The Killing Fields - League City, TX - Infamous Crime Scenes on Waymarking.com

From Bustle.com

What Are The Texas Killing Fields?
By Lily Feinn Sep 23, 2016

Over the past 40 years, one desolate strip of land in South Texas has become synonymous with the disappearance and murder of young women and girls. This area has a mysterious and terrifying history, and once you ask “What are the Texas Killing Fields?” you will immediately wish that you didn’t know the answer. The bone-chilling name given to this rugged 25-mile piece of land bordering the Calder oil field and League City is something out of a real-life horror story. Four bodies have been found within its limits, about a mile from the I-45. The Texas Killing Fields are part of a 50-mile stretch that runs along Interstate 45, between Houston and the Island city of Galveston, Texas, dubbed the “highway to hell.” There have been 30 bodies found in this haunted place since the early ‘70s.

The remote rugged wasteland that lies between deserted oil fields and the interstate has been described as the ideal dumping ground for a serial killer. There is little chance that a victim could escape their attacker or that their screams could even be heard. "It's a kind of environment that's sultry and sinister, easy to get to. You jump off of I-45. You drive down one of the dirt rutted roads. You dump the body. And you're gone for good," Texas Monthly reporter Skip Hollandsworth told CBS in an interview.

The murders began in June 1971, when 13-year-old Colette Wilson went missing after getting off at a bus stop after school. She was found in the Killing Fields some five months later, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Throughout the '70s the murders of adolescent and teenage girls continued, all dead from a gunshot wound, all found in and around the Killing Fields. The fragmented police from the neighboring small towns thought the rampage to be the work of a serial killer. Suspects came forward, but the police lacked the evidence to link them to the murders.

The pile of unsolved cases grew through the '80s and '90s. Some bodies were found, some women simply went missing, cars abandoned nearby, never to be seen again. The murders and mysterious disappearances continued through 2006, when suddenly an eerie quiet descended on the wasteland.

In 2012, a breakthrough occurred. Then 45-year-old Kevin Edison Smith was given life without parole for the 1986 murder of 13-year-old Krystal Jean Baker. Smith was linked to the crime after he was arrested in Louisiana for an unrelated incident in 2010. A DNA test performed on Smith matched samples taken from Krystal's underwear and dress. To this day, Smith is the only conviction tied to the Killing Field murders, though detectives hope he may provide some key information for other cases.

The history of this tormented area has been featured in the 2011 drama Texas Killing Fields and a haunting edition of CBS's 48 Hour Mystery . The projects track the many women between the ages of 10 and 25 that have disappeared from around Galveston, Texas, and the cops striving to solve the cases before they go cold. Though the fields have remained quiet for the past 10 years, the mystery of Texas' most notorious killing spree is far from over.

From Wikipedia

The Texas Killing Fields

The Texas Killing Fields is an area bordering the Calder Oil Field, which is a 25-acre patch of land situated a mile from Interstate Highway 45.

Since the early 1970s, 30 bodies of murder victims have been found within the Killing Fields area. These were mainly the bodies of girls or young women. Furthermore, many young girls have disappeared from this area; the girls' bodies, if deceased, are still missing.

It is believed that many of the murders are the work of serial killers. Most of the victims were aged 12–25 years, and shared similar physical features, for example, a few of them had similar hairstyles. Despite exhaustive efforts by the League City, Texas police, along with the assistance of the FBI, very few of these murders have been solved, and those that have were confessed from prison or forced from police.

The fields have been described as "a perfect place [for] killing somebody and getting away with it." After visiting some of the sites of recovered bodies in League City, Ami Canaan Mann, director of the film Texas Killing Fields, commented, "You could actually see the refineries that are in the south end of League City. You could see the I-45. But if you yelled, no one would necessarily hear you. And if you ran, there wouldn't necessarily be anywhere to go."

Victim	Age	Residence	Last Seen	Discovered
Brenda Jones	14	Galveston, TX	07/01/1971	07/02/1971
Colette Wilson	13	Alvin, TX	06/17/1971	11/26/1971
Rhonda Johnson	14	Webster, TX	08/04/1971	01/03/1972
Sharon Straw	14	Webster, TX	08/04/1971	01/03/1972
Gloria Gonzales	19	Houston, TX	10/28/1971	11/23/1971
Alison Craven	12	Houston, TX	11/09/1971	02/25/1972
Debbie Ackerman	15	Galveston, TX	11/15/1971	11/17/1971
Maria Johnson	15	Galveston, TX	11/15/1971	11/17/1971
Kimberly Pitchford	16	Houston, TX	01/03/1973	01/05/1973
Suzanne Bowers	12	Galveston, TX	05/21/1977	03/25/1979
Brooks Bracewell	12	Dickinson, TX	09/06/1974	04/03/1981
Georgia Geer	14	Dickinson, TX	09/06/1974	04/03/1981
Michelle Garvey	15	New London CT	06/01/1982	07/01/1982
Sondra Ramber	14	Santa Fe, TX	10/26/1983
Heide Villareal-Fye	23	League City, TX	10/10/1983	04/04/1984
Laura Miller	16	League City, TX	09/10/1984	02/03/1986
Audrey Cook	30	Galveston, TX	12/01/1985	02/02/1986
Shelley Sikes	19	Texas City, TX	05/24/1986
Suzanne Rene Richerson	22	Galveston, TX	10/07/1988
Donna Prudhomme	34	Nassau Bay, TX	1991	09/08/1991
Lynette Bibbs	14	Houston, TX	02/01/1996	02/03/1996
Tamara Fisher 15	15	Houston, TX	02/01/1996	02/03/1996
Krystal Baker	13	Texas City, TX	03/05/1996	03/05/1996
Laura Smither	12	Friendswood, TX	04/03/1997	04/20/1997
Jessica Cain	17	La Marque, TX	08/17/1997	03/18/2016
Sarah Trusty	23	Algoa, TX	07/12/2002	07/27/2002
Teressa Vanegas	16	Dickinson, TX	10/31/2006	11/03/2006

Date of crime: 07/01/1971 Public access allowed: yes Fee required: no Web site: [Web Link]

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