Near I-45 highway in Texas, killing so many young girls and young women it is known as the bloodiest interstate America. The track is located South of Houston, near the abandoned oil field.
With the 70-ies of the last century, about 40 young girls who were found dead near an area of 25 acres, known as Texas killing fields (Texas Killing Fields). Their torn bodies were dumped in fields, lakes and canals. And while the police believe that some deaths are linked with each other, most girls have become victims of various criminals. The case of the missing or dead girls associated with the area, mostly still unsolved.
The victims were girls aged from 12 to 34 years, and all of them found in the period from 1971 to 2002. This led to the fact that the track length of 68 miles near the Texas killing fields is called the most bloody expensive in America.
1971, Maria Johnson and Debbie Ackerman went missing from Galveston Island #Texas @CI @AETV #TheEleven @Chrondigger @MurderCityPod pic.twitter.com/TOlEp13vSV
— Iain McDougall (@Iain_McDougall) November 14, 2018
But last month, the police managed to identify 2 of the girls, using DNA technology and genetic genealogy.
For many years they were known to police only as Jane DOE, and Janet To. But we now know that this 31-year-old Audrey cook of Memphis and 34-year-old Donna Prudhomm from Port Arthur. They were among the 4 women found at the same abandoned oil field, known as Calder 3000, during the 6-year period from 1984 to 1991.
The FBI suspects that all four girls were killed by the same serial killer.
1973 16-Year-old Kimberly Pitchford never came home after attending driver’s ed class at Frank Dobie High School #OTD found in the ‘Texas Killing Field’ off I-45 @TheAISOCC @CI @MWilliamPhelps@chrondigger @AETV #TheEleven pic.twitter.com/onTUHk3qOR
— Iain McDougall (@Iain_McDougall) January 3, 2018
Audrey’s body was found in 1986, police investigating the murder of another girl, a runaway 16-year-old Laura Miller, whose body was found 2 children ride bikes. The remains of the girls were discovered next to each other. Donna’s body found in September 1991, horsemen, riding on horses, in 3 months after she was seen alive for the last time.
Laura was last seen in September 1984 at a gas station in the neighboring town of League city, after she called her boyfriend. She was shot in the back of the head with small caliber. Another girl, a waitress Heidi Villarreal-Fi, disappeared at the same gas station, and Laura, but the year before in October 1983. A girl of 23 years out of my parents ‘ home in League city to catch a ride and go see your boyfriend. After 6 months family living near Calder 3000, got an unpleasant surprise when their dog returned from a walk with the head Heidi. Later the police found her abandoned body.
Shelley Sikes, 19 Missing from Galveston, TX since May 24, 2986 — https://t.co/YkGPjyPuib pic.twitter.com/DIi4ayNHxI
— 💖💜💙 Kaylara the Dual Wielder 🏳 This🌈 (@KaylaraOwl) October 4, 2017
In 1993 Sergeant Pat Betty, which is investigating the case, said: «we Have girls with one color hair and similar appearance. The area where the body was thrown is also the same. In addition, all of the girls were found without clothing.» The police hopes that by identifying the other two victims, they will now be able to gather more information to reveal these other things to do Texas killing fields, which for decades.
Despite the fact that over the years, called the names of various suspects, no one was charged with the 4 murders, or most others.
Visiting the place where the bodies were found, Amy Canaan Mann, the Director of the film «the Field» with Chloe grace Moretz in the title role, described this place as «the perfect in order to kill someone without being caught». She said, «actually this shows League. But if you shout, nobody will hear. And if you run, there’s nowhere to run».
And the scary frequency with which along Interstate 45 found bodies, suggests that the killings were the work of not one but a number of serial killers hunted here for years.
The sad list of victims originates in the 70-ies of the last century. In 1971 the dead found 5 teenagers, and then another 6 from 1974 to 1977. And 6 of them were killed in pairs. The first victims were 13-year-old Colette Wilson and 19-year-old Gloria Gonzales who was thrown 35 metres from each other. Colette was last seen when she went off the school bus. Her body was found naked with a single bullet in the head, as well as Laura Miller, who died at the same place 12 years ago. In August 1971, two 14-year-old Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw, disappeared, having gone to spend the day at the nearby beach. After 6 months 2 boys-fisherman noticed the skull in Clear lake, 9 miles North of Calder 3000, which allowed us to find the bodies of the two girls. Again, both were shot in the head.
Charged with the murder of Sharon were arrested a local employee filling a sex offender, and Michael Self, but it was later revealed that he was forced to take the blame and was acquitted.
On the ninth of November, 1971 3 girls were gone from Houston and Galveston. Allison Carver (12 years) went missing from the apartment of the mother near Interstate 45. Her dismembered body was found 4 months later, buried in 2 places 12 miles from home. 6 days after the disappearance of Allison, best friends Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson (both 15 years) got into the white van men, who offered them a ride, when they were near the ice cream. Their bodies were found in the canal near the road between Galveston and League city. Both were tied up and naked below the waist. Police found that girls were friends Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Johnson, with whom they worked together on the water-ski sport, but even this discovery did not help the investigators to establish the perpetrator of their death.
Bonnie: Monsters Among Us: Kevin Edison Smith raped and killed 13-year-old Krystal Jean Baker, now he is spending… https://t.co/hAfIOR771L pic.twitter.com/e83aGFAkCA
— Crime News (@crimenews) January 31, 2017
Moreover, the list of deaths and gruesome discoveries near the road continued to grow year after year. The victims have always been girls and young women, and often they were killed in the same manner – shot in the head after it had been stripped.
In 1997, two murders convinced the officers that they were made by one person. Body budding ballerina Laura Smither (12) and 9-year-old amber Hagerman was found at a distance of 300 miles from each other. Both girls stripped, leaving them only one sock. A few months 17-year-old Jessica Cain was reported missing after she spent the evening with friends in the restaurant. The car her dad that she drove was found on Interstate 45, and the witness testified that she went to a red car the Isuzu Amigo, which stopped her car. Nineteen years later, in 2016, her remains were found in South Houston. The police accused the thief of William Rice, who was in prison since 1998.
Rice also accused in the killings of Laura Smither and amber, Hagerman and 19-year-old newlywed Tiffany Johnson, who was killed at a car wash in Oklahoma, and Kelli Ann Cox (20 years), student who disappeared from Denton in 1997.
But, despite the fact that the police are sure that they grab at least one of the serial killers Interstate 45, Texas killing fields to this day continues to receive new bodies.
Officers now hope that a breakthrough with DNA will allow, finally, solve many mysteries and find out who committed all these murders, which the locals have lived in fear for several decades.
