TX TX - Shirley Gremminger, 50, Dallas, 29 Oct 1985

Does anyone have any information about the October 29, 1985 murder in Dallas, Texas of Shirley Gremminger ? I did not know if there had been anyone who had confessed to her murder. Her daughter is an old friend of mine, and my thoughts have been on her and her family lately. The one old article that I did read seemed that the case was greatly mishandled by the police department.

This looks ominous:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/256658/DALLAS-IS-CLEARED-OF-LIABILITY-IN-DEATH.html?pg=all

Gosh, poor woman. She died of asphyxiation, from having her nose and mouth covered in tape. A horrible, terrifying death...

Those cops should have better investigated that 4am call. They walked right up to her door, apparently.

Though she was probably already dead by 4.30 am, 12 hours before the police actually entered her apartment.

http://newspaperarchive.com/duncanville-suburban/1985-11-21/page-16

For the police to not even knock on the door is inexcusable.

It's been a while since anyone has posted on this thread. I want to make it known that I may have a potential suspect in Shirley's murder. For a very long time I have been looking into a serial killer named Frank Duane Welch who killed a relative of mine. I have recently gotten some more information on him and his other possible murders and I have gotten even more serious about looking into his other possible victims who are not connected to him yet. I have suspicions on whether Shirley could be one of his other victims. Her murder is incredibly similar to his two known murders. Welch killed his known victims in Feb 1987 (Talley Cooper) and May 1987 (Debra Stevens). Both were raped and killed by ligature strangulation. They were found in their homes (no signs of forced entry), nude, bound with their hands behind their backs, with a ligature tied around their neck that was connected to the bindings on their hands. Both victims were gagged, with Talley having duct tape over her mouth and Debra being gagged with toilet or tissue paper stuffed in her mouth. They were both found on their backs spread eagle - Talley was found in her living room and I believe Debra was found in her bedroom. If you read the details of Shirley's rape and murder, you'll probably notice some of the similarities between her murder and these two. From newspaper articles, Shirley was also raped and murdered by strangulation (ligature strangulation presumably, since a cord was found wrapped around her neck). Her hands were bound behind her back and she had tape over her eyes and nose (presumably her mouth too? Unless she was able to get it off her mouth and that is how she called for help?). I don't have more in-depth details about how she was found and if that also matches up or not with Welch's other murders. I do have one more article about her murder that I have to track down again. I will post that tomorrow.

Welch was convicted on the separate 1987 Oklahoma rapes and murders of Talley Cooper and Debra Stevens in 1998 and was executed for Talley's murder in 2007. He also was convicted of an attempted kidnapping and murder of a young woman in Tulsa, OK in 1994. Welch grew up in Bonham, Texas and lived in areas of Texas for periods of his adult life along with areas in Oklahoma. He has an indecent exposure charge and conviction in Dallas in 1984 and a credit card abuse charge in Dallas in 1986, so he was definitely in the Dallas area around the time Shirley was murdered.

I reached out to the Dallas Cold Case Squad over a month ago to talk with them about this further, but have not heard back despite sending a detailed email and leaving a voicemail a week later. I'm in the middle of about 10 different cases that I'm helping with right now so I haven't been able to fully hound them about it yet to confirm this case is still unsolved and see if any DNA has been developed. I do intend to pursue this further to see what is going on in this case and if there's any chance Welch could be connected.
Here is my more detailed post about him and his killings: TX - Frank Duane Welch Unconnected victims ~1979-1994 TX, OK, WY, CO

Shirley was a mother and the ex-wife of Hank Gremminger (they divorced in 1973), who was a famous football player for the packers. I've attached a picture of a younger Shirley that was posted with her engagement announcement to Hank in 1955. I don't know if Frank Duane Welch is responsible for murdering her, but I would like that possibility explored. If he didn't do it, I want the man responsible to be identified and justice for Shirley!

Here is another article I found about Shirley Gremminger's murder from Nov 1, 1985 in the Dallas Morning Newspaper.