hawkins texas murders 1986

If theres one thing for certain, its that the Lake Waco murder case does indeed stand on its own. She was estimated to be about 30 years old at the time of her death. By mid-April, Prices frustration had turned to suspicion of Simonss techniques. At the time of the murders, hed been working at Burkes Aluminum, next door to the Rainbow Drive Inn; his girlfriend, Christine Juhl, worked in Deebs store, and Spence had spent many hours there, hanging out and playing video games. This, Schonemann felt, was Spences last good shot at a new trial. They met with Lieutenant Horton, who stated in an affidavit that the medical examiner had initially told him that marks on Jills breast were definitely not bites; it was only after she reexamined the photos and talked with Butler that she changed her opinion. After all these years, he doesnt remember exactly what he was doing on the night of July 13, 1982, but he knows he wasnt in Waco. Hawkins City Council members accepted his resignation. This article was published more than4 years ago. At some point she started working for National Rent-A-Car but the dates of her employment are unknown, Ratliff said. On May 4, 1986, McFadden kidnapped teenagers Brian Boone, Gena Turner and Suzanne Harrison from Lake Hawkins. But they were running out of time: Spence had been convicted of murder twice, which meant the lawyers had to file a habeas writ in two trial courts, and it had already taken a month just to read all the documents. The evidence is telling us things it never could tell before because the technology wasnt there, he said. Low 51F. 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. in 2014, insisting he was painting houses in Bryan, as several alibi witnesses had told police he was. The trial lasted just over two weeks. Spence was executed in 1997, Melendezs brother Gilbert died in prison of complications from HIV in 1998, and Muneer Deebwho won an acquittal in a 1993 retrialdied of liver cancer in 1999. conglateur coffre carrefour Navigation. Hopper learned that police had used DNA information in public genealogy databases to identify DeAngelo. The more traumatic the killing, the more intricate the web. 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. I get people talking, and then I shut up and listen, Simons would later explain. ADVERTISEMENT 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. That case will stand on its own, he said. His tenacity, in fact, was about to pay off in other ways. Things were about to get crazy, he said, and Melendez might want to consider talking. Larry Pack USDOT 2158667 - Hawkins, Texas Trucking Company After Feazell was acquitted in the federal case, the feds didnt want anything more to do with him, Price remembered. A couple of Bud Light cans found near Raylenes body yielded no fingerprints. 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. For Hlavkas family, the news is bittersweet. This was unusual; as far as Price knew, no one outside the WPD was on the case. Speaking of his decision to move to Mexico, he even referred to the Wizards words to the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (You are under the unfortunate delusion that simply because you run away from danger you have no courage. 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. He is mostly confined to his cell; he gets two hours daily in the dayroom, where he can watch TV, and two hours outside. Many, if not most should be considered armed and dangerous. Mrs. Lane said no one was especially concerned when Suzanne and Gena were a little late coming home from their night out at the lake, but as the minutes turned to hours, panic set in. Someday, the woman wrote, well all know what really took place.. I think were really close, said the usually cautious Reaves in late January. They were vague feelings, and shed never mentioned them to her family. The parolee agreed initially to follow the rules, which amounted to the obvious: get a job, save money, report in, attend counseling and stay out of trouble. Youre 14?: YouTuber Austin Jones had 40 million page views, adoring fans, and a shocking secret. Brooklyn Nets +11 Boston Celtics -11 1 -110. (Spence was found guilty in late March and given ninety years; he was allowed to remain at the jail because he was helping with Simonss investigation.) Frederick She had been stabbed multiple times and was naked, gagged, and bound. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph). Could he be more specific? A knife, a sex crime, a violent man: Simons was sure he was on to something. The two men could not have been more different. In July 2001, after Washingtons release, Thompson told Dannen she couldnt keep her doubts quiet anymoreshe had to tell the rest of her family, and she needed his help. HERNANDEZ. They found a co-worker who had last seen her alive that day around 5 p.m. outside her apartment. The case was quickly assigned to WPD lieutenant Marvin Horton, who headed up a special investigative force of seven full-time officers. Texas Small Town Sagas - Texas Escapes The two had become friends after working one summer in Atlanta on death penalty cases with the American Civil Liberties Union, and they had developed a passion for representing the doomed. 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. Jerry McFadden, 51, made no final statement. The lawyers also found persuasive reasons to doubt the bite-mark evidence. But the states case was entirely circumstantial until Campbell, the bite-mark expert, took the stand. I was absolutely crushed, he told me. Simons was sure the DA would be interested in his jailhouse findings, but when he approached one of Feazells assistants, he was told that, as hearsay, the inmate testimony was probably inadmissible in court. The criminal trials for the lake murders were the most anticipated in Wacos history. Each one, I was certain was going to be the suspect. The state was on track to see the highest annual number of executions in its history: while only a total of three people had been given a lethal injection in 1996, as of April 1997 Spence was already the fourth inmate to have received one that year, and by July the state had dispatched 24 men (the total for the year would be 37). Suzanne, remembered for her infectious grin, was a graduating senior and cheerleader. I was amazed, he told me. He had a mold taken of Spences teeth, then personally delivered it and the photos to Homer Campbell, a forensic odontologist in Albuquerque who had helped solve the Amarillo case. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. His first parole, for a double rape, was granted after serving less tan five years. ``Hes gutless, Harrison said of McFadden. Hawkins. CARRERA, Daniel Lee But the body count left by the Animal apparently extended well beyond East Texas, according to the new DNA evidence uncovered in October by the genealogy lab. Feazell brought him to the jury room. The murders took place during a time when the state of Texas was reducing its prison populations to save money, free up space and avoid building new prisons. Who would do something like this? They matched exactly, Campbell told a reporter. In April district judge George Allen made a decision: Spence would be tried first, followed by Gilbert, Tony, and then Deeb. We held Truman on a pedestal for so long. In this article on My Crime Library . The house is about half a mile from the nearest neighbor, Roberts said. It wasnt right, he said. Simons thought the inconsistencies were likely due to Melendezs drug- and alcohol-addled memory, but the changing statements, plus the fact that Melendez claimed it had been Spence alone who did all the raping and killing, made other investigators suspicious. Three years after her murder, Jills remains lay in an unadorned grave in a country cemetery just north of Waxahachie. At the park entrance, Simons met a couple of other policemen and some sheriffs deputies. Mainly because of the number of them, Scott stated in his own deposition. . 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. She was a tomboy who had grown up wanting to be a cop, like her grandfather, and joined the Detroit Police Department in 1977. 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. Each brother now spoke at length, officially recanting his testimony about Spence. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. He began working on a proposal for a book about the lake murders, and in September 1998 he sold the book to Simon & Schuster. She's a former police reporter who also wrote a book about the KFC murder. Wed work ten hours a day, and I didnt have a car, so Id stay a week at a time. The three young people who disappeared from Lake Hawkins and murdered weren't on the naughty list at school. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). I can do the time., But as that time stretched into a decade and then another and each parole was denied, Melendez grew increasingly hopeless. If somethings not right, you do something about it. "We all hung out at the point it was the place to be if you were a kid.". No one had heard any screams. Brooks Lake / Brookhaven Lake Homes For Sale - LakeHouse.com Texass execution tally attracted the interest of antideath penalty activists everywhere, and in 1988 a federally funded nonprofit known as the Texas Resource Center opened its doors in Austin to offer pro bono help to death row inmates, either by connecting them with law firms who could help with their habeas appeals or by representing them in-house. He sat down, typed a letter to district judge George Allen, and faxed it to him the next day. To uncover any facts that might help save their clientsthat prosecutors had concealed evidence, for example, or that an inmate had suffered an abusive childhood or was mentally disabledthe attorneys had to reinvestigate every case, searching through files and trial transcripts, visiting with inmates, and traveling far and wide to find old and new witnesses. Time and again, she asked the state to line up the genetic markers. Throughout the proceedings, Spence exhibited little of the calm hed shown during his first trial. (His office, outfitted with an elaborate taping system, was soon nicknamed Fort Feazell.) As investigators processed the scene, another body was found in close proximity but they were in "vastly different stages of decomposition," Ratliff said. As the mild-mannered Schonemann knew, Spence had a rough historyhis ex-girlfriend Christine Juhl had told the police that he beat her, and testimony at the close of his first trial had included allegations of violent rape. Ill testify, said Melendez. He sent gifts to Russ Hunt, including an elaborate stagecoach made out of popsicle sticks and a clock made of matchsticks. 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. Blum felt strongly that it wasnt safe for Dannen to continue his reporting on the lake murders, at least not in Waco, and advised him to stay in New York. 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. SKILLERN, Derrick J. With heavy hearts, hopeful rescuers searched by foot, horseback and off-road vehicles, in lakes, grassy pastures and deep woods. So should you.. 1 dead, 1 in custody after shooting at Hawkins convenience store - KLTV I know hes no angel, but as far as what hes there for, thats not what I call justice. Dateline looks at David Strickland's conviction for South Texas murder I have a witness.. Hed made use of the discipline two years earlier to help solve a violent Amarillo murder in which the killer had bitten his victim. In February Spence got his new date with death: April 3, 1997. 'The man in custody is refusing to talk. He eventually has an affair with a woman named Ann Kurth. In 1988, she moved to the Seabrook, Texas, area, where she lived in several apartment complexes. ASHBROOK. Thompson tidies the grave and inspects the mementos left by visitorsflowers, coins, ceramic unicorns (Jill loved unicorns, she explained). Photograph: HBO Fama, then 19, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1990 and sentenced to 32 years in prison; he's up for parole in 2022. The Texas Seven was a prison escape which would became a sensation as the seven men from the Texas Department Of Corrections would basically disappeared. The next day, Simons pulled all the police reports that had been filed in the case and, with the help of Baierwhom Scott assigned to assist Simonsbegan looking for any leads that hadnt been exhausted. She was sure it would result in her sons exoneration. Hunt, who still believed that Spence was innocent, made copies, one of which he sent to the U.S. attorneys office. Suzanne Harrison's grave is marked at Chilton Cemetery in Big Sandy. Feazell and Simons were hailed all over McLennan County as heroes. The two asked for a stay of execution. The following summer, in August 1987, Williams went on trial. He accepted it and said, Im going home. Sorry! In his closing statement Feazell reminded jurors of the substantial testimony against Spence, the pain of the victims families, and the torture the teenagers had endured. Oops, something didn't work. The dead boy was clearly Kenneth, the men agreed, studying the photo. McFadden was granted parole in 1985 after serving less than five years of a 15-year sentence for aggravated sexual abuse of a young secretary. Some reports noted that several people had seen Tab Harper, one of the polices early suspects, at Koehne Park the night of the murders; witnesses also said he had bragged about killing three people. After so long, Thompson told me, and all the promises he made, I lost faith in him. Hawkins' murder sparked emotionally charged marches through the neighborhood, led by the Rev. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? 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. Deeb wasnt from here, he recalled. Guys getting their faces shot off. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? She was gagged, her hands bound behind her back. Her boyfriend, Chico Fierro, pleaded guilty to a murder . HAYNES, Ramiro 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. Now it was dinnertime, and Simons had been thinking about grabbing some food, maybe at the Whataburger over on Seventh. Lying is not going to help you. When Tony saw Simons, he was blunt. And, crucially, they kept and carefully stored forensic evidence from the scene. Theres not a day that goes by when I dont think about it. Salinas, one of the officers to first discover the teenagers bodies, still wrestles with his memories. Davids mom suffered. 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. After the phenotyping was completed, investigators began working with GenMatch to use genetic genealogy to compose family trees for both of the victims. The faces of Suzanne, Gena and Bryan are firmly etched in memory. Holly Lake - Hawkins TX Real Estate - 36 Homes For Sale | Zillow It was one crisis after another, Schonemann told me. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. The trial began on June 18, 1984. Low 51F. In April 1992 the federal court denied Spences petition for habeas corpus relief. I could never have asked for the death penalty if I didnt sincerely believe they were guilty. He has already raised doubts about the DNA evidence, saying he believes the material has been tampered with. Id interviewed mafiosi and hung with the triads in Hong Kong, he told me, but the first time in my career I felt Id put myself in harms way was being a Jewish boy from New York investigating Texas law enforcement.. Yes, admitted Deeb; he often spent time at the Rainbow Drive Inn. He really believed that. Deebs family hired a lawyer, who pushed for a polygraph test, and after four days Simons agreed to set it up. Beasley is being held in the deaths of his mother, Ruth Johnson Beasley, 62, and sister, Linda Beasley Birkindine, 37, who was visiting from Euless, Texas, Wood County Chief Deputy Jim Roberts said. 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. What he actually got was the opportunity to reoffend, again and again. Nobody seemed to be in charge of the crime scene yet, so he took command, instructing the deputies and cops to fan out and search the area. The discovery of the three victims from Hawkins, about 100 miles east of Dallas, and subsequent arrest of McFadden, on parole after three rape convictions, made the former telephone cable installer one of the regions most notorious criminals. Feazell, who is back to being a lawyer, in Austin, still considers the lake murder convictions one of his biggest triumphs. Im not sure hes innocent, and Im not sure hes a good guy. They told my mom and my girlfriend that they were killing me by not getting me to plead out. (Melendezs mother recalled this too. January 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? CORWIN, Javier Dannen himself was beginning to feel drawn into the lake murders for reasons that went beyond his book contract. HAWKINS, Anthony Cardell Associates of Cook also reported to authorities that she possibly sold and used cocaine, Ratliff said. It was a match. Spence had, however, been informed that he was a suspect by then. And when I tracked down Kevin Mikel, the informant who testified against Spence and later said his testimony had been influenced by Simons, he told me he believed Spence was guilty. After serving seven years, Williams was released in June 1993 and eventually received $31,250 for his time behind bars. Its hard to think of another crime that has provoked so many long-lingering questions and involved so many people, all of whom have a stake in the DNA tests and many of whom remain haunted by events from three decades ago. It was left next to the brown granite headstone by a woman who had never met Jill but was drawn to visit the grave site after learning of the lake murders. Simons, meanwhile, began to work on Gilbert Melendez. She and her girlfriend had broken up at the time of her disappearance, Bluffington said. 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. But Scott knew this case had to be solved. The two men started discussing the idea that maybe, like Ted Bundy, Spence had a split personality, and Chili was his evil half. To his surprise, Spence was so friendly that they fell into easy conversation; Simons even told him he was quitting the force. 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. One said the photos were of such poor quality that he refused to compare them against the molds. The next morning,citizens across Waco awoke to a terrifying headline. Next day wed get up, start working again., He and the three other defendants in the lake murders, he feels, were easy targets. The DAs office was exultant. The Court of Criminal Appeals and all of the federal courts, including the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, agreed. As for the journalist who has kept the case alive all these years, Mr. Simons turned his patrol car around and headed for Texas Highway 6 and the Twin Bridges that spanned Lake Waco. 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. Patrol sergeant Truman Simons was driving down Franklin Avenue, in downtown Waco, when the call came over the police radio. We got the right people, he wrote recently in an email. The victim, he could see, was just a boy, with a wispy mustache. The testimonyeveryones bite mark is different, like a fingerprintwas very convincing.. Dannen rented an expensive high-speed scanner and began uploading pages and pages of court transcripts, case briefs, and medical reports onto his computer. They had the rope around my neck, ready to kill me. The only friend Ive got, he told Simons that night, is the guy whos trying to kill me on this lake case.. Hes gone, she said. He wanted to be something more than he was, something big, she told me. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. This whole experience changed my life, radicalized me, he said. Hes one of the bravest people I ever met, Dannen told me. He and Melendez drove the bodies to Speegleville and dumped them there. NCAAB Lines Basketball - Everygame In the eyes of the law, the two murder cases remain open, essentially unsolved. 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. He had also recently undergone gall bladder surgery. Kenneths parents had divorced in 1975, after Franks had acknowledged he was gay. (903) 769-3962 Add Website Map & Directions 8993 S Fm 14 Hawkins, TX 75765 Write a Review. For Jills family, the day was especially excruciating. "I asked, What is that thing around her neck?' At that time, prisoners were granted excessive time off their sentences for good behavior, essentially opening the spigot for releases. The police had seen the letter, and theyd questioned Frueh back in 1982 before letting him go. It belonged to another young woman, this one dark-haired. Pardo was intrigued. A book comes out by a New York writer that says Tonys innocent and Texas may have executed an innocent manand Tonys going to get clemency? Then, on June 22, 1979, one month before Hlavkas death, he kidnapped and sexually assaulted another Texas woman. The nightmare didn't seem real to Suzanne's aunt and uncle, then or now. Hunt and Fuller promptly called their own expert, who said the quality of the photos was too poor to make a valid comparison. From top left, Joseph Garcia, Donald Newbury, George Rivas, Larry Harper. 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. Rogersville Hawkins County Tennessee Arrests, Warrants & Most Wanted. Eight days after the assault, Carroll was arrested for the rape, and he pleaded guilty. Authorities summoned to the location also found clothing presumed to belong to Gena, but she and Bryan were nowhere to be found. We were finally going to hear the real story, remembered Jan Thompson, Jills aunt. The fight for Spences life was back on. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). McFadden was still on parole when he was convicted of a 1979 aggravated sexual assault of an 18-year-old West Texas secretary in Shackelford County, records show. Many times Simons fed me specific pieces of factual information about the crime, he said in his affidavit, and then later asked me to relate the information back to him for one of my statements. Simons showed him crime-scene photos and had been the one who told him about the bra tied around Raylenes ankle. Yusuf Hawkins (sometimes spelled Yusef Hawkins) was a 16-year-old from Brooklyn who lived in the East New York neighborhood with his parents. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again. Oh, God, I was with them every minute all night when they were killed, he sobbed. It was either plead guilty and stay alive or go to trial and get a death sentence. Though Melendez took two polygraphs that seemed to confirm his involvement, he also recanted his confession entirely. Dannen would have to find evidence to support his ideas in other ways. And besides, everyone believed Feazell and Simons. He based his first statement on what hed read in the newspapers and heard from his jail mates; when there werent enough details in it for him to testify against Spence, he said, Simons took him out to Lake Waco and showed him around, casually slipping him details. Frye had been reported missing on Oct. 10, 1983, when she was 25 years old. GREAT NEWS! I dont know why I started writing, Thompson told me, but I felt it was the thing to do. Throughout the spring of 1984, an endless string of pretrial hearings domi-nated the local papers; in nightly broadcasts, Wacos citizens were regaled with details of the defendants shady pasts, including the rumor that Spence was a Satan worshipper. Chad Beasley, 9, the son of another relative, was treated for a broken leg and released. The intruder had not taken anything of valuethe TV was still therebut had ransacked the front bedroom, opening several boxes and scattering papers everywhere. Joshua Hawkins, 13, was the last of the three surviving boys involved in the wreck to return home. Dannen then arranged for a series of DNA tests, beginning with one of the beer cans. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. She soon discovered why: Anna Marie was sprawled dead in the bedroom. She had been a detective for only two years at that point, and they were after a vicious killer. Dannen was something of a curiosity in Wacoa stubborn, garrulous reporter with a New York accent knocking on doors, asking questions about a fifteen-year-old murder case, typing answers feverishly on his laptopbut he had a knack for getting people to open up. When Simons had shown it to her, all she could say was that shed bought Jill one that looked similar. Gena Lee Turner (1966-1986) - Find a Grave Memorial The rest of her remains were located in a wooded area near the home, Ratliff said. But when the book never came, Melendez sunk into bitterness and depression. After nearly three hours of deliberations, a jury reached a guilty verdict Thursday in the double murder trial Alex Murdaugh, a disgraced South Carolina . According to Price, she tried to share this development with Simons, but the deputy was too busy gathering information on Williams, who was arrested the following month for burglary. I thought, How can you put someone on death row without evidence? Jerry McFadden, 51, made no final statement. Texas Seven slaying of Officer Aubrey Hawkins still painful for Irving I remember thinking that that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard an investigator say. (Simons later said in a deposition that [Hortons] whole affidavit was a lie.) Even Butler seemed to have sensed the unsoundness of Gilberts statements. Friends or family never heard from them again. Winnipeg Jets Edmonton Oilers 2 -155. "It was a pretty cold-hearted thing," said Holeman, a former Big Sandy police officer. Though it was supposedly key evidence, the truck then sat outside for more than two years before Simons sold it to a junk dealer, who scrapped it. 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. In the back bedroom, facedown on the bed, lay the nude body of a 54-year-old woman. It was grueling, often heartbreaking work, and it tended to attract young, idealistic lawyers, like two attorneys in their late twenties named Rob Owen and Raoul Schonemann.

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