a pattern; some victims were shot, some strangled, and some brutally beaten to death. There was no known connection other than the field itself. One of the most well-known cases during the 90s is the disappearance of 17-year-old Jessica Cain. She went missing On Aug 17, 1997. Her pickup truck was found on the side of the I-45, but she had vanished.
Another heartbreaking (but solved) case is Laura Smither
Two weeks before Jessica’s disappearance, a 12-year-old name Laura Smither had also vanished while out for a jog. Her body was found 17 days later.
Laura & Jessica were killed by the same monster
Convicted sex offender William Lewis Reece was charged in the deaths of Laura Smither and Jessica Cain. He was also charged with the murders of 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston and 20-year-old Kelli Cox. All four girls went missing in 1997 within four months of each other.
Reece was already serving a 60-year prison sentence for kidnapping when he led Texas police to Cain and Cox’s remains.
There’s simply too much land for law enforcement to monitor
It’s impossible for police to monitor every square inch of these massive fields. The environment is eerie even without knowing its history. It’s literally the best-known place in the entire country to dump a body – and that’s according to law enforcement professionals. It’s easy to access – a quick jump off of I-45, pick a dirt road and there you have it. You’ll come out to a marsh, or heavily wooded area, or complete nothingness. It’s 25-miles of uninhabited wasteland, a mile off the Interstate.
Brutal murders, vicious rapes, and beatings… so much blood has soaked into this soil. The Texas Killing Field has witnessed so many horrific crimes it seems as if the land itself is some insidious evil.
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