Yahoo Finance The true story of the Texas Killing Fields, the newest true crime series on Netflix
Contains mentions of murder that some readers may find distressing
Netflix's newest true crime series The Texas Killing Fields comes from the creators of Crime Scene: The Vanishing at Cecil Hotel and investigates the murders of women found dead on a road in Texas.
The three-part series looks at the mysterious pattern of young women who disappeared in the 80s and 90s, only to turn up dead on Calder Road, a patch of land in Texas. Their murders remain unsolved and the series speaks to their family members, with one grieving father in particular determined not to give up the hunt for his daughter's killer.
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields only dropped on Netflix earlier this week and yet it's already jumped straight into the top 10. So what is the true full story of the Texas Killing Fields? This is everything you need to know.
What actually are the Texas Killing Fields?
The Texas Killing Fields is a stretch of abandoned land just off the interstate road the I-45 between Houston and Galveston in Texas.
The marsh land is 25 acres and was once an oil field site. Since the 1970s at least 30 bodies have been discovered there, with the majority of the bodies being women. The majority of the murder cases have not been solved.
The area got its name 'Texas Killing Fields' after a series of four young women's bodies were discovered there between 1984 and 1991. These victims and their families are the focus of Netflix's new documentary series.
Who are the victims of the Texas Killing Fields?
Since the 1970s at least 30 bodies have been discovered at the killing fields. The majority of the victims were women, aged between 12 and 34 years old.
In the Netflix series the Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields the women who are focused on are Heide Villareal Fye, Laura Miller, Audrey Lee Cook, and Donna Prudhomme.
Heide was a 25-year-old waitress who was last seen on 10th October 1983. Her skull was discovered by a dog on 4th April 1984.
Laura Miller was a 16-year-old girl who had last been seen at the same convenience store that Heide had visited the year before. She was last seen on 10th September 1984 and her body was discovered in the fields on 2nd February 1986.
Audrey Cook was discovered alongside Laura Miller but was only identified in 2019 thanks to genetic genealogy. She was last seen sometime during December 1985.
Donna was a 34-year-old mother of two, who was last seen at some point during 1991. She was found by two horse riders in September 1991.
Who are the potential suspects?
Over the years the police have had numerous suspects for the Texas Killing Fields murders.
In the 1970s a gas station operator was arrested for the murders of Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw, who were found in the killing fields. During interrogations he confessed to their murders. However, whilst in prison he retracted his confession, claiming he had been tortured into confessing. In 1974 he was convicted of killing Sharon Shaw and received a life sentence. He remained in prison until his death in 2000. After his death a number of police officials stated they believed he had been wrongly convicted.
In the 1990s a man named Edward Harold Bell, who was imprisoned for the murder of a marine, confessed to murdering five women in 1971 in the killing fields area, and six more between the years of 1974 and 1977. However, he was never charged with their murders but remained a suspect until his death in 2019.
Mark Stallings is a convicted kidnapper currently serving a life sentence. He has since confessed to murdering a woman and dumping her body in the killing fields. The woman was later identified as Donna Prudhomme, however Stallings has not been charged with her murder.
The most recent suspect, who is covered in the documentary is Clyde Edwin Hedrick. He had been convicted for the murder of Ellen Beason in 1984. He served eight years and was released last year at the age of 67. Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller, is convinced Hedrick is the person who murdered his daughter and won a wrongful death lawsuit against him in 2014. However, he has never been charged with anything in connection to the Texas Killing Fields murders.
What are the theories surrounding their murders?
Jessica Dimmock, the creator of the Netflix series told the Independent she believes there were three serial killers operating on the killing fields.
She claims: "I think there’s possibly more bodies. I think it’s three serial killers operating in very similar territories ... One kind of gets away with it, and it becomes more possible because it’s kind of shown that the police are not going to chase it down."
Dimmock went onto clarify she believes these killers operated in different decades, "Each decade has its own [serial killer] - you know, it’s not like three different [killers] operating over 30 years. It’s like one in the Seventies, there’s one in the Eighties, there’s one in the Nineties ... there’s pretty good indications that that’s the case. And yes, of course, there might be other victims," she said.
However, there is not enough evidence currently to confirm this theory.
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is available on Netflix now.
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