Killing Fields Trilogy /// Part 2 | Forensic Files

this is true crime garage and this is The Killing Fields trilogy [Music] thank you
[Music] part two the 1980s the 1970s were nothing less than tragic for the Galveston area as the dead
bodies and number of missing girls just kept adding up there was an arrest and a conviction yet
the murders continued still there was hope as the 1970s were drawing to a close the murders and the
finding of bodies seemed to be tapering off Suzanne Bowers was the last of far too
many victims of the 70s and she was last seen in 1977. the murder cases had gone cold
and The Killing Fields were silent but they weren't empty the 1980s were Upon Us time for a fresh
start time for a new beginning October 1983 Heidi Fey was 23 years old she left her parents house to go see her
boyfriend she didn't have a ride so she chose to hitchhike which would prove to be a fatal mistake
almost a year later another young lady from League City Texas would go missing this time it's 16 year old Laura Miller
semi-witness Reports say lore may have been last spotted at the same convenience store where Heidi was last
seen next was 19 year old Shelly Sykes whose blue Pinta was found abandoned on I-45
in May of 1986. Suzanne Renee Richardson from Galveston was last seen on October 7 1988. combine
these with the bodies of two Jane does both found in the killing field both unclaimed and unidentified
the fields were not silent anymore many nights Laura Miller's Father Tim would go to The Killing Fields sitting
alone in the dark listening to The Whispers In The Wind and waiting for his daughter's killer
some nights he cried some he yelled and screamed and once in a while he slept the victims of the Killing Fields
refused to be quiet and one by one they were located these are their stores [Music]
thank you in October of 1983 25 year old Heidi FYE she along with her six-year-old daughter
were staying at her parents house for a while on the evening of October 7th Heidi's father and a friend were
watching a baseball game she told her father that she was going to go into town to see her boyfriend she
thought that she could hitch a ride from someone at a nearby convenience store so she walked down to the store located
on the corner of Hobbs Road and West Main Street this is quite near I-45 while Heidi never made it to see her
boyfriend later the boyfriend called the house to talk to Heidi but learned that
she was not there instead he ends up telling her parents that he had not heard from her so her father went out
looking for her and he started with the convenience store he spoke to the clerk now to be clear this is a gas station
slash convenience store so he spoke with the clerk and she remembered seeing Heidi and told Heidi's father that she
had used the Payphone outside and then she had seen Heidi walk away six months later in April of 1984 at a
home off of Calder Road this is a very rural area we have parents sitting on their front porch watching their toddler
play in the front yard yeah as they watch their toddler play they're going to see their dog come out of the woods
and the dog's going to have something in its mouth yeah first the parents thought
that perhaps the dog had found a ball or something that someone had left behind in the woods well it wasn't until the
dog got closer that they realized that this was not a ball in fact it was a skull the dog had brought it to the
front yard and then dropped it near the toddler the police were called and they searched the area and about 300 yards
from the house police found the skeleton of Heidi Phi and the skeleton is going to be found underneath a tree lying on
its back yes this is in the area near the colder oil field they found her clothing and a necklace of hers nearby
the medical examiner could not determine the car cause of death now she did have
some broken ribs so it's been often speculated that she most likely was Beat to Death yeah and her remains are going
to be found in a location later named The Killing Fields thirty-year-old Ellen Ray Beason who was last seen alive July
1984. she was last seen drinking with a guy named Clyde Hendrick at a League City nightclub now Clyde Hendrick was
there with her but there was also another couple and this couple was not super close with Clyde but the woman
knew Ellen Beeson well and all of them all four of them had been part of the same little group that hung out at this
nightclub you know most nights they would be there after work drinking since Beeson and Hendrick were still
drinking when the couple had left eventually she had lost touch with her friend and not seen her friend in some
time so she started to nag Hendrick Kyle Hendrick when he was when she would see
him at the nightclub you know what happened to what happened to Beeson what happened to my friend where what did you
guys do that night she was pressing Clyde Hendrick to tell her if he knew anything the woman says that Hendrick
denied any knowledge of what could have happened to Ellen Beeson but she wasn't convinced so she figured that if she got
him drunk well then he might talk this turns out her idea worked on a rainy November night this is four months after
Beeson vanished Hendrick told the woman that he could take her to where Beeson was
so she got in the car with him oh well that doesn't that seems like a bad idea yeah well Hendrick took her down Old
Galveston Highway and pulled over into a stretch of woods not far from some railroad tracks uh he then grabbed a
flashlight and the woman followed him down to a ravine that served as a dump for discarded Furniture appliances tires
and old junk he led her to what news reports have consistently called a couch once there he aimed the light toward a
nearly fleshless corpse at first the woman couldn't tell if it was really her friend Hendrick gave the body a little
kick and when he did this the body shifted a bit and now the woman could see something she recognized around the
neck of the body this was a necklace one that she had given to be yeah and at this point Hedrick is going to tell her
a story and then he's later going to tell the same story to the police The Story Goes Like This he says that he and
Beeson left the Texas Moon club that night in July 1984 and headed toward an abandoned sand pit in Dickinson that
served as a popular swimming hole Beeson slipped out of her clothes and into the
water while Hendrick smoked a joint in his truck then he noticed that his truck had got stuck on the way out to the
swimming hole so he worked on this truck getting it out while Beeson continued to
swim after a while he saw that beeson's body was floating in the swimming hole so he pulled her body from the water he
administered CPR but she was still unresponsive so Hedrick carried her to his truck and he headed toward the
hospital but then he panicked and feared that he might be accused of killing her
so he took her to the spot that we just described and placed the couch on top of
her Hedrick made one thing clear to this woman though he stated you know I hadn't
killed Beeson but I wouldn't think twice about killing you if you told anyone ah
so it's uh kind of a sign of guilty well this began in eight months of hell for this woman the woman said that Hedrick
stalked her he turned up at the same stores when it was clear that he was he wasn't there to shop she would come home
and find a piece of paper stuck in the screen door with a big c written on it as she says this is Clyde hedrick's
calling card and even worse she said that sometimes she would come home and her two little
boys well they would then tell her that a man had come by so whatever Hedrick wanted she gave him during this time for
you know she was fearing for her kids lives finally on a night when her boys were
visiting family out of town she decided to tell Hedrick she was done and she told him if you want to kill me go ahead
and kill me because I'm not playing your game anymore the next day she led police
to beeson's body right and at first hedrick's story makes some sense right some logical sense
you know we were swimming uh she drowned I tried CPR I was taking her to the hospital I freaked out where it gets a
little weird for me is once he tells the friend and then he starts basically threatening her yeah
um and part of me as the friend would be going why would I be fearful of you if I
believe his story why would I be fearful of him he didn't kill this girl it was an accident so chances are he's not
going to kill me well of course the police and the prosecutors had trouble buying hedrick's story about beeson's
death you know the skinny dipping related death uh but the Galveston County medical examiner found no
evidence of Foul Play when he examined the body uh so Hedrick was he was charged and ultimately convicted of a
misdemeanor of abusing a corpse he was sentenced to a year behind bars but the interesting thing here is while Hedrick
was incarcerated right investigators with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office The League City police department
and the FBI continued to probe the circumstances of Ellen beeson's death in September of 1984 we have Tim Miller his
wife and 16 year old daughter Laura Miller they had recently moved into a home in League City Texas in search of a
fresh new start for young Laura although they were they were from a town that was
not too far away a new school is what the family was in search of and they believed that League City Texas had just
the school and a Cozy home for them for this Fresh Start yeah you see that all the time Laura suffered from seizures uh
for most of her life this caused some trouble for her at school she was different from the other kids and
couldn't hide it because the seizures although infrequent seem to come at inopportune times Laura was pretty and
very likable so she had no trouble fitting in in that sense but her parents believed the uncontrollable episodes
first started affecting her schoolwork and then later her choice of friends a lot of the other kids parents were
afraid to have Laura visit their home they especially did not want her to stay the night right worried that they would
not know what what to do if she suffered a seizure at their home and a lot of the
kids didn't want to stay at Laura's home as the seizures were just something that
that most kids and teenagers didn't understand and of course we tend to be afraid of things that we don't
understand I'll give you an example of a situation this poor young girl had to go
through when Laura was about 11 or 12 she was in the choir at her school and everyone knows that the choir always
puts on a good presentation some you know at Christmas time for the parents and students to celebrate the holiday
season well they put on a presentation we don't know if it's good well they're all good
um well most the time not Laura was selected for a solo and she had a seizure during her solo she was not in
the choir for much longer after that the Miller family was stuck they were still
unpacking at their new home they weren't quite settled into their new home yet and this is September 10th Laura asked
her mother for a favor The Miller's home phone was not yet set up and she was missing some of her old friends and
especially her boyfriend and wanted to talk to them and tell them about her new home and school so Laura asked her
mother if she could take her to a nearby Payphone so she could make a couple of calls Laura's mother agreed they went to
the gas station slash convenience store this is on the corner of Hobbs and Maine
same one where Laura would use the outdoor Payphone to reconnect with some of her old friends
Laura's mother waited in the car now after some time had passed it was time to leave Laura's mother had to go to
work Laura begged her mother to let her stay reminding her that she is 16 years old and the gas station was only about a
mile from their home and she could walk home Laura's mother agreed and after giving
her daughter a few more quarters she waved goodbye and was on her way to work later that night when Laura's Father Tim
got home from work he was surprised to see his daughter was not at the house as he waited for her to return he grew
more nervous and decided to hop in his truck and go to a pay phone and check in with his wife maybe she had you know
given Laura permission to go somewhere right um You can imagine how his nervousness
though quickly changed to confusion and fear when he phones his wife and learned
that she had left Laura alone at the gas station pay phone Tim raced to the actual gas station that they were
talking about and he spoke with the clerk the clerk had not seen Laura didn't know where she was the night came
and went and then the following day Tim drove to the League City police department and filed a missing persons
report when the officer learned that Laura and her family had recently moved the
officer assured Tim that the girl had simply taken off with some friends and this sort of thing happens all the time
and it would only be a matter of time before she would turn up yeah that's your lazy answer the next night came and
went and by now Laura's parents knew in their gut that Laura wouldn't have run away or just taken off for a while and
they truly feared that she may have suffered a seizure somewhere or she could have been injured and unable to
seek help you know their minds raced from thought to thought as they tried to figure out what could have happened to
Laura as the weeks went by they began to lose any sense of hope then Tim Miller heard something that shook him to his
core he learned that just a few months before the Miller family moved to League City a dog had dug up a human skull in
an area off a Calder Road in League City leading the police to the rest of what turned out to be 25 year old woman who
had disappeared in October of 1983. Heidi FYE lived with her parents as we had said but this was just about three
blocks away from The Miller's new home right three blocks away they're also going to come to the realization that
she used the same pay phone at the same convenience store that their their daughter used yes and so Tim Miller is
more than disturbed by The Coincidence soon after Tim had a feeling that he wasn't really searching for Laura but
searching for her body Miller Miller again went to the League City police department and this time he asked a
detective if they'd search for Laura in the field where Hyde phi's body was found
all that had been reported was that Phi was found in the 3000 block of Calder road so Tim didn't have an exact address
or exact location of where this body was found right now the detective's response
a dismissive eye roll right and he gave Tim a theory the detective said that Heidi FYE worked at a bar she was a
cocktail waitress some guy probably took her out after closing time she wouldn't
consent to sex there was a struggle and the guy killed her and dumped her Heidi phi's murder as far as he was concerned
was an isolated incident even though that we saw her at the pay phone at the convenience store
so so he's just making up random stuff you're going to be a lazy pile of dog dookie right
don't be a cop okay in the days and weeks that followed Miller hounded the detectives he urged them to search the
field for Laura or at least give him the exact location so he could search the field himself
they told him to let them do their job and not to contact phi's family as the months then turned into a year
Tim and his wife Jan Miller they were not dealing well with Laura's disappearance Tim began drinking quite
heavily and then 17 months after Laura went missing Tim checked himself into a hospital that same day in February of
1986 kids riding dirt bikes through the fields off of Calder Road smelled something rotten and they called the
police this turned out to be the skeleton of a woman possibly 25 years old who had been shot in the back
possibly from a 22 caliber weapon there was a bullet hole in her spine her body would have been dumped in the field
within the previous six weeks she was described as I said as 25 years old five foot five to five foot eight inches tall
140 to 160 pounds she had reddish brown hair and a distinct gap in her teeth she
was lying about 200 feet from where Heidi Phi had been found they could tell that she was too old to
be Laura Miller police had nothing to identify this woman and she had she had not been there long enough to be any of
the other older missing women cases that we've had despite many efforts she has never been identified and is known today
simply as Jane Doe then while the police were searching for more clues in this case they came upon
another body just 20 yards away from Jane Doe the other body was identified as 16 year old Laura Miller no longer
was she missing and turns out her father had been right right the medical examiner was unable to determine how or
when Laura was killed now there there were three victims all found in that same area all had been
killed and then placed there in less than a three-year time span they were all found lying on their backs and
underneath of a tree someone had placed them there lying them out like they had simply gone to sleep forever under a
tree yeah but you wonder if that means something the cases the causes of death were not considered the same Heidi had
most likely been Beat to Death Jane Doe died of a gunshot and Laura's cause of death was unknown all three victims were
white with shoulder-length brown hair brownish hair Tim Miller's emotions turned to anger when asked about the
bodies being found in the field Tim Miller told the newspapers Jane Doe was killed and placed there after Laura
maybe if the police had done their jobs Jane Doe may not have been killed and he
said that he blames the Jane Doe's death on the police it's tough I mean with not
every case do I want the parents or or the loved ones of the victims to go after the cops but some of these cases
just seem so ridiculous and and again these lazy answers and this lazy uh police work you know maybe they are
responsible for Jane Doe's death well Tim was not only angry with the police but he was angry with himself you know
Laura was his daughter and he believed he was supposed to protect her he was also filled with guilt because he knew
he should not have listened to the police he should he believed he should have gone against them and went to the
fields and searched for his daughter or talked to the other you know victim's parents well if so he may have found her
a long time ago and who knows what evidence would have come with that right a couple of months just before Christmas
in 1986 Tim his wife Jan and their only other daughter this is uh her name is Wendy went to the location in the field
where Laura's body was found Tim had constructed a large wooden cross they brought it to the spot now where she was
found there is a cross the Millers believed that Laura should have two graves one of them being of their
choosing and one in the field where she was found and the other thing we have to
keep in mind here Captain is that at this time the police they had Laura's remains and they would not release them
to the family for about three years wow so you know the family needed something it takes you three years to do autopsy
and get all the information you need well in the family they believe that Laura deserved a resting place even in
the meantime the family planted a tree at this location and placed some sentimental items around the cross but
this would not be the last time or the last visit to the fields because for Tim Miller this area became sacred ground
yeah this guy becomes I mean just he he almost acts like somebody in a movie what you imagine you
would act like if this tragedy ever happened to your family well he was going to try to bury his pain and anger
in the same field where Laura's killer had left her right Tim thought that the secret to finding his daughter's killer
was the area you know the the location that they are now calling the killing field now let's talk about the name here
for a second the name came from a movie that came out around this same time called The Killing Fields but it had
nothing to do with the murders down in Texas this was about finding Mass graves in Cambodia after the Texas murder land
near Calder field received the name the Texas Killing Field the murders gained national attention uh the killings along
I-5 the Galveston serial killer and The Killing Fields were now big news it's just a shame that the big news didn't
come with big results we'll get right back to part two of The Killing Fields trilogy right after this quick beer
break [Music] all right cheers mates thanks for uh joining us in the garage well captain
now we have new detectives looking at these three new murders and the reason why we have new detectives is just like
we said yesterday you know eventually our story the victims in this story will span the course of Three Counties and we
will have many different police and Sheriff's departments investigating these murders so the new detectives that
are looking for answers in the three killing field murders they were hindered by one of the same problems that plagued
most of the investigations into the murders that took place in the 70s the bodies sat there for quite some time and
evidence was lost hairs fibers fingerprints tire and shoe tracks all washed away
but the victims in the 80s presented another problem in all three cases police were certain all three had been
killed elsewhere and then brought and dumped in the field several investigators pointed out that they
didn't have a crime scene to deduce what had occurred or who was to blame for the
bodies they only had bodies to look at no crime scene let's talk a little bit more about Tim Miller the father of
Laura Miller yeah he began spending most of his time in the field where Laura's body was found in the evenings after
work when it was still daylight he would search the field looking for Clues looking for anything sometimes he did
this on foot other times on Horseback after dark Tim would sit in the field or in his truck drinking beer and smoking
cigarettes Tim believed that Laura's killer would return to the field one night and if he did well Tim would be
there and Tim could get the guy's plate number or confront him or maybe even kill him and leave him there in the
field well I believe he was out there with with the gun yeah many nights Tim stayed in the oil field all in the field
all night sometimes cursing the killer sometimes cursing God and sometimes even cursing Laura uh Tim would cry out to
the killer asking him why doesn't he come out into the field and kill him or at least try to on some occasions as you
said Tim brought his gun with him sometimes this was for protection other times might be to kill the man that
killed his daughter on one of these nights uh whether it was out of anger or if it was simply an experiment only Tim
might know for sure but Tim pointed his gun to the sky and he pulled the trigger
until it was out of bullets well then he waited and he waited and yet no one came not the police not
anyone at all and you know he started to wonder did anyone hear did they even hear the shots that he fired that night
Tim doesn't think so well and you wonder how much of this is also just I mean he's heavily drinking you know as he is
he uh make believe in any of this is he fallen asleep and having any odd dreams about him being out there what was real
and what was uh what was fictitious and all this drinking and anger turned into more drinking and then the addition of
drugs and grief Tim lost his job and his marriage Tim and Jan's marriage started
to fall apart when Lord disappeared and it only got worse after they found her body there was a lot of arguing and at
times they blamed each other for what happened maybe if they hadn't moved to a new home or maybe if Jan hadn't left
lore at the gas station maybe if Tim was more understanding none of this would have happened they didn't just blame
each other they blame themselves and all this would prove to be too much right and like we've talked about before the
success rate of a marriage goes down by tons of percentage once you lose a child
all right we have to back up here just a little bit Captain to Memorial Day Weekend
1986. uh and introduced 19 year old Shelly Sykes Shelley attended the University of Texas she had a boyfriend
in a job she was a waitress at a very busy and very popular seafood restaurant in Galveston this is one of those
Captain D's no nothing like that this is one of those places that everyone says you have to try and if you are just
visiting the island for a long weekend to enjoy the beach well Long John Silver's this is a place that is a must
stop before you go home I guess this restaurant's been around since like 1911 or something like that but anyway Shelly
worked at this place now her father and her boy boyfriend didn't love Shelly working on Galveston they both kind of
thought the place to be a bit of a Sin City you know everyone travels there for fun in the sun there's lots of drinking
lots of parties and let's not forget Shelley's father uh would be old enough to remember all of the horror stories
about all the murdered and missing women and girls from the 70s so Shelley was there working late she
left work around 11 30 p.m that night after clocking out Shelly went out to the parking lot and hopped in her 1980
blue Ford Pinto she lived with her father and stepmother and would typically get home around midnight on
these late night shifts and hang out with her father for a bit for some late night TV before turning in well on this
night her father was out of town on a trip with some friends so Shelly after work intended to drive out to her
boyfriend's house to watch some movies well after more than enough time had passed for Shelley to arrive her
boyfriend Mark became concerned Mark called the restaurant and spoke with a co-worker of Shelley's only to hear what
he had expected that Shelley had left a long time ago worried Shelly may have had some car trouble of sorts Mark then
drove from his house to the restaurant and back when he got back to his house he asked his father to go with him and
search for Shelley in the blue Ford Pinto once again they tried to retrace Shelley's route isn't that crazy that's
what we used to have to do 80s and 90s you know before cell phones you just you know you'd have you'd have that Gap when
you went from one place to another place it would be that Gap in time where now it's like you could make a cell phone
call well this time what they were going to do they were going to have Mark's father he would drive while Mark he
would keep his eyes glued to the sides of the highway looking for her vehicle eventually Mark spotted the car Mark
pointed out the vehicle to his father and they approached the vehicle they could see that the dome light was on
inside of her car all of the doors were closed they hopped out of their vehicle and ran up to of the car now the first
thing that they notice is that the driver side window had been smashed and there was glass on the outside of the
car and more lying on the inside and it makes you start to wander you know did Shelley have car problems park the car
leave the car maybe start walking and somebody came by and tried to break into the car the two men noticed blood this
is blood on the glass and blood on the car door they notified authorities Shelley's father who was out of town he
was notified as well police arrived on the scene and Shelley's father he was racing toward Galveston to try to figure
out what had happened to his daughter in her car now Shelley's boyfriend and his
father noticed that the responders to the situation they were concerned that there had been a car accident the
officers took a report and they asked Mark if he wanted to get the car off the road and return it to Shelly's home now
Mark he's the boyfriend his father stepped in he interrupted the officer explaining that he was convinced that
there had not been a traffic accident at all he believed that something awful may
have happened and he told them that he would not be taking the car anywhere he wanted the officer to have the car
picked up by one of you know somebody with the police department right so they can investigate the car and secure the
car and then search it for evidence after some convincing the officers agreed to do this oh they decided to do
their job well now the following day at the police department some people came forward having seen the blue Pinto
involved in some strange and alarming activity the prior night first was a couple of drivers from two different
cars that had seen the pinto they told officers they had witnessed the pinto in a brief but dangerous car chase
Shelley's car was being chased by a pickup truck after the truck pursued the vehicle and
forced it to the side of the road A man jumped out of the truck and pulled his shirt off he then wrapped the shirt
around his fist and he began pounding and punching the driver's side window until he smashed it
the man then reached through the broken glass and into the car and pulled Shelly
through the window and out of the car she's a Shelly fought the man and grabbed at the car window as the man
carried her Kicking and Screaming back to his truck one of the witnesses said something to the man and I don't need to
use any of the language that the man used that night do you want me to use it but but basically he told them uh that
what they had witnessed was some kind of domestic dispute it was none of their business and they should leave when the
witness started to speak to the man again the man then motioned as though he was going to pull out a gun so the
witnesses left a composite drawing was made of this suspect but neither of the witnesses got a plate number from this
guy's truck so of course the police they're investigating this crime but they they don't have a whole lot to go
on well they start investigating Shelley's boyfriend of course Mark um and he did cooperate uh in the
investigation he offered to assist them as much as he could in the investigation
now after some time it went by on this case uh Shelley's father in a moment of desperation he picked up the phone and
he called John Walsh now at this time John Walsh was a bit of you know he was an advocate for missing persons uh he
had not become a TV personality by this point but he called John Walsh and he asked him for it of advice you know I'm
looking for my daughter what can I do John Walsh told him do whatever you can to keep this case in the media if you
keep the case in the media you keep it alive in the newspapers and you keep the police officers out of the coffee shops
and you keep them on the streets doing their job right well after a while into the investigation police eventually got
another eyewitness this time the eyewitness backed up the two previous eyewitness statements but added a bit of
a Twist this eyewitness had seen another man inside the pickup truck right that would make sense after more than eight
months nothing seemed to be happening with the case they were running out of leads the family wasn't getting any
answers and then in another moment of desperation again Shelley's father picked up the phone this time he called
the FBI he spoke with the supervising agent and he said you know have you let me tell you about my daughter that went
missing and nothing seems to be happening with this case he asked the man do you have any kids and the kid the
guy said yes and he said have you ever been in a shopping mall or been in a grocery store and you turn around and
your kid has disappeared and that moment of fear and nervousness that just takes
over your body and he said yes of course he says well I've been doing this for 9
I've been doing this for eight months for eight months I've had this feeling I've been looking for my daughter
so the FBI eventually sends out two investigators to help the local officers in their search for Shelley and still
the investigation kind of drags on with really no new information as the one-year anniversary approached of
Shelley Sykes disappearance the family refused to give up hope they started pushing local newspapers to carry the
story again they started putting up Billboards seeking information and they put out more flyers by this time they
had put out like 300 000 Flyers looking for their daughter well then one month later something happened this is on June
22nd 1987. a man called 9-1-1 begging for help the man was staying in a hotel and he had tried to hang himself and he
had also slit his wrist when the police arrived they found two suicide notes in one of the notes the man wrote that he
was involved in the kidnapping of Shelly Sykes the man was 29 year old John King
King was taken to the hospital and the next day he was interviewed by the police at the hospital now King not only
implicated himself but implicated a friend of his as having been involved in the kidnapping as well and this is
Gerald's worst after King was released from the hospital he was interviewed again this
time at Police Headquarters and the interview would be videotaped when asked about the night that the girl had gone
missing King told the investigators that he and zworst had been out fishing all day they were drinking smoking pot and
PCP that night oh there's a problem around midnight they were driving off of Galveston Island when they spotted
a young girl driving in her car well they gestured at her the men were were now following her car pulling up next to
her and trying to flirt with Shelley eventually Shelley gave the men the bird and tried to speed away from them King
told the cops that zworst was driving and that he just went crazy he forced the girl off of the road and the busted
out her window now it sounds like some Wayne Brady stuff King wasn't able to give really great detailed information
or maybe he was and he was just withholding it but he claimed that he was extremely high and drunk that night
and he was in a bit of a drug and alcohol Haze through this whole deal he said that the men took Shelley to king's
parents house and took her back to the woods behind the house King said that zworst then took a shovel and Shelly
into the woods King didn't know how long they were gone but Shelley didn't come back right so Shelley's remains should
be you know on this guy's property and the thing here is Captain King wasn't really certain how Shelley had died or
at least he couldn't tell investigators how she had died he said that maybe she was hit with the shovel or maybe she was
buried alive um basically what ends up coming this comes down to is we have two guys picked
up for this and ultimately they would just simply blame one another they both admitted to being together that night
they both admitted to chasing her car and pulling her out of the vehicle but when it came to the actual events of
what happened once she was in the truck or once they got back to King's property
um they they differed on their stories of who was to blame and whose idea it was to to kill the girl there was a lot
of problems with this case because one thing that happened was it seemed like the guys or at least one of the guys was
Will willing to lead the police to the body of Shelley Sykes the problem Captain was that they both
lawyered up and once they lawyered up they were no longer willing to lead them to the body
police went out there and I mean they they searched with everything that they could anything that you could think of
all means they never found Shelly Sykes body what eventually happened was the two men were charged with kidnapping but
they were not charged with murder and I think you know that's a bit of a letdown but in a way I think it's a bit
of a brilliant move by the prosecutor because at that time in Texas as far as murder and kidnapping went they both
carried pretty much the same punishment right and here here's was the prosecutor's thought was this you know
without a body and now I have two guys blaming one another uh who are going to be in separate trials it's going to be
hard to get a murder conviction now of course they do have the death penalty for capital murder down there but the
problem is you know if you can't get the death penalty then you're looking at a life sentence well kidnapping carries
the same punishment carries the life sentence yeah so he thought you know what let's let's do this let's go after
kidnapping because they had a solid Surefire win case when it came to kidnapping they had a very weak case
when it came to a situation of murder charge them with kidnapping got the conviction and then the thought is this
if the body is ever recovered if they do find it eventually then they could have
potentially go back and seek the death penalty against one or both of these guys so we got these two clowns we've
got zorst and King right and we know that they're responsible for her kidnapping we both agree they're
responsible for her murder 100 and so what's weird about The Killing Fields is that there is this you know huge
timeline for one right right we got 70s 80s 90s and then we also have these cases within
the overall case where we know that these individuals are responsible for this murder but are they responsible for
maybe possibly another one right and then is this just a big Dumping Ground and so is that you know so not all the
cases follow under one killer but how many of them are connected I mean there could be six killers
well in this situation they're connected by the location where the bodies are found and like you said so at this point
in our story we have zworst and King who are spending the rest of their lives in
prison for kidnapping and like you said we know they killed that poor girl we also have uh Clyde Hedrick who is
serving just that one year sentence for the abuse of a corpse but at the same time what took place here in the 80s is
we had these three bodies that were found in that field near Calder Road and there's no there's we don't have any
guilty party we don't have anybody in handcuffs for one or any of those murders and furthermore we have one
victim that's that's remains unidentified right and we still have some of those victims from the 70s with
no answers no leads well and a quick follow-up before we close out the 1980s regarding Clyde Hedrick remember he got
the abuse of a corpse charge received one year sentence for that yeah he is the one that was claiming he went
swimming with his girlfriend friend he found her face up took her CPR and then put her out by the trash correct now
remember the medical examiner couldn't find a cause of death they couldn't find any
um they didn't see any evidence of Foul Play right when they reviewed the body well he ended up spending one year like
you said earlier he got one year in the clink well remember we said that the FBI
and the sheriff's department they were going to continue to look in and investigate that situation while he was
sitting in prison so ultimately what they ended up doing was they exhumed the body of Ellen Ray Beason and when they
looked at it a second time through different eyes they were able to determine that the cause of death was
actually homicide it wasn't an accidental death it wasn't a drowning like they had originally thought right
they found that she had been struck in the head there was obvious signs of of trauma to that to the skull right you
figured they would have got that the first time well would be many years later captain that he would ultimately
be sentenced to prison he would receive 20 years in prison for the 1984 beating death of Ellen Ray Beason
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Killing Fields Trilogy /// Part 2

Part 2 of 3

TrueCrimeGarage.com

There is a large plot of land about a mile from interstate 45 in south Texas called the Killing Field. This spot along with the stretch of I-45 that runs from Houston to Galveston have claimed many victims and held many secrets. Since 1971 homicides of girls and young women have occurred here at an alarming rate. There have been over thirty murders and several women who have vanished. This story will span three different Texas Counties. Twelve different law enforcement agencies worked these cases. Join us as we take a trip to one of our favorite states to discuss one of America's most notorious serial cases.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the 1980s murders in the Killing Fields, focusing on Heidi Fey, Laura Miller, and Shelly Sykes, and their families' struggles for justice.

Key points

The Killing Fields Trilogy. A deep dive into the tragic events surrounding the Killing Fields and its victims.
The Discovery of Bodies. The shocking revelation of bodies found in the Killing Fields, including Laura Miller.
Laura Miller's Disappearance. The story of Laura Miller, who vanished after a visit to a payphone.
Tim Miller's Vigil. Tim Miller spends years searching for his daughter's killer in the field where she was found.
Shelly Sykes Disappearance. Shelly Sykes goes missing after a late shift, leading to a desperate search.
Eyewitness Account. Witnesses report seeing Shelly's car being chased before her abduction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The fields were not silent anymore.

2:49WatchDec 4, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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