GUILTY TX - William Lewis Reece, Serial Killer - Laura Smither, 12, Kelli Cox, 20, and Jessica Cain, 17

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Investigators probe unsolved 1997 homicide
Published: Friday, July 30, 1999


HOUSTON {AP} Investigators who have failed to solve the highly publicized abduction-murder of a 12-year-old Friendswood girl continue to question William Lewis Reece, the man they've never been able to charge.

Laura Kate Smither's April 3, 1997, disappearance from her Galveston County home sparked a search that drew 2,000 volunteers to the Johnson Space Center suburb. Her nude body was found 17 days later in a retention pond several miles away in Pasadena in Harris County.

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/073099/sta_0730990053.shtml
 
William Lewis Reece as suspect in the murders of Laura Smither and Jessica Cain

However, sex offender William Lewis Reece is the prime suspect in Laura Smither and Jessica Cain deaths but did he do it? Information, including allegations of evidence tampering, surfaced. The autopsy report indicated that African American hairs found on the girl's body were contaminants and that did not come from the crime scene.

http://psu-sk.tripod.com/frames/i45-victims.html
 
I wonder how they surmissed that the African American Hairs found on the bodies contaminated the evidence. How did they know they didn't come from the crime scene?

I wonder if they looked at Kevin Edison Smith.
 
In October 1997, Friendswood Police Chief Jared Stout stunned the media and other area police by naming paroled sex offender William Lewis Reece as the prime suspect in Smither's death.

The 38-year-old construction worker already was jailed at the time in a May 1997 aggravated kidnapping, in which he has since been convicted. However, he has never been charged in Smither's death, and hundreds of pieces of evidence collected in Smither's case have failed to link Reece.

http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/savethechildren/COD4.htm
 
I wonder how they surmissed that the African American Hairs found on the bodies contaminated the evidence. How did they know they didn't come from the crime scene?

I wonder if they looked at Kevin Edison Smith.
The hairs complicated matters, but it's not the reason Reese was not indicted.

Clumps of hair were found in and on Laura's hands. When the medical examiner learned the hairs were decomposing (and from an African American person) she surmised they were from another homicide victim, Raquel Crouch, whose body was autopsied the same day as Laura's. Carter, the ME, says that she instructed the pathologist who performed the autopsies to add an addendum to Laura's report stating the hairs were contaminants. The pathologist refused. (She was eventually terminated.) Reece's attorney declared his client could not be the perp because he is caucasian. An investigation followed, and the findings declared the hairs belonged to Crouch and were not partof the crime scene evidence.

State investigators concluded last week that the hair on Smither's body belonged to Raquel Crouch, another homicide victim whose body was autopsied the same day as Smither. Officials now said the hair appears to have nothing to do with Smither's slaying
After microscopic examination at a state lab linked the hair to Crouch, prosecutors said they didn't expect the hair to play a role in any criminal case...
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/a...ffer-explanation-for-mystery-hair-on-smi.html

Tests performed on the hair show it belonged to Raquel Crouch, a 20-year-old homicide victim whose autopsy was performed at the Harris County morgue the same day as the one performed on 12-year-old Laura Smither of Friendswood.
http://web.reporternews.com/1998/texas/hair0418.html
 
This isn't the first time there has been contamination in a lab in the area. The DNA lab in Houston was shut down due to contamination. This is why there is such a back log when it comes to processing and comparing DNA in Texas. From my understanding, there is now only one working DNA lab in the state and that is in the DFW area.

I had heard about the AA hairs, but did not ever hear of the location on Smither's body where they were found or that they were from another murder victim who was autopsied the same day.

I am interested in learning the details of Raquel Crouch's murder to see if there is any possible connection. If not, this is proof that evidence was planted.

If it were a stray hair randomly on Laura's body, I could see how the contamination could be accidental (although that wouldn't make it acceptable.) But, for her to have clumps of hair in her hands - that has to be planted. And it makes me call into question ANY other evidence they have in the case. The carpet fibers from Reece's vehicle are questionable to me too.

Who is LE trying to protect? A family member? Or one of their own?
 
I don't know about the carpet fibers, but I lay awake awhile this morning wondering how a "clump" of hair from one corpse gets into the hands of another. :waitasec: Not saying it can't happen. I've never worked in a morgue, so I wouldn't know. Just seems odd.

This statement came from the fired pathologist's attorney, so I take it with a grain of salt:

"She (the pathologist) was asked to say a clump of hairs she found during the autopsy in and on the hand were contaminants.

http://www.texnews.com/1998/texas/smither0403.html
 
2012 Article

Fifteen years later, Jessica Cain’s disappearance still a mystery
KHOU Staff 4:46 p.m. CDT August 17, 2012

[...]

A young woman named Jessica Cain, just days away from her high school graduation, had spent the evening performing in a musical gala. A few of her drama club friends celebrated their performance at a Bennigan s restaurant in the Clear Lake area. Then, she drove away in her pickup truck and simply vanished.

You wake up one morning after spending a lovely evening with your friend and you re told she s not there, recalls David Stallings, one of her high school friends. And you look for her.

Her father found her truck parked on the shoulder of the Gulf Freeway, but she was nowhere in sight. Her wallet was inside. Authorities dusted her truck for fingerprints, but found nothing that indicated what might have happened.

Related
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ph1IAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HYEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1261,3516772
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-17-La-Marque-17-Aug-1997&p=771841#post771841
 
Articles from September 2015

Texas Felon Charged In 18-Year-Old Murder Case In Oklahoma Co.
Posted: Sep 21, 2015 3:09 PM CDT Updated: Sep 21, 2015 6:04 PM CDT
By Adrianna Iwasinski, News 9

OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Oklahoma -
Oklahoma County prosecutors have charged a Texas felon with the 18-year-old murder of an Oklahoma woman.

William Lewis Reece, 56, is currently at the Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections, serving a 60 year sentence for an aggravated kidnapping that happened in Harris County, Texas in 1997, the same year that 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston was found murdered.
DNA evidence links Reece to the crime.

Mother of Bethany woman killed in 1997 hopes case has been solved
Kyle Schwab by Kyle Schwab Published: September 28, 2015 Updated: Sep 28, 2015

[...]

Johnston, a 19-year-old newlywed, went to wash her white 1995 Dodge Neon before a planned night out with her husband to celebrate their three months of marriage.
Only Johnston never made it to dinner. She disappeared.
Her vehicle was found at the car wash later that night with the keys still in the car and the floor mats hanging on the wash pegs, investigators reported.

The next day, authorities discovered Johnston's body in some tall weeds near Gregory Road and Interstate 40 in Yukon. She had been strangled to death, the state medical examiner reported.

Related
http://kfor.com/2015/09/21/cold-cas...allegedly-kidnapping-murdering-oklahoma-teen/
 
From 1998

Construction worker convicted of abduction
Saturday, May 9, 1998

HOUSTON (AP) - A Harris County jury on Friday convicted construction worker William Reece for the May 17 abduction of a topless dancer. Reece, who has two convictions in Oklahoma for sodomy and kidnapping, was charged with forcing Sandra Sapaugh into his truck at knife point after offering to help her with a flat tire. As they drove down Interstate 45, she said she jumped from the truck when her kidnapper told her to undress.

Looking for Laura
By Steve McVicker
Thursday, March 12, 1998

[...]

On May 16, 1997, 19-year-old Sandra Sapaugh was changing a flat tire on NASA Road 1 in Webster, just across Interstate 45 from Friendswood. A man stopped and offered to help. Sapaugh says that after she walked with him toward his truck, the man pulled a knife and forced her into his vehicle. As they drove north on I-45, he pointed the knife at her and ordered her to undress. Instead, Sapaugh opened the passenger-side door and jumped out of the truck, which was traveling approximately 65 to 70 miles per hour. She sustained serious injuries, but was rescued by another motorist.

It was several weeks before Sapaugh spoke with Webster police. And not until undergoing what Stout describes as "forensic hypnosis" was she able to identify her abductor. The hypnosis was conducted by Sue Dietrich, an officer with the Alvin Police Department who would become the police chief of tiny Tiki Island near Galveston Island a few weeks later. Chief Dietrich was also involved in the investigation into the disappearance of Tiki Island resident Cain, who had vanished from the same general area where Sapaugh was abducted and Laura Smither's body was found.

Related

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9IlaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aksDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1815,894450
http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-prisons/inmates/william-lewis-reece/780819/
 
1999 article

Investigators probe unsolved 1997 homicide
Published: Friday, July 30, 1999

HOUSTON {AP} Investigators who have failed to solve the highly publicized abduction-murder of a 12-year-old Friendswood girl continue to question William Lewis Reece, the man they've never been able to charge.

Laura Kate Smither's April 3, 1997, disappearance from her Galveston County home sparked a search that drew 2,000 volunteers to the Johnson Space Center suburb. Her nude body was found 17 days later in a retention pond several miles away in Pasadena in Harris County.

Reece, who was working as a bulldozer operator near the girl's home, was named a prime suspect by Friendswood Police Chief Jared Stout. While laboratory tests so far have failed to link Reece to the girl's murder, the investigation has focused largely on the 40-year-old, who's now serving a 60-year prison sentence for an unrelated kidnapping.

More than two years later, no charges have been filed in the Smither case because of a lack of evidence.

Related

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-day-that-death-came-calling-at-friendswood-1082160.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...mystery/4b68df5b-aa42-455a-ba9b-60a9db63a0fc/
http://amarillo.com/stories/1999/04/07/tex_LD0666.001.shtml#.Vs_3xdCfXh4
 
Sources: Police searching for Jessica Cain's body in SE Houston field
By Jessica Willey
Updated 13 mins ago

HOUSTON (KTRK) --
There's been a bombshell development in the years-long search for missing teenager Jessica Cain. Her father tells Eyewitness News police have notified him they have received a lead about his daughter's whereabouts and are digging in a southeast Houston field for her body.

Houston police say authorities will be back out on the private property off East Orem Friday morning to continue their search for a body. Cain was just 17 years old when she disappeared in 1997.

[...]

Reece also was the primary suspect in the death of Laura Smither, the 12-year-old girl who vanished while jogging near her Friendswood area home on April 3, 1997. Her body was found later that month in Pasadena.

more at the link

La Marque police, Texas Rangers investigate undisclosed case near Pearland
osted: Thursday, February 25, 2016 12:20 am | Updated: 9:38 am, Thu Feb 25, 2016.
By CHACOUR KOOP The Daily News

La Marque police, Texas Rangers and members of other law enforcement agencies were digging in a field between Houston and Pearland on Wednesday, as part of an unspecified investigation.

The La Marque Police Department confirmed it was involved in the multiagency investigation in the 6000 block of East Orem Drive in Houston. It appeared authorities would resume their work today.

The field, which appears to be a horse pasture, is across from the Johnny Nash Indoor Arena.
 

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Jessica Cain suspect is in Galveston County custody
Posted: Thursday, February 25, 2016 11:45 am | Updated: 12:24 pm, Thu Feb 25, 2016.
By SCOTT E. WILLIAMS The Daily News

As investigators with local and state agencies continued their search of a field on the southern edge of Houston, they had kept their reasons for being there quiet.

However, a suspect in the 1997 disappearance of Jessica Cain has been in Galveston County custody since Feb. 16. That was the day a bench warrant took William Lewis Reece to Galveston County from the prison cell in which he was scheduled to remain until 2057, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials told The Daily News Thursday.

Reece, 56, has never been charged in Cain's disappearance, but investigators in the agencies who have investigated Cain's case have considered him a "person of interest."
 
REPORT: New lead in 20-year-old missing teen case
Posted: Thursday, February 25, 2016 11:42 pm
By Y.C. Orozco

[...]

The father of Jessica Cain, who disappeared in 1997 when she was 17, has revealed to ABC13 that he was informed by police authorities that a new lead has prompted a new search this week in a private field at the 6100 block of East Orem Drive.

Houston police also confirmed to Eyewitness News that Williams Reece, 56, is being investigated in connection to Cain’s disappearance.

[...]

Houston police are expected to resume the search Friday morning. The Texas Rangers, Friendswood and La Marque Police and crews with Texas Equusearch have also been on the scene.
 
Police continue days' long search for Jessica Cain's body in SE Houston field
Police: Search underway for Jessica Cain's body in SE Houston

[...]

The search continues after last night's bombshell development: Cain's father told Eyewitness News police notified him they have received a lead about his daughter's whereabouts and are digging in a southeast Houston field for her body.

http://abc13.com/news/police-resume-search-for-jessica-cains-body-in-se-houston-field/1218344/
 
I know this comes as a surprise to many. In retrospect, looking at the timeline (see previous posts) it fits right in. Of course, we didn't know about Tiffany Johnston until last year. So what was he up to in June 1997?

====================
Police also confirmed that William Reece, 56, now is being investigated in connection to Cain's disappearance. Reece, who is currently behind bars for an unrelated aggravated kidnapping conviction, was released recently on a bench warrant to Galveston County. On Wednesday, he was on the property where authorities are digging. He used to live less than four miles away.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/police-...-in-search-for-teen-missing-19-years/1220099/
 
Reece served time in an Oklahoma prison in the late 1980s for kidnapping and rape. Why did they ever let this monster out? Jessica and Tiffany have some similar physical characteristics and Both of their vehicles were found abandoned with the keys still inside.

Was Reece living in OK and just working in Texas? Seems like he did a lot of traveling back and forth, if he is a suspect in Smithers case he would have been in TX in April 1997, and his DNA matched in Tiffany's murder in OK on July 26, 1997 and then a suspect again in Jessicas case mid-August 1997.

My biggest question is what evidence do they have to support this dig? Other than Reece claiming to have buried her there, surely LE isn't dumb enough to take his word for it and let him enjoy some time outside of the pen.
 
Reece served time in an Oklahoma prison in the late 1980s for kidnapping and rape. Why did they ever let this monster out? Jessica and Tiffany have some similar physical characteristics and Both of their vehicles were found abandoned with the keys still inside.

Was Reece living in OK and just working in Texas? Seems like he did a lot of traveling back and forth, if he is a suspect in Smithers case he would have been in TX in April 1997, and his DNA matched in Tiffany's murder in OK on July 26, 1997 and then a suspect again in Jessicas case mid-August 1997.

My biggest question is what evidence do they have to support this dig? Other than Reece claiming to have buried her there, surely LE isn't dumb enough to take his word for it and let him enjoy some time outside of the pen.
He was incarcerated in Oklahoma 1987-93. In 1997, he was working construction in Texas, but probably travelled back to Oklahoma occasionally. He has family in or near Bethany, and he was acquainted with Tiffany's mother. She met him working as a waitress, and his mother "did ironing" for Tiffany's mother.

It's worth noting that he was in Harris County in October, 1997, when he was arrested for Sandra Sapaugh's kidnapping.

In October, five months after she was abducted, Webster police brought Sapaugh in to look at a lineup. She picked out Reece as her attacker, and he was charged.
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/looking-for-laura-6570210
When interviewed in prison by a Texas Ranger in 2013, "Reese denied knowing Tiffany but stated he was a friend to Tiffany's mother, father and sister," court documents show.

Reece initially denied being in Oklahoma at the time of the victim's death but later admitted he was in the state, documents show.

On the day of the abduction, "Reece made a phone call with his AT&T calling card from a pay phone at I-40 and Mustang Road (in) Yukon," documents state.

http://newsok.com/article/5449815
April 1997 - Laura Smither, kidnapped and murdered (Reece long time suspect, never charged)
May 1997 - Sandra Sapaugh, abducted, but escaped (Reece convicted, sentenced to 60 years.)
July 1997 - Tiffany Johnston, kidnapped and murdered in Oklahoma (Reece charged)
Aug 1997 - Jessica Cain disappeared
Sep 1997 - Committed theft in Brazoria County (sentenced to three years in 2007)
Oct 1997 - Reece arrested in Webster for abduction of Sapaugh. Convicted in May 1998.

I'm curious, too, about what led to the search. One possibility is that he is facing murder charges in Oklahoma, and possibly ready to be charged with Laura Smither's murder. Perhaps his cooperation in Jessica's case is part of a deal to beat a death penalty. Just a guess, and no, I don't think LE is going through this exercise based only on his word. But again, that's jmo.
 

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