GUILTY TX - Heather Willms, 21, murdered, Leon Valley, 21 Feb 2005 *Arrest*

Damnit_Charlie

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Whenever I went to visit my mothers grave I would always place a flower on Heather Willm's grave. Since I did not know her and I am not related, I don't know much about the case. The murder happened in her apartment and it was violent, which shocks me that her murderer was never captured. I spoke to a male friend of hers who was visiting her grave and at that time, he refused to give DNA. I found out later this individual was removed as a suspect. Her murder will always upset me until the person her murdered is captured and punished. I don't want her to be forgotten :(

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/TexasRangers/UnsolvedHomicides/Details.aspx?&id=55
Heather Ann Willms, a 21 year old white female, was a 2001 graduate of O'Connor High School. She had attended college at San Antonio College and Texas Lutheran University. She had five siblings and was well liked by many friends. She was a member of the Zion Lutheran Church in Helotes. On Monday, 02-21-2005, Heather failed to show up for work as a waitress at Champs Americana Restaurant. Her friends subsequently located her inside her residence in Leon Valley during the early morning hours of Tuesday, 02-22-2005. Heather had been brutally murdered.
 
I did some research on her case-and there's hardly anything out there. I am very familiar with Leon Valley-some of my closest relatives live/have lived there. My concern in this case is the size of the investigating law enforcement agency -which from what I have read-is the Leon Valley Police Department. Did some research there too. They have only 17 police officers. The website for their police department is very barren-not much to look at, so I am not sure about their number of robbery-homicide detectives. And I checked crime stats for 2005-there were only 2 murders that year, even though San Antonio had many, many more. I wonder how in-depth her murder was investigated?
You mentioned you didn't know her but you spoke to a male friend visiting her grave etc. I am wondering if you called LVPD and reported the guy visiting her grave? Is that how you found out the guy is not a suspect?
I also found that Champs is no longer open in that area? http://www.yelp.com/biz/champps-americana-san-antonio
The anniversary of her death will be coming up in a few short months. Maybe you can contact media and ask them to run a cold-case story on her.

From reading her obit and news stories she seemed very bright and accomplished, as well as beautiful. I hope something will break in her case.
 
Here is some more recent media on her:

http://www.kens5.com/story/news/local/2014/06/25/10381580/

If you have any information on the case call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP. You could earn up to $5,000 if that information leads to an arrest.

She was stabbed to death with no sign of forced entry. It would be interesting to see the file. It is interesting that her friends went to her house-friends from the place where she worked?
 
What a beautiful young woman with virtually no press on her slaying.

No visible sign of forced entry? I think this rules out strangers or even acquaintances.

I used to think the term "getting away with murder" was stupid since no one really gets away with it right? But looking at these cold cases makes me realize I'm wrong.
 
I think this is a solvable crime, at least on the surface but maybe hope springs eternal with me. I would love to know more such as who the friends were who went to find her-friends from work? Does the crime have similarities to other crimes? KWIM??

I wonder if we could get some media interested in the area. :)
 
I also wish there was more info about this cold case. Did the police question everyone she knew, ex-bf's etc... No sign of forced entry leaves me to believe she knew her killer. Do they have a motive? Was there anything missing from the apartment? So many questions, such little coverage. R.I.P beautiful intelligent Heather.
 
I think this is a solvable crime, at least on the surface but maybe hope springs eternal with me. I would love to know more such as who the friends were who went to find her-friends from work? Does the crime have similarities to other crimes? KWIM??

I wonder if we could get some media interested in the area. :)

Right. Bottom line is, SOMEONE knows something, but without a push, no one is going to feel motivated to talk, sadly. Maybe we could track down some local news sources and see if they'd be interested? If many of us push at the same time, perhaps...
 
From what the guy told me at the cemetery the boyfriend was questioned. But i do not know the facts. The Texas Rangers were handling the case and I believe the San Antonio Homicide department took over from there. I did go speak to the Leon Valley Police department and Raymond Roberts from the San Antonio homicide department. I think the person I spoke to at the graveyard was cleared as a suspect. I do not know my rights when obtaining these records and i felt like i might be prying, since i did not know her or her family. Maybe if the family created a Facebook page and invited all her friends she knew.. perhaps someone would talk. I wish i knew how to scrub the net using keywords to websites that are not spidered by Google or other search engines to try and find conversions. I wish there was ALLOT MORE coverage about her murder. Knowing someone did get away with this makes me very sad and sick!
 
I was hoping her parents; friends or relatives would see this and get involved. No, Leon Valley doesn't have much crime. From what I was told she left her sliding door opened and her friends knew about this. There was one other random murder not far from Leon Valley that happened several years after's Heather Willms but he was caught. I’m assuming the person who murdered Heather Willm’s knew she kept her sliding door unlocked at the apartment where she lived. I don’t think anyone heard her screaming either which is very odd. Let me find the news article of the other murder. http://www.kens5.com/story/local/2015/03/07/10640982/
 
I also wish there was more info about this cold case. Did the police question everyone she knew, ex-bf's etc... No sign of forced entry leaves me to believe she knew her killer. Do they have a motive? Was there anything missing from the apartment? So many questions, such little coverage. R.I.P beautiful intelligent Heather.

I'm hoping Heather Willm's relatives will see this and answer questions
 
I haven't kept up with Heather Graham and the idiot that killed her. I did just read how the judge allowed some of criminal records to be open. I'm horrible at navigating through forums. Did the judge allow all the video footage to become public? In my opinion, this is where the average citizen could help out by watching the footage very closely and catching credible evidence that the homicide department might have missed. I hope the Virginia police department made every business give them their video footage or just asked all business's because it's hard to believe that every video didn't reveal something extremely incriminating. The homicide department doesn't have the time to watch all footage over and over again but I could and so could you. If you have the time, watch the Kelsey Smith murder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdsSNuwpLRU and you will see what I mean.
I also wish there was more info about this cold case. Did the police question everyone she knew, ex-bf's etc... No sign of forced entry leaves me to believe she knew her killer. Do they have a motive? Was there anything missing from the apartment? So many questions, such little coverage. R.I.P beautiful intelligent Heather.
 
Some of these comments shed a little light about apartments she lived in. If anyone can find more I think it would interesting to read them. I cannot help but think someone would have had to post something regarding witnessing or hearing something. :) It seems like some comments were removed

5650 Grissom Rd, San Antonio, TX 78238
Location


A girl was murdered in one of these apartments so don't ever let your guard down and you might request not to be placed in that apartment. By the way, the security gates won't help you. The apartment manager said that they wouldn't have prevented the murder because they are just there for "peace of mind." I am sure she doesn't tell that to her future residents. The appliances are out of date and the maintenance doesn't fix the real problem they just jerry rig it to make it work for a while. The air doesn't circulate very well in these apartments and every time I run the dishwasher, I smell something like mold or rotting wood. Overall this place is a rip off.




I recently moved into these apts. & the first thing I have to say is that it is super scary when you're alone! But overall, I really like these apts, the staff is sooo nice!
But I've heard a girl was murdered here. I don't know much about that, but whoever is reading this, can you please give me some info. Thank you.


anonymous
There was a girl murdered there about 6 years ago. Her name was Heather if I remember correctly, she was 22, lived alone, and it was before the gates were installed. There is (or was) an old, albeit brief, review on here about it, if you look back to 2005. Management will avoid talking about it, most likely they will lie if you ask, but call the Leon Valley P.D., that's how I found out more after hearing the story on the news when her mother returned to the apartment complex, the reporter said that she does it every year on the anniversary of her daughters death. You won't find anything about it on line, but the police department will tell you. The killer was never found. It's a scarier place than you know, I was there for almost a year and I regret every second of it, though I felt a tad bit safer after investing in a stun gun. Don't be surprised if this review of yours disappears. I've posted a negative one before, and it did not last long (I also see that a few other negatives have 'mysteriously' vanished since I read them...), though I assure you management will deny that it or the others were ever posted here. I wish you luck, and sincerely hope that you have a MUCH different, less terrifying experience at the place than I did. Stay safe, avoid going anywhere on the grounds at night, and leave NOTHING in your car. I will say though, the night patrol man is wonderful, so don't hesitate to call him. He genuinely tries to keep the place somewhat safe, and seemed actually somewhat angry about the pedestrian gates ALWAYS being.


there is some weird shirtless man who constantly stares at me and my roommates.

OVERALL:
Do not lease hear they trick you with smiles and cookies, once the contract is signed you might as well sign your soul over. This is a terrible experience and I'm counting the days til i can move out. i do not wish this this horrible fate upon anyone even the murderer!

I lived in Shadow Ridge for about 15 months. I will start of by describing the pros of this apartment community.

Pros:

1. Nice looking apartments. The apartments themselves are quite nice for the price point and in comparison to other options around. Crown-molding, laminate flooring in dining areas, kitchen, and entry way, black appliances that are relatively new (5-7 years old).

2. Maintenance. The maintenance staff here was the best of any apartment complex I've lived in. Any problem we had was fixed within 24 hours and all the workers were very nice and respectful. We had out bathtub crack/leak twice while we lived there and it was fixed at no cost in a timely matter. Our water heater was also replaced by a brand new one when ours broke.

Unfortunately that's it for the pros.

Cons:

1. Safety. If you have children do not, I repeat, do not move into this neighborhood! The management/advertising people do a great job of hiding it, but Shadow Ridge is a Section 8 low-income subsidized housing complex. If you are unfamiliar with this, it simply means there are extremely poor/low-life people that live here and have part or all of their rent paid by the government. While living here there were police called on a weekly basis. I was personally interviewed by a SWAT team member when they came to my door asking if I knew anything about a meth lab/crack den that was in a building around us. My wife wouldn't leave the apartment after dark without me due to being followed by strangers in the parking lot or getting cat-calls from cars passing by.

2. Move-out fees. Expect to pay 1-2 months rent EXTRA on top of your deposit upon move out. We lost our $800 deposit plus another $1500 upon move-out. Why? We were charged $1200 for new carpet throughout our apartment (our carpet was pristine when we left, no stains, no tears, we even steam cleaned it ourselves 3 times while we lived there), $150 for painting when even management admitted all they did was spot paint over holes from picture frames/paintings, and lastly $150 for cleaning. As a tenant, there is nothing you can do to fight these fees because the lease is written in such a way that gives the Shadow Ridge management group complete rights to charge you with any fee for anything they decide is called "damage".

3. The walls. I heard my upstairs neighbors having sex weekly. Now, I have no issues with people having sex as loudly as they want...and I do expect to hear some things through the walls...but it was like they were having sex in my room. I could hear every moan, scream, grunt, etc. I don't fault my neighbors with this at all...they should be able to go at it as loud as they want. But these apartments had the worst walls out of any apartment I've lived in (4 total).

where I had to call the police due to shady looking characters hanging out on the stairwell at night, peeking into the windows of the leasing office at 2 in the morning. The response from one man was, "Oh, well, I sit here because it's dark and I don't like to be seen." He said he lived in an apartment in the complex, but when I told management about it, they said the number he had given wasn't an actual apartment there. This issue would be easy enough to fix if they'd repair the pedestrian gates, as I requested numerous times, but I suppose they have more important things to spend your money on. Aside from the safety issues, the walls are paper thin. The people that lived above me constantly sounded like they were bowling all night, and despite being in a one bedroom apartment, they had 5 people living there. Management did nothing about the situation, despite multiple complaints. I'm not sure what was causing it, but something in the ventilation left a nasty haze of black on everything. I found mold along the windowsills, so it wouldn't shock me to find out that the black film was a result of mold. The grounds, I will say, were always the best part of living here. They're kept up nicely, though I wouldn't stray from the side-walk if you like to keep your shoes clean. Dog owners living here are not courteous enough to pick up after their pets, so land mines are abundant. I know negative reviews tend to vanish from this site, so I'll end this by saying that I will be checking back, and I will be posting this again if some "error" occurs and it "accidentally" gets deleted, as one that was just posted yesterday has already been. That review had nothing offensive, so I can't help but wonder on what grounds you were able to have it removed.



broken. Also, the staff may seem nice now, but if anything happens and you try to get out, you'll see their true colors. Vanessa hides a very rude side, and Sonia is far worse. Again, good luck, stay safe, and definitely call the L.V.P.D.



My husband and I have lived at Shadow Valley for three years. We have enjoyed living here. As I read the reviews I feel that I must be living in a totally different Shadow Valley. Yes, robbery does occur, yes there might be some suspicious people lurking around and yes, a girl was murdered here...one apartment building over from us as a matter of fact, but you have to understand that bad things happen everywhere. You have to make sure that you lock your doors...bar latch on your sliding door should always be in place even if you are at home. Lock your car doors. Lock your front door even if you are at home. No one in my building has been broken into in the three years that we have lived here. We don't walk around the complex at one o'clock in the morning because that is just plain dumb and immature. We don't leave valuables in our cars visible for the whole world to see. YOU have to be responsible for YOU.

The maintenance crew is to be commended for their dedication and hard work. They are also some of the nicest people you could meet. They have always come through for us. We take good care of our apartment.
Safe living begins with you. I would recommend this place to others looking for secluded neighborhood and large spacious apartments.



APPLIANCES AND MAINTENANCE:
for the first few days it was fine, then the toilet started over flooding or not flushing at all every other week. AC isn't the best in the world. One room could be hot the others cold. Maintenance guys were informed of the toilet issue and the ac issue and on both occasions blamed the problem on us. within the first week our fridge broke. Maintenance quickly replaces it, with another broken fridge.

RENT:
Rent goes up every month, we are charged water waste for everyone in the building, it even states it on the back of our statement. Its $25 per person on top of water waste. My mom lives in a 2 story home with 4 other people and doesn't pay as much as i do with 2 room-mates.

NOISE:
Walls are paper thin, you can hear your neighbors walk around, shower, and even speak.

STAFF:
Everyone in the leasing becomes extremely rude and unprofessional as soon as contracts are signed. Everyone is impossible to work with, except Tracey, who is a sweetheart. but from what I've seen she no longer works there. Whenever they DO answer their phone, if they DON'T like what they hear, they hang up on you.

SAFETY:
The place is very unsafe, the gates don't keep anyone out. And i was told by a police Marshall and other residents that there was a brutal murder here, that we were not informed of. He has also told me that the department has frequent calls to this apartment complex. Every time we walk out of our apartment


4. Increases in rent. Our original rent was $1550 w/ the pet fee. After our lease was up it went up to $1800 for the 3 extra months we lived there. If we had signed another 12 month least it would have gone up to $1680.

5. Pool/pool-goers. There is a very nice pool at shadow ridge. Unfortunately the people who go in it are disgusting. Remember, this is a section-8 neighborhood. People use this pool as their personal bath/toilet. People throw their cigarette butts in the pool, throw up in the pool, and pee from outside the pool into the pool. The police were also called to the pool once while I lived here for an attempted murder/stabbing.

I hope this helps anyone who is considering shadow ridge. If you're young and can put up with all the BS that happens here...well, it is an OK place to live. But for my wife and I (we're 25 and 27) this place was just too much.




Just some information for people wanting to move in here. This place is unsafe, and management does not care. If you get an apartment on the first floor, you will more than likely be broken into, and loose all of your valuables. A girl was murdered here, which the police speculate as a random incident, which makes me think it could have been anybody. The manager here says that the security gates weren't up by then ( they were promised over two months ago to be working ) because they have to order a key for the fire department, do you really think that takes over two months. The gates are still not working, the apartments are noisy, you wont sleep if your neighbors decide to throw a party in the middle of the week, and maintenance doesn't fix anything, they look at it. If you care about your well being, or the well being of your family or valuables, don't move here! There are better places for the money anyway. Cant wait for my lease to be up.



EDIT 11/4/13: If negative reviews from current and/or recent residents were not deleted within a day or two of posting, I wouldn't have bothered. Judging from the review that was deleted yesterday, it appears that the problems I encountered have not been remedied, but worsened. More break-ins, less care from staff, etc. The fact that it was removed without any offensive content should be enough proof for anyone. Even the most up-scale, safe, well-located apartment complexes have far more negative reviews than this outdated, poorly maintained complex. Negative reviews have been disappearing from this page for years, which is why I consider it important to at least have my honest opinion posted. I genuinely regret the decision that I made to move in to this complex, and I'm certain you will as well.

I genuinely believe that most of these positive reviews were written by staff members. Though when I lived here, there was much bribery to write a good review on this site ($100 off rent, free month, entry into various drawings, etc.) so that's likely a huge part of it. This place was awful to live in. There was an attempted break-in at my apartment where the moronic would-be thieves went at my lock with a crowbar. The staff, of course, didn't care. They gave the standard "Oh, I'm so sorry. Leave the porch light on next time." It had been on, but oh well. In 2005 a girl was murdered in one of the apartments. I had outright asked if there had been any serious crimes at the complex before moving in, as I was nervous being a young single woman. The response was to check online, that they couldn't say. Well, of course you won't find anything online, but if you contact the Leon Valley Police Department, they'll let you know the story. Aside from the attempted break-in at my apartment, there were multiple occasions
 
[video]http://foxsanantonio.com/news/local/leon-valley-police-arrest-suspect-in-2005-murder-case[/video]The first murder involves the death of Heather Ann Willms, 21, in Leon Valley in 2005.

Leon Valley Police Chief Joseph Salvaggio said Willms was found dead inside her apartment on Grissom Road on February 21, 2005. That morning, neighbors reported hearing her arguing with a man followed by a struggle, then silence.

920x920.jpgInvestigators said it was apparent Willms was sexually assaulted and her killer tried to burn her clothing in an attempt to get rid of the evidence.

Flores was questioned and released at the time of Willm's death 11 years ago. Her family said she was friends with Flores in high school. Improved DNA testing would later link him to the crime.

Also on Wednesday, the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney's office announced Flores would also be charged with capital murder in the the death of Esmeralda Herrera. She was found dead in her apartment on March 2, 2011 following a fire that investigators believe was set by Flores.
 
I knew Heather and am so glad Joe is finally in custody...he was her friend..pallbearer at her funeral...what a sick sick person. I wouldn't doubt that he was the person at the cemetary. When the second murder happened in 2011 a friend of mine went to LVPD since the murder was somewhat similar to Heather's. She told them that Joe needed to be re-investigated. At that moment when we saw the report about the second murder we knew it was him! All they told her was they had a person of interest and they didn't have enough evidence. Her boyfriend was cooperative through everything and Joe was a mutual close friend to Heather and her boyfriend. He is a sick psychopath and we all knew it was him and we were helpless because we were told there wasn't enough evidence! I am so glad that he is finally where he belongs, but if this was solved much earlier another life would not have been taken! May she now Rest In Peace
 

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