"Killing Field" in League City, Texas- Calder Rd Cold Cases

JeannieC said:

I wish we had pictures of all the victims. That might shake a few memories. Many people remember faces but not names. ME! I think that would be very helpful in gathering more information. I haven't been able to get pictures from any sites.

Very limited information on the Web! Unbelievable!

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World: Americas
Police baffled by Texas I-45 murders

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Thursday, November 18, 1999 Published at 20:30 GMT


World: Americas

Police baffled by Texas I-45 murders

The murders beside a Texas highway of several young women remain unsolved

By the BBC's Brian Barron in Texas
In Texas, the FBI have been called in to investigate nearly 30 murders - all of them schoolgirls or young women - along an 80km (50 mile) stretch of motorway between Houston and the Gulf Coast.



Watch Brian Barron's report from I-45
The killings span 28 years but none has been solved. Local police forces have been criticised for failing to help each other.

As dusk falls on Interstate 45 or I-45 as it is known, there is one question lurking in the minds of many: Is this the most dangerous road in America?

The 11 police forces whose precints cover the length of I-45 failed to realise that there was a deadly pattern.



Tim Miller is frustrated by the inability of the Texas police authorities to solve his daughter's murder
For one father, Tim Miller, the past 15 years have been a living hell.

"We've got no suspects, no closure and we've still got a serial killer walking around some place," he says.

Tim Miller's 16 year-old daughter was murdered and dumped within earshot of I-45 - and the bodies of at least three other female victims were found nearby at different times.




Police frustration

Stung by criticism of their failure to find and convict even one of the murderers who have prowled I-45, local police forces have turned to the FBI.

But, as Detective Carla Costello of the Texas City Police Department put it, no one is optimistic about a breakthrough.

"It's very frustrating. You feel like you're not doing your job. There's somebody out there who's been waiting 28 years for a phone call - from us - to say that we know who murdered their child," she says.

Arguably the muddled investigations over the years left families moving into the new housing developments along I-45 vulnerable.




They had no warning that serial killers were literally getting away with murder. So parents like Gail Smither didn't take precautions.

Twelve-year old Laura Smither left her home to go jogging two years ago. Three weeks later her headless body was dumped in a pond.

" We thought we lived in a really safe town," her mother says. "And that at nine o'clock in the morning, to go for a run on a little private road, that she would be fine."

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ikoihil said:

Really? I've found a lot and just didn't save them. What is your suggestion for organization?

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4 victims, 2 unknown, between 1983 and 1991.

23 year old Heidi Villarreal Fye was a cocktail waitress, last seen on October 10th 1983. Her remains were found after a dog carried her skull to a nearby house on April 4th 1984. She had vanished six months earlier after walking from the home of her parents to use the phone at a nearby convenience store. The medical examiner noted Fye had broken ribs and had been beaten with a club. She may have died from blunt force trauma to her head.

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February 2, 1986 four boys riding dirt bikes smelled a foul odor. They located the skeletal remains of a still unidentified female and called the police. Dubbed "Jane Doe" she had died six weeks to six months before being found, she had been shot in the back. She perhaps had been shot to death by a 22 caliber weapon. Part of a bullet was found with the cadaver at the medical examiner's office. (Ruined as evidence) The autopsy also revealed healed fractures of the ribs. She is described as being about 25 years old, being between 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall. Weighing about 140 to 160 pounds, with light reddish brown shoulder length hair and had a distinct gap between her upper front teeth. She was about fifty yards from where Fye had been found. While investigating the scene the police found yet another body the same day.

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claudicici said:

This is horrific.I had no idea and I live just north of Houston off I-45.
We drive to Galveston all the time.Never heard a word about the "Killing field"
I knew about Tim Miller's daughter but did not know at all there are so many.
It is so disheartening to hear how many were called runaways and the parents had no help at all.
Reminds me so much of Ali who is still missing.
What is going on with LE? Aparently there are 2 detectives that dedicated their lifes to solving these cases but why are there still girls disappearing in Houston and it is aparently not a priority?
The movie is being shown in just one cinema ,why not show it everywhere in Houston so people become aware?
ikoihil,Thank you so much for posting here,this is so horrific I'm just lost for words.

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Is Robert Abel Getting Away With Murder?

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The day that death came calling at Friendswood
DAVID USBORNE IN FRIENDSWOOD, TEXAS

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ABOUT 20 miles south of Houston, the dormitory town of Friendswood was once named the safest community in America - a place where people routinely left their doors unlocked. Even today, its police headquarters, with noticeboards advertising lost pets, has an almost cosy air. Chief Jarred Stout sits in a windowless office with a microwave and coffee maker crowding his desk. But appearances deceive.

Everything changed here two years ago when a local 12-year-old girl named Laura Smither went jogging close to her parent's home and did not return. Three weeks later, on 3 April 1997, a game hunter and his dog found her decomposed body in a drainage pond in a south Houston suburb. Laura, who weeks earlier had been accepted into ballet academy, had been abducted and savagely murdered

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Lera213 said:

I had to take a 24 hour break from reading about this case. It just so brought back my scare I had in 1973 or 1974. I was almost abducted and never reported it. To this day, when it comes to the surface I just feel my inside freeze.

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ELUSIVE ANSWERS / The searches for Laura Smither and Jessica Cain serve as a reminder that numerous cases of missing or murdered young women and girls have yet to be solved

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SINCE THE MID 1980s, a scrubby pasture crisscrossed with horse trails in Galveston County has been called the "killing fields".
Four bodies were found there from 1984 to 1991. Today, the person using the "killing fields" as his personal graveyard remains unidentified.

In the 1970s, a $10,000 reward was offered for the killer of a 13-year-old girl in Brazoria County. Today, unclaimed, it is being used to fund scholarships in her name. Meanwhile, her murder is listed among at least eight unsolved cases believed to be linked.

More recently, in Harris County, an anonymous man telephoned a TV tip line in 1995 to report a "serial killer on the loose." Implying he was that killer, he gave directions to the body of a 16-year-old girl who had been strangled. He never called again. He is considered a suspect not only in her death but also in several others.

Memories of these and similar cases - all involving young women and girls and all unsolved, some for decades - resurfaced recently as news stories focused on massive searches for two girls who disappeared in Galveston County. Various authorities have indicated at least three serial killers are responsible for some of the deaths.

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JeannieC said:

Gosh, Lera I'm so sorry. No wonder you have a hard time on this thread! Thank God you got away! I'm sure this is a tough thread to read. Just remember, you got away and when this gets too much for you go to another thread!

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Girl's Skull found in Texas Slayings

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Missing Skull Found in Briar Patch

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Lera213 said:

wonder if they ever found the clothing? If not could the perp still have them as souvenirs?

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Lera213 said:

If this is a big area no telling how many more bodies are out there that haven't been found! I would have taken that 10 grand and place some surveillance cameras in certain areas with a live feed at my desk while investigating. Heck worth the try!

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