Crimetober Series - October 28 (Gloria Gonzales & The Texas Killing Fields) - Nature vs Narcissism

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:17):
Back to nature versus Narcissism. As always, I'm your host, Heather,
and today I'm rolling solo. Many of our longtime listeners
know that each spooky season we'd like to throw a
bit of a curve ball and share a series with
you that doesn't quite follow the main feed format, and
this year is no different. This year, we're aiming to
bring you at least one main Feed episode per day
in October, plus some Patreon episodes sprinkle throughout, even if

(00:39):
that means you're receiving them late because life is hectic
and unpredictable, but at least you'll get an episode for
each day of October. Because this year we're bringing you
a story about a crime that occurred on or has
a connection with each day in October, and today we're
talking about October twenty eight, So why don't we get started.
In today's episode, I Went For discussed the nineteen seventy

(01:01):
one disappearance of nineteen year old Gloria Gonzales. I don't
have a lot of information about her, but what I
do have will tell you about several other victims as well.
Nineteen year old Gloria and Gonzalez was last seen on
October twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one, near her own apartment
on Jacqueline Street in Houston, Texas. Her skeletal remains were

(01:23):
found on November twenty third, nineteen seventy one, near Attis Reservoir.
This is about twenty miles from her apartment, and it
was determined that she died of blunt force trauma to
the head. She is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Houston, Texas.
Gonzalez was linked to the string of murders that occurred
in a place known as the Texas Killing Fields. This

(01:46):
is the area surrounding the Interstate Highway forty five corridor
southeast of Houston, and this is where more than thirty
bodies have been found since the early nineteen seventies. The
bodies were mainly girls or young women. Most of them
were between the ages of twelve and twenty five. I
have pulled a list of confirmed or suspected victims from Wikipedia,

(02:08):
the FBI dot gov website, and a Houston Public Media
news article. There is also a new documentary series on
A and E called The Eleven, which focuses on the
Texas Killing Fields murders of eleven of the victims. Those
victims are Collett Wilson, Brenda Jones, Rhonda Johnson, Sharon Shaw,
Debbie Ackerman, Maria Johnson, Gloria Gonzalez, Kim Pitchford, Georgia gear Brooks, Bracewell,

(02:36):
and Susie Bowers. I'm sure that there are other podcasts
that have covered the Texas Killing Fields in depth, so
I don't want to delve too deeply into that, but
I think it's important to get some information out about
the victims and perhaps one or all of these names
will jump out at you and maybe you'll dig a
little bit on your own. Collett Anise Wilson thirteen, disappeared

(03:01):
from the Alvin bus stop on County Road ninety nine
and Highway six in Alvin, Texas, after she was dropped
off by her band director on June seventeenth, nineteen seventy one.
Her body was found five months later on November twenty sixth,
nineteen seventy one, near the Attics Reservoir, close to where
the body of Gloria Gonzalez was discovered four months later,

(03:22):
just thirty five yards away from where Colette had been located.
Brenda K Jones fourteen was last seen while walking to
Galveston Hospital close to Inner City Iway forty five, on
her way to visit her aunt on July one, nineteen
seventy one, in Galveston, Texas. Her body was found on
July second, nineteen seventy one, floating in nearby Galveston Bay,

(03:44):
near Pelican Island, close to the Seawoff Parkway and near
Interstate Iighway forty five the next day. Ronda Renee Johnson
fourteen and Sharon Lynshaw thirteen, disappeared in Harris County, Texas
on the afternoon of August fourth, nineteen seventy one. Both
were last seen walking along Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, near

(04:06):
a local beach. On July third, nineteen seventy two, two
boys fishing and clear lake discovered a human skull floating
in the water, which they had initially believed to be
a sports ball. Six weeks later, searchers discovered the rest
of the body, along with that of another girl, in
a marsh near the lake. According to a corner's inquest
that filed on February seventeenth, nineteen seventy two, the skull

(04:30):
found in the lake was determined via dental records to
have belonged to Shaw. Additionally, a crucifix found wrapped around
the jawbone of the skull was identified by Shaw's mother
to have belonged to her daughter. The other body found
in the marsh was positively identified as Johnson. Gloria and Gonzales,
nineteen was last seen on October twenty eighth, nineteen seventy one,

(04:53):
near her apartment in Jacqueline Street in Houston, Texas. Her
skeletal remains were found near Attis Reservoir in the same
areas Collette Wilson on November twenty third, nineteen seventy one.
Alison Anne Craven, twelve was reported missing by her mother
on November ninth, nineteen seventy one, when she returned to
their apartment in Houston, Texas, near Interstate forty five after

(05:14):
completing shopping errands for one hour. Three months later, police
found Craven's partial remains in a nearby field, two hands,
along with bones from an arm and some teeth. On
February twenty fifth, nineteen seventy two, the rest of her
skeleton was found in a Pearland, Texas field, also near
Interstate forty five and ten miles from where she was

(05:36):
last seen. Debbie Katherine Ackerman and Maria Talbot Johnson, both fifteen,
were last seen attempting to hitchhike to Houston, Texas, near
an Island ice cream shop in Galveston, Texas on November fifteenth,
nineteen seventy one. Witnesses reported seeing a man in a
white van stopping by the curb side and picking up
the girls after agreeing to drive them to Houston. Their

(05:58):
bodies were found bound and partially nude and Turner's bio
on November seventeenth, nineteen seventy one, near Texas City. Kimberly
Ray Pitchford, sixteen, was last seen at Adobe High School
in Houston, Texas, while she was there for a driving
test on January third, nineteen seventy three. Her body was
found by two teenage boys two days later in a

(06:20):
ditch in Angleton, Texas, around noon on County Road sixty
five and Brazoria County. On January fifth, nineteen seventy three,
brooks At Bracewell twelve and Georgia Caroline Gear fourteen were
both seen at the Utaute M convenience store off Interstate
forty five on September sixth, nineteen seventy four. At the

(06:40):
time of their disappearance, police insisted that Bracewell and Gear
were runaways, only beginning to investigate foul play in nineteen
eighty one. In nineteen seventy six, partial skeletal remains belonging
to Bracewell were found by police in a culver in Alvin, Texas,
nearby the pair's last known location, but were not connected

(07:00):
to Bracewelling year at the time, and were only identified
as Bracewell after a new detective took over the case
in nineteen eighty one. The ditch where they were originally
found was re examined on April third, nineteen eighty one,
and more remains were found, as well as the fragments
of a golden sweater and black pants. Suzanne or Susie Bowers, twelve,

(07:22):
was last seen walking along a three minute route between
her grandmother's house at the four thousand block of Avenue
S and her own home at the thirty one hundred
block of Avenue P around ten forty five am on
May twenty first, nineteen seventy seven, in Galveston, Texas. The
seventh grader was going home to get her swimsuit to
go to the beach. Her skeletal remains were found two

(07:43):
years later in Alta Looma, Texas on March twenty fifth,
nineteen seventy nine. Tina Gail Klaus seventeen and Harold Dean
Klaus Junior, twenty one were found on January twelfth, nineteen
eighty one, in northern Harris County, Texas, in a boggy,
wooded air are just north of the Houston city limits.
A civilian's dog let to wander into the woods returned

(08:06):
to its owner with a decomposing human arm. Search parties
prompted by the dog's discovery, subsequently found the heavily decomposed
bodies of the Klaus couple near Wallaceville Road. Despite significant decomposition,
it was determined that both were victims of homicide. Tina
had been strangled and Harold had been bound and gagged
before being beaten to death. In twenty twenty one, forensic

(08:28):
genealogists positively identified Dean and Tina, and in twenty twenty two,
their daughter, Holly Marie, was located alive in Oklahoma. Ella
Angela Garvey, fifteen, went missing from New London, Connecticut, presumably
after running away from home on June first, nineteen eighty two,
at the age of fourteen. Garvey's body was found in

(08:49):
July first, nineteen eighty two and Baytown, Texas, one month
after she went missing. The cause of death of the
victim was determined to be strangulation. There was evidence that
Garvey had been actually assaulted as well. Her body was
found wearing brown clothing, including a long sleeve button down
shirt with a distinct horse embroidery on the breast pocket.

(09:10):
The body was disposed of in a field after she died,
possibly hours after her murder. She was buried near two
other unidentified murder victims found in nineteen eighty one, who
were identified in twenty twenty one as Dean and Tina Klaus.
Garvey was identified in January of twenty fourteen through the
efforts of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

(09:30):
and the Harris County Police Department, who had contacted her
family and obtained samples of their DNA for testing in
August of twenty thirteen. Susan Lee Eads twenty was a
cocktail waitress who left her family home in Harris County,
Texas at around four thirty pm on August thirtieth, nineteen
eighty three, to her workplace. The following day, a motorists

(09:52):
discovered her body a few miles from her home. She
was naked and had bruises on her back and face.
Susan had been strangled to death with the body suit
that she was wearing, which had been used as a tourniquet.
Her car was found parked adjacent to the vacant lot
where she was found, and autopsy determined that she had
been sexually assaulted. Eads was last seen at a local
club with a white man wearing a cowboy hat. Her

(10:15):
mother received phone calls from an unidentified man who claimed
to have photos of her daughter. He referred to himself
as Bill, and said that he lived in Houston, Texas.
A DNA profile extracted from Eads's body was matched to
Arthur Raymond Davis Junior, a Vietnam War veteran and boat captain.
He died on January sixteenth, nineteen eighty four, after a

(10:35):
single vehicle accident. Eddie Marie via Reel five twenty five
was a cocktail waitress, last scene on October tenth, nineteen
eighty three, at a convenience store located off of West
Main Street in Hobbes and League City, Texas. On April fourth,
nineteen eighty four, FIE's remains were discovered after a dog
brought her skull to a nearby house in Calderfield on

(10:57):
the three thousand block of Calder Road near Lake City.
Text Sandra k Ramber fourteen was last seen at her
family's home in Santa Fe, Texas, on October twenty sixth,
nineteen eighty three. She was determined to be missing due
to the fact that the front door was left open,
food was in the oven, and her purse and coat
were still in the house. She was initially believed to
have gone to the store for a moment, but she

(11:18):
never returned. Laura Lynn Miller sixteen was last seen on
September tenth, nineteen eighty four, at the same convenience store
that Phi was last seen at a year earlier in
Leake City, Texas, using a payphone to call her boyfriend.
Her remains were found on February second, nineteen eighty six,
sixty feet away from where police had found five the

(11:39):
year before. Ellen Ray Simpson Beeson twenty nine, was last
seen with friends on July twenty ninth, nineteen eighty five
at the Texas Moon Club in Leake City, Texas, where
she met local construction worker Clyde Hedrick. Later that evening,
she told her friends that she and Hedrick had made
plans to go swimming. Her decomposed remains were discovered underneath

(11:59):
the sofa in a wooden area beside Old Causeway Road
in Galveston County. The medical examiner was unable to determine
the cause of death at that time, but upon the
exhumation of her remains in twenty twelve, it was ruled
that she had suffered several severe school fractures. All Daugherty Thomas,
seventeen was last seen leaving her family residence in Santa Fe, Texas,

(12:22):
on October fifth, nineteen eighty five. After having returned from
work at a Galveston, Texas gas station, she left to
meet with friends at a nearby nightclub located on Galveston Island.
Later that evening, acquaintances acclaimed that they had stopped at
a convenience store on the way to the nightclub, and
Michelle had gotten into a vehicle with two men. She
has not been seen since. Authorities believe that she may

(12:44):
have been abducted and murdered. Audrey Lee Cook, thirty, was
last heard from in late December nineteen eighty five. Cook's
remains were found in a field and the three thousand
block of Calder Road on the same day that the
body of Laura Miller was located nearby. The victim's bodies
were not buried, but rather hidden from view. Both were
left in a subpine position near a tree. Cook had

(13:08):
a small caliber gunshot wound to the back, severing her spine,
and she had suffered additional injuries to several ribs. She
was identified in April of twenty nineteen, along with Donna Prudholm,
by a family tree DNA using genetic genealogy. Shelley Kathleen
Sykes nineteen was last seen leaving her job as a
waitress at the Guido's Seafood restaurant on the Beach Front

(13:30):
in Galveston, Texas, just prior to twelve am on May
twenty fourth, nineteen eighty six. Her car was found the
next day, stuck in mud, blood stained, and abandoned on
the side of Interstate forty five access road south of
the Galveston Causeway. The driver's side window had been broken
and bloodstains were discovered on the door and on the
driver's seat. Sykes's body has never been found, but John

(13:54):
Robert King and Gerald Peters Worst have been charged and
convicted of her murder. Suzanne Renee Richardson, twenty two was
employed as a night clerk at Casa del Mar Condominiums
on Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, Texas. She was last seen
at work at six am on October seventh, nineteen eighty eight,
by resort security guards, and shortly afterward, another employee who

(14:17):
was sleeping in the room above Richardson's office, heard a
loud female scream. The witness claimed to have then heard
a car door slam shut, accompanied by another scream and
the sound of a car speeding away from the parking lot.
A guest arrived at Richardson's office to check out at
around six thirty am and discovered the desk abandoned. Donna

(14:38):
Marie Prudholm, thirty four, was last seen in July of
nineteen ninety one in Nasu Bay, Texas. On September eighth,
nineteen ninety one, a local resident came across her badly
decomposed body in a field beside called her road. A
medical examination concluded that she had died at least six
weeks prior, yet a cause of death could not be determined.

(15:00):
He was identified in April of twenty nineteen, along with
Audrey Cook by family Tree DNA with the use of
genetic genealogy. Lynette Bibbs fourteen and Tamara Fisher fifteen disappeared
on February first, nineteen ninety six, after visiting a Houston,
Texas club for teenagers. A twenty two year old male
later claimed to have dropped the friends off at a

(15:20):
motel near the city center on Old Spanish Trail. The
bodies of the two girls were found dumped by a
rural road two days later on February third, nineteen ninety six,
in Cleveland, Texas. Crystal Jean Baker, thirteen was last seen
near the Interstate forty five on March fifth, nineteen ninety six,
in Texas City, leaving her grandmother's home for a convenience

(15:42):
store to use the phone after an argument. Crystal was
last seen using a phone at a local convenience store
to ask her friend if she could stay with her.
Two hours later, her body was found. She had been raped, strangled,
and dumped over Interstate ten Trinity River Bridge. Baker's great
aunt was Marylyn Row Kevin Edison. Smith was convicted of

(16:03):
capital murder and her death in twenty twelve and sentenced
to life in prison. In twenty nineteen, Governor Greg Abbott
signed into law the Crystal Jene Baker Act, which permits
the collection of DNA from individuals arrested for certain felonies
prior to conviction. Laura Smither twelve was last seen in
Friends with Texas, jogging down her home street on April third,

(16:26):
nineteen ninety seven, after telling her mother she was going
on a twenty minute run. Seventeen days later, on April twentieth,
nineteen ninety seven, her body was found in a retention
pond in Pasadena, Texas. In nineteen ninety eight, her parents
established the Laura Recovery Center, which was a non profit
organization that aids in the search and recovery of kidnapping victims.

(16:47):
As Reese was convicted of the murders of Laura Smither,
Kelly Cox, and Jessica Caine in June of twenty twenty two.
Kelly Ann Cox twenty was last seen on July fifteenth,
nineteen ninety seven at a Kenoko Gassy and convenience store
in Denton, Texas, after locking herself out of her car
and making a call to her boyfriend to help using
the station's outdoor payphone. Eighteen years later, on March eighteenth,

(17:10):
twenty sixteen, Kelly's remains were discovered after suspected serial killer
William Lewis Reese directed investigators to search an area in
Brazoria County, Texas where her remains were found. Rees confessed
and was convicted of the murders of Laura Smither, Kelly Cox,
and Jessica Kin in June of twenty twenty two. Besca
Lee Caine, seventeen, was last seen at the Bennegan's Restaurant

(17:34):
near Baybrook Mall in clear Lake, Texas, dining with friends
at around one thirty am. She was reported missing on
August seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven, when her father found her
truck abandoned a long Intertate forty five. On March eighteenth,
twenty sixteen, Jessica's remains were finally found in a field
off of East Orem Road next to Hobby Airport. Suspected

(17:54):
serial killer William Lewis Reese directed investigators to search the
area where her remains were found. Reese was convicted of
the murders of Smither, Cox and Kane in June of
twenty twenty two. Tot Tran Harriman fifty seven, was visiting
relatives in Texas and had mapped out a route between
League City and Corpus Christi, Texas, and planned to drive

(18:15):
along Highway thirty five. She departed at approximately five am
on July twelve, two thousand and one, from her son's
residence near Leak City. Tot was last seen driving her
nineteen ninety five Lincoln Continental along Highway thirty five. Sarah
and Lewis Trusty twenty three was last seen during the
evening hours of the day in al Goa, Texas, near

(18:36):
her church, riding her bicycle at about eleven PM on
July twelve, two thousand and two. Was discovered on July
twenty eighth, two thousand and two, in Texas City and
a nearby reservoir by fishermen. Teresa Lyn Venegas sixteen was
last seen in Dickinson, Texas, walking near the Green Quay
subdivision on October thirty first, two thousand and six. Three

(18:58):
days later, her body was found strength raped and with
her hair cut off in a field across from Dickinson
High School. As mentioned previously, there are other podcasts who
have covered the Texas Killing Fields, and off the top
of my head, I think you'll quite enjoy the Generation
Why podcasts take on this, and I'll link that in

(19:18):
the show notes. Additionally, you may want to check out
Crime Scene the Texas Killing Fields, which is a three
part mini series about the Texas Killing Fields. It was
released on Netflix in November of twenty twenty two. This
series was directed by Jessica Dimmick. It was rated as
the top docu series on Netflix with twenty three million,
eight hundred and eighty thousand total hours viewed and received

(19:42):
positive reviews. So thank you for stopping by and listening
to another episode of this crime Tover series. And until
next time, stay inside, stay alive, and don't call the cops. Bye.

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Crimetober Series - October 28 (Gloria Gonzales & The Texas Killing Fields)

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