Few murders are more notorious than those of the Texas Killing Fields, the killing spree that lasted nearly two decades and claimed over 30 victims. Yet the man or men behind the murders are still a bit of a mystery. The new Netflix documentary The Texas Killing Fields highlights the three suspects that made the top of the law enforcement charts as potentially responsible for the sinister crimes, including a former NASA employee, and two construction workers. Here’s everything we know about the potential suspects associated with one of the most prolific serial killer cases in history.
Robert Abel
Robert Abel made the Texas law enforcement suspect list for a variety of reasons, the most pressing was simply his proximity to the crimes. The land dubbed “The Texas Killing Fields” was next to Robert Abel’s home and horseback riding business on Calder Road. He not only owned the field but it was basically in his backyard, either making it his own private graveyard or a very odd coincidence.
Abel previously worked for NASA as an engineer, he even worked on a team that sent rockets into space. He was well known in the small League City community and the horseback riding business he started following his career with NASA was successful. He initially seemed an odd choice of a suspect other than his proximity to the scene of the crimes, but soon details about his personal life were revealed that made him a little more prime on the suspect list.
Suspicion also fell on Abel following the release of the FBI profile created for the “Killing Fields” killer. The profile claimed that the person committing this string of murders would be a violent man, most likely abusive to partners and even animals. As it turned out, Abel was violent towards both. One of his former partners came forward reporting his abusive behavior toward her and even toward the horses he worked with. She even claimed that when the horses died, he would leave their bodies to rot in the field, just as the bodies of the women in the Killing Field were found.
The police weren’t the only ones casting suspicious eyes at Abel; Tim Miller, the father of one of the girls found in the field, Laurie Miller, was also convinced of Abel’s guilt. He began harassing Abel, leaving threatening voicemails on his answering machine and spreading the word that he was the serial killer responsible for his daughter’s death.
Although Abel was eventually supposedly cleared of involvement with the murders, and Miller’s father apologized to him, the stigma of “murderer” never quite left Abel. He ended up driving his golf cart onto railroad tracks, where he was hit by the train and subsequently killed. Many felt he had done so intentionally as he was unable to ever escape the rumors and accusations of the Texas Killing Fields.
William Lewis Reece
While Robert Abel was a prime suspect in the Killing Fields at one point, he certainly wasn’t the only suspect. With such a high-profile case, Texas law enforcement was desperate to find who was responsible for the deaths of all these young girls and women. During their investigation, they stumbled across another suspect, a construction worker named William Lewis Reece.
In 1997, it seemed like the Texas serial killer was striking again as three young women went missing. Laura Smither, Kelli Ann Cox, and Jessica Cain were all kidnapped, raped, and ultimately murdered. The pattern did strike a strong resemblance to the Texas Killing Fields crimes and the investigation of these cold cases eventually led police right to William Lewis Reece’s door.
In fact, they were led there directly by one of his potential victims. Sandra Sapaugh was experiencing car trouble when someone pulled up beside her to help. Or so she thought. She realized it was a familiar face, a man she had just seen at the gas station. He had given her a flat tire and then followed her. After forcing her into his car, he tied her wrists together and attempted to kidnap her. Little did he know that Sandra was not one to go easily, as she hurled herself out of the moving car and found her way to safety. She was able to pick Reece out of the lineup and he was put into prison. Once DNA science became available, he was linked to the three missing girls and he eventually confessed to their rapes and murders.
Yet, while Reece turned out to indeed be a serial killer, he allegedly wasn’t the serial killer responsible for the Texas Killing Fields.
Clyde Hedrick
Clyde Hedrick remained on law enforcement’s radar consistently over the years for everything from trespassing to aggravated kidnapping. It was no mystery that Clyde Hedrick was not a good guy, but was he a serial murderer? That was what the police set out to determine.
Clyde Hedrick worked in construction, just as William Reese did, and like William Reese, he too had a very sordid past. When 29-year-old Ellen Rae Beason’s body showed up abandoned in 1984, police soon were led to the last person to see her alive, Clyde Hedrick. While Hedrick admitted to being with her, he denied killing her, simply saying she had drowned when they went swimming after leaving the local bar together. He admitted to abandoning her body but again, denied any involvement in her death. He was convicted of “abuse of a corpse” and sentenced to a year in prison.
Once he was released, he was back to his old ways. He married a new wife and began abusing her teenage daughter, Marla, who revealed some of Hedrick’s crimes in the Netflix documentary. Hedrick fit the profile formulated by the FBI, had access to the property and had a violent and criminal history. He quickly made his way to the top of the suspect list.
As time went on, police grew more and more suspicious, finally digging more into the death of Ellen Rae Beason. With the addition of new DNA and forensic evidence, detectives were able to determine Ellen Rae’s true cause of death was due to blunt force trauma, not drowning as Hedrick had claimed. The manner of death was also notably identical to all the women found in the Killing Field. Although the detectives were not able to tie Hedrick to all of those murders, they were able to charge him with Ellen Rae’s murder and he was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Laura Miller’s father, Tim Miller, also filed a wrongful death civil suit against Hedrick and won $24 million. In Tim Miller’s mind, Hedrick is certainly guilty of the death of his daughter, and he is not alone, as Hedrick’s former stepdaughter and many law enforcement officials are also convinced of his guilt. Despite their belief, he has yet to be officially convicted of the Texas Killing Fields murders.
So who is ultimately responsible for the 33 bodies discovered in the Texas Killing Fields? While there are plenty of theories and suspects, the answers have not been as forthcoming. The decades-long case of one of the most prolific serial killers still remains unanswered, with the story behind the girls’ deaths, still untold.