Furthermore, although forensic odontology was admissible in court, there was no established science behind it, and allowing Campbells testimony would be a travesty of justice, argued the lawyers. Police detectives said they have tied a convicted killer to the 1979 homicide of Anna Marie Hlavka in Portland through the use of forensic genealogy. Simons, who had become a private investigator after retiring from the sheriffs department in 2000 and now did work for Feazell, agreed. PRIBLE 'It was somewhat of a blood bath,' Roberts said. GENTRY, Michael Dean In the back bedroom, facedown on the bed, lay the nude body of a 54-year-old woman. Schonemann spoke with him too. Beasley, 29, of Hawkins, was charged in the June 15, 1986, shooting and stabbing deaths of his father, Paul Owen Beasley Sr., 71; his mother, Ruth J. Beasley, 62; and his sister, Linda Birkinbine, 37, of Euless. Year should not be greater than current year. The cases of slow-talking West Virginia attorney Billy Jim Hawkins. Graham, who later chose law enforcement as a career, said the point was once a teenager's paradise. When the medical examiners tests did not return any DNA profiles, Dannen arranged for the evidence to be sent to Forensic Science Associates (FSA), a California lab run by Ed Blake, one of the countrys pioneering DNA scientists. Everyone strained to catch a glimpse of the accused killer, who had gotten a haircut and wore a suit and tie. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). Schonemann was not about to give up: after landing a job at the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, he continued to represent Spence pro bono. Breaking news has shocked and unnerved me only a few times. Glyndia Lane, aunt of victim Susanne Harrison, shares her story at the Hawkins Police Department Wednesday March 9, 2016. Spences execution date was set for October 17, 1991. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. He really believed that. Deebs family hired a lawyer, who pushed for a polygraph test, and after four days Simons agreed to set it up. hawkins texas murders 1986 - recoverynow.info Failed to report flower. The more they understood of the case, the more troubling they found it: the types of evidence used against their clientjailhouse testimony and bite markswere well-known in legal circles to be unreliable. Born in 1948, McFadden a heavyset man with a thoroughly tattooed torso was convicted of two counts of rape in Texas in 1972 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to a timeline produced by the Portland police. Oops, we were unable to send the email. Is this your business? Other officers werent so surprised. (Years later, Feazell would tell the Waco Tribune-Herald that the accusation that he had not disclosed exculpatory evidence was a total lie.), But Owen and Schonemann had bought themselves two more months, so they went out on the road again. Authorities are now seeking the public's assistance to find out more information about the women before the time of their deaths. Had Frueh called Franks because he had seen Kenneth in trouble? new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help Simons decided to share his findings with Wacos new district attorney, Vic Feazell. SPENCE, Exzavier Lamont You don't sleep your children are scared.". Melendez, who was most recently denied parole in May 2016, asserted his innocence until the end, says Jan Thompson, the aunt of one of the victims, who Melendez often called and wrote. The trial judges postponed Spences execution to give the state time to respond, rescheduling the date for December 19. HAWKINS, Texas (KLTV) - The Hawkins Police Department is investigating a shooting at a convenience store. Schonemann found himself without a job. There was a problem saving your notification. Each man was charged with three counts of capital murder, and each would stand first for the killing of Jill Montgomery. The second body was unable to be identified, so the medical examiner named the remains Jane Doe, Ratliff said. When I asked Dannen why he hadnt tried to help free Melendez earlier by publishing everything he had, he said, It wouldnt have made any difference for Tonyabsolutely none. Ronald 'The man in custody is refusing to talk. The purpose of one of Prudhomme's moves was to escape an abusive relationship and she arranged for her two sons live with their grandparents, Bluffington said. County Line Cemetery. When Kenneths mother moved away, the boy had lived with Franks and his partner, Kenneth King. Her sister knew she was living in the Seabrook area and the two had communicated a few times by mail. Price and Turk made quick headway. Discussing the case had become so painful that she and Thompson quit talking about it. 1, eff. Though hed ended up retracting all his statements, Gilbert now told Schonemann, he had agreed to testify against Spence at his second trial because it looked like it was just a hopeless cause. Spence had already been found guilty; what would a jury do to a two-time felon who was Mexican American? CARPENTER, Christopher Okay, now Im finished.. A new Dateline NBC episode that aired in December took another look at the sexual assault and shooting of two South Texas women nearly a decade ago. Simons hurried over. Grand juries in Wood and Upshur counties later indicted him for the robbery and Suzanne's death. As investigators processed the scene, another body was found in close proximity but they were in "vastly different stages of decomposition," Ratliff said. I am getting a colonoscopy tomorrow and my husband just slid - reddit Jr. Mauriceo Mashawn She shares stories about East Texas through her Behind the Wheel column. McFadden, the paroled sex offender, felt safe there, too. I called him several more times through the summer, and in our talks he turned often to Spence, saying he had all kinds of photos of the inmate and letters he had written. Authorities summoned to the location also found clothing presumed to belong to Gena, but she and Bryan were nowhere to be found. I believe that. One night, driving home at midnight after a long interview with Dennis Baier, a discombobulated Dannen was pulled over by a cop for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Melendez had been suffering from multiple maladies, including bone cancer and kidney failure. McFadden became a household name in the Lone Star State the next year thanks to a horrific crime and a heart-pounding escape from jail. Hawkins could be described as a largely blue-collar town built on the sweat and sore muscles of the oil industry. The family gathered in the living roomJills parents, her brother and sister, another aunt, Thompson, and Thompsons husband and two daughtersas Dannen laid out his case for Spences possible innocence and Harpers involvement. Photograph: HBO Fama, then 19, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1990 and sentenced to 32 years in prison; he's up for parole in 2022. Authorities were still questioning him about Suzanne's death and Gena and Bryan's disappearances when two more bodies surfaced. Price soon learned that White had been conducting her own investigation into the lake murdersgoing to bars and asking questions, interviewing figures in Wacos demimonde, looking for evidence to prove that her son hadnt killed the three teenagers. Upon learning of the teenager's death, Suzanne's mother's anguished cries seemed to echo through the town. In 1988, she moved to the Seabrook, Texas, area, where she lived in several apartment complexes. On November 17 they spoke with Otis Douglas, an informant who had testified against Williams. A connection between all four murders has not been determined yet, other than the location of where their remains were found, said League City Police Lt. Michael Bluffington. Baier, however, wasnt so sure. HAFDAHL Al Sharpton. He took it to the girls mother and aunt, who both said she had owned a bracelet like it. The young woman they were standing over had been brutalized in unspeakable ways in an isolated roadside park, strangled and then tossed over an embankment. Over the years he had made a name for himself as an investigative reporter with a penchant for penetrating dark and complicated worlds, such as those of the Mafia and the gangs of Chinatown. Despite the fact that U.S. courts had been admitting forensic odontology since 1954, it was a highly contested practice, with no proven record or methodology to show that a persons teeth left a unique impression or could be matched to a mark on the skin. When Simons took a break, Fortunewhod been present for the interrogationmentioned that he too knew Chili. Manuel GOSS, G. W. This made for an awkward arrangement, since Simons and the WPD officers had been on cool terms after hed left the force. Judge Black didnt address anything we had done.. He needed to be arrested at once. Others told her about special treatment that informants got from Simons, who gave them cigarettes, food, and time alone with their wives and girlfriends. He was continually unnerved by Feazell, who seemed to enjoy provoking him: during jury selection, for example, as Spences lawyers questioned potential jurors, the DA passed him taunting notes (Youre drowning and your lifeguards dont swim! read one). How that might happen remains to be seen. Truman Simons (far right) helping carry the body of the teenagers out from the brush in Speegleville Park on July 14, 1982. Mainly because of the number of them, Scott stated in his own deposition. Jerry McFadden, 51, made no final statement. (There were times I thought I was going to be ambushed at my house, she told me.) A story by the Associated Press in June 2013 also found that since 2000, at least 24 men who had been charged or convicted of murder or rape based on bite-mark evidence had been exonerated. These days theres increasing credibility given to the idea that innocent people do plead guilty; the National Registry of Exonerations recently found that nearly 1 in 5 of the 87 inmates who were exonerated in 2013 had pleaded guilty to charges against them, often because of the guarantee of a lesser sentence. Spence wasnt so lucky. The population was 1,331 at the 2000 census. Almost five months after the final conviction in the lake murders, at around noon on March 2, 1986, Price got a call about a questionable death at a house on North Fifteenth Street. Id never heard of the DA getting involved so quickly in an investigation, recalled J.R. Two weeks into a whodunit like the White case, youre just getting started. Price would continue working the case for the WPD, but she felt blindsided, as if she had done something wrong. The large, elegant slab of Dakota Mahogany granite was decorated by Jills mother with the girls photo, a poem, and the inscription Forever Seventeen. Not only had Simons kept his promise to avenge Jill, he had also made sure she would never be forgotten. Sitting calmly nearby, Simons would tell him to let it all out. White had another son, Steve Spence, who told officers that she had begun to receive threats; she also thought her phone was tapped. Her boyfriend, Chico Fierro, pleaded guilty to a murder . I believe in our system. That June, Dannen tracked down Williams, who was still living in Waco. To their relief, the federal district court granted both. Feazell brought him to the jury room. According to TDCJ records, McFadden was executed for the abduction, rape, and murder of 18-year-old Suzanne Denise Harrison. Spence raped and stabbed Jill, then Raylene, and finally he killed Kenneth. Suzanne loved her new hometown and the opportunities it provided, her aunt said. The criminal trials for the lake murders were the most anticipated in Wacos history. "I looked and said, Oh my God, that's her watch.'". Price began to work the murder, but within days, she learned that someoneeither from the sheriffs office or the DAs officehad been making calls to the Dallas County crime lab, where Whites body had been sent, to ask for the preliminary autopsy results. Did you say it to be a big man? He said yes. A native of New York and an accomplished pianist, Dannen had a small build and an intense disposition, and he was known for his ability to get interviews with tough subjects, from Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates to New York drug kingpin Lorenzo Nichols. Davids mom suffered. Al Sharpton led demonstrations after Yusuf Hawkins' murder. CRUZ, James But first he needed to figure out if his evolving theory about the night had any credence. I told him, This guy is saying you told him all those storieswhy is everyone talking about it? (A representative from Perrys office insists today that the meeting was solely about funding: Ms. That same month, after succumbing to complications from HIV, Gilbert Melendez died in prison, a development that only fueled Dannens determination. Texas authorities identify 2 victims in decades-old 'Killing Fields Larry Pack (Texas. I was brought up to do things the right way, she told me. In December, however, he discovered that the crime lab that had performed Whites autopsy had saved vaginal and anal swabs. "She was very excited. Learn more about Brooks Lake / Brookhaven Lake. Then there was the report detailing a bizarre polygraph test taken by Kenneths father, Richard Franks. Winona (9 miles) Big Sandy (9 miles) Owentown (14 miles) Chad Beasley, 9, the son of another relative, was treated for a broken leg and released. She was estimated to be about 30 years old at the time of her death. After talking, the brothers refused to take the stand against Deeb. What might it show if it was? State District Judge Richard Davis ordered the terms to be served concurrently. Obituaries Hawkins TX - Hawkins Death Records This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. It was well into the next day before the battered, partially clad body of a young woman was found around noon Monday at Barnwell Mountain, a remote roadside park off State Highway 155 north of Gilmer. Hawkins, TX 75765 Century 21 First Group - Lindale 0.35 ACRES $25,000 169 W Holly Trl, Hawkins, TX 75765 0.5 ACRES $20,000 W Bent Bow Ln, Hawkins, TX 75765 Keller Williams Realty-Tyler 0.5 ACRES $20,000 Saddle Horn Ln, Hawkins, TX 75765 Keller Williams Realty-Tyler 0.26 ACRES $22,500 Lot 6 FM 2869, Mr. Hawkins had also been sentenced to death for the abduction, rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, Rhonda Keys of Amarillo, in 1976. Paul Owen Beasly Jr., 27, had gone to his parents home to celebrate Father's Day, but a family argument turned bloody at about 1:30 p.m., police said. Published: Apr. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. I believe that by confessing, I saved my life.. Kenneths mother, Sandra Sadler, had come to watch, as had Jills brother, Brad; her sister, Monica; and their father, Rod. However with the murder of police officer Aubrey Hawkins and the help of America's Most Wanted this prison escape would come to a sudden end in Colorado. Dannen and Blum also drove to Dallas to meet Muneer Deeb, who in his years out of prison had been profiled in Life magazine; filed a $100 million civil suit against Feazell, Simons, and other law enforcement officials (it was thrown out of court); started a limo company; and spoken on Amnesty International panels, including one with the Dalai Lama. "I asked them to parole him back to West Texas, where the officials there knew his habits and could better keep an eye on him.". He, Salinas, Horton, and another investigator on the case, Sergeant Robert Fortune, didnt believe there was nearly enough to make an arrest and were wary of Simons certainty. In July 2002 Dannen was drawn into Feazells libel suit against Pardo, which the former DA had filed in 1998. He had never been violent with her or them, she recalled. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. Its to show Im still here, he said. And theres not a shred of doubt in my mind that Anthony Melendez is innocent. PEREZ, Robert Anthony Martinez When Im done with the White case, she told him, Im going to look into the lake murders. (Feazell declined to be interviewed for this story, although he did communicate his view that Prices account of these events was untrustworthy. Their decision would prove pivotal: after two weeks of testimony, in a ruling that sent shock waves through Waco, Deeb was found not guilty. Time and again, she asked the state to line up the genetic markers. BROWN, David They were found just 18 metres from where police found the remains of Fye the year before. I just guessed at it., In truth, back in December 1983 Gilbert had told his first trial lawyers that he had made up his story based on some offhand bragging Spence had done just six weeks after the murders. With heavy hearts, hopeful rescuers searched by foot, horseback and off-road vehicles, in lakes, grassy pastures and deep woods. Either you believe in the system or you dont, he said. Im still pissed offI cant talk about the case for very long before I start to get upset, Russ Hunt, the attorney in Spences first murder trial, told me. Its immoral to go forward with this much doubt.. Six members of the Texas Seven were sentenced to death in the Dec. 24, 2000, shooting of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. Simons parked and made his way to one of the deputy constables, who pointed out two young men standing nearby. The only friend Ive got, he told Simons that night, is the guy whos trying to kill me on this lake case.. She said, You already lied once, why lie again? I said, I want to come home. She said, The truth will come out. The Waco Police Department offered her a position, and when she arrived, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the city had cars and paved roads. Simons crouched down next to her lifeless body. When he got on the trail of something, remembered Officer Richard Ashby, who patrolled the streets with Simons in the late sixties, you couldnt get him off. Police chief Larry Scott agreed. hawkins texas murders 1986. She became a cheerleader and joined several organizations, including National Honor Society and Future Teachers of America, even acquiring a job later at a local pharmacy to earn a little pocket money. 'Linda lives in Euless and had come over for Father's Day. At that time, prisoners were granted excessive time off their sentences for good behavior, essentially opening the spigot for releases. Executed But Did Not Directly Kill Victim | Death Penalty Information (The charge was indeed dropped, but Simons has said repeatedly that only the DA had the power to drop charges. Their journey was not so much about tanning, but about meeting up with a friend, Bryan Boone, 19, and taking a slow cruise around the water's edge. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph), Former Wood County Sheriff's Deputy and retired constable David Barber recalls kids knowledge of Jerry McFadden. He was living an unsettled life, moving from an Austin apartment to a friends guest room in Salado to a girlfriends house in Waco. The New York Times-bestselling true crime author reveals the full story of murder and deception behind the Lifetime movie Secrets of a Gold Digger Killer. He and Simons, who continues to work as a private investigator in Waco, maintain that there is abundant evidenceincluding the trial records and Melendezs confessionthat shows that the four men convicted in the murders were guilty. "There wasn't anybody any sweeter than Suzanne, everybody loved her. Dannen had paid for all the DNA testing himself; by the time the results came in, hed spent close to $10,000. Things were about to get crazy, he said, and Melendez might want to consider talking. Yusef Hawkins was murdered in the racially charged case, that came to be known as The Bensonhurst Murder Case. 4 min read. After having their motions repeatedly denied by Judge Allen, Hunt and Fuller sent a 33-page letter to the FBI and the U.S. attorneys office asking for help. Speegleville was the largest, a pleasant, wooded wilderness that made for good camping, hiking, and fishing. You have permission to edit this article. Afterward, Deeb had confessed. He was going to find the one person who would give him the answer. (903) 769-3962 Add Website Map & Directions 8993 S Fm 14 Hawkins, TX 75765 Write a Review. Jos R. Ralat is Texas Monthlys taco editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. Results are instant and can confirm the information you are searching for. He was persuaded when Simons told him he had some new ideas. For Fred, Texas was as exotic as a foreign country, remembered Lawrence Wright, a staff writer for the New Yorker (and a former TexasMonthly staffer), who hosted Dannen and Blum in his home, in Austin. We were finally going to hear the real story, remembered Jan Thompson, Jills aunt. Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. For his detractors in the WPD, Simonss efforts to go after Deeb were evidence of his questionable methods and fixations. Rogersville Hawkins County Tennessee Warrants & Most Wanted Congress, no longer willing to pay to defend convicted murderers, had pulled the nonprofits funding. But now he didnt know what to think. Spence was strapped onto the gurney in the execution chamber. If Id gone to trial, Id be dead. Yes, Kelley repliedin fact, people had asked if they were sisters.