Together they drove into the park, heading down a rutted dirt lane that snaked through the brush, until they came to a lonely fork in the road at the edge of the woods. From day one, they told me Id receive the death sentence if I went to trial. Outside the majestic McLennan County courthouse, news crews set up cameras on the lawn; inside, the third-floor courtroom was jammed with spectators, who crowded into seats, stood in the aisles, and even sat on the floor. 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. 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. Then there was the gold bracelet at Koehne Park, which Thompson had come to believe was planted. Two days later, White was dead. He then held the woman hostage in a boxcar outside the rail yards for hours until she managed to flee. He did it! After Simons calmed her down, she explained how, earlier in the evening, Deeb had taken her and a friend to a gory movie. Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. But the police can't be sure whether to believe him or not until he locates a body and shows them some polaroids. The next morning,citizens across Waco awoke to a terrifying headline. Simons, meanwhile, became one of the most well-respected officers in the state. Reaves had agreed to represent Melendez pro bono too. 302 days on Zillow. [Simons] brought to my office no less than five separate confessions. The WPDs policy, he said, was simple: If its additional information that you are wanting to put in their confession, you put a supplement to it, you dont take a whole new confession., Horton had also been suspicious. Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. But no one emerged as a credible suspect. Thank you very much in advance. Make sure that the file is a photo. I know theyve spent time and money on the case, and they keep telling me theyre confident they can prove I wasnt there. Each man was charged with three counts of capital murder, and each would stand first for the killing of Jill Montgomery. Paul Owen Beasley Jr. also was sentenced to two 30-year terms Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to charges of wounding two nephews during the family gathering. He seemed to prefer the company of hustlers to that of his fellow cops, and he was known among local law enforcement for his distaste for rules. Simonss plan had been forming ever since hed first learned about Spence. I would always get the girls mixed up, Melendez recalled, and hed point at his head so I knew we were talking about the one with black hair., It was Gilbert who persuaded Tony not to testify before Deebs retrial. William Porter, 51, has been charged with the 1986 murder of . He was confident, even giddy. The deputy had also heardfrom other officers or his informantsthat White had been bitten by her assailant, and so on March 17 he visited Washington in jail and asked for his permission to take a dental mold. In July 2002 Dannen was drawn into Feazells libel suit against Pardo, which the former DA had filed in 1998. "Before that happened, you never locked your doors, you left your car keys in the car and your shotgun in the window. Price didnt agree with him, and neither did several of her fellow WPD officers, so in July, when Feazell held a press conference to announce the indictments, the cops kept their distance. After having their motions repeatedly denied by Judge Allen, Hunt and Fuller sent a 33-page letter to the FBI and the U.S. attorneys office asking for help. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. For all of Wacos small-town feel, Simonshimself the father of a young boyrecognized that these were big-city problems. But then in July 1986, as he awaited trial, McFadden knocked out a sheriffs deputy and kidnapped a woman who worked as a dispatcher and jailer. HERNANDEZ, Ramon Pedro Not long after WFAAs investigative series on alleged corruption in Feazells office had aired the previous year, Feazell had filed a libel suit against the TV station; its parent company, Belo; and one of its reporters. She's a former police reporter who also wrote a book about the KFC murder. Northern Iowa +9.5 Bradley -9.5 1 -110. 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. Id say, David, if you did this, you deserve to die, she told me when we talked last May. The young woman they were standing over had been brutalized in unspeakable ways in an isolated roadside park, strangled and then tossed over an embankment. In early 1999 he obtained a copy of Whites autopsy report, which noted the presence of semen. Sorry! 'The man in custody is refusing to talk. Investigators in Texas identified a body found on an oil field nera Calder Road in League City on Sept. 8, 1991 as Donna Prudhomme, who was believed to be about 34 years old at the time of her death. But on this particular day, they left the beach towels and portable radio behind. It also marked the latest triumph for a new, controversial branch of DNA testing that has used public genealogy sites to close scores of lingering cold cases, while identifying high-profile suspects like the Golden State Killer. They found a co-worker who had last seen her alive that day around 5 p.m. outside her apartment. I have a witness.. Jills mother, Nancy, who was scheduled to be a witness, had forced herself to study the crime-scene photos as a way of bracing herself for the gruesome details shed hear in testimony. This article is the result of a full year of researchdozens of interviews were conducted with the principal and minor players, and thousands of pages of transcripts, depositions, and affidavits, from the cases six capital murder trials and one aggravated sexual abuse trial, were carefully reviewed. At a pretrial hearing in 1984, Spences lawyers Russ Hunt and Hayes Fuller had requested that all evidence in the states files, even documents the prosecution did not consider exculpatory, be turned over to Judge George Allen for an in-camera inspection in his chambers. PEREZ. Her sister knew she was living in the Seabrook area and the two had communicated a few times by mail. He took it to the girls mother and aunt, who both said she had owned a bracelet like it. 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. Now 76, Thompson doesnt get out much. Harrison was found dead the next morning, sexually assaulted and strangled with her own underwear. Feazell eventually gave Dannen access to hundreds of tapes he had made of the many conversations in his office about the lake murders. Hopper learned that police had used DNA information in public genealogy databases to identify DeAngelo. Right before the trial, Simons had written out a statement for her to sign; in it he offered various incriminating facts she knew nothing about. Lakehouse.com has 4 lake homes for sale on Brooks Lake / Brookhaven Lake. The brothers were set to testify against Muneer Deeb at his retrial, in December 1992 in Fort Worth, and both had been promised help with their paroles if they did. He was officially charged with capital murder for Suzanne's death and transferred from Wood to Upshur County where he was denied bond. UPDATE: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. Between 1982 to 1985 she lived in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area, moving to Austin in 1986, Ratliff said. And why? When Campbell reported his results, his conclusion was different from Halesit was Williams, he said, not Washington, who had bitten White. Three days later, Spence was given the death penalty. But my two children suffered too. I know he put in many hours and sleepless nights, but I also know he raised hopes for people and didnt follow through., Lawrence Wright, who hasnt talked to his friend since 2002, recalls Dannens single-mindedness. Vic Feazell was taking over the case and appointing Truman Simons as his investigator. White had struggled with her attackerher nose was broken, her ear torn, her body battered. Within days, Butler got remarkable news: Campbell was certain that Spences teeth had made the marks. But the laws of that time weren't bent in favor of victims. They told my mom and my girlfriend that they were killing me by not getting me to plead out. (Melendezs mother recalled this too. For the first time in years, Thompson felt calm. Judge Black didnt address anything we had done.. 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. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph), The picnic tables at Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area in Gilmer are pictured March 8, 2016. He ended up helping me make the statement, and I just got deeper into this., Simons hadnt expressly told him what to say, Gilbert continued, but hed made suggestions and given alternative scenarios. McLennan County DA John Segrest ordered that a sample be sent away for DNA testing and received results in February 2001. Clear skies. She was beaten with a hammer, raped, and left for dead. I think its going to be an unsatisfying ending., Unsatisfying for some, perhaps. His mother, Juanita White, whod attended every day of the trial, burst into tears. In fact, not one of the seventeen people interviewed by police who had been at Koehne Park that night mentioned Spence or the Melendez brothersor anyone who looked like them. "There wasn't anybody any sweeter than Suzanne, everybody loved her. The trial judges postponed Spences execution to give the state time to respond, rescheduling the date for December 19. But Melendez later recanted, saying he had only confessed because hed been threatened with the death penalty. Manuel He sent McLemore to visit Schonemann, who handed over trial transcripts and case briefs for them to read. Originally from Haskell, Texas, he was allowed to move to the small community of Hawkins to live with his mother and sister. But McFadden's parole to East Texas was granted anyway, in spite of White's objections. Harper was no longer alive to talk; he had killed himself with a shotgun in 1994 when police tried to arrest him after hed attacked an elderly couple with a knife. After further DNA tests on the sweatshirt revealed that the blood on it did not belong to White, as Simons had theorized, Judge Allen ordered Washington released on July 5. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph). Spences attorneys made a stronger case for prosecutorial misconduct than the state had made against him for murder. She also fell in love with a fellow officer, J.R. Price, whom she married; the two bought some land out in the country and acquired a few horses. Alvin In 2012, Hopper took over the case and began trying to match the DNA profile with various suspects who had been identified over the years. Im going to see my mom.. 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. I suffered. Blood samples were analyzed. Who would do something like this? Evidence will show, he declared, that David Wayne Spence . Your Scrapbook is currently empty. The remains were sent to Dallas for autopsy and positive identification, but everyone instinctively knew it was Gena and Bryan. "You're standing there, you see it, but you don't believe it," Mrs. Lane recalled recently, wiping away tears. She found herself rooting for two convicted killers. VILLARREAL, Clifton Lamar 2 acres lot - Lot / Land for sale. I called him several more times through the summer, and in our talks he turned often to Spence, saying he had all kinds of photos of the inmate and letters he had written. David Spence was at the county jail awaiting trial for aggravated sexual abuse. In the summer of 1982 the city of Waco was confronted with the most vicious crime it had ever seen: three teenagers were savagely stabbed to death, for no apparent reason, at a park by a lake on the edge of town. The officer was none other than Jan Price. Simons knew Waco well. Waco Men Were Victims of an Investigation Gone Awry ran an Associated Press headline. This is a carousel with slides. View listing photos and property details. Davids mom suffered. Theyd seen Simons take over an investigation before. All rights reserved. Burial. Hawkins, TX 75765 Century 21 First Group - Lindale 0.35 ACRES $25,000 169 W Holly Trl, Hawkins, TX 75765 0.5 ACRES $20,000 W Bent Bow Ln, Hawkins, TX 75765 Keller Williams Realty-Tyler 0.5 ACRES $20,000 Saddle Horn Ln, Hawkins, TX 75765 Keller Williams Realty-Tyler 0.26 ACRES $22,500 Lot 6 FM 2869, Like Price, Reaves was certain that Williams and Calvin Washington had been convicted with faulty evidence. In return Melendez got two life sentences. At 6:32 p.m., Spence was pronounced dead. The Spence case was much too complicated. Hawkins is located at 3235?30?N 9512?3?W / 32.59167N 95.20083W / 32.59167; -95.20083 (32.591694, -95.200936). Her body was facing downward off the mountain, fists clutching a wad of thorny vines and several articles of clothing lying nearby. The TRC lawyers faced an enormous task: to persuade the courts that their clients, whom they knew in most cases to be guilty, had received an unfair trial or death sentence and thus deserved a new trial or at least a life sentence. There is far too much doubt to carry out an execution. 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. Their parentsits horrible what theyve been through. McFadden, the paroled sex offender, felt safe there, too. Then, on the eve of trial, Schonemann got a surprise. The email does not appear to be a valid email address. All his time went to investigating the case, circling back to his sources over and over again in the hopes of uncovering new information. ), On November 19 a furious Feazell dragged Price and Scott before a grand jury, cross-examined the detective, and demanded that she turn over her files on the White case. Thousands of people die in Hawkins each year, and most of these people are mentioned in local Texas obituaries. Suzanne was raped at a remote roadside park and then strangled with her own panties; her two friends, Gena Turner, 20, and Bryan Boone, 19, were shot and tossed into a ditch several miles away from the park. ROSS. With Thompson and her husband present as witnesses, Chapman transferred every item to a representative of the Tarrant County medical examiners office. Try again later. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph), The front page of The Journal, the hometown newspaper in Big Sandy, remembers the lives of Suzanne Harrison, Bryan Boone and Gena Turner who were killed by paroled sex offender Jerry Walter McFadden in 1986. There was good news, though: the lab that had performed an autopsy on Carroll had saved some of his blood. Audrey Lee Cook was born on Nov. 25, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Houston and Channelview, Texas, between 1976 and 1985, Ratliff said. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum - Oklahoma City, OK Exxon was once a major employer in the area, and the Hawkins school district enjoyed the benefits of being its neighbor. Spence was strapped onto the gurney in the execution chamber. 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. Many of the details and photos of those difficult days come from the newspaper's archives and journalists of the day, who followed the story from the disappearances to McFadden's trial and eventual execution by lethal injection. In the back bedroom, facedown on the bed, lay the nude body of a 54-year-old woman. We have a better shot at freeing Tony now than ever before, he told me. Their mother also urged him not to. It belonged to another young woman, this one dark-haired. Try again later. I know hes no angel, but as far as what hes there for, thats not what I call justice. history.). 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. Mr. Hawkins had also been sentenced to death for the abduction, rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, Rhonda Keys of Amarillo, in 1976. To retrieve it, Dannen had turned to Thompson for help; as a relative of Jills, she had the authority to request that her nieces personal belongings be returned. (Years later, Feazell would tell the Waco Tribune-Herald that the accusation that he had not disclosed exculpatory evidence was a total lie.), But Owen and Schonemann had bought themselves two more months, so they went out on the road again. She smiled and said, That would turn anybodys head around, and let me go with a warning.. He had had such an obviously unfair trial, he told me. DREW Sr. Kenneth In April 1983 she had received a letter from a young woman who wrote to say that she and her boyfriend had been at Koehne Park and seen Kenneth with the girls in the Pinto. When she didnt show up for church the next morning, her Sunday school teacher stopped by the house and found her. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. Simons called Chief Scott at home. They couldnt all be lying. Then the lawyers waited. 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. Some forty pounds overweight, his eyes staring blankly, the inmate looked soft and harmless. Local schools suspended classes for the day, allowing students who wanted to attend the funerals to do so. She recognized the inconsistencies in Gilberts testimony but said his words had been corroborated at Spences second trial by Tonyas well as by the bite-mark evidence.
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