Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is holding tight onto its spot in the Netflix top 10 and if you are a fan of true crime, you will not want to miss this gripping documentary.
The three-part series explores the unsolved murders of four young women whose remains were found in and around the same location in Texas.
The 25-acre patch of land in League City along Interstate Highway 45, between Houston and Galveston, is known as The Texas Killing Fields. Between 1971 and 2006, 30 bodies have been found in and around the area, leading to the name. The majority of victims were girls and young women, aged between 12 and 25 years old.
As heard in The Texas Killing Fields, local League City man Robert Abel was linked to the murders, but he has never been convicted.
Newsweek has everything you need to know about Abel and where he is now.
Who Is Robert Abel?
Robert Abel, a retired NASA engineer, has been linked to the disappearance and deaths of several young women in Texas since the 1990s.
Between 1984 and 1991, the remains of four young women were found on the same patch of land near Calder Road in League City.
Heidi Fye, 23, vanished in 1983, and her remains were located in April 1984, and 16-year-old Laura Miller's body was found close by in 1986.
During the search for Miller, another woman's body was found, but unfortunately, she couldn't be identified and became known as Jane Doe. In 2019, she was named as Audrey Lee Cook, a 30-year-old mechanic last seen alive in December 1985.
In 1991, a fourth woman was found in the same area but was unidentifiable. She became known as Janet Doe until she could be named in 2019 as Donna Gonsoulin Prudhomme, according to Oxygen.
The oil field where the four women were found is located next to the property and land that Abel owned in League City. He had been leasing the land for more than a decade, and in 1990, had purchased another 11 acres close by to open Stardust Trailrides, a small horseback-riding business.
Abel was never arrested for the murders as there was not enough, or any, evidence to arrest him.
In 1999, Texas Monthly reported that a police detective in a sworn affidavit painted Abel as a "serial sexual offender," who displays the violent behavior seen in serial killers.
Several of Abel's ex-wives and partners had accused him of being aggressive, as well as beating animals, all of which Abel denied.
In 1993, for over 12 hours, officers had searched his home for bodies and evidence using cadaver dogs to find evidence linking him to the murders. Investigators also flew over his land in helicopters, and Abel was interviewed by detectives in neighboring towns, but nothing was found.
Tim Miller, the father of 16-year-old Laura who was found in the Texas Killing Fields, was at one point certain that Abel was his daughter's murderer. He left threatening messages on Abel's answering machine and claimed he held a gun to the man's head after one night of heavy drinking. Abel denied that they had a physical encounter.
Speaking to Texas Monthly in 1999, Miller said: "There are many days when I think about driving over there, putting a gun to his head, and pulling the trigger.
"When I'm near him, I feel like I'm in the presence of evil."
Despite the theories that Abel is behind the murders of several women, there has been no physical evidence linking him to the crimes, nor any witnesses who can position him ever meeting the young women.
Abel also had no criminal record or had ever been in trouble with the law before.
"My life has been destroyed, my reputation ruined," he told Texas Monthly, "I didn't kill any of those girls. I wouldn't know how to kill."
In 1994, Abel filed a lawsuit against League City Detective Pat Bittner for slander, but it was dismissed by a judge who argued that Abel had only been identified as a suspect.
Where Is Robert Abel Now?
Robert Abel died in 2005, aged 65. He was hit by a train while traveling on his golf cart. It remains unclear if Abel had taken his own life.
As heard in Texas Killing Fields, he remained a suspect in the Texas Killing Field murders until he died.
Tim Miller visited Abel, shortly before the suspect's death, to ask for his forgiveness, and today the father of murdered Laura believes Clyde Hedrick is the man responsible for his daughter's killing.
In July 2022, Tim Miller won a wrongful death lawsuit against Hedrick for $24 million in liability and damages that he filed in 2014.
Despite being found civilly liable for Laura Miller's death, Hedrick has never been charged with her murder.
In 2014, he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of 29-year-old Ellen Rae Simpson Beason. Hedrick was released into an unknown halfway house from prison, just eight years into his 20-year sentence.
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
