February 1, 2025 • 23 mins
Was Retha Stratton's tragic murder the deadly climax of a serial rapist's reign of terror? This episode explores the brutal killing of the 18-year-old in River Oaks, Texas, and suggests her murder may have been a desperate act to silence a potential witness. As we unravel the chilling details of Retha's last moments, from the stab wounds to the defensive injuries, we grapple with the implications of a predator escalating from assault to murder within a tight-knit community. We also delve into the psychological terror unleashed by a series of unsolved sexual assaults that had already placed River Oaks on edge.
Join us as we navigate the twisted path of Wesley Miller, the man who shocked River Oaks with his violent tendencies. Through an anonymous tip and disturbing evidence, we piece together how Miller's dark history and lack of remorse led to Retha's untimely death. We scrutinize the justice system that handed down lenient sentences for his past crimes, and the community's struggle to come to terms with the seemingly inadequate justice served for Reetha's murder. This episode seeks to understand not only the tragic events but the broader societal issues revealed by the case of a serial offender left unchecked.
www.texaswineandtruecrime.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome all of you wine and true crime lovers.
I'm Brandi.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And I'm Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And this is Texas wine and true crime.
Thank you for being here,friends, for this week's episode
nightmare in River Oaks.
Tonight we are sipping on a2022 dry muscat from our friends
at Texas Wine Collective andChris, we did pair this one with
a dish this week.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We did.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Thank you, first and foremost, to Texas Wine
Collective for sharing yourwines with us this January as
our featured winery of the month, and we're able to share it
with all of our listeners.
So thank you, texas WineCollective.
Chris, what did you pair this2022 Dry Muscat with?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So this was a Dry Muscat and so I was looking at
kind of what to expect as far asthe notes, which could be a
little orange blossomy andcitrusy acidic as well, and so I
chose to pair an Asian dishwith this, and so, from my
understanding, asian dishes andIndian food, spicy foods, can
(01:18):
kind of go well with this wine,and I think it worked out really
well.
I made a cashew shrimp withsesame, soy, sesame roasted
asparagus.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It went perfectly with this wine.
Good choice on that.
Again, texas Wine Collective,thank you for sharing your wines
with us this January.
But please go see our friendsin the heart of Fredericksburg
Texas Wine Collective.
You can't.
They have club membership,chris.
They have a full eventscalendar.
They support local non-profits,they do all kinds of stuff, and
(01:51):
not only that they have wine,but they also have cider.
So people can go onto theirwebsite at
texaswinecollectivecom check outall their wines and ciders.
And again, thank you, texasWine Collective.
So please go visit our friendsat Texas Wine Collective in
Fredericksburg and tell themyour friends at Texas Wine and
True Crime sent you All right.
(02:12):
Chris, are you ready to jumpinto this week's case?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
All right, friends, it's time to sip some wine and
talk some crime.
Okay, so we are going to betalking about the murder of Rita
Stratton.
This was back on January 21stof 1982.
So, just to give an idea, thisis in River Oaks.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That's a suburb of Fort Worth.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's correct?
Yeah, I think so.
Back in like 19 this time.
I would say the population wasmaybe about 5,000 people.
It's pretty small.
So the high school, the peoplewho live in River Oaks, they all
know each other, they all kindof hang out with one another and
(02:57):
they grew up together.
So they had a circle of friendsfrom the time they were
elementary school kids up untilhigh school.
And then Aretha Stratton, whohad just finished her high
school year, moved into a newplace with a friend on January
21st 1982.
Chris, she is found stabbed 38times with a kitchen knife that
(03:18):
was still embedded in her chest.
Both of her wrists had been cutbut no bleeding came from the
wrist.
So they know that this was doneafter death.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
You have to wonder what the purpose of that was
Just.
I mean, if you've been stabbed38 times, you certainly could
not simulate that someone hadcommitted suicide.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's right, and actually that was not the reason
.
I'll give that in just a littlebit.
But there was a reason for it,chris.
Not only they weren't justsliced, this person had
literally almost cut her wristoff.
I mean the the examiner'sreport said it was basically cut
halfway through.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I guess, making sure that they would hit an artery
making sure they're dead, right?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
yeah, all right.
So they believe she put up afight.
She had defensive wounds onboth of her ham hands.
It definitely was an attemptedsexual assault.
There was no forced entry intothe home, no broken windows, so
police believe she knew theperpetrator.
So police had been dealing witha serial rapist in River Oaks
(04:25):
for several months and it's atthat moment that the death of
Reetha Stratton police realizedthey have a big problem on their
hands.
Has this person now?
Did this girl fight for herlife and he was not able to do
the assault and so the nextthing to do is to kill her to do
(04:47):
the assault, and so the nextthing to do is to kill her.
Was she able to maybe get thepantyhose off his face?
Because we knew we know thatfrom the reports of the sexual
assaults that this person waswearing a pantyhose or something
to disguise his face?
Did she reveal that and couldshe have id'd him?
And that's why he killed her?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So the 18-year-old.
This leading up to these rapeshad not resulted in murders,
correct that's?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
correct.
Yeah, this is she's murdered,but yeah, there were no other
murders related to theseassaults.
So the 18-year-old Ritha wasdescribed as friendly, upbeat,
she did well in school.
She was a cheerleader.
After graduating from highschool she did move into that
house with a close friend, soshe was living with someone at
(05:30):
the time of this and she's theone who actually found her.
Sadly, now the sexual assaultswe're talking about took place
between 1980, 1981, and thenleading into 1982 when Reetha
was murdered, and then leadinginto 1982 when Reetha was
murdered.
So what they did find out,based on all the assaults that
they started to collectinformation clearly.
(05:51):
So now you have someone, nowyou have a young girl who has
died, you have multiple sexualassaults that have not been
solved in this area, and whatthey started to learn was some
of the similarities that theybelieved it was the same person.
So every time this happened,there would be a phone call that
would come into the house andthey would ask for someone who
(06:12):
actually did not live at thataddress and whether this was to
see if they were home alone,whether, if this was to see well
, one to make sure they're eventhere, right To see if they pick
up the phone.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
You talked about knowing they were alone.
I don't know how you couldascertain that just by a phone
call, unless they asked ifanybody was there.
But that would be an oddquestion for a stranger to ask
whomever they're calling,especially asking for an
alternative name of someone whodoesn't even live there.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, but there was a reason for these phone calls
and because we know now thatthis person knew all of their
victims personally, that theybelieve there was a motive
behind the phone call.
In fact, I they believe theperpetrator actually knew most
of the schedules of the assaultvictims and whether who was home
(07:04):
, who wasn't home, because we'regoing to talk about one of the
cases when the mother wasactually there, and this happens
, ok.
But three of the victims, chris, were cheerleaders from the
same high school, which is verytargeted, and you know, these
girls know each other.
(07:24):
And so you have, in one of theassaults, the police did not
take her to the hospital and doan appropriate rape kit.
You know this is, this is theearly eighties, you know, so um.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I was going to say it today.
Even having this sort of thinglike that too, yeah, they do.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I mean you could take them to the hospital I mean in
in the 80s.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So to have a um, I mean it's very standard now but,
follow that what protocol theywere using to even evaluate rape
victims.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Well, and I also think that a lot of people
showered after.
You know, yeah and I that'sjust a way to cleanse, I think,
and sometimes they didn't thinkabout that, so I I think it's
probably both.
That still happens now, though,of course, yeah, okay, so one of
the assaults took place whenone of the girl's mothers was
home, like I mentioned, but hermother was dealing with a
degenerative disease thataffected her, basically her
(08:13):
cognitive abilities to actuallyspeak.
So the victim, in this caseafter she's assaulted, peeks out
of her bedroom door after theassault and she sees him remove
the pantyhose from his face, soshe's looking at the back of his
head.
But he did this as he waswalking by her mother to leave
(08:35):
the home no-transcript, and sopolice quickly realized that
(09:05):
this person must know thesepeople somehow, because he was,
you know yeah, but you gottathink though, even though she's
not able to speak, um I mean no,she was like a mobile but she
can write right.
Yeah, but it's almost like herprocessing.
She can't process who she justsaw, because her daughter, I
believe.
When the mother sees him leave,she basically says who was that
(09:26):
or who is that?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And police believe that that mother had actually
known the guy.
My point is is that that'srisky in his case to assume that
she wouldn't be able toidentify him.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
More or less speak on his the nature to identify him,
that's right.
More or less speak on his thenature of his presence, that's
right.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And not only that talk about the risk.
Talk about the risk.
I mean you're talking about avery tight small community and
not a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I was going to say everybody knows one another.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Well, yeah, and you're sexually assaulting
cheerleaders from the same highschool.
Everybody knows one another.
Well, yeah, and you're sexuallyassaulting cheerleaders from
the same high school, like youknow.
So they're looking very closeat who would be doing this and
targeting these young girls.
The next day, the next dayafter this assault, when the
mother is home, anothercheerleader is sexually
assaulted, directly across thestreet from the victim the day
(10:20):
before.
I mean, he just went rightacross the street the next day.
So the two girls, after thishappens, they start talking to
each other about this assailant.
And this is also when theyrealize, you know, this must be
the person in both assaults.
And I'm going to get to you.
I'm going to get in a littlebit.
Actually, let's get to it now.
(10:41):
Police were basically.
I mean, you have a terrifiedcommunity.
The girls were either in theirhomes or they went out in groups
.
They did not separate.
Police were being accused,chris, of keeping information
away from the public and theyfelt they weren't doing enough
to protect the community.
You know the people think whyaren't police telling us
anything?
Do we have something to worryabout?
(11:03):
Are these targeted?
Am I next?
And they were basicallyquestioning how they were
handling this investigation.
You don't want to.
You know, spread fear.
But maybe there's a little bitof fear to spread, considering
how small this community is andconsidering that he's willing to
take the risk to sexuallyassault one girl and then go
(11:24):
across the street the next dayand do it to another, no doubt.
So you have a lot of questionscoming from this community.
So Rita was dating a man namedDale.
He was a little bit older thanshe was.
Police talked to him.
He had an appointment to go toget his hair cut that evening
around 630.
I think he was even going tomeet Ritha to go do this.
(11:44):
He ended up getting off work atfour goes home.
He lives at his parents' house.
He had actually had come homefrom work just to kind of change
and get ready for the evening.
He then had to go to thecleaners.
So this is sort of his alibi,this ticket of him at the
cleaners.
His parents can verify.
The only time he was not homeis when he ran the errand to the
(12:06):
cleaners and once they kind ofpiece it all together they
realize he cannot be involvedbecause the time that Reetha was
killed is the exact same timehe's at the cleaners.
So he is cleared and then theycan move on now with their
investigation.
He is cleared and then they canmove on now with their
investigation.
But a tip comes forward andsays a red truck was seen parked
at the end of the street and itjust looked like kind of a
(12:27):
messy parking job.
So that's why it stuck out tothis one particular person.
These are people in thecommunity on the street.
They soon realized the onlyperson they know in the
neighborhood that drives a redtruck is a fellow friend named
Wesley Miller.
Well, by this time rumors hadalready swirled that the serial
(12:51):
rapist looked very similar tofootball player, boyfriend,
friend, confidant, wesley Miller.
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(14:21):
Okay, chris, well, peopledismissed this early on that
Wesley was involved.
They know this guy.
People like there's no way.
He's quiet, a little reserved,he's always smiling.
He's dating a very popular girl.
At the time that these crimestook place Just an all-American
boy that lived in theneighborhood Nobody really
(14:42):
thought that it could be him.
But once police start talkingto people who actually did see
this truck, they knew WesleyMiller.
Chris was now at the top oftheir prime suspect list.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, that seems like such an obvious vehicle to be
driving and parking anywhereclose proximity to these crimes.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Well, and this is, like I said, a very small
community.
In fact, when they're talkingabout this, he's literally the
only person that popped in theirhead that drove a red truck.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And that key said it stands out Small town.
And then how many red truckswere there?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, and he's one of the group.
So I think when you're thinkingof people you know again.
That's probably why he came tomind so quickly as well was just
the fact that he did drive ared truck that he did drive a
red truck.
So a non-animous tip comes intopolice and this person says
that Wesley Miller's girlfriendat the time had washed his
bloody blue jeans.
On the evening of January 21stthis is the same day Ritha is
(15:37):
found stabbed to death as shelay halfway into her bedroom
closet.
Chris, there was blood on hisjeans, blood on his shoes, he
told his girlfriend blood camefrom football.
That was all over his clothes.
So police, bring her in.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
That would have had to have been a lot of blood.
I can only imagine it was.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I saw pictures of the pants.
I don't know why someone wouldthink that was done by football,
but she did.
So she tells police that hegets to her house around 545.
Chris, it's her birthday.
It's his girlfriend's birthdaythis day.
He tells her about the blood.
So police are kind of puttingthe timing together, right.
They know that, you know.
(16:18):
They know that Dale was at thecleaners around the time she's
killed.
Then they look at the timestamp of when the girlfriend
says that he came over there andthen you have the time that the
roommate found her body.
And it's all starting to cometogether for them.
And once they start to put thistimeline together, they are
ready to put an arrest warrantout for Wesley Miller and bring
(16:39):
him in for questioning.
Police describe him, chris, as asociopath with violent sexual
tendencies towards women.
He lacked empathy, sympathy andeverything in between.
When they questioned him aboutthe murder of Rita Stratton, he
basically said nothing and then,after a period of time, he
tells the officer he is ready totalk about what happened.
(17:01):
So of course he doesn't tellthe truth, he lies.
He actually says they had aprearranged meeting, that him
and Aretha were meeting becausethey were seeing each other on
the side without anyone elseknowing about it.
He says they started arguingand basically he says he lost
his cool and killed her.
So police don't believe any ofthis.
They don't believe she washaving a rendezvous with him or
(17:23):
having an affair or any sort ofrelationship outside of her
relationship with Dale.
And frankly, just hisnonchalant statement of what
happened, you know it, just itjust didn't make any sense to
them and they realized he was sononchalant about his comments
(17:43):
that it's kind of freaking themout, like they kind of know
they're dealing with someonewho's not right in the head.
But then they ask him aboutslitting the wrist and you know,
basically they said that theyhad to make, he wanted to make
sure she was dead.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, just bleed out.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I mean that's but we know she was dead because there
was no bleeding from the woundson her wrist.
The community cannot believe it.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
One of their own, but once the other women that had
been assaulted, she would havehad to have been there for a
little while in order to cut herwrist, and no blood came out,
so she had to have been bleedingfor quite some time by the time
he did that.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Oh yeah, and I you know, I believe, and just based
on the research and what thesewomen had gone through, this
seems like it probably happenedvery quickly.
I think he quickly was able to.
You know, he went to assaulther, I think very quickly.
He probably knew the roommatewas going to be home.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
No, but I mean I'm just speaking on the fact that
all the blood had exited herbody by the time he cut her
wrist, so that's got to takesome time.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Well no, because Well right, If you're dead, though,
that's why they're not going tobleed, Not because you don't
have any blood left.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
No, you could still ooze.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I don't know.
I mean, I thought post-mortemwounds, you don't bleed out of
them.
Well, either way, she was deadwhen he was cutting her wrist.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That could also be two like the point two.
She could have had blood out aswell.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I mean 38 times, 38 times.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
What do you mean, 38 times?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I mean it was a and there was blood splatter pretty
much all over the walls, so theyknew that there was.
This was a in and out.
You know, in a serrated kitchenknife I mean 38 times and then
you leave it in.
I mean just just terrible, yeah.
So the community is stunned bythis and you know it's shocking
(19:29):
to think that one of the younggirls that he assaulted, chris,
was the sister of his thengirlfriend.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, he ends up sexually and raping his
girlfriend's sister yeah, you'dthink how she wouldn't um had
recognized anything about him Imean you mentioned risk earlier.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean this guy has to be on another level of a risk
, like it's just it's kind ofmind-boggling, to be honest with
you, the chances he took and tostay in his own community.
But this guy we're going tolearn is has not been a model
(20:06):
citizen any of his life.
So, um, court wanted a lifesentence.
Jury could not know about anyof the pending charges the
assaults, chris.
So when he went to trial forretha's death, the jury did not
know about all the other sexualassault charges that were
pending against him.
Um, and he had a.
He had a good defense attorneyand the defense attorney
(20:30):
basically asked the jury youknow, can you spare this guy's
life?
You know, give him a chance.
He's young.
And they listened, chris.
They only handed down a 25-yearsentence for this crime, which
is kind of the minimum.
It's 25 to life.
So justice was not served.
According to this community.
He was brought to trial for oneof the assaults and received a
(20:52):
concurring 20 year sentence, butthat basically means he is
serving no additional time forthe assault.
No justice was served for thatyoung woman.
That's not very long.
No, that's not very long at alland it's not like an additional
sentence.
It doesn't turn into 45 years,like it should have.
I mean, basically this guyshould be had been sentenced to
over 100 years based on all ofhis actions, but he wasn't.
(21:16):
He got a 20 year concurringsentence and a 25 year jail
sentence.
So no justice served for thatyoung woman with the 20 year.
No justice served for any ofthe other assault victims, since
the DA never pursued additionalcharges against Wesley Miller.
So maybe they just thought thatthis guy, whether it was they
probably just thought they weregoing to.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
He's was going to go away for a long time.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
And that's right.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
They already knew they had the evidence versus, um
you know, circumstantialevidence, possibly any other
crimes.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Um.
But as life is, chris, andalways will be, you get out of
it what you put in.
And between 1992 and 2018,wesley Miller was released from
prison six times.
Each time he violated theconditions of his parole and was
sent back.
So even if he got anotherchance, he screwed up six of
those chances.
Today, wesley Miller livesunder mandatory supervision at a
(22:07):
secure treatment facility forviolent sex offenders in
Littlefield, texas.
Chris, the community has vowedto never let him be a part of a
normal part of society, everagain, and to keep Reetha's
memory always in their hearts.
Until next time, friends, staysafe, have fun and cheers to
(22:28):
next time.
Cheers, thank you.
Welcome all of you wine and true crime lovers.
I'm Brandi.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And I'm Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And this is Texas wine and true crime.
Thank you for being here,friends, for this week's episode
nightmare in River Oaks.
Tonight we are sipping on a2022 dry muscat from our friends
at Texas Wine Collective andChris, we did pair this one with
a dish this week.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We did.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Thank you, first and foremost, to Texas Wine
Collective for sharing yourwines with us this January as
our featured winery of the month, and we're able to share it
with all of our listeners.
So thank you, texas WineCollective.
Chris, what did you pair this2022 Dry Muscat with?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So this was a Dry Muscat and so I was looking at
kind of what to expect as far asthe notes, which could be a
little orange blossomy andcitrusy acidic as well, and so I
chose to pair an Asian dishwith this, and so, from my
understanding, asian dishes andIndian food, spicy foods, can
(01:18):
kind of go well with this wine,and I think it worked out really
well.
I made a cashew shrimp withsesame, soy, sesame roasted
asparagus.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It went perfectly with this wine.
Good choice on that.
Again, texas Wine Collective,thank you for sharing your wines
with us this January.
But please go see our friendsin the heart of Fredericksburg
Texas Wine Collective.
You can't.
They have club membership,chris.
They have a full eventscalendar.
They support local non-profits,they do all kinds of stuff, and
(01:51):
not only that they have wine,but they also have cider.
So people can go onto theirwebsite at
texaswinecollectivecom check outall their wines and ciders.
And again, thank you, texasWine Collective.
So please go visit our friendsat Texas Wine Collective in
Fredericksburg and tell themyour friends at Texas Wine and
True Crime sent you All right.
(02:12):
Chris, are you ready to jumpinto this week's case?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
All right, friends, it's time to sip some wine and
talk some crime.
Okay, so we are going to betalking about the murder of Rita
Stratton.
This was back on January 21stof 1982.
So, just to give an idea, thisis in River Oaks.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That's a suburb of Fort Worth.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's correct?
Yeah, I think so.
Back in like 19 this time.
I would say the population wasmaybe about 5,000 people.
It's pretty small.
So the high school, the peoplewho live in River Oaks, they all
know each other, they all kindof hang out with one another and
(02:57):
they grew up together.
So they had a circle of friendsfrom the time they were
elementary school kids up untilhigh school.
And then Aretha Stratton, whohad just finished her high
school year, moved into a newplace with a friend on January
21st 1982.
Chris, she is found stabbed 38times with a kitchen knife that
(03:18):
was still embedded in her chest.
Both of her wrists had been cutbut no bleeding came from the
wrist.
So they know that this was doneafter death.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
You have to wonder what the purpose of that was
Just.
I mean, if you've been stabbed38 times, you certainly could
not simulate that someone hadcommitted suicide.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That's right, and actually that was not the reason
.
I'll give that in just a littlebit.
But there was a reason for it,chris.
Not only they weren't justsliced, this person had
literally almost cut her wristoff.
I mean the the examiner'sreport said it was basically cut
halfway through.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I guess, making sure that they would hit an artery
making sure they're dead, right?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
yeah, all right.
So they believe she put up afight.
She had defensive wounds onboth of her ham hands.
It definitely was an attemptedsexual assault.
There was no forced entry intothe home, no broken windows, so
police believe she knew theperpetrator.
So police had been dealing witha serial rapist in River Oaks
(04:25):
for several months and it's atthat moment that the death of
Reetha Stratton police realizedthey have a big problem on their
hands.
Has this person now?
Did this girl fight for herlife and he was not able to do
the assault and so the nextthing to do is to kill her to do
(04:47):
the assault, and so the nextthing to do is to kill her.
Was she able to maybe get thepantyhose off his face?
Because we knew we know thatfrom the reports of the sexual
assaults that this person waswearing a pantyhose or something
to disguise his face?
Did she reveal that and couldshe have id'd him?
And that's why he killed her?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So the 18-year-old.
This leading up to these rapeshad not resulted in murders,
correct that's?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
correct.
Yeah, this is she's murdered,but yeah, there were no other
murders related to theseassaults.
So the 18-year-old Ritha wasdescribed as friendly, upbeat,
she did well in school.
She was a cheerleader.
After graduating from highschool she did move into that
house with a close friend, soshe was living with someone at
(05:30):
the time of this and she's theone who actually found her.
Sadly, now the sexual assaultswe're talking about took place
between 1980, 1981, and thenleading into 1982 when Reetha
was murdered, and then leadinginto 1982 when Reetha was
murdered.
So what they did find out,based on all the assaults that
they started to collectinformation clearly.
(05:51):
So now you have someone, nowyou have a young girl who has
died, you have multiple sexualassaults that have not been
solved in this area, and whatthey started to learn was some
of the similarities that theybelieved it was the same person.
So every time this happened,there would be a phone call that
would come into the house andthey would ask for someone who
(06:12):
actually did not live at thataddress and whether this was to
see if they were home alone,whether, if this was to see well
, one to make sure they're eventhere, right To see if they pick
up the phone.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
You talked about knowing they were alone.
I don't know how you couldascertain that just by a phone
call, unless they asked ifanybody was there.
But that would be an oddquestion for a stranger to ask
whomever they're calling,especially asking for an
alternative name of someone whodoesn't even live there.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, but there was a reason for these phone calls
and because we know now thatthis person knew all of their
victims personally, that theybelieve there was a motive
behind the phone call.
In fact, I they believe theperpetrator actually knew most
of the schedules of the assaultvictims and whether who was home
(07:04):
, who wasn't home, because we'regoing to talk about one of the
cases when the mother wasactually there, and this happens
, ok.
But three of the victims, chris, were cheerleaders from the
same high school, which is verytargeted, and you know, these
girls know each other.
(07:24):
And so you have, in one of theassaults, the police did not
take her to the hospital and doan appropriate rape kit.
You know this is, this is theearly eighties, you know, so um.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I was going to say it today.
Even having this sort of thinglike that too, yeah, they do.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I mean you could take them to the hospital I mean in
in the 80s.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So to have a um, I mean it's very standard now but,
follow that what protocol theywere using to even evaluate rape
victims.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Well, and I also think that a lot of people
showered after.
You know, yeah and I that'sjust a way to cleanse, I think,
and sometimes they didn't thinkabout that, so I I think it's
probably both.
That still happens now, though,of course, yeah, okay, so one of
the assaults took place whenone of the girl's mothers was
home, like I mentioned, but hermother was dealing with a
degenerative disease thataffected her, basically her
(08:13):
cognitive abilities to actuallyspeak.
So the victim, in this caseafter she's assaulted, peeks out
of her bedroom door after theassault and she sees him remove
the pantyhose from his face, soshe's looking at the back of his
head.
But he did this as he waswalking by her mother to leave
(08:35):
the home no-transcript, and sopolice quickly realized that
(09:05):
this person must know thesepeople somehow, because he was,
you know yeah, but you gottathink though, even though she's
not able to speak, um I mean no,she was like a mobile but she
can write right.
Yeah, but it's almost like herprocessing.
She can't process who she justsaw, because her daughter, I
believe.
When the mother sees him leave,she basically says who was that
(09:26):
or who is that?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And police believe that that mother had actually
known the guy.
My point is is that that'srisky in his case to assume that
she wouldn't be able toidentify him.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
More or less speak on his the nature to identify him,
that's right.
More or less speak on his thenature of his presence, that's
right.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And not only that talk about the risk.
Talk about the risk.
I mean you're talking about avery tight small community and
not a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I was going to say everybody knows one another.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Well, yeah, and you're sexually assaulting
cheerleaders from the same highschool.
Everybody knows one another.
Well, yeah, and you're sexuallyassaulting cheerleaders from
the same high school, like youknow.
So they're looking very closeat who would be doing this and
targeting these young girls.
The next day, the next dayafter this assault, when the
mother is home, anothercheerleader is sexually
assaulted, directly across thestreet from the victim the day
(10:20):
before.
I mean, he just went rightacross the street the next day.
So the two girls, after thishappens, they start talking to
each other about this assailant.
And this is also when theyrealize, you know, this must be
the person in both assaults.
And I'm going to get to you.
I'm going to get in a littlebit.
Actually, let's get to it now.
(10:41):
Police were basically.
I mean, you have a terrifiedcommunity.
The girls were either in theirhomes or they went out in groups
.
They did not separate.
Police were being accused,chris, of keeping information
away from the public and theyfelt they weren't doing enough
to protect the community.
You know the people think whyaren't police telling us
anything?
Do we have something to worryabout?
(11:03):
Are these targeted?
Am I next?
And they were basicallyquestioning how they were
handling this investigation.
You don't want to.
You know, spread fear.
But maybe there's a little bitof fear to spread, considering
how small this community is andconsidering that he's willing to
take the risk to sexuallyassault one girl and then go
(11:24):
across the street the next dayand do it to another, no doubt.
So you have a lot of questionscoming from this community.
So Rita was dating a man namedDale.
He was a little bit older thanshe was.
Police talked to him.
He had an appointment to go toget his hair cut that evening
around 630.
I think he was even going tomeet Ritha to go do this.
(11:44):
He ended up getting off work atfour goes home.
He lives at his parents' house.
He had actually had come homefrom work just to kind of change
and get ready for the evening.
He then had to go to thecleaners.
So this is sort of his alibi,this ticket of him at the
cleaners.
His parents can verify.
The only time he was not homeis when he ran the errand to the
(12:06):
cleaners and once they kind ofpiece it all together they
realize he cannot be involvedbecause the time that Reetha was
killed is the exact same timehe's at the cleaners.
So he is cleared and then theycan move on now with their
investigation.
He is cleared and then they canmove on now with their
investigation.
But a tip comes forward andsays a red truck was seen parked
at the end of the street and itjust looked like kind of a
(12:27):
messy parking job.
So that's why it stuck out tothis one particular person.
These are people in thecommunity on the street.
They soon realized the onlyperson they know in the
neighborhood that drives a redtruck is a fellow friend named
Wesley Miller.
Well, by this time rumors hadalready swirled that the serial
(12:51):
rapist looked very similar tofootball player, boyfriend,
friend, confidant, wesley Miller.
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(14:21):
Okay, chris, well, peopledismissed this early on that
Wesley was involved.
They know this guy.
People like there's no way.
He's quiet, a little reserved,he's always smiling.
He's dating a very popular girl.
At the time that these crimestook place Just an all-American
boy that lived in theneighborhood Nobody really
(14:42):
thought that it could be him.
But once police start talkingto people who actually did see
this truck, they knew WesleyMiller.
Chris was now at the top oftheir prime suspect list.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, that seems like such an obvious vehicle to be
driving and parking anywhereclose proximity to these crimes.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Well, and this is, like I said, a very small
community.
In fact, when they're talkingabout this, he's literally the
only person that popped in theirhead that drove a red truck.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
And that key said it stands out Small town.
And then how many red truckswere there?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, and he's one of the group.
So I think when you're thinkingof people you know again.
That's probably why he came tomind so quickly as well was just
the fact that he did drive ared truck that he did drive a
red truck.
So a non-animous tip comes intopolice and this person says
that Wesley Miller's girlfriendat the time had washed his
bloody blue jeans.
On the evening of January 21stthis is the same day Ritha is
(15:37):
found stabbed to death as shelay halfway into her bedroom
closet.
Chris, there was blood on hisjeans, blood on his shoes, he
told his girlfriend blood camefrom football.
That was all over his clothes.
So police, bring her in.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
That would have had to have been a lot of blood.
I can only imagine it was.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I saw pictures of the pants.
I don't know why someone wouldthink that was done by football,
but she did.
So she tells police that hegets to her house around 545.
Chris, it's her birthday.
It's his girlfriend's birthdaythis day.
He tells her about the blood.
So police are kind of puttingthe timing together, right.
They know that, you know.
(16:18):
They know that Dale was at thecleaners around the time she's
killed.
Then they look at the timestamp of when the girlfriend
says that he came over there andthen you have the time that the
roommate found her body.
And it's all starting to cometogether for them.
And once they start to put thistimeline together, they are
ready to put an arrest warrantout for Wesley Miller and bring
(16:39):
him in for questioning.
Police describe him, chris, as asociopath with violent sexual
tendencies towards women.
He lacked empathy, sympathy andeverything in between.
When they questioned him aboutthe murder of Rita Stratton, he
basically said nothing and then,after a period of time, he
tells the officer he is ready totalk about what happened.
(17:01):
So of course he doesn't tellthe truth, he lies.
He actually says they had aprearranged meeting, that him
and Aretha were meeting becausethey were seeing each other on
the side without anyone elseknowing about it.
He says they started arguingand basically he says he lost
his cool and killed her.
So police don't believe any ofthis.
They don't believe she washaving a rendezvous with him or
(17:23):
having an affair or any sort ofrelationship outside of her
relationship with Dale.
And frankly, just hisnonchalant statement of what
happened, you know it, just itjust didn't make any sense to
them and they realized he was sononchalant about his comments
(17:43):
that it's kind of freaking themout, like they kind of know
they're dealing with someonewho's not right in the head.
But then they ask him aboutslitting the wrist and you know,
basically they said that theyhad to make, he wanted to make
sure she was dead.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, just bleed out.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I mean that's but we know she was dead because there
was no bleeding from the woundson her wrist.
The community cannot believe it.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
One of their own, but once the other women that had
been assaulted, she would havehad to have been there for a
little while in order to cut herwrist, and no blood came out,
so she had to have been bleedingfor quite some time by the time
he did that.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Oh yeah, and I you know, I believe, and just based
on the research and what thesewomen had gone through, this
seems like it probably happenedvery quickly.
I think he quickly was able to.
You know, he went to assaulther, I think very quickly.
He probably knew the roommatewas going to be home.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
No, but I mean I'm just speaking on the fact that
all the blood had exited herbody by the time he cut her
wrist, so that's got to takesome time.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Well no, because Well right, If you're dead, though,
that's why they're not going tobleed, Not because you don't
have any blood left.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
No, you could still ooze.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I don't know.
I mean, I thought post-mortemwounds, you don't bleed out of
them.
Well, either way, she was deadwhen he was cutting her wrist.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That could also be two like the point two.
She could have had blood out aswell.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I mean 38 times, 38 times.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
What do you mean, 38 times?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I mean it was a and there was blood splatter pretty
much all over the walls, so theyknew that there was.
This was a in and out.
You know, in a serrated kitchenknife I mean 38 times and then
you leave it in.
I mean just just terrible, yeah.
So the community is stunned bythis and you know it's shocking
(19:29):
to think that one of the younggirls that he assaulted, chris,
was the sister of his thengirlfriend.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, he ends up sexually and raping his
girlfriend's sister yeah, you'dthink how she wouldn't um had
recognized anything about him Imean you mentioned risk earlier.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean this guy has to be on another level of a risk
, like it's just it's kind ofmind-boggling, to be honest with
you, the chances he took and tostay in his own community.
But this guy we're going tolearn is has not been a model
(20:06):
citizen any of his life.
So, um, court wanted a lifesentence.
Jury could not know about anyof the pending charges the
assaults, chris.
So when he went to trial forretha's death, the jury did not
know about all the other sexualassault charges that were
pending against him.
Um, and he had a.
He had a good defense attorneyand the defense attorney
(20:30):
basically asked the jury youknow, can you spare this guy's
life?
You know, give him a chance.
He's young.
And they listened, chris.
They only handed down a 25-yearsentence for this crime, which
is kind of the minimum.
It's 25 to life.
So justice was not served.
According to this community.
He was brought to trial for oneof the assaults and received a
(20:52):
concurring 20 year sentence, butthat basically means he is
serving no additional time forthe assault.
No justice was served for thatyoung woman.
That's not very long.
No, that's not very long at alland it's not like an additional
sentence.
It doesn't turn into 45 years,like it should have.
I mean, basically this guyshould be had been sentenced to
over 100 years based on all ofhis actions, but he wasn't.
(21:16):
He got a 20 year concurringsentence and a 25 year jail
sentence.
So no justice served for thatyoung woman with the 20 year.
No justice served for any ofthe other assault victims, since
the DA never pursued additionalcharges against Wesley Miller.
So maybe they just thought thatthis guy, whether it was they
probably just thought they weregoing to.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
He's was going to go away for a long time.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
And that's right.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
They already knew they had the evidence versus, um
you know, circumstantialevidence, possibly any other
crimes.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Um.
But as life is, chris, andalways will be, you get out of
it what you put in.
And between 1992 and 2018,wesley Miller was released from
prison six times.
Each time he violated theconditions of his parole and was
sent back.
So even if he got anotherchance, he screwed up six of
those chances.
Today, wesley Miller livesunder mandatory supervision at a
(22:07):
secure treatment facility forviolent sex offenders in
Littlefield, texas.
Chris, the community has vowedto never let him be a part of a
normal part of society, everagain, and to keep Reetha's
memory always in their hearts.
Until next time, friends, staysafe, have fun and cheers to
(22:28):
next time.
Cheers, thank you.
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