12 Shocking Murder Cases in the Texas Killing Fields

For many readers who live outside the Lone Star State, the question that’s running through your head is probably, “What are the Texas killing fields?” They’re exactly what they sound like: a 25-acre stretch of land just off of Interstate 45 that’s known for being the prime place to dump the bodies of young women. Since the early '70s, more than 30 bodies of young women from the ages of 12 to 19 have been discovered in the fields, but only a few of their murders have ever been solved. Many people believe that the crimes are the work of a Texas serial killer, and despite a few career criminals coming forward to claim responsibility for the shocking true crimes, no one has ever been able to put all the pieces of this gruesome puzzle together.

One of the reasons for the lack of coherency in the Texas killing field cases is that there’s one missing link between all the crimes: multiple causes of death seem to point to a variety of murderers all ditching their victims' corpses into the old oil field and hoping for the best. Because so many of the murders linked to the late '70s and early '80s are so similar, it’s possible that there was a serial killer operating in the area at the time, but there are just as many clues pointing to multiple murderers using the killing fields as a common dumping ground. Read about these murders in the Texas killing fields and see if you can connect the dots.  

Georgia and Brooks vanished from a school bus stop in 1974 after their fellow students heard them discussing their plan to skip school that day. These two girls, aged 12 and 14, were the victims of some of the most brutal violence to occur in the killing fields. When their bodies were discovered two years later, it was obvious that they had been bludgeoned to death before being shot for good measure. 

In 1971, these two reportedly outdoorsy gals disappeared while hitchhiking, only to have their bodies discovered in the killing fields. One man, Edward Harold Bell, a convicted sex offender and murderer, claims to have killed Debbie and Maria (along with many of the other girls found in the fields), but he claims that he was "brainwashed" into committing the crimes. 

In letters written from a maximum security cell in Huntsville 17 years after the crime, Bell describes killing the girls: "I was 'Brainwashed' into killing Deby (sic) Ackerman and Maria Johnson in November 1971."

He then goes on to describe how he shot them and the place where their bodies were discovered. 

In what might be one of the quickest turn-arounds for the discovery of set of bodies in the killing fields, Lynette Bibbs and Tamara Fisher were discovered by a woman who lives in the area just days after they had each been shot in the head. Bibbs had been shot in the forehead and below the left ear, while Fisher was shot in the back of the head. At the time, police were unsure of whether the girls were murdered on the spot, or killed before being dumped in the fields later.

Investigators noted that blood trailed from Fisher's body to a nearby dirt road, but there was no blood leading away from Bibbs's body, so it's entirely possible that they were killed by two different people who just happened to be dumping bodies in the same spot. 

Krystal Baker was just 13 years old when she was beaten, raped, and strangled to death before being tossed out on the side of the road in South Texas. It took 26 years before police were able to connect Kevin Edison Smith, the man who committed the gruesome crime, to Baker with DNA samples that matched stains found on the dress and underwear that Krystal was wearing on the day her body was found. Smith was spared the death penalty because investigators believe that he may be connected to more of the unsolved murders that took place on the killing fields. 

 

The first known victim of the I-45 Killer to be found in the killing fields, Colette Wilson was a 13-year-old girl who went missing from her bus stop in June 1971. Her remains were discovered five months later, and it was apparent that she died from a gunshot wound to the head. The discovery of Collette's body would begin decades of horrific discoveries on this desolate stretch of highway. 

After a long shift at Gaido’s restaurant along the Galveston Seawall in 1986, Sikes was run off the road by John Robert King, who had been drinking all day. Sikes's car was found the next morning along Interstate 45, but her body was never recovered. While King confessed to the crime from a motel in El Paso, without a body, police weren't able to formally charge him with murder. 

In 1978, after two years of searching for 12-year-old Suzanne Bowers, her skeletal remains were discovered in a field near Alta Loma, Texas. According to the authorities, her cause of death was unknown, but she had suffered skull fractures that appeared to be gun shot wounds. At the time of her disappearance, Bowers had been walking to her grandmother's house to pick up her swimsuit. 

In 1988, Richerson was allegedly abducted from the parking lot of the Casa Del Mar Condominiums where she worked as a night manager. One of the other employees heard a female scream and car door slam shut while Richerson was still on duty. One of her shoes was found in the parking lot, but Richerson was never seen again. Her remains were never found and her disappearance remains unsolved. 

While going on a jog through the suburban area of Friendswood, Texas, 12-year-old Laura Smither disappeared from the road in front of her home before breakfast. Just over two weeks later, Smither's body was found by a father and son who were out on a walk and discovered what they though to be the body of a dead animal face down in a pool of water. While a suspect was arrested, no one was ever formally charged for Laura's murder. 

Fye was a 23-year-old cocktail waitress who disappeared October 10, 1983. She was presumed missing for months until a dog carried her skull to a nearby house on April 4, 1984. The medical examiner for her case noted that Fye had broken ribs and may have been beaten to death.