TX TX - Jimmie Sue Smith, 19, Lubbock, 23 June 1981

gaia227

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This case is solveable. Jimmie was bound with her fathers neckties and raped. LE collected semen samples and of course with DNA this could identify the killer.
This murder is really creepy to me. I think because it happened in the middle of the afternoon when most people feel safe, not worried about something happening. She was at home too which only enhances the feeling of safety and comfort. She was just going about her normal day. She arrived home at 2:00 after lunching with her mother. She called a friend at 2:30 to invite her to come lay out with her. THe friend showed up at 3:30 but got no answer. Jimmie's mother got home at five and noticed it looked like Jimmie had been laying out. She noticed band-aids out on the counter in the kitchen. She found her daughter's bikini top outside by the hammock, the bikini bottoms on her own(the mother's) bed and they had been urinated in and she notices her husbands pants laying on the bed with the belt taken out. She opens her walk-in closet door and finds her 19 yr old shot six times in the chest with her hands and feet bound with neckties.

Apparently a private investigator believes a neighbor down the street from the Smith's fits the profile.

http://unsolvedcrimes.com/jimmie-sue.html

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/072300/loc_072300064.shtml

http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/081008/loc_316885929.shtml
 
Thank you gaia for posting this. Another case that makes me skeevy.

One thing though. Maybe it's because I don't think like a murderer but wouldn't the killer have some knowledge that mom, dad or anyone else wasn't due back home before 5:00?

For all that happened - I'm sure it took time. And the whole toilet issue - the killer does all that he does then takes the time to use the restroom?

And what was the significance of the pants sans belt? If there was one. Or was it a red herring to throw LE off the track?

One thing for sure - this case appears to be solvable...and I hope soon.
 
Oilpainter - I think the belt from the pants was used with the neckties to bind Jimmie.
I definetly think the killer knew Jimmie, knew her routine, her parents routine, either because the killer was friends with Jimmie, an acquantence or had been watching the house. That lends itself to the theory it was the neighbor. He would certainly be able to keep an eye on the house and become familar with the Smith families routines.

The toilet issue.....I had forgotten about that. I have my own theory about that particular phenomena. I understand the theory of a killer marking his territory, etc but in cases like this I don't think that really applies. I think that when a person's adrenaline shoots up like it would when attacking someone it stimulates your digestive system and you have to go to the bathroom. I know whenever I was young and playing in piano recitals and concerts I would get really, really nervous beforehand and would have to go to the bathroom - immediately......
 
Where was her stepfather during this day?
 
I'd really like to see more info on this, as there are some obvious questions. The website mentions the hammock is "hanging loose". Could Jimmie Sue have taken off her top to sunbathe, and the hammock broke? It's stated the hammock was hung over the "metal entrance to the cellar", easily causing the injuries which Jimmie Sue herself treated with the band-aids.
Is it known that Jimmie Sue herself wasn't in the process of using the bathroom when she may have been attacked? That would account for the unflushed toilet, the wet bikini bottoms....(I can't find any verification that the bodily waste was tested to confirm it was the killer's).

This seems to me to be a blitz attack, and not necessarily the work of someone who knew Jimmie Sue. Possibly someone who stalked her simply because of the way she looked, or for whatever sick, twisted reason. He may have watched her, then saw his opportunity when she went inside to treat her injuries from the hammock. He followed her inside, grabbed her...Violated her..Then killed her. This was a quick attack, as the window for the crime was only an hour.

This brings to mind Carl Eugene "Coral" Watts, who is believed by some in LE to have killed as many as 80 people in Michigan and Texas, possibly also in Ohio and Canada. Until the spring of '81, Watts was in Michigan, where it's believed he killed as many as ten women. It's then thought that he travelled to Texas, where he settled in the Houston area (it is verified that he was in Texas by September of '81, and most likely earlier...He was also known to have spent part of the summer in Columbus OH, though LE believes he committed no murders there at that time.
Watts is known to have travelled hours from whereever he called home to commit his murders. Once caught in '82, he confessed to dozens of murders in Texas, Michigan, and elsewhere. Watts would stalk his victims, who he stated "had evil in their eyes". In order to release the evil, and to keep the evil spirits from pursuing him, he would bind his victims, lock them in auto trunks, place them in bathtubs full of water, etc.
The only part of Jimmie Sue's murder that doesn't fit is the sexual assault. In the cases proven to have been committed by Watts, rape was not involved (though this doesn't mean that it didn't figure in other cases). His attacks were so quick, he sometimes would not have any physical contact with his victims at all. Otherwise, elements of Jimmie Sue's murder fit Watts' pattern-The quickness of the attack, the fact that her clothes were removed (removal of clothing was part of Watts' ritual to "defeat the evil"), she was bound, killed quickly, and hidden away...All actions seen in other of Watt's murders.

Watts died in prison in September of 2007.
 
Sometime I wonder about my common sense.....you know it never even crossed my mind it could have been Jimmie who had used the bathroom. I thought the bottoms that had been urinated on was a result of her being badly scared but it your scenario definitely makes sense. I cannot find any info on if the waste was tested or not.

When you mentioned Watts and his MO I was instantly reminded of Tommy Lynn Sells. He was also known to travel all over the country killing and killing quickly. He murdered a 13 yr old girl and her body was found outside of Springfield, MO (my hometown - I remember hearing about her being found). He mostly stalked then raped and murdered them and often bound them. He would use different means of killing them from beating, to cutting their throat to shooting them. He was so hard to catch and went undetected for so long because he was a transient living in homeless shelters, on the streets, etc and didn't really follow a particular pattern.
He is most well-known for the crimes he committed against the Dardeen family in Illinois. It is absolutely horrific. The father was found outside beaten to death with his penis stuffed in his own mouth, the 3 yr old boy was beaten to death and the wife who was 6months pregnant had been raped, sexually assaulted with the baseball bat and then beaten to death - the worst part is she gave birth during the attack and he then beat the newborn to death. I am nauseous just recalling that.
I will do some checking and see if Sells was ever known to be in Texas

I lean more towards a stalker as well although I would like to know more about the blind date gone bad. I got the impression the person she was set up with had been harrassing her. The fact the attack was so quick makes me feel like this person had been waiting for their opportunity and when they had it took it.
The hammock breaking and Jimmie going inside to get a band-aid and being followed inside by the attacker seem to be the most logical scenario.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of info about Jimmie out there that I can find but I don't have any subscriptions to archive sites, etc.
 
The suspect acts guilty.

Moved out of the country for years? People don't usually do that.

Same car. Similar description. Why hasn't this guy had to submit DNA?
 
I have some doubts about the alleged suspect.
The article states this suspect moved out of the country "within a year". If it had been within the next few days, I would be a little more accepting of this theory.
Also, he lived only a few blocks away---Why park his easy-to-spot car by the victim's house where it could be seen?
It's possible that LE have yet to approach this individual for a DNA sample, and may not have enough for a warrant to compel one.
 
What a ridiculous case. It should have been put to rest a long time ago. Does anyone know if the DNA was put into CODIS? .
 
Lubbock has quite a few unsolved cold case murders of women and and a couple of young girls. Some even go back into the seventies when Henry Lucas confessed, but one girl's parents proved that he did not do it. There's cases where they have evidence, one with even an indictment, and others with dna but have never been solved. It was said that Jimmie Sue's case did have dna left, so I don't get it either. I hope that the people she went to school with and worked for were thoroughly checked out.
 
I see no one has posted anything here in quite some time. I'm still wondering what happened when they finally did the DNA testings for the Jimmie Sue Smith case?
 
I am also holding onto the LE's theory about the feces.

I found this reference but by no means a thorough search. Just what I could find quickly on the internet.

http://books.google.com/books?id=gn...#v=onepage&q=Peter Woodcock defecated&f=false

I also see that criminals that commit other types of crimes will defecate at the scene too. So many references that I'm not sure they got the sudden urge at the scene of the crime coincidently.

But the sexual predator reference caught my attention.

Snipped from link in OP:

Remember the bottoms to her swimsuit were on the floor at the edge of the bed. Remember also that her feet and hands were bound with neckties. Does it sound likely that the killer would have raped her, then killed her, and then retied her feet?

· The killer has staged the crime scene, making it look like some mad deviate necktie-fetish killer has committed the crime. In 1981, Lubbock was averaging a rape a day and already had 17 murders by June 19. Jimmie Sue's killer could have gotten plenty of ideas by simply reading the local newspaper.

The motive of the crime was rape. Sexual predation. The motive of the murder was to keep her quiet. She couldn't testify. JMHO Perhaps this rapist/murderer had done time before and didn't want to get caught again? Given she was murdered this probably wasn't anywhere near his first rape. The DNA sample could pop up in Codis as connected to other sex crimes by this suspect if they would just run it! Jimmie Sue wasn't his last rape either IMHO.

The neckties and belt used IMHO could very well be red herrings. Just a few thoughts I had.
 
Texas seems to be a melting pot for serial killers. I have only lived here about 2 1/2 years, but it seems as if the murder rate and child abuse rates are astronomical!
 
I was just reading about Jimmie Sue at the Unsolved Crimes site the other day (which is a very creepy website, by the way, filled with horrific unsolved crimes from quite a long time ago which I had not heard of) - I can't believe this crime has not been solved yet either. They have DNA from the killer, and I'm sure tons more evidence from him. I imagine they have fingerprints as well - if he left semen in Jimmie Sue's body and an unflushed toilet behind, I doubt he was too careful about fingerprints. So either the killer had not and still has not gotten caught/committed another felony, or the samples are backlogged and have not been run in the recent past which is crazy but which I've read is often the case when a particular crime is not a priority anytime due to the amount of time that has passed.

It seems everyone seems to agree the crime took place between 2 and 2:30, when Jimmie Sue's friend knocked on her door and got no answer, but IMO this seems like the kind of crime that would take longer - the initial attack, herding the victim into the master bedroom, the binding, the sexual assault, the move to the closet, the actual shooting, the staging, the using of the bathroom (if indeed it was the killer who left the toilet unflushed, and not Jimmie Sue who was interrupted by the killer in the process of using the bathroom, as some here have proposed). So if Jimmie Sue's mother didn't arrive home until 5pm, I think it not unlikely that the killer was in the house with Jimmie Sue when her friend knocked, and he simply kept her quiet and prevented her from answering the door. It doesn't sound like the friend entered the house or investigated further upon getting no answer at the door.

I agree with Gaia, this crime does have some extremely creepy elements to it. Apparently, neighbors saw a rusty orange colored VW bug in the area around the time of the attack, which immediately of course made me think of Ted Bundy, who drove a similar vehicle - same make/model, same color. I wonder if this is just coincidence, or if this killer somehow idolized Bundy and this murder was somewhat of a 'copycat' type crime. If my research is correct, Bundy had been caught by the time of Jimmie Sue's murder, and details of some of his crimes and personal info like the kind of car he drove would be public knowledge. Even creepier, along these same lines, the sketch of the suspect seen in the area seems to be that of a young, white, quite attractive young man - just like Bundy in that respect, too. I'm definitely going to have nightmares about this one tonight.
 
Mia, you have a wonderful theory there!! I think Jimmie got home at 2, called her friend and her friend got there at 3:30 rather than 2:30, but I felt the same way, that he was there when her friend arrived. It is probably a very good thing she didn't try to enter the house, as she may have also been killed, but it's too bad she didn't go to a neighbors or a payphone and call the police, or try calling Jimmie and/or her Mom. I hope this case gets solved as with DNA it should be a slam dunk once the person is found.
 
Myself I think they need a new drawing what that guy looked like ... That one ( no dissrespected to person draw it ) But that drawing need's updated bad..

Right now it look's like Zodiac Killer with a Snookie type hair style..
 
I may be completely off about this, but regarding the neighbor that the private investigator suspects -

I've watched Cold Case Files on A&E and it seems to me like there were several cases where a police officer had a feeling about a certain suspect but was never able to question them about a crime due to lack of evidence. Many years go by and another officer inherits the cold case and upon reading the files, comes to the same feeling/conclusion about this suspect. This officer then begins following this person and at one point collects DNA via a discarded cigarette, pop can etc.

It seems to me like they solved several cases doing this - but I could be wrong. I have to admit that it doesn't seem like it could be legal - but I am not sure. If the police thought this man a viable suspect to this day, couldn't they do this with him? At least they would have a dead on answer instead of speculating if he was involved or not.
 
This feels like someone close in the neighborhood who has been watching her sunbathe.
 

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