Thank you very much in advance. Based on his reporting, he felt sure it involved Harper, who was allegedly both a drug dealer and close to Kenneth, and two henchmen. You did it, we know you did ityoure going to die for it. 'We are not certain of the cause of death,' he said. In 1979, she was working as a mechanic for a golf cart company in Houston, later getting a job at the Harrison Equipment Corporation, a construction equipment company, Ratliff said. Her murder went unsolved for nearly 40 years. Suspects were grilled and released. As he testified in a deposition in 1997, Im a deputy sheriff, Im not an assistant DA or a prosecutor. SOUTHERN CHARM REAL ESTATE. But I didnt kill anyone. Spences attorneys made a stronger case for prosecutorial misconduct than the state had made against him for murder. On May 4, 1986, Suzanne Harrison, 18, and Gena Turner, 20, decided to visit Lake Hawkins in Wood County, Texas. He was sentenced to concurrent stays in the Texas Department of Corrections, but was paroled in 1978 after serving only a few years. The police had seen the letter, and theyd questioned Frueh back in 1982 before letting him go. The nonprofit didnt get many wins in its fight against the death penalty, but Spences case was looking promising. In the back bedroom, facedown on the bed, lay the nude body of a 54-year-old woman. Her body was left in a wooded area near a local grocery store. Gilow said he was trying to get his officers a $2 per hour raise, but the council denied that. In addition, Owen hired a former president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, Thomas Krauss, to review Homer Campbells conclusions; Krauss pronounced Campbells methodology well outside the mainstream. The lawyers then found that in August 1984, just two months after Campbell had testified against Spence, he made a mistake that called his expertise into question: he positively identified the remains of a woman alongside a highway in Arizona as those of a missing Florida teenager by comparing the dead womans teeth with an enhanced photo of the teenagers teeth. The Rev. Though she didnt take part in the investigation, she followed it avidly, and she was relieved when David Spence, Muneer Deeb, and Gilbert and Tony Melendez were finally put away. You are nearing the transfer limit for memorials managed by Find a Grave. On May 4, 1986, 20-year-old Gena Turner, 19-year-old Bryan Boone, and 18-year-old Suzanne Harrison were on a day trip to Lake Hawkins, about 100 miles east of Dallas when a savage murderer attacked them. As he says of his family, "I've often felt how almost excruciatingly average we were, a chunk out of a demographic study: the house, the yard, the kid, the car. Why is it taking so long?. After that, however, the teenagers trail vanished. H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping. He eventually has an affair with a woman named Ann Kurth. Suzanne Harrison's grave is marked at Chilton Cemetery in Big Sandy. If the new DNA evidence is favorable, Melendez could file a habeas writ and allege that hes factually innocent or that his plea was unsound. Family members linked to this person will appear here. It had been fifteen years since Dannens initial book contract, and most peoplejournalists, editors, his old friends in Wacohad given up on ever seeing his research in print. Learn more about managing a memorial . In return Melendez got two life sentences. After Feazell was acquitted in the federal case, the feds didnt want anything more to do with him, Price remembered. (Simons testified that he fully cooperated with Price.). HAWKINS - On a clear May 4, 1986 evening, Suzanne Harrison, 18, and her best friend, Gena Turner, 20, waved goodbye to their families, jumped in the car and headed out on an ill-fated ride. He was sent to prison. She was David Spences mother. ROSS. On March 30 Dannen was busy writing in his apartment when the phone rang. It was the second time in four months a gruesome murder had been committed in the tight-knit community. (According to Dannen, the states forensic expert in Deebs retrial told him that when he asked to test the truck, he was informed it had disappeared in Mexico. One night, driving home at midnight after a long interview with Dennis Baier, a discombobulated Dannen was pulled over by a cop for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. There was a lot of apprehension. We held Truman on a pedestal for so long. I think this is the worst thing to ever happen in Hawkins, Texas. He accepted it and said, Im going home. Many of the wounds were shallow, suggesting they had been tortured. The way the investigation went, the way it was handled with the jailhouse informants, the way the bite marks were matched. Bryan's brother located his truck abandoned about a half-mile from where the couple was confronted at gunpoint. Her father, Ash, is suspicious of Hill, thinking that he married Joan for money, which he used to buy a house and indulges in some odd hobbies. And before that horrible summer of 1986 drew to a close, a contingency of residents, still reeling from loss, would be demanding prison reform from Texas lawmakers, so no other town would have to suffer a similar fate. ", The day she and Gena disappeared wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It continues to be a landmark cold case for me from a scientific perspective, that we can get a profile from evidence that is so, so old.. He also played audio from Feazells tapes, including one in which Feazell spoke disparagingly about Simonss investigative methods. HAWKINS, Texas (KLTV) -Monday, April 27, true-crime network Investigation Discovery (ID) will air the story of Hawkins' serial murderer and kidnapper Jerry McFadden, dubbed "the animal," on a new show called Southern Gothic. The officer was none other than Jan Price. He liked reading about everything and loved talking about religion. Other TRC lawyers who helped Owen and Schonemann with the case, such as Ken Driggs, agreedSpence may have been a criminal, but he didnt seem like a killer. 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. J.R., who also got the call, was to serve as crime-scene investigator; taking separate cars, Price met him and Ramon Salinas at the address. 302 days on Zillow. He had never been violent with her or them, she recalled. Suzanne and two former classmates from Hawkins High School vanished May 4, 1986 during a Sunday evening drive around Lake Hawkins. In fact, by this time Dannen had discovered that the crime-scene evidence from the lake murders had never been tested for DNA either, and he was already working on proving that the last of the four defendants, Tony Melendez, was innocent. His name was David Spence, and he had just been arrested with his friend Gilbert Melendez for cutting a teenage boy on the leg and forcing him to perform oral sex on Melendez. Owen, a Harvard law graduate from Georgia, moved to Texas to work for the nonprofit in 1989; he encouraged Schonemann, an NYU law grad whod grown up in Ohio and Indiana, to join him a couple of years later. Simons, walking among the bodies as he searched for clues, was shaken. It was around six-thirty on a summer evening in 1982, and the 39-year-old officer had just returned to his squad car after visiting his wife, Judy. Officials were able to identify the other body as Laura Miller, who was reported missing on Sept. 24, 1984, when she was 16 years old. Upon learning of the teenager's death, Suzanne's mother's anguished cries seemed to echo through the town. Not surprisingly, Feazell didnt see it that way, telling reporters that the DNA results changed nothing. Simons felt uneasy. HAWKINS, Texas (KLTV) - Police Chief Manfred Gilow has resigned from his position as chief of the police department. Two friends who accompanied her on May 4, 1986, for a Sunday drive were shot to death. While looking up these records on microfilm would be a chore, with online Hawkins obituaries, all you need is a name, state of death, and year of death. Hawkins' murder sparked emotionally charged marches through the neighborhood, led by the Rev. Customize this page. Hawkins, TX 75765 903-769-3962. I can see it still today.". DREW Sr. Kenneth May he rest in eternal peace. Jeffrey They were just going riding around. (Simons later testified that he didnt file reports because the WPD and the sheriffs office had different reporting systems and it would mess up the statistics.) And although Simons initially shared leads from his informants, Price told me that when she tried to corroborate their claims, several of them said Simons had instructed them not to talk to her. Could he be more specific? I am a peacemaker, he told the books author, Carlton Stowers. At some point she started working for National Rent-A-Car but the dates of her employment are unknown, Ratliff said. Those kids didnt deserve to die, June told me. He was so sincere and earnest, recalled Thompson. Things were about to get crazy, he said, and Melendez might want to consider talking. Shes gotten me through the last year or two, he told me. Tony Melendez, the last living Lake Waco murders defendant, died on Friday, January 13, 2017, at 57 at a prison hospice at the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony, not far from Palestine. He matched the description of a wild-haired, tattooed man who approached a couple at Lake Hawkins about 7:45 p.m., asking for money and a quick sexual encounter. GENTRY, Michael Dean Include gps location with grave photos where possible. I cant say for certain he was innocent, but I know that he was wrongly executed. She liked the journalist, even if she found him odd. Rogersville Hawkins County Tennessee Arrests, Warrants & Most Wanted. Now 76, Thompson doesnt get out much. Al Sharpton led demonstrations after Yusuf Hawkins' murder. He then held the woman hostage in a boxcar outside the rail yards for hours until she managed to flee. Im still pissed offI cant talk about the case for very long before I start to get upset, Russ Hunt, the attorney in Spences first murder trial, told me. Simons knew Deeb: he was a 23-year-old Jordanian immigrant who ran the Rainbow Drive Inn, a convenience store across the street from the home. He never would have risen to the level of a suspect.. They were all good kids they were the cream of the crop.". State records indicate McFadden was convicted on a burglary charge in 1966 anddestruction of property in 1968. Kenneth had last been seen with two girls from Waxahachie, a blond seventeen-year-old named Raylene Rice and a brunette seventeen-year-old named Jill Montgomery. (Touch DNA, one of the latest developments in genetic testing, isolates and profiles the DNA in skin cells left on physical evidence when a person touches it.) The skulls of the unidentified victims were taken to Texas State University, where 3D composites were printed. "She was very excited. WILLIAMS, Nanon Mckewn For days, the departments phones rang nonstop as people called in with leads, most of which amounted to nothing: someone claimed that members of a biker gang known as the Scorpions had bragged about the killings; someone else reported having given a ride to an extremely nervous man with blood on his pants who had been walking along a nearby highway on the morning after the bodies were found; one caller reported that someone had been doing Indian rituals near the crime scene; another said that there was a devils cult operating in the area. At a quarter before six, Governor Bush, Spences last hope, also denied a reprieve. FOUST, John Steven A search was launched and neighbors reported seeing the missing friends with a scruffy man in a blue-and-white vehicle, possibly a Chevrolet Blazer or Ford Bronco. Harrison was one of three victims kidnaped and murdered by Jerry McFadden in 1986. Eight months after the Fifth Circuits ruling, Schonemann got a call from John McLemore, an investigator who worked for Brian Pardo, a Waco insurance magnate. Days later, police found Boone and Turner shot to death. He needed to be arrested at once. conglateur coffre carrefour Navigation. He had recently left his position at the New Yorker to work as a freelancer, and he thought Spence might be his next story. There was no time to lose, and the group feverishly got to work. 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. The second body was found on Feb. 2, 1986, by two juveniles who were riding bikes in the same area where Frye's body was discovered on Calder Road, Ratliff said. Former Wood County Sheriff's Deputy and retired constable David Barber is pictured where he worked a roadblock on Farm-to-Market 2659 during the manhunt for Jerry McFadden in Hawkins. I wasnt a good guy, he told me last May, when I first visited him at the Polunsky Unit, in Livingston. Three years after her murder, Jills remains lay in an unadorned grave in a country cemetery just north of Waxahachie. GUTIERREZ. Ive got to go to Texas and find out what the hell happened, he told her. MARTINEZ, Ireneo Price and Turk returned to their investigation in earnest, tracking down all the informants who had testified against Washington and Williams. Low 51F. Try again later. Some wouldnt talk, but three of them recanted their testimony, saying theyd agreed to speak on the record for food, cigarettes, and conjugal visits. The second body was found on Feb. 2, 1986, by two juveniles who were riding bikes in the same area where Frye's body was discovered on Calder Road, Ratliff said. The girls father, Rod Montgomery, owned a granite company and cut tombstones, but he had been so devastated by her death he had found it impossible to put up a marker. His older brother, 16-year-old Daniel Hawkins, was killed in the Sunday night crash on Temescal . HAWKINS, Texas (KLTV) - The Hawkins Police Department is investigating a shooting at a convenience store. All rights reserved. While investigating the White case, Dannen had learned that the evidence from Speegleville Park had ended up in the possession of David Chapman, the special prosecutor in Deebs retrial. PRIBLE A crowd of deputies from the sheriffs and constables offices stood around talking; several reporters milled about as well. He was linked to about 40 rapes in Colorado, Oklahoma. Kenneths mother, Sandra Sadler, had come to watch, as had Jills brother, Brad; her sister, Monica; and their father, Rod. I thought, How can you put someone on death row without evidence? Not once did I hear Well beat this, youre innocent, he said. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. He had spent more than fifteen years behind bars. On that Friday, she said, I think Ive found out what happened. Now she told Price in detail how Simons had visited her after hearing that she had dated Washington; though shed told him she had no information to offer, he kept returning, even bringing crime-scene photos. I love yall and I miss yall. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. Desperate to keep the case open, Owen and Schonemann filed a motion to amend the judgment, and four months later the court granted them an evidentiary hearing on the cases exculpatory evidence. He began working on a proposal for a book about the lake murders, and in September 1998 he sold the book to Simon & Schuster. However, though he couldnt say Spence was the biter, he also couldnt exclude him. Still, the defense attorneys made a miscalculation in their overall strategy. So they filed all the other documents they had collectedincluding fifteen witness depositionsand when Krauss sent the final results of the study three months later, they filed those too. Try again later. They had the rope around my neck, ready to kill me. Michael Anthony Simons and Butler had shown him photos and given him details, he explained. He interviewed relatives of the victims, such as Jills aunt Jan Thompson, and won over numerous Waco residents. When the deputy drove Gilbert out to Koehne and Speegleville parks for the inmate to walk him through the crime, Gilbert said, he had taken his cues from Simons when identifying the spot where the teenagers were killed. PORTLAND, Oregon The Portland Police Department in Oregon says a notorious East Texas convicted killer is responsible for the murder of 20-year-old Anna Hlavka, who was found dead on July 24,. The family was impressedand heartened when Dannen told them he planned to publish his findings in his book, which would be out in about a year. For all of Wacos small-town feel, Simonshimself the father of a young boyrecognized that these were big-city problems. She found that the weather and the laid-back, friendly attitude of Texas suited her. On the morning of April 3, Dannen could barely concentrate on his Hong Kong article. After moving to Wood County for a fresh start, McFadden tried for a while to follow the rules, but he couldn't stay out of trouble.