I just finished watching the following series (3 episodes) on Netflix, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, which documents the investigations of murders of females along the I-45 corridor south of Houston (Texas City, Friendswood, etc…) during the 70's, 80's and 90's.

One of those murdered was the daughter of the founder of Texas Equisearch.

I was in middle school and high school during the 80's (NE Houston) and don't recall hearing about these.

Anyhow, good series for those from Houston to watch. Politics related because I read about Biden's latest gaffs before posting this.

I moved to Houston (Greenspoint area) in 81. I had a brother living in LaMarque at the time. I would travel The Gulf Freeway many times over the years. I remember commenting to my brother, around 85 or 86, that a lot of women would be end up "missing" with their cars being found on the I45 south feeder road. He said he had made that observation, too, that it wasn't exactly a secret.

I watched it a couple of weeks ago. It is a quick watch. Only 3 episodes. I recommend it as well.

I watched it. Then I remembered in the 90's having to give a sample of hair and fingerprints in case we went missing, and I was on the NW side. Had no idea at the time it was because of this.

Crappy how much the police department blamed the victims. Seriously, WTH were they thinking? Thankfully the 2 Jane Doe's were eventually identified, and as mentioned above, were local as opposed to the police departments insisting they were transients.

Anybody remember the story of lady that disappeared from in front of a beach house on Bolivar. Was there with some friends and her kids. Goes outside in the yard and disappears without a trace. Seems like she was from Beaumont or somewhere,

This was probably a decade or more ago. Nothing to do with killing killing fields cases.

In any event, does anybody remember that case and has there been any updates with it?

flakrat said:

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Crappy how much the police department blamed the victims. Seriously, WTH were they thinking? Thankfully the 2 Jane Doe's were eventually identified, and as mentioned above, were local as opposed to the police departments insisting they were transients.

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Yeah, the victim blaming was horrible. The circumstances are different, but I can't help but compare this to the Idaho murders. A bunch of pretty sorority girls are killed, and the whole nation is enthralled. The police work is criticized at first, but we now know they were diligently working behind the scenes.

The treatment of the four Texas women is completely different. The first woman has always been portrayed as a barfly who was killed when she changed her mind about a one-night-stand.

The second girl was a teenager who had normal teenage rebellion issues, but the police just assumed she was a runaway. She had a condition which required medication. When her parents expressed concern about that, the police said "Oh, she's very street smart. She know where to find drugs". That infuriated me when I heard that.

The last two women were estranged from their families, and they did live semi-transient lifestyles. It may have been some time before they were even reported missing. Police still should have been able to connect them to the unidentified bodies found locally.

So these women were not prom queens. But they were still people, and they had families. No one deserves what happened to them.

Frederick Palowaski said:

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I watched it. Then I remembered in the 90's having to give a sample of hair and fingerprints in case we went missing, and I was on the NW side. Had no idea at the time it was because of this.

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I'd say it was more likely due to the national climate. There was a lot of worry about children being abducted and killed. I doubt if the problem was rampant at the time, but it was more likely a media manufactured crisis.

Thumbs down to your thumbs up for murder.
Sorry, very strange.

flakrat said:

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I just finished watching the following series (3 episodes) on Netflix, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, which documents the investigations of murders of females along the I-45 corridor south of Houston (Texas City, Friendswood, etc…) during the 70's, 80's and 90's.

One of those murdered was the daughter of the founder of Texas Equisearch.

I was in middle school and high school during the 80's (NE Houston) and don't recall hearing about these.

Anyhow, good series for those from Houston to watch. Politics related because I read about Biden's latest gaffs before posting this.

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Potential suspect?

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Anybody remember the story of lady that disappeared from in front of a beach house on Bolivar. Was there with some friends and her kids. Goes outside in the yard and disappears without a trace. Seems like she was from Beaumont or somewhere,

This was probably a decade or more ago. Nothing to do with killing killing fields cases.

In any event, does anybody remember that case and has there been any updates with it?

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No clue if THIS is what you're talking about but maybe...

Watermelon Man said:

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I moved to Houston (Greenspoint area) in 81. I had a brother living in LaMarque at the time. I would travel The Gulf Freeway many times over the years. I remember commenting to my brother, around 85 or 86, that a lot of women would be end up "missing" with their cars being found on the I45 south feeder road. He said he had made that observation, too, that it wasn't exactly a secret.

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I found the culprit. An innocent observation to your brother? Doubtful. The criminal can never resist commenting on his own crimes. Do I get $1200?

Do Netflix have a bored?

Mods please change the thumbs up emoji to the notepad one.

Again thumbs up was for the quality of the documentary. You may now return to yelling at clouds.

League City and Webster cops were corrupt. I know the area well. They had a traffic sting set up and picked the wrong victim who had funds. He filled a law suit and they paid.

flakrat said:

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Mods please change the thumbs up emoji to the notepad one.

Again thumbs up was for the quality of the documentary. You may now return to yelling at clouds.

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People that get emotional over emoticons puzzle me

All the victim blaming, calling them transients or teenage runaways - that all seems designed to give the cops an excuse not to have to work the cases diligently.
Oh and Equuasearch guy is pretty dang hard core in a good way.

JoCoAg09 said:

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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Anybody remember the story of lady that disappeared from in front of a beach house on Bolivar. Was there with some friends and her kids. Goes outside in the yard and disappears without a trace. Seems like she was from Beaumont or somewhere,

This was probably a decade or more ago. Nothing to do with killing killing fields cases.

In any event, does anybody remember that case and has there been any updates with it?

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No clue if THIS is what you're talking about but maybe...

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Yeah thats it.

torrid said:

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I grew up in that area and knew much of the cases, but the series revealed details I had not heard before. I was infuriated by how condescending and patronizing the League City police were towards the families of the missing women. A three-year-old could have the connection between the first two women and would have suggested searching the Calder Road fields when Laura Miller went missing. And the two Jane Does later identified by DNA were women missing from the Clear Lake area, not some distant state. Very shoddy police work.

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There was a thread about this on the Houston board.

You have to understand that the 70's and 80's - hell, even the 90's for that matter - are not the 2020's and a whole lot of things were considerably different than they are now. Runaways were fairly common and police departments rarely, if ever, talked to one another to compare notes to see if crimes may be related. Technology didn't exist then that we have now, nobody could have had the foresight to know it was going to exist so evidence was handled far, far differently then than now. So every crime was treated as a single one off incident, when in reality many weren't but nobody knew about it.

The League City PD didn't do a great job, no doubt, but applying modern methodology and mentality to something 30 years ago doesn't work.

If you want to read about REALLY shoddy police work - read up on HPD's handling of Dean Corll's murders of at least 27 boys. I say at least because HPD has absolutely no idea what the number is - they flat out quit doing any investigating on the case and swept anything left of it under the rug. And most of the 27 came from a very small area in Houston - not spread out along multiple cities and jurisdictions on 45.

I watch that as well, very well done series

I remember when some of that going on. I was in high school when some went missing and I remember a few of the others and the billboards. I lived in West Houston but we would still see them around there.

And being reminded of Laura Smithers, I didn't realize I was well out of college and working at that point. I always thought she was much earlier. But I definitely remember the news about her.

But I've never thought it was just one person. I think it's several people they just happen to be buried in similar locations.

Although it is quite possible the ones that were more clustered together in time may have been the same person but to go from early 70s all the way into the 90s just does not seem to be the same person to me.

Also, the area in which a lot of these girls were buried, was just very desolate and a perfect location for a dumping ground.

Still not as much out there even now, though it's more than it used to be. Also, if somebody was reading the paper or saw the news of the time they may have thought how convenient I'll just go dump my kill out there and I they'll think it's part of the same thing.

It's really sad how many people just go missing and they're never heard from again. Sometimes their bodies are found, and sometimes not. And on the rare occasion, they actually end up being alive somewhere. It isn't just Texas and that timeframe. It's of course everywhere but being from this part of the country, I heard more about this.

I could not imagine my child, grown or not, or any of my family members or friends, for that matter just going missing one day, and literally never being seen again. My heart breaks for these families.

annie88 said:

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I watch that as well, very well done series

I remember when some of that going on. I was in high school when some went missing and I remember a few of the others and the billboards. I lived in West Houston but we would still see them around there.

And being reminded of Laura Smithers, I didn't realize I was well out of college and working at that point. I always thought she was much earlier. But I definitely remember the news about her.

But I've never thought it was just one person. I think it's several people they just happen to be buried in similar locations.

Although it is quite possible the ones that were more clustered together in time may have been the same person but to go from early 70s all the way into the 90s just does not seem to be the same person to me.

Also, the area in which a lot of these girls were buried, was just very desolate and a perfect location for a dumping ground.

Still not as much out there even now, though it's more than it used to be. Also, if somebody was reading the paper or saw the news of the time they may have thought how convenient I'll just go dump my kill out there and I they'll think it's part of the same thing.

It's really sad how many people just go missing and they're never heard from again. Sometimes their bodies are found, and sometimes not. And on the rare occasion, they actually end up being alive somewhere. It isn't just Texas and that timeframe. It's of course everywhere but being from this part of the country, I heard more about this.

I could not imagine my child, grown or not, or any of my family members or friends, for that matter just going missing one day, and literally never being seen again. My heart breaks for these families.

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That's just it, that strip of highway has always been a good place to dump a body.

Dozens of women have either disappeared or had their bodies turned up in that area, going back to the 70s. It is certainly not one person who did it all, but there has been more than one serial killer at work. William Reece killed Laura Smithers and Jessica Cain among others. Undoubtedly the four murders related to the Calder Road property are the work of one killer (and series makes a good circumstantial case against the creepy guy who used to live near the Millers).

Some of the other cases have been solved and cleared, not related to the serial killers. Many remain unsolved.

Seeing the series and then reading this thread have just struck a nerve with me. I watched the series a few weeks ago and was angered by many of the things I saw in it, both the murders and the botched investigations. I then went home at Christmas and drove by many of the very places shown in the series.

I lived in that area in the 80's.

As a kid in H.S. I worked night shift at a Jack-in-the-Box. Based on some of the folks I met in the drive-thru at night - nothing surprises me.

I would work at night with an 20 year old girl who was AWAL from the marines. She was young and attractive and would get a lot of attention from many of the low-life's that pulled in drunk wanting something to eat.

I probably called the cops at least 10 times one summer. What the show didn't talk about is how many different small city's with their own police departments there are in that area. Many of the police were equally attentive to this girl and when I called the police they ALL would come running to her aid. One one occasion when a guy broke the drive thru glass door and tried to climb into the restaurant - cop cars from League City, Dickenson, Pasadena, El Lago, and Timber Cove all showed up from different directions!

I wonder if the fact that there are so many small cities in this area with their own small police forces didn't somehow play into this story?

I grew up in Pearland and went to school for JH at Webster during the 80s and don't remember hearing a peep about any of this.

JoCoAg09 said:

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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Anybody remember the story of lady that disappeared from in front of a beach house on Bolivar. Was there with some friends and her kids. Goes outside in the yard and disappears without a trace. Seems like she was from Beaumont or somewhere,

This was probably a decade or more ago. Nothing to do with killing killing fields cases.

In any event, does anybody remember that case and has there been any updates with it?

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No clue if THIS is what you're talking about but maybe...

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Good article

Friend of mine was the lead investigator for the Sheriff's office in the Jessica Cain case. He was there when they found her remains.

Halfway through the 2nd episode. Reminds me of the Candyman murders in that the cops didn't seem to have much interest, saying the kids just ran away. Can't imagine what that was like for the parents.

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I was infuriated by how condescending and patronizing the League City police were towards the families of the missing women.

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I didn't remember it in real time but when watching this documentary it was absolutely really bad.

I mean really bad. Just disgusting.

Now I know in the past, police tended to have the attitude of oh they're teenagers they'll be back. Thankfully they don't do that anymore. Or at least not as much, hopefully.

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That's just it, that strip of highway has always been a good place to dump a body.

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But it's not unique. There are thousands of places in the country like this, that get multiple body dumps over years and decades.

There are some in Houston proper, too. Third ward, other areas constant dead bodies.

Some cases just get more publicity. It just affects us more here because we grew up around here.

And I don't mean to sound callous.

Tarponfly said:

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I grew up in Pearland and went to school for JH at Webster during the 80s and don't remember hearing a peep about any of this.

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I'm surprised since you were in Pearland. Especially when they had a lot billboards along I 45.

But honestly, when we're young sometimes we don't pay as much attention to these things. I just remember a little bit of press coverage about it and the billboards going to Galveston. But didn't know the detail that is brought up in this documentary.

How did the coroner screw up the Ellen Beason/Clyde Henrick case so badly? I mean signs of a skull fracture are pretty obvious even with 1986 "technology"