June 12, 2025 • 30 mins
Right now in true crime:
Karen Reid trial update, Travis Decker search update, Lori Vallow trial update and final verdict
In 1973 in Houston, Texas 12 year-old Kirk Douglas Gaskin was brutally murdered in a bathroom at the restaurant where his mother worked. Little investigation was done and little remains known about what happened to that day at the early Roberts famous foods restaurant. I am sharing Kirk’s story in hopes that somebody will be able to help shed new light on his case and help his family with what has haunted them since 1973. Who killed Kirk Douglas Gaskin?
Sources for episode:
https://abc13.com/kirk-douglas-gaskin-12-year-old-strangled-early-roberts-famous-cafe-houston-cold-cases/14183921/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181003838/kirk-douglas-gaskin
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hpd-reopens-cold-case-involving-025602605.html
https://websleuths.com/threads/tx-kirk-douglas-gaskin-12-followed-in-bathroom-early-roberts-famous-foods-rest-strangled-w-towel-drying-roll-houston-14-dec-73-reopened.699130/
Karen Reid trial update, Travis Decker search update, Lori Vallow trial update and final verdict
In 1973 in Houston, Texas 12 year-old Kirk Douglas Gaskin was brutally murdered in a bathroom at the restaurant where his mother worked. Little investigation was done and little remains known about what happened to that day at the early Roberts famous foods restaurant. I am sharing Kirk’s story in hopes that somebody will be able to help shed new light on his case and help his family with what has haunted them since 1973. Who killed Kirk Douglas Gaskin?
Sources for episode:
https://abc13.com/kirk-douglas-gaskin-12-year-old-strangled-early-roberts-famous-cafe-houston-cold-cases/14183921/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181003838/kirk-douglas-gaskin
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hpd-reopens-cold-case-involving-025602605.html
https://websleuths.com/threads/tx-kirk-douglas-gaskin-12-followed-in-bathroom-early-roberts-famous-foods-rest-strangled-w-towel-drying-roll-houston-14-dec-73-reopened.699130/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail. Please listen
with discretion.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Poppy Killed Mommy was the first thing my little sister
said to me after her father murdered our mother. My
mom had gotten off the phone at nine fifty three
pm on July eighth, nineteen ninety three, after making plans
to leave him. By one forty am, a nine one
one call was placed asking for help. Three hours and
forty seven minutes. That's how fast a woman can go
(00:25):
from planning her escape to being gone. Her death was
ruled a homicide. The man who killed her admitted that
he might have shot her. My sister, just three years old,
told police more than a dozen times Poppy killed Mommy,
but the Yavapai County Attorney said there was enough evidence
to prosecute. Seventy five percent of women murdered by an
intimate partner are killed while they're trying to leave. My
(00:49):
mom became part of that statistic. This is the story
they buried. Listen to Poppy Killed Mommy and hear what
they refused to see.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk
right now on true crime, and then together we are
going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go.
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie.
We are going to get into right now and true crime,
which at this point in time in my life is
basically just trial updates because it is trial season and
(01:21):
there has been so much going on. I am very
anxiously awaiting a break from NonStop trial coverage because it
has been a wild ride and I'm only keeping up
with it for my sake because it interests me. So
first thing is, first the Karen Reid trial. The defense
officially has rested. The prosecution said it's not going to
(01:44):
call any rebuttal witnesses. So on Friday we are going
to be getting closings and then the jury will get
the case and we are going to see from there.
I'm going to wait to discuss all of that what
ends up happening next on next week's episode, because there's
going to be a lot going on. I just have
a feeling it's going to be very interesting. So semi
(02:07):
update in the search for Travis Decker. He is the
Washington State father who killed his three children. They were
found last week, all deceased. They had all been killed
and Travis was suffering from some mental health issues and
has been on the run ever since. So as of
the recording of this, which I'm recording this on Wednesday afternoon,
(02:30):
law enforcement believes they have tracked someone that they think
is Travis Decker because they received a tip of a
hiker who appeared to be ill prepared for the trail
that they were on and the weather conditions, and this
person was avoiding people, so they are trying to track
this person down. They immediately acted upon the information that
(02:54):
they were given and they did spot a lone hiker
who they thought maybe could be Travis. But as soon
as this person saw the helicopter overhead, they ran away
and then they lost track of them. So it's going
to be interesting to see what transpires here. I was
kind of of the camp that Travis was not going
(03:16):
to be found alive my own personal opinion. I know
he has some mental health struggles going on. He was
a veteran, had a lot of mental health struggles going on.
Not giving him any excuses, he made a horrible decision
to take the lives of his three kids, and that
is horrible, horrible. So it's going to be interesting to
(03:36):
see if he's found. If there are any updates, I
will kind of tack it on to the end of
this episode or the end of this update, because I
feel like this one is evolving day by day. And
he does have a lot of training because he is
a war veteran, he was in Afghanistan. He has a
lot of training and hiking and camping and survival and hunting.
(04:03):
And he's also lived off the grid before. He's lived
off the grid for two and a half months at
one point in time, so he has a lot of
experience being off the grid. There was also some Google
searches that he made four days before he disappeared about
moving to Canada and how to find a job in
(04:23):
Canada and stuff relating to Canada. So could he be
on his way to Canada. That's a big distinct possibility
as well. This whole story is sad and tragic, and
those poor girls, their poor mom having to maneuver and
try to navigate through all of this stuff, I just
(04:43):
can't even imagine. So I hope that he has found
and I hope that he will go away for a
very long time, But I also hope that he gets
the help he needs, the mental health help he needs,
because it sounds like his ex wife very much wanted
him to get this mental health help and was trying
to kind of push him in that direction, but he
(05:05):
was very resistant to it. But at the end of
the day, it is about those three little girls, Olivia
who was five, Evelyn who was eight, and Peyton who
was nine. Okay, On this Wednesday afternoon, we are officially
in verdict watch in the last, hopefully final trial of
Lori Valo davel. The trial just wrapped up of the
(05:30):
attempted murder of her ex nephew in law, Brandon Boudreau.
It has been such an interesting trial. I didn't get
to talk about this last week because this happened on Friday.
The judge kicked her out of court and it was
the best moment ever. I feel like the judge has
been so patient and so gentle with her, and on
(05:53):
Friday of last week, he just lost his ever loving
mind on her, and he really did it in like
such a calm way. I would have been way worse
if I was a judge, but that's why I'm not
a judge. And he just told her, you need to
get out of here, and you need to you have
fifteen minutes to get it together because she was back
talking him and being so rude and disrespectful, and he
(06:15):
was getting aggravated with her and sternly talking to her,
and she was like, you don't have to yell at me.
It was a whole thing. I've watched it probably about
fifty times on repeat, so it's been a very interesting trial.
Brandon Boudreaux was the first witness up and he did
an amazing job giving his testimony. He is the only
(06:36):
victim of hers that survived, and I know that he
probably was so anxious and nervous about getting up there
and facing her, but he did a really, really good
job laying out the timeline, talking about everything that happened,
everything leading up to it. And we also found out
that Melanie, Laurie's niece, Brandon's ex wife, now still being
(07:00):
investigated for her role in all of this because she
was very much in that cult mentality with Chad and
Laurie and Alex. She was all up in there as well,
So very very interesting to see what is going to
come of that. I don't think that we have heard
the last of all of this. I think Laurie is
(07:22):
going to be found guilty in Brandon's attempted murder conspiracy
to gemit murder, and she's going to go away. We're
not going to hear from her for a long time.
But I do feel like there's more coming down the
pipeline when it comes to Melanie, and now coming to
you Thursday afternoon with a clean sweep of guilty verdicts
(07:42):
for Lorie Valo Dabell. If there's one thing in life
that the jury got right, it's that they found her
guilty during all of her trials. So I'm happy to
report that guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Like I said, I do,
I think there is more coming down the pipeline for
Melanie and everything that she was involved in, but that
(08:07):
is going to probably be coming later on, so if
anything does happen, I will be sure to keep you
guys updated. Next we have sentencing, and hopefully they can
stack on a couple more life sentences for her on
top of the ones that she is already serving. I
can't believe how long this saga has gone on for
(08:29):
it all started back in twenty nineteen and we have
been in the midst of it ever since. It is
so wild and crazy that this has gone on as
long as it has, and it's taken a long time
to get justice for all of the victims in this
whole thing between Chad and Laurie and Alex, and it's
(08:49):
just been so much so closing that chapter of life. Now,
the trial chapter is officially over, at least for now.
As far as Lauri goes, as far as Chad goes,
we'll see what's going to come down the pipeline for Melanie.
I'll be sure to keep you guys updated, but we
are going to go ahead and get into today's episode.
(09:10):
All right, guys, Today, I am going to go ahead
and put out a giant trigger warning on this episode
because it is a tough one. I hate so much
that I have to share stories like this, ones that
involve children, but their stories are equally as important. So
in this week's episode, I'm going to be telling you
(09:32):
about the unsolved murder of a twelve year old boy
named Kirk Douglas Gaskin in Harris County, Texas in December
of nineteen seventy three. Now, this story is riddled with
questions and what ifs and why wasn't it thoroughly investigated?
Initially unfortunately, so many questions and solo answers. And although
(09:56):
it's a tough story to tell, Kirk deserves this epid
His story deserves to be told, and he deserves to
be remembered for everything he did in his short twelve
years of life. He deserves justice and that is why
I'm sharing his story today. It's important that we know
his story, we share his name, and hopefully in that
(10:17):
somewhere along the way, we can get some justice for Kirk. Now,
the information on his case is pretty limited, so I'm
going to do what I can, take what I know,
and try to put everything together to tell you Kirk's
story and exactly what happened to him in December of
nineteen eighty three. So let's get into it. Kirk Douglas
(10:40):
Gaskin was born on July seventh of nineteen sixty one
to his parents, Douglas and Martha Joe Wyatt Gaskin. Kirk
was a fifth grader at Crawford Elementary School and he
had a younger brother named Kenneth Gaskin, who was eleven
at the time of Kirk's murder, so they were obviously
close in age and they were close. They grew up
(11:01):
very closely. They were brothers, and Kenneth said that Kirk
was a leader, and Kenneth, of course, being the little brother,
always wanted to do everything that Kirk wanted to do.
And I will speak more on it later, but Channel
thirteen News did an interview about the case where they
talked to Kenneth, and they also talked to Kurt's aunt
(11:23):
and uncle, And when I tell you, their interviews just
absolutely broke my heart listening to them after all of
this time, fifty plus years later, they are still all
devastated about what happened to Kirk and how little attention
his case has gotten over the years locally, nationally, all
(11:44):
the things. It just absolutely broke my heart. And the
fact that this case wasn't a number one top priority
to be solved back then, it's just mind blowing. Once
I tell you the details of this case and the
circumstances surround what happened, the fact that this wasn't number
one most important case in the nation is shocking to me.
(12:09):
Nineteen seventy three was a heck of a lot different time,
and this is going to show you that. And I
really want you guys to keep it in the back
of your mind when I'm telling you the story and
everything that transpired that this kid was twelve years old
and he was murdered in a very public place with
a ton of eyewitnesses, and we have zero description of
(12:35):
the perpetrators, zero physical description of the perpetrators. Actually mind blowing.
So let's go ahead and get into it. So, back
in nineteen seventy three, Kirk's mom and his grandmother worked
as short order cooks at a local restaurant that was
called Early Roberts Famous Foods Now. This was a twenty
(12:56):
four hour diner. It was popular back in the seventies
in Houston. It was located in Houston's East End and
was located on the corner of Wayside Drive and Harrisburg Boulevard.
The diner has since been torn down and the area
has grown, but the horrible thing that happened there still remains. So,
(13:16):
since Kirk's mom worked at the diner, often on Saturdays,
she would bring one or both of her children there
for a shift, and they would often do odd jobs,
kind of help out. Maybe they would bust some tables,
but having the kids there was never an issue, and honestly,
it was the best spot for the boys to be
because their mom could keep a watchful eye on them,
(13:39):
and I'm sure in her mind she thought it was
the best and safest place for her to have the
kids to make sure that they were going to be okay.
So on this particular Saturday, just a few weeks before Christmas,
it was a day that Kirk could go to work
with his mom. Now, Kenneth did say in the interview
(13:59):
that he was supposed to go to work with his
mom that day, but for some reason, he didn't go
and only Kirk went. I don't know the details about
why that was the case, but it is important to
note that Kirk went there that day with his mother
and Kenneth was not there. Now, everything was business as usual,
nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The restaurant was packed
(14:22):
with people, and Kirk was busting his tables, doing his
little odd jobs around the diner, wearing his apron that
he wore. And at one point in time during the
shift that day, Kirk's mom saw him go into the
restroom and there was an eyewitness that said that they
(14:43):
saw two boys that went into the restroom behind Kirk. Now,
those two boys would come out of the restroom and
for whatever reason, Kirk never exited the restroom. So with this,
his mom went in to check to make sure that
he was o okay. And when she went in, that
is when she saw the most horrific thing ever. And honestly,
(15:07):
the details of this case really just made my stomach turn.
So I do want to give a little bit of
a trigger warning on top of that with what I'm
about to say. So, Kirk was found dead in the restroom.
He had essentially been hung from a towel drying rack
that was nailed to the wall. Actually so horrific. I
(15:30):
can't imagine the absolute horror of Kirk's mom finding this,
going into the restroom to chuck on her son and
finding such a horrific scene. So of course the authorities
were called and they arrived, and this is a horrific scene.
This kid is twelve. They took three pictures of the
(15:53):
crime scene, and one of those pictures included Kirk's body
that was at this point on the floor. The scene
was not closed down. Everything kept on as usual at
the restaurant. They kept passing food out, they kept refilling
drink orders, and they kept cooking through all of this
(16:15):
pandemonium that was going on when a twelve year old
had lost his life in the bathroom, business as usual
carried on in the diner, and not one person, nobody
from the police department, nobody at the restaurant, said we
need to shut this down immediately. Nobody comes in, nobody
(16:37):
goes out until we question every single person. That's what
should have happened, and that is not what happened here.
Kirk's poor mom during all of this. I can't even
imagine what was going through her head. So, like I said,
there was an eyewitness that initially did say that she
saw two boys follow Kirk into the restroom. Now, there
(16:59):
is no description of what these boys look like, and
that was never given, at least to my knowledge. There's
also times when I see them referred to as men. Again,
we don't have a description, so I don't know if
these were individuals around Kirk's age, although I highly doubt
it given the gruesome nature of the crime. So this
(17:21):
witness did say that they saw Kirk go in, and
then they saw another man or boy go in behind him,
and then that man came out, talked briefly with another man,
and then they both went in. And that behavior is
not normal because when you think of going in to
(17:42):
go to the bathroom, you go in, you do your business,
you wash your hands if you're a clean person, and
then you leave. You don't go in and then come
out and then go back in. That's just weird and
it would, in my opinion, draw attention to you for
doing weird stuff. Bite this eyewitness. There is no actual
(18:02):
description of who these people were, what they looked like,
if they were seen exiting the diner. None of this
is out there, and there's really not much about this
crime at all out there. Besides a couple of articles
that were published shortly after the homicide. There isn't anything
and there was really hardly anything investigated. And one of
(18:27):
the articles that is out there has a photo of
Kirk that they use, but it's so poor quality that
you can't even tell what Kirk looks like. So I
do want to now say that Kirk's family has said
that this time in their life was really, really difficult.
They were at the time considered a less wealthy black family,
(18:48):
and one could argue that this could be the reason
that the case did not get any attention. But today
we are changing that because Kirk's life matters. All of
these years later, his story is still important and it
deserves to be told in a respectful manner and hopefully
helped draw attention to this very under publicized case. And
(19:14):
think about it, This person or persons, if there are
two people involved, is walking around amongst us, blending into society,
holding this horrific secret that they were involved in Kirk's
death all of these years ago. And honestly, I've said
it before, I'll say it again. I don't believe that
(19:35):
somebody has the potential to do something like this to
a child only one time and then move on with
their lives and be an upstanding, good person. There's no
way I personally believe that whoever these people were, this
is again just my opinion, probably frequented the diner. They
(19:56):
knew that Kirk was going to be there and they
and they planned this attack on him for one reason
or another I'm not going to speculate. And they probably
have done this to other kids. So this horrific crime happened,
business as usual went on at the diner. Investigators didn't
(20:17):
really do much, they didn't question many witnesses. There was
only those three photos taken. I don't know if there
was DNA and fingerprints and all of that taken. I'm
not sure on that, but that's where the case pretty
much ended. And for Kirk's family, they have spent a
huge chunk of their lives morning Kirk, of course, and
(20:41):
then also dealing with the fact that his name was
never even mentioned in news media. It never got any
type of local or national attention, which if this happened today,
it would be, I would hope, all over the news,
and they have had to live silent with knowing that
(21:02):
the person or persons that did this are still out there.
So it's horrible, it's awful. Now the Houston Police Department
has officially reopened Kirk's case, and that was in part
with the Emmett Till Grant, which basically affords cold case
detectives money and resources and time to investigate unsolved murders
(21:25):
of black men from the seventies. And I'm personally so
glad that Kirk is one of those people that is
at the top of their list to investigate. But this
investigation is very difficult because there isn't a lot to
go on, and even something as simple as a photo
of Kirk no longer exists. The photos of Kirk that
(21:48):
the family once had are no longer in existence for
one reason or another. So what law enforcement did was
they went ahead and they commissioned an artist to create
a sketch of what Kirk looked like in nineteen seventy
three when he was killed. And investigators really want people
to look at this picture, look at the sketch, and
(22:11):
they want to hear from people that were at the
diner that day and that might have seen something, even
if they don't think that they saw it, they might
have seen something super insignificant in their minds that might
not even stick out. That could be something. The diner
was packed, it was the middle of the morning, and
(22:33):
somebody saw something, somebody knows something, and that something could
be the missing piece of the puzzle. Like I always say,
that's going to help close this case. There is also
only one known photo of the diner, and it is dark,
it's very grainy, and there's really not a whole lot
(22:55):
more out there about this diner, and investigators are also
looking for people that might have a photo of the
diner as it looked at the time that Kirk was killed.
They are really trying to do everything they can to
try to piece everything together here and talk to those
people that were there that day that were familiar with
(23:16):
the diner. Maybe they have a photo of the diner,
because the picture that they have is horrible, it really is.
I will post it, but it's so grainy you can't
tell the layout of the diner. But they are very
much trying to piece by piece place everything together, and
maybe you can help. So if for whatever reason you
(23:39):
are listening to this and you lived in the area
or frequented this area of Houston in nineteen seventy three,
and you happen to have a photo of the diner,
you were asked to reach out to law enforcement with
whatever information you may have. Something so insignificant in your
life may actually be what law enforcement needs to saw
(24:00):
this case, or at least bring them a little bit closer.
So earlier I said that I had listened to an
interview that Kenneth Kirk's brother did with Channel thirteen News,
and Kenneth said that he misses his brother terribly. He said,
he's sixty one years old and he misses him every day.
It was really emotional watching this interview because you know
(24:23):
that this man has been through some really really really
tough times, and he's still a grown adult and he's
sitting there sobbing over loosing his brother all those years ago. Also,
interestingly enough, the lead detective now on this case is
a woman named Darkus Shorten, and she really has taken
(24:45):
this case and taken the lead. But how she came
to learn of the case I think is really interesting.
So she was getting her oil changed and Kenneth Gaskin
was there because he is a record driver and I
think he he was familiar with her just from being
in the same community. And he asked her, do you
(25:05):
buy chance still work in the cold case investigations, and
she said she did, and he brought up, well, maybe
you could look into my brother's case, and she said, oh,
of course, I'll look into it. And then when Kenneth
told her that he was twelve, she was absolutely astonished,
(25:26):
and she knew that this case had to be moved
to the forefront of everything, and honestly, it makes me
question why it wasn't at the forefront back in nineteen
seventy three. So in the interview I watched, they also
talked with Kirk's aunt, which is his mom's sister, and
Kirk's uncle as well, and they said that nobody ever
(25:49):
came and spoke with them. They didn't talk to the family,
they didn't question the family about anything, and essentially they
have lived all of this time without any answers, and
not just no answers, but the fact that they felt
that nobody cared about Kirk's case, nobody cared enough about
(26:10):
what happened to him to inquire to try to get
to the bottom of who took his life. So, unfortunately,
that is where things stand today. To reiterate, investigators are
very much looking for anyone that recognizes Kirk and was
at the diner that day in December of nineteen seventy three. Again,
(26:31):
this was Saturday, December eighth of nineteen seventy three. They
are also, like I said, looking for anybody that has
photos of the diner from back around the time that
Kirk was killed. Trying to figure it out in your head,
how two people possibly went into a bathroom, killed a kid,
(26:53):
and then exited without anybody seeing anything makes me question everything.
Were people just not in tuned, were they not paying attention?
Did these people just blend in, Did they maybe sneak
out the side door that is I think what investigators
are wanting when they want pictures of the diner, because
(27:14):
I think they want to know kind of how things
were laid out, the proximity of the bathroom to where
the exits were. All of that stuff is very, very
important in an investigation like this when you don't really
have much to go on. So what I am asking
from you guys is for you to please, please please
share this episode. I say that about all of my episodes,
(27:37):
but this one I think is so important because it
has been a cold case for such a long time.
We have such limited information to go on, and they
really need people that were living and socializing in Houston
in December of nineteen seventy three, that frequented this place,
that lived in this neighborhood. It is so important that
(28:01):
this episode reaches those people so that way they can
talk to investigators about what they remember from that day.
Because fifty plus years have passed, all of the witnesses
are getting older day by day, and we are running
out of time. So share this episode. If you are
(28:21):
listening to this episode and you know something about Kirk's case,
you were there that day, you have a little inkling
of anything to share with investigators. Please contact the Cold
Case Detectives from the Houston Police Department at seven one
three three zero eight three six one eight. It has
(28:42):
been almost fifty two years since Kirk's life was taken,
and it's taken nearly fifty years for this case to
get just a little bit of attention. I grew up
outside of Houston, and I have never heard of this
case until now, when it kind of happened upon me
in a Google search because I'm always researching cold cases,
(29:04):
ones that I can cover, and it popped up and
I started researching it, and I was horrified by what
wasn't done when this initially happened, and how his family
was treated, and nobody had really done anything until fifty
years later, fifty whole years. It's insane to me, but
(29:28):
I do very much want to give my hats off
to the Cold Case Division at the Houston Police Department
for taking on this case, for looking into it, for
giving the family a little bit of hope. I am
so sorry that this episode was pretty dark and sad,
but Kirk's story needs to be said. We need to
(29:49):
say his name, Kirk Douglas Gaskin, and we hopefully need
to bring his perpetrator or perpetrators to justice because time
is running out. In fifty two years is way too
long to wait for justice for Kirk. As always, I
appreciate you guys so very much and appreciate you all
tuning in to today's episode. Please share again. Like I said,
(30:13):
that is the call to action for this episode. Share
this episode, especially if you know anyone that lived in
Houston in nineteen seventy three and might have information on
Kirk's case. The more eyes and ears we get on it,
the better. So I will see you guys next week
for a brand new unsolved case. Thank you all so
(30:35):
very much, and I hope this episode reaches the right
people and we can bring you an update that we
have movement in Kirk's case. You guys have a good
weekend and I will see you next week. Bye,
Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail. Please listen
with discretion.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Poppy Killed Mommy was the first thing my little sister
said to me after her father murdered our mother. My
mom had gotten off the phone at nine fifty three
pm on July eighth, nineteen ninety three, after making plans
to leave him. By one forty am, a nine one
one call was placed asking for help. Three hours and
forty seven minutes. That's how fast a woman can go
(00:25):
from planning her escape to being gone. Her death was
ruled a homicide. The man who killed her admitted that
he might have shot her. My sister, just three years old,
told police more than a dozen times Poppy killed Mommy,
but the Yavapai County Attorney said there was enough evidence
to prosecute. Seventy five percent of women murdered by an
intimate partner are killed while they're trying to leave. My
(00:49):
mom became part of that statistic. This is the story
they buried. Listen to Poppy Killed Mommy and hear what
they refused to see.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk
right now on true crime, and then together we are
going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go.
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie.
We are going to get into right now and true crime,
which at this point in time in my life is
basically just trial updates because it is trial season and
(01:21):
there has been so much going on. I am very
anxiously awaiting a break from NonStop trial coverage because it
has been a wild ride and I'm only keeping up
with it for my sake because it interests me. So
first thing is, first the Karen Reid trial. The defense
officially has rested. The prosecution said it's not going to
(01:44):
call any rebuttal witnesses. So on Friday we are going
to be getting closings and then the jury will get
the case and we are going to see from there.
I'm going to wait to discuss all of that what
ends up happening next on next week's episode, because there's
going to be a lot going on. I just have
a feeling it's going to be very interesting. So semi
(02:07):
update in the search for Travis Decker. He is the
Washington State father who killed his three children. They were
found last week, all deceased. They had all been killed
and Travis was suffering from some mental health issues and
has been on the run ever since. So as of
the recording of this, which I'm recording this on Wednesday afternoon,
(02:30):
law enforcement believes they have tracked someone that they think
is Travis Decker because they received a tip of a
hiker who appeared to be ill prepared for the trail
that they were on and the weather conditions, and this
person was avoiding people, so they are trying to track
this person down. They immediately acted upon the information that
(02:54):
they were given and they did spot a lone hiker
who they thought maybe could be Travis. But as soon
as this person saw the helicopter overhead, they ran away
and then they lost track of them. So it's going
to be interesting to see what transpires here. I was
kind of of the camp that Travis was not going
(03:16):
to be found alive my own personal opinion. I know
he has some mental health struggles going on. He was
a veteran, had a lot of mental health struggles going on.
Not giving him any excuses, he made a horrible decision
to take the lives of his three kids, and that
is horrible, horrible. So it's going to be interesting to
(03:36):
see if he's found. If there are any updates, I
will kind of tack it on to the end of
this episode or the end of this update, because I
feel like this one is evolving day by day. And
he does have a lot of training because he is
a war veteran, he was in Afghanistan. He has a
lot of training and hiking and camping and survival and hunting.
(04:03):
And he's also lived off the grid before. He's lived
off the grid for two and a half months at
one point in time, so he has a lot of
experience being off the grid. There was also some Google
searches that he made four days before he disappeared about
moving to Canada and how to find a job in
(04:23):
Canada and stuff relating to Canada. So could he be
on his way to Canada. That's a big distinct possibility
as well. This whole story is sad and tragic, and
those poor girls, their poor mom having to maneuver and
try to navigate through all of this stuff, I just
(04:43):
can't even imagine. So I hope that he has found
and I hope that he will go away for a
very long time, But I also hope that he gets
the help he needs, the mental health help he needs,
because it sounds like his ex wife very much wanted
him to get this mental health help and was trying
to kind of push him in that direction, but he
(05:05):
was very resistant to it. But at the end of
the day, it is about those three little girls, Olivia
who was five, Evelyn who was eight, and Peyton who
was nine. Okay, On this Wednesday afternoon, we are officially
in verdict watch in the last, hopefully final trial of
Lori Valo davel. The trial just wrapped up of the
(05:30):
attempted murder of her ex nephew in law, Brandon Boudreau.
It has been such an interesting trial. I didn't get
to talk about this last week because this happened on Friday.
The judge kicked her out of court and it was
the best moment ever. I feel like the judge has
been so patient and so gentle with her, and on
(05:53):
Friday of last week, he just lost his ever loving
mind on her, and he really did it in like
such a calm way. I would have been way worse
if I was a judge, but that's why I'm not
a judge. And he just told her, you need to
get out of here, and you need to you have
fifteen minutes to get it together because she was back
talking him and being so rude and disrespectful, and he
(06:15):
was getting aggravated with her and sternly talking to her,
and she was like, you don't have to yell at me.
It was a whole thing. I've watched it probably about
fifty times on repeat, so it's been a very interesting trial.
Brandon Boudreaux was the first witness up and he did
an amazing job giving his testimony. He is the only
(06:36):
victim of hers that survived, and I know that he
probably was so anxious and nervous about getting up there
and facing her, but he did a really, really good
job laying out the timeline, talking about everything that happened,
everything leading up to it. And we also found out
that Melanie, Laurie's niece, Brandon's ex wife, now still being
(07:00):
investigated for her role in all of this because she
was very much in that cult mentality with Chad and
Laurie and Alex. She was all up in there as well,
So very very interesting to see what is going to
come of that. I don't think that we have heard
the last of all of this. I think Laurie is
(07:22):
going to be found guilty in Brandon's attempted murder conspiracy
to gemit murder, and she's going to go away. We're
not going to hear from her for a long time.
But I do feel like there's more coming down the
pipeline when it comes to Melanie, and now coming to
you Thursday afternoon with a clean sweep of guilty verdicts
(07:42):
for Lorie Valo Dabell. If there's one thing in life
that the jury got right, it's that they found her
guilty during all of her trials. So I'm happy to
report that guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Like I said, I do,
I think there is more coming down the pipeline for
Melanie and everything that she was involved in, but that
(08:07):
is going to probably be coming later on, so if
anything does happen, I will be sure to keep you
guys updated. Next we have sentencing, and hopefully they can
stack on a couple more life sentences for her on
top of the ones that she is already serving. I
can't believe how long this saga has gone on for
(08:29):
it all started back in twenty nineteen and we have
been in the midst of it ever since. It is
so wild and crazy that this has gone on as
long as it has, and it's taken a long time
to get justice for all of the victims in this
whole thing between Chad and Laurie and Alex, and it's
(08:49):
just been so much so closing that chapter of life. Now,
the trial chapter is officially over, at least for now.
As far as Lauri goes, as far as Chad goes,
we'll see what's going to come down the pipeline for Melanie.
I'll be sure to keep you guys updated, but we
are going to go ahead and get into today's episode.
(09:10):
All right, guys, Today, I am going to go ahead
and put out a giant trigger warning on this episode
because it is a tough one. I hate so much
that I have to share stories like this, ones that
involve children, but their stories are equally as important. So
in this week's episode, I'm going to be telling you
(09:32):
about the unsolved murder of a twelve year old boy
named Kirk Douglas Gaskin in Harris County, Texas in December
of nineteen seventy three. Now, this story is riddled with
questions and what ifs and why wasn't it thoroughly investigated?
Initially unfortunately, so many questions and solo answers. And although
(09:56):
it's a tough story to tell, Kirk deserves this epid
His story deserves to be told, and he deserves to
be remembered for everything he did in his short twelve
years of life. He deserves justice and that is why
I'm sharing his story today. It's important that we know
his story, we share his name, and hopefully in that
(10:17):
somewhere along the way, we can get some justice for Kirk. Now,
the information on his case is pretty limited, so I'm
going to do what I can, take what I know,
and try to put everything together to tell you Kirk's
story and exactly what happened to him in December of
nineteen eighty three. So let's get into it. Kirk Douglas
(10:40):
Gaskin was born on July seventh of nineteen sixty one
to his parents, Douglas and Martha Joe Wyatt Gaskin. Kirk
was a fifth grader at Crawford Elementary School and he
had a younger brother named Kenneth Gaskin, who was eleven
at the time of Kirk's murder, so they were obviously
close in age and they were close. They grew up
(11:01):
very closely. They were brothers, and Kenneth said that Kirk
was a leader, and Kenneth, of course, being the little brother,
always wanted to do everything that Kirk wanted to do.
And I will speak more on it later, but Channel
thirteen News did an interview about the case where they
talked to Kenneth, and they also talked to Kurt's aunt
(11:23):
and uncle, And when I tell you, their interviews just
absolutely broke my heart listening to them after all of
this time, fifty plus years later, they are still all
devastated about what happened to Kirk and how little attention
his case has gotten over the years locally, nationally, all
(11:44):
the things. It just absolutely broke my heart. And the
fact that this case wasn't a number one top priority
to be solved back then, it's just mind blowing. Once
I tell you the details of this case and the
circumstances surround what happened, the fact that this wasn't number
one most important case in the nation is shocking to me.
(12:09):
Nineteen seventy three was a heck of a lot different time,
and this is going to show you that. And I
really want you guys to keep it in the back
of your mind when I'm telling you the story and
everything that transpired that this kid was twelve years old
and he was murdered in a very public place with
a ton of eyewitnesses, and we have zero description of
(12:35):
the perpetrators, zero physical description of the perpetrators. Actually mind blowing.
So let's go ahead and get into it. So, back
in nineteen seventy three, Kirk's mom and his grandmother worked
as short order cooks at a local restaurant that was
called Early Roberts Famous Foods Now. This was a twenty
(12:56):
four hour diner. It was popular back in the seventies
in Houston. It was located in Houston's East End and
was located on the corner of Wayside Drive and Harrisburg Boulevard.
The diner has since been torn down and the area
has grown, but the horrible thing that happened there still remains. So,
(13:16):
since Kirk's mom worked at the diner, often on Saturdays,
she would bring one or both of her children there
for a shift, and they would often do odd jobs,
kind of help out. Maybe they would bust some tables,
but having the kids there was never an issue, and honestly,
it was the best spot for the boys to be
because their mom could keep a watchful eye on them,
(13:39):
and I'm sure in her mind she thought it was
the best and safest place for her to have the
kids to make sure that they were going to be okay.
So on this particular Saturday, just a few weeks before Christmas,
it was a day that Kirk could go to work
with his mom. Now, Kenneth did say in the interview
(13:59):
that he was supposed to go to work with his
mom that day, but for some reason, he didn't go
and only Kirk went. I don't know the details about
why that was the case, but it is important to
note that Kirk went there that day with his mother
and Kenneth was not there. Now, everything was business as usual,
nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The restaurant was packed
(14:22):
with people, and Kirk was busting his tables, doing his
little odd jobs around the diner, wearing his apron that
he wore. And at one point in time during the
shift that day, Kirk's mom saw him go into the
restroom and there was an eyewitness that said that they
(14:43):
saw two boys that went into the restroom behind Kirk. Now,
those two boys would come out of the restroom and
for whatever reason, Kirk never exited the restroom. So with this,
his mom went in to check to make sure that
he was o okay. And when she went in, that
is when she saw the most horrific thing ever. And honestly,
(15:07):
the details of this case really just made my stomach turn.
So I do want to give a little bit of
a trigger warning on top of that with what I'm
about to say. So, Kirk was found dead in the restroom.
He had essentially been hung from a towel drying rack
that was nailed to the wall. Actually so horrific. I
(15:30):
can't imagine the absolute horror of Kirk's mom finding this,
going into the restroom to chuck on her son and
finding such a horrific scene. So of course the authorities
were called and they arrived, and this is a horrific scene.
This kid is twelve. They took three pictures of the
(15:53):
crime scene, and one of those pictures included Kirk's body
that was at this point on the floor. The scene
was not closed down. Everything kept on as usual at
the restaurant. They kept passing food out, they kept refilling
drink orders, and they kept cooking through all of this
(16:15):
pandemonium that was going on when a twelve year old
had lost his life in the bathroom, business as usual
carried on in the diner, and not one person, nobody
from the police department, nobody at the restaurant, said we
need to shut this down immediately. Nobody comes in, nobody
(16:37):
goes out until we question every single person. That's what
should have happened, and that is not what happened here.
Kirk's poor mom during all of this. I can't even
imagine what was going through her head. So, like I said,
there was an eyewitness that initially did say that she
saw two boys follow Kirk into the restroom. Now, there
(16:59):
is no description of what these boys look like, and
that was never given, at least to my knowledge. There's
also times when I see them referred to as men. Again,
we don't have a description, so I don't know if
these were individuals around Kirk's age, although I highly doubt
it given the gruesome nature of the crime. So this
(17:21):
witness did say that they saw Kirk go in, and
then they saw another man or boy go in behind him,
and then that man came out, talked briefly with another man,
and then they both went in. And that behavior is
not normal because when you think of going in to
(17:42):
go to the bathroom, you go in, you do your business,
you wash your hands if you're a clean person, and
then you leave. You don't go in and then come
out and then go back in. That's just weird and
it would, in my opinion, draw attention to you for
doing weird stuff. Bite this eyewitness. There is no actual
(18:02):
description of who these people were, what they looked like,
if they were seen exiting the diner. None of this
is out there, and there's really not much about this
crime at all out there. Besides a couple of articles
that were published shortly after the homicide. There isn't anything
and there was really hardly anything investigated. And one of
(18:27):
the articles that is out there has a photo of
Kirk that they use, but it's so poor quality that
you can't even tell what Kirk looks like. So I
do want to now say that Kirk's family has said
that this time in their life was really, really difficult.
They were at the time considered a less wealthy black family,
(18:48):
and one could argue that this could be the reason
that the case did not get any attention. But today
we are changing that because Kirk's life matters. All of
these years later, his story is still important and it
deserves to be told in a respectful manner and hopefully
helped draw attention to this very under publicized case. And
(19:14):
think about it, This person or persons, if there are
two people involved, is walking around amongst us, blending into society,
holding this horrific secret that they were involved in Kirk's
death all of these years ago. And honestly, I've said
it before, I'll say it again. I don't believe that
(19:35):
somebody has the potential to do something like this to
a child only one time and then move on with
their lives and be an upstanding, good person. There's no
way I personally believe that whoever these people were, this
is again just my opinion, probably frequented the diner. They
(19:56):
knew that Kirk was going to be there and they
and they planned this attack on him for one reason
or another I'm not going to speculate. And they probably
have done this to other kids. So this horrific crime happened,
business as usual went on at the diner. Investigators didn't
(20:17):
really do much, they didn't question many witnesses. There was
only those three photos taken. I don't know if there
was DNA and fingerprints and all of that taken. I'm
not sure on that, but that's where the case pretty
much ended. And for Kirk's family, they have spent a
huge chunk of their lives morning Kirk, of course, and
(20:41):
then also dealing with the fact that his name was
never even mentioned in news media. It never got any
type of local or national attention, which if this happened today,
it would be, I would hope, all over the news,
and they have had to live silent with knowing that
(21:02):
the person or persons that did this are still out there.
So it's horrible, it's awful. Now the Houston Police Department
has officially reopened Kirk's case, and that was in part
with the Emmett Till Grant, which basically affords cold case
detectives money and resources and time to investigate unsolved murders
(21:25):
of black men from the seventies. And I'm personally so
glad that Kirk is one of those people that is
at the top of their list to investigate. But this
investigation is very difficult because there isn't a lot to
go on, and even something as simple as a photo
of Kirk no longer exists. The photos of Kirk that
(21:48):
the family once had are no longer in existence for
one reason or another. So what law enforcement did was
they went ahead and they commissioned an artist to create
a sketch of what Kirk looked like in nineteen seventy
three when he was killed. And investigators really want people
to look at this picture, look at the sketch, and
(22:11):
they want to hear from people that were at the
diner that day and that might have seen something, even
if they don't think that they saw it, they might
have seen something super insignificant in their minds that might
not even stick out. That could be something. The diner
was packed, it was the middle of the morning, and
(22:33):
somebody saw something, somebody knows something, and that something could
be the missing piece of the puzzle. Like I always say,
that's going to help close this case. There is also
only one known photo of the diner, and it is dark,
it's very grainy, and there's really not a whole lot
(22:55):
more out there about this diner, and investigators are also
looking for people that might have a photo of the
diner as it looked at the time that Kirk was killed.
They are really trying to do everything they can to
try to piece everything together here and talk to those
people that were there that day that were familiar with
(23:16):
the diner. Maybe they have a photo of the diner,
because the picture that they have is horrible, it really is.
I will post it, but it's so grainy you can't
tell the layout of the diner. But they are very
much trying to piece by piece place everything together, and
maybe you can help. So if for whatever reason you
(23:39):
are listening to this and you lived in the area
or frequented this area of Houston in nineteen seventy three,
and you happen to have a photo of the diner,
you were asked to reach out to law enforcement with
whatever information you may have. Something so insignificant in your
life may actually be what law enforcement needs to saw
(24:00):
this case, or at least bring them a little bit closer.
So earlier I said that I had listened to an
interview that Kenneth Kirk's brother did with Channel thirteen News,
and Kenneth said that he misses his brother terribly. He said,
he's sixty one years old and he misses him every day.
It was really emotional watching this interview because you know
(24:23):
that this man has been through some really really really
tough times, and he's still a grown adult and he's
sitting there sobbing over loosing his brother all those years ago. Also,
interestingly enough, the lead detective now on this case is
a woman named Darkus Shorten, and she really has taken
(24:45):
this case and taken the lead. But how she came
to learn of the case I think is really interesting.
So she was getting her oil changed and Kenneth Gaskin
was there because he is a record driver and I
think he he was familiar with her just from being
in the same community. And he asked her, do you
(25:05):
buy chance still work in the cold case investigations, and
she said she did, and he brought up, well, maybe
you could look into my brother's case, and she said, oh,
of course, I'll look into it. And then when Kenneth
told her that he was twelve, she was absolutely astonished,
(25:26):
and she knew that this case had to be moved
to the forefront of everything, and honestly, it makes me
question why it wasn't at the forefront back in nineteen
seventy three. So in the interview I watched, they also
talked with Kirk's aunt, which is his mom's sister, and
Kirk's uncle as well, and they said that nobody ever
(25:49):
came and spoke with them. They didn't talk to the family,
they didn't question the family about anything, and essentially they
have lived all of this time without any answers, and
not just no answers, but the fact that they felt
that nobody cared about Kirk's case, nobody cared enough about
(26:10):
what happened to him to inquire to try to get
to the bottom of who took his life. So, unfortunately,
that is where things stand today. To reiterate, investigators are
very much looking for anyone that recognizes Kirk and was
at the diner that day in December of nineteen seventy three. Again,
(26:31):
this was Saturday, December eighth of nineteen seventy three. They
are also, like I said, looking for anybody that has
photos of the diner from back around the time that
Kirk was killed. Trying to figure it out in your head,
how two people possibly went into a bathroom, killed a kid,
(26:53):
and then exited without anybody seeing anything makes me question everything.
Were people just not in tuned, were they not paying attention?
Did these people just blend in, Did they maybe sneak
out the side door that is I think what investigators
are wanting when they want pictures of the diner, because
(27:14):
I think they want to know kind of how things
were laid out, the proximity of the bathroom to where
the exits were. All of that stuff is very, very
important in an investigation like this when you don't really
have much to go on. So what I am asking
from you guys is for you to please, please please
share this episode. I say that about all of my episodes,
(27:37):
but this one I think is so important because it
has been a cold case for such a long time.
We have such limited information to go on, and they
really need people that were living and socializing in Houston
in December of nineteen seventy three, that frequented this place,
that lived in this neighborhood. It is so important that
(28:01):
this episode reaches those people so that way they can
talk to investigators about what they remember from that day.
Because fifty plus years have passed, all of the witnesses
are getting older day by day, and we are running
out of time. So share this episode. If you are
(28:21):
listening to this episode and you know something about Kirk's case,
you were there that day, you have a little inkling
of anything to share with investigators. Please contact the Cold
Case Detectives from the Houston Police Department at seven one
three three zero eight three six one eight. It has
(28:42):
been almost fifty two years since Kirk's life was taken,
and it's taken nearly fifty years for this case to
get just a little bit of attention. I grew up
outside of Houston, and I have never heard of this
case until now, when it kind of happened upon me
in a Google search because I'm always researching cold cases,
(29:04):
ones that I can cover, and it popped up and
I started researching it, and I was horrified by what
wasn't done when this initially happened, and how his family
was treated, and nobody had really done anything until fifty
years later, fifty whole years. It's insane to me, but
(29:28):
I do very much want to give my hats off
to the Cold Case Division at the Houston Police Department
for taking on this case, for looking into it, for
giving the family a little bit of hope. I am
so sorry that this episode was pretty dark and sad,
but Kirk's story needs to be said. We need to
(29:49):
say his name, Kirk Douglas Gaskin, and we hopefully need
to bring his perpetrator or perpetrators to justice because time
is running out. In fifty two years is way too
long to wait for justice for Kirk. As always, I
appreciate you guys so very much and appreciate you all
tuning in to today's episode. Please share again. Like I said,
(30:13):
that is the call to action for this episode. Share
this episode, especially if you know anyone that lived in
Houston in nineteen seventy three and might have information on
Kirk's case. The more eyes and ears we get on it,
the better. So I will see you guys next week
for a brand new unsolved case. Thank you all so
(30:35):
very much, and I hope this episode reaches the right
people and we can bring you an update that we
have movement in Kirk's case. You guys have a good
weekend and I will see you next week. Bye,
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