The two friends quickly got to work, furiously reading through thousands of pages of transcripts from Spences two trials and numerous files from the McLennan County DAs office. But Simons knew he was on the right track, and he was going to see it through, skeptics be damned. By the time she was a senior, her path in life was paved with optimism and opportunity. The lowest number of murders 198 people was reported in 2011 when 2.1 million people lived in Houston. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. He had been in touch with a KXXV television reporter in Waco, who promised to phone him when Spences sentence was carried out that evening. Texas law sets the bar very high for innocence claims, effectively requiring conclusive proof of innocence, said Raoul Schonemann, who is now the co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic. On December 18, the day before Spence was to die, the lawyers filed for a stay of execution as well as a federal habeas corpus petition, citing 25 grounds for reversal. HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Harris County Sheriff's Office announced a breakthrough in two unrelated cold case murders Thursday morning. This is where they say those three teenagers were killed, he said Spence told him. Unless they get something powerfully exculpatory, Tonys not getting out, he told me. Lying in the grass was the body of a young blond woman. This, and only this, would ultimately lead to a hearing where Reaves could question the men who put Melendez and the others in prison and sent Spence to his death, making them answer for their actions a generation ago. The two had been sitting on a picnic table at Koehne Park, Gilbert said, when Spence brought up the crime. One important question remained: Whose semen was it? In February Spence got his new date with death: April 3, 1997. Avon Baier didnt see the resemblance, but Simons mentally filed the detail. Such was the animosity between the two men, said several witnesses, that when Deeb learned of the murders, he laughed, saying he was glad Kenneth was dead. 0 cemeteries found in Yoakum, DeWitt County, Texas, USA. She was really excited, he recalled. Its not that I thought he was innocent, but I thought, They cant execute him based on this record.. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph), Farm-to-Market 2659 in Hawkins was part of the search area during the manhunt for Jerry McFadden in Hawkins. For one thing, Simons wasnt filing any reports. They felt safe at the lake and largely insulated from the world that lay beyond the piney curtain of trees that surrounded it. After the trial, Feazell went on the offensive against Price, announcing that he was considering launching a probe for witness tampering, retaliation, and subornation of perjury by her and the WPD. The defense tried its best. Yet by 2008, he was no closer to proving Melendezs innocence. The suspect pulled a weapon, but eventually let the couple leave after they convinced him they had no cash, records show. Back at the TRC, Schonemanns peers found the Melendez recantations encouraging. Truman Simons (far right) helping carry the body of the teenagers out from the brush in Speegleville Park on July 14, 1982. Donna Prudhomme was born on April 23, 1957, in Port Arthur, Texas, and was estimated to be about 34 years old at the time of her death, Ratliff said. Neighbors remembered seeing them with a fourth person, a man, who was older and largely unfamiliar in the area. Then there was the gold bracelet at Koehne Park, which Thompson had come to believe was planted. A second wrote that the marks were more likely than not made by insects or artifacts. If the purpose of the exercise, he continued, was to match these marks to a set of teeth, it borders on the unbelievable. A third thought that some contusions on one body were probable human bite marks, but he couldnt match any of the molds to them. Alvin 'The man in custody is refusing to talk. He thought he could outsmart Simons, she said, and used the jailer to get phone call privileges with Juhl. He also played audio from Feazells tapes, including one in which Feazell spoke disparagingly about Simonss investigative methods. Feazell brought him to the jury room. Wed paint all day, then throw down our sleeping bags, turn on the radio, cook, and go to sleep. They also sought out Spences former attorney Walter Reaves, who was now representing another death row inmate with innocence claimsCameron Todd Willinghamand Raoul Schonemann, who was still doing work for the Capital Punishment Clinic in Austin and representing death row inmates. He could not have known that his promise, and every action he took to fulfill it, would shortly come under intense scrutinyand, in the years to come, set the course for one of the strangest, most serpentine cases of criminal justice in modern Texas history. This browser does not support getting your location. Okay, now Im finished.. ", The day she and Gena disappeared wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Handsome Bryan, recalled as an all around "good guy," was an above-average student and gifted athlete, who played both football and basketball before attending Tyler Junior College. Nobody who knows how this works would believe hed get pardoned on the basis of my book. Better to wait for the DNA results, he said, to prove that Melendez didnt do it and that others did. Texas. It was denied. Simons, meanwhile, began to work on Gilbert Melendez. He also was charged with cutting the throat of his nephew, Matthew Birkinbine of Euless, and clubbing another nephew, Chad Beasley, 9, of Arlington, with a shotgun before throwing him out a second-floor window. But he was lonely at the jail. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. Her husband died in 2005, and her daughters often stop by to visit the retirement village where she lives, in Waxahachie. Two people riding horses in the area in September 1991 found the fourth body, which was given the name Janet Doe by the medical examiner, Ratliff said. Kelley, he posited, had been the target of the killers. It would mean a cut in pay and status, but Simons didnt care. ABC News' Stacy Chen contributed to this report. Dannen felt light-headed, as if he had vertigo. 39.5m members in the funny community. After three hours of testing, the operator delivered his opinion: no deception. But Thompson had never stopped wondering if theyd made a mistake. He was confident, even giddy. She knew of the deputys reputation for relying on informants and had heard negative things about him from her fellow officers; as she would later say in a deposition, people arrested by the WPD were getting right back out of jail because they were supplying information to Simons. (Simons has always denied that he made deals with suspects, saying he didnt have the power. At Williamss trial, she had testified that she saw Williams and Washington in a club parking lot, sitting near Whites car. The bedroom, Price discovered, had been Spences. Jan. 1, 1974. Still, what follows is not a legal document; some of the people involved in the case are dead, others dont remember much, and even othersincluding the patrol sergeant who investigated the case and the DA who prosecuted itrefused to be interviewed. They had planned to meet up with their friend, Bryan Boone, 19, and take a small cruise around the water. Im just an old country boy, he would say, but behind his self-deprecating manner were a sharp intellect and an insatiable drive for justice. McLemore also became uneasy. She had been stabbed repeatedly and was naked except for a bra that was tied around her right leg. The youth and innocence of the victimsall three were high school studentsmade the crime particularly senseless. If Simons had a job at the jail, he could get close to Spence and use him to solve the lake murders. The next day, at lunch with his sister, he shared Spences story. Despite the fact that U.S. courts had been admitting forensic odontology since 1954, it was a highly contested practice, with no proven record or methodology to show that a persons teeth left a unique impression or could be matched to a mark on the skin. Feazell also included Chief Scott, who had publicly accused him of refusing to prosecute valid criminal cases. Still, the defense attorneys made a miscalculation in their overall strategy. Price was stunned that Simons had taken his investigation so far without her, but she agreed to accompany him to go speak with Jim Hale, a forensic odontologist in Dallas who was studying the Washington mold. The inmate had taken his mothers death hard; his ex-wife, June Ewing, whom he had married and divorced years before, reported after a visit that hed stood in the prison yard and screamed at the sky in anguish, Are you real? Paul Owen Beasley Jr. also was sentenced to two 30-year terms Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to charges of wounding two nephews during the family gathering. Her brother, Brad, who had refused her request for a ride to Waco on the day of her disappearance, was so distraught and full of rage that Simons feared hed lunge at Spence as soon as he laid eyes on him; the deputy made him promise hed behave himself. Again he was given the death penalty. And if someone got in trouble at school, they could count on getting in trouble at home, too. GONZALES, Cornelius Alan The contents of Whites purse were strewed across the floor, and her car was missing; the vehicle was found several hours later at an apartment complex about fifteen blocks away. Feazell, who had followed the trial from Austin, where he now worked as a private attorney, was also taken aback. Jacque Hilburn-Simmons is an award-winning journalist who has been writing professionally for 30 years. Dannen hoped the reporter would call before the execution took place to say a court had stayed it, but she didnt contact him until his watch read almost eight. By then Schonemann had lost his most important cohort: Owen had received a job offer in Kentucky and left the TRC. I assumed she wouldnt be willing to speak with us, but she was candid and forthcoming. Sitting at a Dennys in Waco, the three discussed Simonss work with informants, and Price gave an affidavit about the Juanita White case. Evans threw herself into her job as a patrol officer; though she knew that many Southern cops believed police work should be reserved for men, her fearlessness and forceful attitude quickly earned her a reputation, in the words of Chief Larry Scott, as one of the best officers we had in the department. The Lake Waco murders, which took place a year after she arrived on the force, were a rude awakening. His shift, from three p.m. to one a.m., didnt allow the couple to see much of each other, so hed stop by her office when he could, then head back out on patrol. Who would do something like this? We remember your smile. And, simply, We remember you., One letter in particular moved Thompson. If this was true, then the confessions of the Melendez brothers were decidedly false. Hunt and Fuller promptly called their own expert, who said the quality of the photos was too poor to make a valid comparison. (Video: Daron Taylor, Taylor Turner/The Washington Post). He had grown up in Rosenthal, a tiny town just south of the city, and joined the WPD in 1965, a few years after dropping out of high school. In return Melendez got two life sentences. The large, elegant slab of Dakota Mahogany granite was decorated by Jills mother with the girls photo, a poem, and the inscription Forever Seventeen. Not only had Simons kept his promise to avenge Jill, he had also made sure she would never be forgotten. He also built friendships with more people around Waco, sometimes crashing on their couches when his reporting kept him late. He was a little twitchy, she told me. 399, Sec. In early January, the deputys patience paid off: an inmate named Kevin Mikel told him that Spence had bragged about killing the teenagers. Simons, meanwhile, became one of the most well-respected officers in the state. Her body was left in a wooded area near a local grocery store. And he liked to talk. Lying is not going to help you. When Tony saw Simons, he was blunt. She also reasoned that though a couple of jailhouse informants may have lied, such revelations would not have changed the outcome either. Randall Wayne His lawyers, Russ Hunt and Hayes Fuller, were convinced their client was being railroadedin their view, Spences long-running interrogation by Simons had been unorthodox, and the jailhouse testimony against him was suspect. Lynn Hawkins: Created by David Karp. Two others did match a mark to one of the molds, but it was not Spences. He always told me hed be dead before the truth came out, remembered June. Yes, Mikel said, Simons had shown him crime-scene photos and fed him information. Now, at police headquarters, Simons grilled Deeb about his acquaintances. Crime news across America. The first body was found on April 6, 1984, when the family dog of Heidi Frye brought her skeletal remains to her home on Ervin Street in League City, Texas, League City Police Chief Gary Ratliff told reporters at a news conference Monday. It was a spot where teenagers often congregated to drink, smoke, and hang out. The crime struck Price as unbearably sad. hawkins texas murders 1986army records office address. Its to show Im still here, he said. I never did like it there, I don't know what it is it's just a mountain.". McFadden became a household name in the Lone Star State the next year thanks to a horrific crime and a heart-pounding escape from jail. It was a dark place; the only light you had up there were headlights. He had now spent about $30,000 on testing, and the FSA lab had found nothing earth-shattering. One of those was Chief Larry Scott. A knife, a sex crime, a violent man: Simons was sure he was on to something. The siblings not only shared a home but they both also worked at a nearby McDonalds, where Anna Marie Hlavka had gotten off a few hours earlier. Hawkins, TX 75765 Century 21 First Group - Lindale 0.35 ACRES $25,000 169 W Holly Trl, Hawkins, TX 75765 0.5 ACRES $20,000 W Bent Bow Ln, Hawkins, TX 75765 Keller Williams Realty-Tyler 0.5 ACRES $20,000 Saddle Horn Ln, Hawkins, TX 75765 Keller Williams Realty-Tyler 0.26 ACRES $22,500 Lot 6 FM 2869, Dwayne He pulled down the front of his shirt, revealing a noose tattooed around his neck and on his chest. Their mother also urged him not to. He had more or less abandoned his life back in New York and dedicated himself entirely to solving the Lake Waco murders. I did it, he said. Back in Waxahachie, Thompson was glad to learn of the new tests, but as a year passed, then another, and then another, she and her family began to despair. The officer was none other than Jan Price. Several persons of interests have been identified but authorities currently do not have enough to officially name anyone as a suspect, Bluffington said. You have permission to edit this article. McLennan County DA John Segrest ordered that a sample be sent away for DNA testing and received results in February 2001. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. In June two cops had been shot in a gun battle downtown. At that time, we'd never had anyting like that happen here. Is this what had driven Franks out on a desperate search for his son that night, well before the murders were reported? Most journalists who came to Texas after Spence was executed werent interested in him but in finding stories about the Texas criminal justice system, remembered Schonemann. Had she lived, Suzanne would be 48, her friends slightly older, possibly with families of their own. We separately list the cases in which the person executed contracted to have the victim killed, though these cases do not fit under the class of felony murder and are not meant to imply less culpability. I was getting ready to slap on the icing, Thompson recalled, but she said, I like it better without icing. Jill said she would be home by dark, and then she was gone. HERNANDEZ, Ramon Pedro Nicholas Home; About Us; Services; Substances of Abuse; Locations He had recently left his position at the New Yorker to work as a freelancer, and he thought Spence might be his next story. His first parole, for a double rape, was granted after serving less tan five years. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. On February 16, 1994, Schonemann got his answer. What follows is a story, built around the question that has haunted so many people for so many years: What really happened at the lake that night? You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. He told me a two-day story about the murders., Jan Price has retired from active duty and now works part-time in the WPDs personnel department. Schonemann found himself without a job. He was a likable guy, intellectually curious, gregarious. The former DA remained confident of Spences guilt and felt he had nothing to hide; he was even contemplating filing a libel suit against Pardo for maligning him in Capitol Watch. The constitutional violations were egregious.. ROBERSON III, Mariano Juarez That same month, after succumbing to complications from HIV, Gilbert Melendez died in prison, a development that only fueled Dannens determination. He never would have risen to the level of a suspect.. Standing over her, he felt overwhelmed by the evil that had befallen her. On the morning of April 3, Spence met with his loved ones, including June, one of his sons, and his brother. He had also recently undergone gall bladder surgery. He was obsessed, remembered Thompson, whom he talked to almost every week. Then, just when it seemed things couldnt get worse, in September 1995 the TRC found itself forced to shut its doors. But at the end of the hearing, she walked up to the DA and gave him a message. When the officers got to Dallas, he informed them that Washingtons mold matched the wounds on Whites body. Family members linked to this person will appear here. He and his fellow officers soon spotted something else: a bent knee, rising above some weeds. But the CCA denied Schonemanns last-ditch motion, followed by the Supreme Court and the Board of Pardons, which turned down his requests at four oclock that afternoon. His shirt was stained with blood, his chest full of stab wounds. Right before the trial, Simons had written out a statement for her to sign; in it he offered various incriminating facts she knew nothing about. When the medical examiners tests did not return any DNA profiles, Dannen arranged for the evidence to be sent to Forensic Science Associates (FSA), a California lab run by Ed Blake, one of the countrys pioneering DNA scientists. It was surprising when we got the initial results, Moore told reporters on Thursday. I left him because he was drinking and smoking too much weed., June became convinced that Spence had bragged falsely about committing the murders to earn jailhouse status. All he was waiting on was his final chapter: the exoneration of Tony Melendez. She was ex-cited about the trip and changed clothes several times before going to meet Raylene. The lawyers found two other jailhouse inmates who had not testified but nevertheless claimed that Simons had fed them information also, offering them leniency and favorable treatment if they turned the words into testimony. Suzanne Harrison's body was found near the site in 1986. "She was very excited. Spence, who had two new attorneysWalter Reaves, whod represented him on the aggravated sexual abuse case, and Bill Vancegrew increasingly agitated, eventually trying to fire his lawyers. 38.3m members in the funny community. He walked with a limp and went by the nickname Lucky. After Jills parents divorced, when she was in middle school, the girl spent a lot of time at her aunts house. Shes gotten me through the last year or two, he told me. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. Drag images here or select from your computer for Gena Lee Turner memorial. Verify and try again. Breaking news has shocked and unnerved me only a few times. Simons had searched Washingtons sisters apartment, where he had been arrested, and found a sweatshirt that appeared to have blood on it, as well as some tennis shoes whose treads Simons thought might match the footprint on Whites door. For all of Wacos small-town feel, Simonshimself the father of a young boyrecognized that these were big-city problems. Feazell eventually gave Dannen access to hundreds of tapes he had made of the many conversations in his office about the lake murders. In 1982 a brutal triple homicide shook the city of Waco and soon became one of the most confounding criminal cases in Texas historyone that still haunts the many people who have tried to solve it. Guys getting their faces shot off. He was sentenced to concurrent stays in the Texas Department of Corrections, but was paroled in 1978 after serving only a few years. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Now, putting aside any remaining semblance of journalistic objectivity, he signed a paralegal agreement to work for Reaves, who offered to help get Washington out of prison pro bono. (There were times I thought I was going to be ambushed at my house, she told me.) Schonemann had been visiting Gilbert and Tony periodically since 1991; though both had told him they had lied in their statements and testimony, they refused to speak on the record. Other evidence, meanwhile, had never been turned over to defense attorneys, including dozens of police reports that seemed to contradict the murder-for-hire theory. Harrison was one of three victims kidnaped and murdered by Jerry McFadden in 1986. There was good news, though: the lab that had performed an autopsy on Carroll had saved some of his blood. They found a co-worker who had last seen her alive that day around 5 p.m. outside her apartment. Price and Turk returned to their investigation in earnest, tracking down all the informants who had testified against Washington and Williams. In June 1991 she got her wish with Deeb, when the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his murder conviction. I believe that. Based on his reporting, he felt sure it involved Harper, who was allegedly both a drug dealer and close to Kenneth, and two henchmen. GARZA For Simons, this was a promising start, and later that afternoon he and Baier sat down to interview Kelley, who had also been a friend of Jills. ASHBROOK. Furthermore, although forensic odontology was admissible in court, there was no established science behind it, and allowing Campbells testimony would be a travesty of justice, argued the lawyers. Simons informed him that if he confessed and testified against Spence, hed almost certainly avoid the death penalty. But Dannen ignored his friends warnings, and in October 1998 he returned to Austin alone, taking along his computer and a digital keyboard on which to play Chopin and Gershwin. For Hlavkas family, the news is bittersweet. Im not sure hes innocent, and Im not sure hes a good guy. Some are in new places in their lives; others are still unable to conquer the despair that arises after such senseless acts. From Associated Press HUNTSVILLE, Texas A man who nicknamed himself "Animal" was executed by injection Thursday for the rape-slaying of an 18-year-old high school cheerleader, one of three. VILLARREAL, Clifton Lamar That October, a second trial for Spencethis time for Kenneths murderwas just as straightforward. But later he told the police that he was out driving around the parks at about eight in the evening; this inconsistency, among other details, had prompted Detective Ramon Salinas and Lieutenant Marvin Horton to briefly consider Franks a suspect. Ive paid for the bad things I did., Melendez, now 55, is short and muscular. He had never been to Texas before, and he hired Peter Blum, a retired police detective and friend whom hed met while reporting on Chinese gangs, to go with him. (As for Frankss polygraph, without context, it is just as likely that Richard Franks statement was that he was with them in spirit.), Spences prosecutors, in fact, had long maintained that they had turned over everything to the defense that they were required to. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. He, Salinas, Horton, and another investigator on the case, Sergeant Robert Fortune, didnt believe there was nearly enough to make an arrest and were wary of Simons certainty. Evidence will show, he declared, that David Wayne Spence . For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph), The front page of The Journal, the hometown newspaper in Big Sandy, remembers the lives of Suzanne Harrison, Bryan Boone and Gena Turner who were killed by paroled sex offender Jerry Walter McFadden in 1986. She had been stabbed multiple times and was naked, gagged, and bound. cemeteries found in Yoakum, DeWitt County, Texas, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. On Valentine's Day 2015, a 24-year-old El Paso woman named Karyna Rodriguez was killed while unconscious during a similar sexual assault. We were told it was the truth. Though the experts identified several patterns that were possibly bite marks, they couldnt go much further. The New York Times-bestselling true crime author reveals the full story of murder and deception behind the Lifetime movie Secrets of a Gold Digger Killer. Beasley, 29, of Hawkins, was charged in the June 15, 1986, shooting and stabbing deaths of his father, Paul Owen Beasley Sr., 71; his mother, Ruth J. Beasley, 62; and his sister, Linda Birkinbine, 37, of Euless.