Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is the latest true-crime documentary to land on Netflix, joining a host of content such as Unsolved Mysteries, Killer Sally and I Am Vanessa Guillen.
Directed by Jessica Dimmock and executively produced by Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger, the third installment in the Crime Scene series explores the unsolved murders of four young women and a father's fight to find his daughter's killer.
All four deaths had one thing in common, they were discovered alongside the interstate corridor connecting Houston and the beach town of Galveston, known as The Texas Killing Fields.
Since the 1970s, 30 bodies have been found in and around the land, leading to the haunting name. The majority of victims have been young girls and young women, aged between 12 and 25 years old.
For over four decades, the murders are thought to be the work of multiple serial killers, but has anyone ever been arrested for the countless murders at the Texas Killing Fields? Newsweek has everything you need to know.
Has Anyone Been Arrested for the Countless Murders?
Yes, there have been multiple arrests in the numerous murders that have been associated with the Texas Killing Fields.
However, there have only been two convictions for murder, leaving countless homicides unsolved today.
Kevin Edison Smith
In April 2012, Kevin Edison Smith was arrested for the murder of 13-year-old Krystal Jean Baker.
His arrest and conviction for murder came 16 years after Baker's body was found in March 1996. She had been beaten, raped and strangled.
Smith was identified as the killer when an officer submitted Baker's dress for DNA analysis. The DNA matched Smith, who had been arrested for a minor drug offense in 2010.
He was sentenced to life in prison.
John Robert King and Gerald Peter Zwarst
In 1987, John Robert King, 30, contacted the El Paso police, where he confessed to killing 19-year-old Shelley Sikes while she was in her car.
He told police he carried out the rape and murder with the help of Gerald Peter Zwarst.
Following their arrests, Zwarst told police where he had hidden Sikes's body, but unfortunately Sikes' body has never been found.
They were convicted of aggravated kidnap and were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998.
King and Zwarst were questioned about their involvement in other killings in the 1980s, but both denied having any involvement.
Both men have since died in prison, King in October 2015 and Zwarst in November 2020.
William Lewis Reece
William Lewis Reece is the only suspect to be convicted of more than one murder linked to the Texas Killing Fields
In May 1997, he was arrested for the kidnapping and attempted murder of 19-year-old Sandra Sepo and received a 60-year sentence.
Almost two decades later, in 2015, Reece's DNA was found to match 19-year-old Tiffany Johnson, who had been murdered in Oklahoma in 1997.
He then confessed to killing Jessica Cain, 17, and Kelli Cox, 20.
In 2016, Reece confessed to police he had kidnapped and murdered Laura Smither, 12.
Already serving time for the attempted murder and kidnapping of Sepo, Reece was convicted of Johnston's murder and sentenced to death.
In June 2022, he was extradited to Texas where he was found guilty of the murders of Smither, Cain, and Cox. He pleaded guilty and received a life sentence.
Reece is currently on death row.
There have been several other arrests in relation to the Texas Killing Fields.
In 1972, convicted sex offender Michael Lloyd Self became a suspect in the murders of Rhona Johnson and Sharon Shaw. He confessed after hours of interrogation, but later retracted his confession, alleging he had been tortured into admitting to the murders by the police chief.
In September 1974, he was convicted of killing Shaw and was sentenced to life in prison, despite questions over the credibility of his confession.
Three years later, police chief Don Morris and his deputy, Tommy Deal, were arrested and convicted of numerous crimes, including torture and misconduct against detainees. Despite this, Self's attempts at an appeal failed.
He died on December 21, 2000, and 16 years later, a number of police officials admitted their belief that Self had been wrongly convicted, according to Fox News.
After two decades on the run from U.S. police for the murder of former Marine Larry Dickens, Edward Harold Bell was extradited from Panama to the states to face trial in 1993.
He was convicted of Dickens' murder and was sentenced to 70 years in prison. In 1998, he wrote several letters to the Harris County Attorney, in which he confessed to killing 11 girls in total.
Bell was able to name some of his victims:
- Debbie Ackerman
- Maria Johnson
- Colette Wilson
- Kimberly Pitchford
- Rhonda Johnson
- Sharon Shaw
Despite his alleged confession, Bell was never charged with the murders and there was no physical evidence against him.
Nevertheless, he remained a prime suspect in their murders until his death in April 2019.
In 2013, convicted kidnapper Mark Roland Stalling confessed behind bars he had killed a young girl in 1991 and had dumped her body in the Texas fields. The victim was later identified as Donna Prudhomme.
It also became apparent Stalling had lived in League City, near the home of many of the girls who had been murdered.
Despite his alleged confession, he hasn't been charged with murder, but in 2021, he remained a suspect in the murders of Donna Prudhomme and Audrey Cook, according to USA Today.
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is streaming on Netflix now
About the writer
Molli Mitchell is a Senior SEO TV and Film Newsweek Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on ... Read more
