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The Slaying of Lois Lloyd · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. By 1985, oil was more than
0:12
Speaker 1: an industry in Odessa, Texas. For decades, it had shaped
0:17
Speaker 1: nearly every part of life in the city and the
0:19
Speaker 1: surrounding Permian Basin. Midland and Odessa sat only about 20
0:25
Speaker 1: miles apart, and although the two cities were, and still are,
0:29
Speaker 1: inextricably linked, they had developed somewhat different identities. Midland became
0:35
Speaker 1: known more as the business and financial center of the basin,
0:40
Speaker 1: while Odessa was more closely tied to the blue-collar side
0:44
Speaker 1: of the industry. The drilling companies, service yards, equipment shops,
0:49
Speaker 1: workover crews, truckers, welders, roughnecks, and roustabouts who kept thousands
0:56
Speaker 1: of wells operating. It was demanding work Oilfield employees could
1:01
Speaker 1: spend long days outdoors in extreme West Texas heat, cold
1:06
Speaker 1: winter mornings, high winds, and blowing caliche dust. Depending on
1:12
Speaker 1: the job, workers might report to a company yard before
1:15
Speaker 1: daylight and then travel many miles to isolated leases scattered
1:20
Speaker 1: across the region. A person's workplace might change from one
1:24
Speaker 1: well or lease to another. sometimes placing crews far from
1:28
Speaker 1: Odessa for much of the day. The work could also
1:32
Speaker 1: be dangerous. Heavy pipe, chains, tongs, pressurized equipment, flammable materials,
1:40
Speaker 1: and the possibility of exposure to gases such as hydrogen
1:43
Speaker 1: sulfide were part of the environment. The long hours and
1:48
Speaker 1: long drives between leases added another layer of risk. The
1:53
Speaker 1: enormous oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s
1:58
Speaker 1: had already begun to unravel by the mid-80s. Drilling activity
2:03
Speaker 1: fell sharply after 1982, and by April of 1985, Odessa
2:09
Speaker 1: was seeing a noticeable rise in unemployment claims. Most of
2:13
Speaker 1: the layoffs were connected to the oil industry. The much
2:17
Speaker 1: more devastating collapse in oil prices would come the following year,
2:22
Speaker 1: but Odessa was already feeling the effects of a changing industry.
2:27
Speaker 1: Oil field work remained overwhelmingly male. Women certainly worked in
2:33
Speaker 1: the petroleum industry, particularly in clerical positions. They were also
2:38
Speaker 1: beginning to make greater inroads into engineering, geology, and technical
2:44
Speaker 1: positions during this time. But as far as performing the
2:48
Speaker 1: physical labor aspect, there were still very few on the
2:51
Speaker 1: ground in the oil patch. The 1980 census, in fact,
2:56
Speaker 1: reflected just how unusual it was. Women represented only a
3:01
Speaker 1: small percentage of workers in extractive occupations, the category that
3:06
Speaker 1: included many traditional oil field jobs. Among oil well drillers specifically,
3:13
Speaker 1: Women made up only about 2% of the workforce. West Texas, nevertheless,
3:19
Speaker 1: had already seen women break into those jobs. In 1974,
3:25
Speaker 1: Linda Armstrong was hired by Gulf Oil as a roustabout
3:29
Speaker 1: in Goldsmith, roughly 20 miles northwest of Odessa. Roustabout work
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Speaker 1: was among the most basic and physically demanding jobs in
3:39
Speaker 1: the field, involving the maintenance and repair work needed around
3:43
Speaker 1: producing wells and leases. Armstrong eventually advanced beyond the entry-level position,
3:50
Speaker 1: becoming a foreman, lease operator, production supervisor, and later an
3:56
Speaker 1: instructor at Odessa College. Her career was remarkable partly because
4:01
Speaker 1: women doing that kind of work were still so rare.
4:05
Speaker 1: Another example came from the Texas Panhandle in the early 1980s,
4:09
Speaker 1: where Tamara George went to work as a roustabout. One
4:13
Speaker 1: of the company's owners initially opposed hiring her, questioning whether
4:18
Speaker 1: a woman could physically perform the job and whether she
4:21
Speaker 1: would be able to work successfully alongside an all-male crew.
4:26
Speaker 1: George proved she damn well could. Within months, she'd advanced
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Speaker 1: to the point of running a roustabout crew of her own.
4:35
Speaker 1: A woman working in a petroleum company office in West
4:38
Speaker 1: Texas wouldn't necessarily have attracted much attention in the mid-1980s.
4:44
Speaker 1: But a woman climbing into a field truck before daylight
4:48
Speaker 1: alongside a bunch of men was something entirely different. Lois
4:52
Speaker 1: Lloyd was one of few Odessa women working among the
4:56
Speaker 1: male-dominated oil patch during the first half of the 1980s.
5:01
Speaker 1: According to those who knew her, there wasn't much Lois
5:05
Speaker 1: couldn't or wouldn't do. But one April night in 1985,
5:11
Speaker 1: she disappeared from her home in far northwest Odessa, and
5:15
Speaker 1: upon two discoveries early the next day, inspired one of
5:19
Speaker 1: the largest search efforts Hector County had ever seen. The
5:24
Speaker 1: End Lois Ann Lloyd was born in Raton, New Mexico,
5:54
Speaker 1: on June 5, 1957, to Elizabeth and Stanley Lloyd, known
5:59
Speaker 1: to most as Betty and Stan. Raton is in northeastern
6:04
Speaker 1: New Mexico, only about six and a half miles south
6:08
Speaker 1: of the Colorado state line, and is surrounded by mountains
6:12
Speaker 1: along its northern and western edges. Throughout Lois' childhood and adolescence,
6:18
Speaker 1: the entire town was home to only around 8,000 people
6:22
Speaker 1: or less, the kind of place where everyone either knew
6:25
Speaker 1: each other or knew someone who did. Lois grew up
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Speaker 1: in Raton with her older brother, Michael, and older sister, Karen.
6:35
Speaker 1: Her mother, Betty, had worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory
6:38
Speaker 1: during World War II and later became a librarian. Her
6:43
Speaker 1: father Stan worked the family's ranch and was involved in
6:46
Speaker 1: civic activities. The Lloyd family attended First Presbyterian Church in Raton.
6:54
Speaker 1: Lois was a rainbow girl, something her friends thought was
6:58
Speaker 1: odd since rainbow girls wore nice dresses during ceremonies, and
7:03
Speaker 1: Lois always wore blue jeans, t-shirts or flannels, and tennis shoes.
7:08
Speaker 1: She was athletic from an early age, and by the
7:11
Speaker 1: time she reached Raton High School, sports were a major
7:15
Speaker 1: part of her life. Lois was on the varsity basketball team,
7:20
Speaker 1: and she was good enough on the court that she
7:22
Speaker 1: frequently led the Tigarettes in scoring. On more than one occasion,
7:27
Speaker 1: she came close to helping the team take a championship.
7:31
Speaker 1: She also excelled at volleyball and almost any other sport
7:35
Speaker 1: she tried. At the 1973 New Mexico State Track meet,
7:41
Speaker 1: Lois set a state record in the softball throw after
7:45
Speaker 1: hurling the ball 215 feet, one and a half inches.
7:49
Speaker 1: She placed second in discus at that same meet. Even
7:54
Speaker 1: when she was not competing, Lois could be found at
7:57
Speaker 1: sporting events around the school. When those games and other
8:01
Speaker 1: activities wrapped up, She almost always ended up at what
8:05
Speaker 1: the local teenagers called woodsies, which were bonfires held on
8:09
Speaker 1: the mountainside where young people gathered, drank beer, and let
8:14
Speaker 1: loose away from the prying eyes of adults. Sometimes Lois
8:18
Speaker 1: even organized them. But she wasn't someone who craved attention.
8:24
Speaker 1: Friends described her as shy and fairly quiet, but that
8:28
Speaker 1: didn't stop others from being drawn to her. She was
8:31
Speaker 1: thoughtful and considerate, the kind of person folks gravitated toward.
8:37
Speaker 1: There was also a toughness lying beneath that quiet personality.
8:42
Speaker 1: Lois always looked out for the people she cared about,
8:45
Speaker 1: including a close friend named Yvonne, who was a couple
8:49
Speaker 1: years younger. Those who knew Lois remembered her as protective,
8:54
Speaker 1: someone willing to help her friends when they needed her,
8:57
Speaker 1: and no matter how, She graduated from Raton High School
9:02
Speaker 1: in 1975. Lois left New Mexico and moved to Odessa, Texas.
9:09
Speaker 1: Odessa and neighboring Midland sat at the center of an
9:13
Speaker 1: enormous oil-producing region. She found work with CE Vetco Services, Inc.,
9:20
Speaker 1: a pipe inspection and service company located at 2413 West
9:23
Speaker 1: Interstate 20. By the early 1980s, the Houston-based company was
9:30
Speaker 1: among only a handful offering a process called pigging, in
9:35
Speaker 1: which a highly specialized device called a pig traveled through
9:39
Speaker 1: pipe while connected to a power supply, creating a magnetic
9:43
Speaker 1: field to detect leaks, defects, and weakened sections. Vetco also
9:49
Speaker 1: provided conventional pipe inspection and coating services. Exactly what Lois
9:56
Speaker 1: did for the company has never been documented, but she
9:59
Speaker 1: was described as an oil field worker. Whether the job
10:03
Speaker 1: was the reason she came to Odessa, or whether she
10:06
Speaker 1: found it after moving there, is unclear. A serious problem
10:11
Speaker 1: had followed the young woman from New Mexico to Texas. Alcoholism.
10:17
Speaker 1: On December 14th, 1977, Texas state troopers arrested Lois for
10:23
Speaker 1: driving while intoxicated. She was later fined $ 150 and placed
10:28
Speaker 1: on nine months probation. Her drinking would continue to trouble
10:33
Speaker 1: her in the years that followed. At some point after
10:37
Speaker 1: moving to Odessa, Lois walked into the convenience store where
10:41
Speaker 1: Debbie Lawson worked. Debbie was about a year younger, and
10:45
Speaker 1: the two quickly became friends. Before long, they were nearly inseparable.
10:51
Speaker 1: They saw or spoke to each other every day, spent
10:54
Speaker 1: holidays together, made candles, worked on decoupage projects, and even
11:00
Speaker 1: traveled to Disneyland together. For Debbie, Lois became more than
11:05
Speaker 1: someone she casually spent time with. She became her closest friend.
11:11
Speaker 1: She knew how badly Lois struggled with alcohol. but also
11:16
Speaker 1: knew that drinking didn't define her. Debbie remembered Lois as
11:21
Speaker 1: a lovely person with tremendous potential. Her alcoholism, however, frightened Debbie.
11:28
Speaker 1: Her biggest fear was that one day Lois would either
11:31
Speaker 1: die in a drunk driving crash or cause an accident
11:35
Speaker 1: that killed someone else. It was the only danger to
11:39
Speaker 1: Lois Debbie knew how to imagine. What happened instead? was
11:44
Speaker 1: something she would never have anticipated. On the second week
11:50
Speaker 1: of April 1985, 27-year-old Lois Lloyd called home to Raton,
11:56
Speaker 1: New Mexico. She told her father she wanted to leave Odessa.
12:01
Speaker 1: Stan responded by traveling to West Texas, where he spent
12:05
Speaker 1: two days helping his daughter come to terms with what
12:08
Speaker 1: she was going through. Whatever difficulties Lois was facing at
12:12
Speaker 1: the time, the visit itself gave her father no indication
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Speaker 1: that another person intended to hurt her. He later remembered
12:21
Speaker 1: those two days as a wonderful visit. Stan was aware
12:25
Speaker 1: of his daughter's drinking problem, but as far as he knew,
12:29
Speaker 1: she had never been involved in any kind of violence.
12:32
Speaker 1: Her close friend Debbie was similarly unaware of anyone who
12:36
Speaker 1: might want to harm her. She later acknowledged that alcohol
12:40
Speaker 1: could change Lois' demeanor and make her belligerent, but that
12:44
Speaker 1: was very different from believing her friend was in immediate
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Speaker 1: danger from someone other than herself. Before Stan returned to
12:53
Speaker 1: New Mexico on Friday, April 12th, he offered his daughter
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Speaker 1: another way out. Lois could come back to New Mexico
13:01
Speaker 1: and live on the family ranch, but she declined. By
13:06
Speaker 1: that night, Stan Lloyd was headed home. At about 10
13:11
Speaker 1: o'clock that evening, Lois was seen leaving the mobile home
13:15
Speaker 1: she rented at 2519 Judy Avenue. Sometime that night, Lois'
13:21
Speaker 1: car was reportedly seen in Midland. It was a light
13:25
Speaker 1: blue four-door 1976 Pontiac Le Mans. and was fairly easy
13:31
Speaker 1: to distinguish from another similar car because of the bumper
13:34
Speaker 1: sticker that read, Turn off the nukes, turn on the sun.
13:39
Speaker 1: Before the next morning was over, that same Pontiac would
13:43
Speaker 1: become the first major crime scene in the investigation into
13:47
Speaker 1: what happened to Lois Lloyd. At approximately 5.30 on the
14:03
Speaker 1: morning of Saturday, April 13, 1985, a motorist traveling near
14:09
Speaker 1: Midland noticed a vehicle burning in a bar ditch between
14:13
Speaker 1: Interstate 20 and the North Service Road. The location was
14:18
Speaker 1: roughly two miles west of Loop 250, just outside Midland's
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Speaker 1: city limits. The passerby reported the fire to the Texas
14:27
Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety. and DPS contacted the Midland County
14:32
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office. Firefighters extinguished the blaze. Then, sheriff's deputies began
14:39
Speaker 1: examining what remained. The passenger compartment had been gutted, but
14:45
Speaker 1: it was what investigators found inside the trunk that immediately
14:49
Speaker 1: transformed the discovery from a vehicle fire into something much worse.
14:55
Speaker 1: There was a substantial amount of blood. Fragments of a
14:59
Speaker 1: human skull, hair, and brain matter. Deputies ran the Pontiac's
15:05
Speaker 1: license plates and discovered that the vehicle was registered to
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Speaker 1: a woman in Odessa, 27-year-old Lois Ann Lloyd. Normally, finding
15:15
Speaker 1: the registered owner of an abandoned vehicle wouldn't necessarily require
15:20
Speaker 1: an emergency response. Finding the owner of a burned vehicle
15:24
Speaker 1: containing pieces of a human skull and parts of what
15:28
Speaker 1: it was meant to protect was entirely different. Midland County
15:32
Speaker 1: authorities contacted the Ector County Sheriff's Office, and both departments
15:37
Speaker 1: immediately began trying to locate Lois. Within hours, another call
15:42
Speaker 1: came in. Around noon, an oil field worker contacted the
15:47
Speaker 1: Ector County Sheriff's Office after making a disturbing discovery near
15:51
Speaker 1: a pump jack on a Shell Oil Company lease in
15:55
Speaker 1: far west Odessa. The lease was located approximately a quarter
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Speaker 1: mile east of FM 866, between Interstate 20 and West
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Speaker 1: University Boulevard. Near the pump jack was a pool of blood.
16:10
Speaker 1: Deputies rushed to the area. The scene there bore unsettling
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Speaker 1: similarities to what authorities had already found in the trunk
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Speaker 1: of Lois Lloyd's burned Pontiac. Investigators discovered additional skull fragments, hair,
16:26
Speaker 1: and brain matter. As deputies spread through the surrounding field,
16:31
Speaker 1: they found another pool of blood. They also recovered a
16:35
Speaker 1: tire iron. Authorities considered the possibility that it had been
16:40
Speaker 1: used as the murder weapon. Investigators were dealing with two
16:44
Speaker 1: scenes in two different counties, separated by miles of West
16:49
Speaker 1: Texas oil field and highway. About ten Midland County deputies
16:54
Speaker 1: began searching the area between FM 1788, near an oil
16:58
Speaker 1: well site, and the location where Lois's burned Pontiac had
17:03
Speaker 1: been found. The efforts were fruitless. On Sunday, April 14th,
17:09
Speaker 1: searchers continued by ground vehicles and helicopter, but they found
17:13
Speaker 1: no body, no clues. Investigators began working outward from Lois's life.
17:21
Speaker 1: Deputies checked nightclubs she was known to frequent, hoping to
17:25
Speaker 1: identify someone who had seen her late Friday or knew
17:28
Speaker 1: where she had gone. Nothing useful surfaced. They also searched
17:34
Speaker 1: Lois' trailer on Judy Avenue. Hair recovered from her burned
17:38
Speaker 1: car and the shell oil lease appeared to have the
17:41
Speaker 1: same general color and texture as samples taken from a
17:45
Speaker 1: hairbrush inside the missing woman's home. Deputies interviewed her neighbors.
17:51
Speaker 1: One provided important information. The previous Friday, they'd seen Lois
17:57
Speaker 1: with someone approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall with a
18:01
Speaker 1: stocky build. The person wore a baseball cap and men's clothing.
18:06
Speaker 1: The witness, however, could not determine whether the individual was
18:10
Speaker 1: male or female. Investigators then made another significant connection to Lois.
18:17
Speaker 1: Near the pump jack where the blood and other biological
18:20
Speaker 1: material had been found, lawmen recovered a bracelet. Hector County
18:26
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Lieutenant Mark Donaldson was able to have it positively identified.
18:31
Speaker 1: The bracelet belonged to Lois Lloyd. Blood samples, bone fragments, hair,
18:38
Speaker 1: and brain tissue from the scenes in Hector and Midland
18:41
Speaker 1: counties were sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety
18:44
Speaker 1: Forensic Laboratory in Midland. Investigators hoped technicians there could determine
18:51
Speaker 1: whether the evidence from both locations came from the same
18:54
Speaker 1: person and whether the blood group was consistent with Lois's.
18:59
Speaker 1: On Monday, April 15th, Hector County Sheriff Bob Brookshire finally
19:04
Speaker 1: went public. The department provided newspapers with a photograph of
19:09
Speaker 1: Lois and information about her disappearance, along with a description
19:14
Speaker 1: of the unidentified person believed to have been seen with
19:17
Speaker 1: her Investigators wanted that person identified. The search made little
19:23
Speaker 1: progress that day. Privately, law enforcement had already reached a
19:28
Speaker 1: grim conclusion. They were probably not searching for a missing woman. Instead,
19:35
Speaker 1: they were searching for her body. The amount of brain
19:38
Speaker 1: tissue recovered from the two scenes was estimated to represent
19:42
Speaker 1: approximately two-thirds of a normal human brain. whoever that biological
19:48
Speaker 1: evidence belonged to. could not have survived. Investigators in Ector
19:54
Speaker 1: and Midland counties began developing essentially the same theory. Lois
19:59
Speaker 1: had most likely been killed at the Shell oil lease
20:02
Speaker 1: in western Ector County. Her body had then been placed
20:06
Speaker 1: inside the trunk of the Pontiac. The killer had driven
20:10
Speaker 1: somewhere else, most likely into Midland County, they believed, disposed
20:15
Speaker 1: of her remains, and finally abandoned the Pontiac near Interstate
20:20
Speaker 1: 20 before setting it on fire. Midland County Sheriff Gary
20:24
Speaker 1: Painter told reporters for the Midland Reporter News and the
20:28
Speaker 1: Odessa American that fire investigators found indications that an accelerant
20:34
Speaker 1: had been used, most likely gasoline. On Tuesday, April 16th,
20:41
Speaker 1: Hector County again put its own helicopter into the air,
20:45
Speaker 1: searching highways and open country in their jurisdiction and Midland County.
20:50
Speaker 1: Captain Gene Kloss believed the body might have been buried,
20:54
Speaker 1: so the department asked DPS in Austin for additional assistance,
20:59
Speaker 1: specifically a helicopter equipped with infrared heat-sensing equipment. the technology
21:05
Speaker 1: could detect the heat produced by a decomposing body for
21:09
Speaker 1: up to a year. That same day, forensic testing finally
21:14
Speaker 1: provided investigators with a stronger link. Authorities had obtained Lois'
21:19
Speaker 1: medical records from Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, and DPS
21:24
Speaker 1: forensic technicians compared her blood group with the samples recovered
21:29
Speaker 1: from the burned Pontiac and the Shell oil lease. They matched.
21:34
Speaker 1: Even then, sheriff's investigators stopped short of officially stating that
21:40
Speaker 1: Lois had been murdered. Without finding her body, there were
21:44
Speaker 1: questions they still could not answer. The searches continued daily.
21:49
Speaker 1: On April 18th, the DPS helicopter from Austin joined the effort.
21:56
Speaker 1: flying over oil fields and stretches of dusty, brushy, open
22:00
Speaker 1: land as investigators used its infrared detector in hopes of
22:05
Speaker 1: locating remains. The search expanded to around 100 square miles.
22:11
Speaker 1: Still nothing. Friends and relatives continued hoping that somehow Lois
22:17
Speaker 1: might still be alive. Law enforcement was far less optimistic.
22:22
Speaker 1: After repeatedly searching by ground and air, The Ector County
22:26
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office suspended the large-scale operation. Captain Gene Kloss acknowledged
22:32
Speaker 1: that they had simply run out of places to check.
22:36
Speaker 1: There was another practical question hanging over the investigation. Jurisdiction.
22:42
Speaker 1: The apparent killing site was in Ector County. The vehicle
22:46
Speaker 1: had been found in Midland County. and somewhere between those locations,
22:52
Speaker 1: they believed the body itself had disappeared. Authorities said the
22:57
Speaker 1: discovery of the body would likely determine which agency ultimately
23:02
Speaker 1: assumed responsibility for the homicide. Even after the organized searches stopped,
23:09
Speaker 1: three Ector County deputies remained assigned full-time to the investigation.
23:14
Speaker 1: They distributed flyers carrying Lois' description and photograph in local
23:19
Speaker 1: bars and continued interviewing people in hopes of finding anyone
23:23
Speaker 1: who could account for her movements after she was last
23:26
Speaker 1: known to be seen. Then, the following Tuesday, the case
23:31
Speaker 1: changed again. At approximately 10.30 on the morning of April 23, 1985,
23:40
Speaker 1: an oilfield crew entered a pasture about five miles north
23:44
Speaker 1: of Andrews, just west of U.S. Highway 385. Beside a
23:49
Speaker 1: large cactus bush there was the body of a woman.
23:53
Speaker 1: She was badly decomposed and clothed only in a sweatshirt
23:58
Speaker 1: and underwear. The workers who used the property normally entered
24:03
Speaker 1: the oil field from the west. That Tuesday, they happened
24:07
Speaker 1: to approach from the east, a completely coincidental change in
24:11
Speaker 1: routine that placed them where they could see the body.
24:15
Speaker 1: They contacted the Andrews County Sheriff's Office. Before deputies even
24:20
Speaker 1: arrived at the scene, the department notified investigators in Midland
24:25
Speaker 1: and Odessa. After more than a week of searching, there
24:29
Speaker 1: was a strong possibility that the woman lying in the
24:32
Speaker 1: Andrews County pasture was Lois Lloyd. As a formality, Andrews
24:48
Speaker 1: County Justice of the Peace G.A. Ragsdale pronounced the unidentified
24:53
Speaker 1: woman found north of Andrews City dead at the scene
24:58
Speaker 1: before releasing the body to Ector County authorities. The advanced
25:03
Speaker 1: decomposition made immediate identification impossible. Ector County Peace Justice Virgil
25:10
Speaker 1: Lumpy ordered an autopsy, and at approximately 6 o'clock that evening,
25:15
Speaker 1: the remains were sent to Dallas, where medical examiners would
25:19
Speaker 1: attempt to determine who she was. The timing was difficult
25:23
Speaker 1: to ignore. The woman found in Andrews County was estimated
25:28
Speaker 1: to have been dead for at least 10 days. Lois
25:32
Speaker 1: had been missing for 11. But the body was found
25:36
Speaker 1: 40 miles from where Lois' light blue 1976 Pontiac Le
25:40
Speaker 1: Mans was found burning just outside the Midland city limits,
25:45
Speaker 1: and 40 miles from where Roughnecks had discovered what looked
25:48
Speaker 1: like the scene of an unimaginably brutal crime near a
25:52
Speaker 1: pump jack in far west Odessa. Investigators sent a copy
25:57
Speaker 1: of Lois' fingerprints to Dallas alongside the body, hoping for
26:01
Speaker 1: a quick identification. Decomposition, however, had damaged the body too
26:07
Speaker 1: badly for that to work. The victim's fingerprints could not
26:11
Speaker 1: be read. The next option was dental records. Stan Lloyd
26:16
Speaker 1: went to his daughter's dentist in Raton, New Mexico, obtained
26:21
Speaker 1: Lois' records, and had them rushed to Texas. Hector County
26:26
Speaker 1: authorities forwarded them to Dallas, where examiners gave the case priority.
26:32
Speaker 1: On Friday, April 26th, the identification became official. The woman
26:37
Speaker 1: found beside the cactus in Andrews County was 27-year-old Lois
26:41
Speaker 1: Ann Lloyd. Subsequent testing also established that the blood, hair,
26:48
Speaker 1: skull fragments, and brain tissue recovered from the shell lease
26:53
Speaker 1: and the burned Pontiac belonged to her. Lois' body was
26:58
Speaker 1: returned home to Raton, where she was buried in Fairmont Cemetery.
27:02
Speaker 1: Around 400 people would eventually be interviewed in connection with
27:08
Speaker 1: Lois' murder. The site where her body was recovered produced
27:13
Speaker 1: little useful evidence, although examinations of the Pontiac's floor mats, carpeting,
27:19
Speaker 1: and other contents gave investigators at least some additional information.
27:25
Speaker 1: With Lois finally identified, the working theory became clearer. Authorities
27:31
Speaker 1: believed she had been killed at the Shell oil lease
27:33
Speaker 1: in far western Odessa. Her body was then transported approximately
27:38
Speaker 1: 40 miles north and dumped in Andrews County, after which
27:43
Speaker 1: her Pontiac was driven to and abandoned just west of
27:47
Speaker 1: Midland city limits and set on fire. If that sequence
27:52
Speaker 1: of events was correct, whoever killed Lois traveled around 100
27:56
Speaker 1: miles during the night of April 12th and into the
28:00
Speaker 1: early morning hours of April 13th. The physical evidence from
28:04
Speaker 1: a single murder had been scattered across three counties. Whether
28:09
Speaker 1: the killer intended to create jurisdictional confusion, investigators were left
28:15
Speaker 1: trying to reconstruct a homicide that had unfolded across a
28:18
Speaker 1: large section of West Texas. In at least one respect,
28:23
Speaker 1: the effort succeeded. Progress slowed. Months passed before investigators publicly
28:30
Speaker 1: revealed another significant development. On July 9, 1985, Ector County
28:37
Speaker 1: investigators acknowledged that despite months of work, useful physical clues
28:42
Speaker 1: had been extremely scarce. But the investigation had uncovered something
28:47
Speaker 1: important about the final hours of Lois' life. Authorities were
28:53
Speaker 1: no longer trying to identify only one person seen around
28:57
Speaker 1: her home. Now they were looking for two. Witnesses had
29:02
Speaker 1: helped investigators prepare composite drawings of a man and a
29:05
Speaker 1: woman who had been at Lois' mobile home during the
29:09
Speaker 1: evening of April 12th, only several hours before her burned
29:13
Speaker 1: car was discovered. According to Hector County Sheriff's Lieutenant Jerry Davis,
29:19
Speaker 1: both individuals were among the last people known to have
29:22
Speaker 1: seen Lois before she disappeared. The man was believed to
29:27
Speaker 1: be between 28 and 30 years old. He was described
29:31
Speaker 1: as either a dark-complexioned white man or a light-complexioned Hispanic man.
29:36
Speaker 1: approximately 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 10 inches. tall,
29:41
Speaker 1: and weighing somewhere between 160 and 180 pounds. He had
29:46
Speaker 1: a stocky build, dark collar-length hair, a full beard, and
29:51
Speaker 1: bushy eyebrows. He was wearing dirty blue jeans, a white
29:56
Speaker 1: t-shirt and baseball cap with a blue bill and blue
29:59
Speaker 1: front panel with white mesh around the rear. The woman
30:05
Speaker 1: appeared younger, believed to be between 23 and 26 years old.
30:10
Speaker 1: She was white, approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall, and
30:15
Speaker 1: between 120 and 130 pounds. Her hair was dark or black, shoulder-length,
30:22
Speaker 1: and was tucked behind her ear on the left side.
30:26
Speaker 1: She had high cheekbones and a star-shaped earring in her
30:30
Speaker 1: left ear and wore blue jeans and a light-colored baggy blouse.
30:35
Speaker 1: The pair had first been seen at Lois' home at
30:38
Speaker 1: approximately 6 o'clock on the evening of April 12. At
30:42
Speaker 1: that time, witnesses saw them in a white Chevrolet Malibu
30:46
Speaker 1: believed to be from model years 1975 through 1977. There
30:53
Speaker 1: was also another vehicle associated with activity at the home
30:57
Speaker 1: that day, and its distinct description provided investigators with several
31:02
Speaker 1: potentially identifiable details. It was a small Chevy pickup, possibly
31:08
Speaker 1: a Chevrolet LUV, painted a dull dark brown. The word
31:14
Speaker 1: Chevrolet appeared to have been painted by hand in white
31:18
Speaker 1: across the tailgate. There was a dent along the upper
31:21
Speaker 1: edge of the right front fender and a long white
31:24
Speaker 1: scratch along the pickup bed just behind the cab. Witnesses
31:30
Speaker 1: later saw the man return to Lois' home at approximately
31:33
Speaker 1: 10 o'clock that night. When authorities released the composite drawings
31:39
Speaker 1: and vehicle descriptions, they also revealed the most disturbing details
31:43
Speaker 1: yet about how Lois had died. She had been severely beaten. Then,
31:50
Speaker 1: investigators believed, she was run over with her own Pontiac.
31:55
Speaker 1: Because substantial amounts of blood were found along the Pontiac's
31:59
Speaker 1: undercarriage and inside the right front wheel well, the evidence
32:04
Speaker 1: suggested that Lois' skull had been crushed beneath the right
32:08
Speaker 1: front tire. The tire iron recovered near the Shell oil
32:13
Speaker 1: lease remained a possible weapon in the beating. Authorities still
32:18
Speaker 1: hoped someone would recognize the man, the woman, or one
32:22
Speaker 1: of the vehicles and provide the information necessary to finally
32:26
Speaker 1: determine exactly what happened at the oil field that night.
32:31
Speaker 1: The case had gone cold, and that's where it still
32:35
Speaker 1: stands today. The man and the woman were never identified,
32:40
Speaker 1: and besides a few lines in an article about Ector
32:43
Speaker 1: County cold cases in 1993, Lois Lloyd's name didn't see
32:48
Speaker 1: print again for 40 years. Her father, Stan Lloyd, died
32:53
Speaker 1: on December 8, 2005, in Albuquerque. Her mother, Betty, died
32:59
Speaker 1: there on August 10, 2012. Oddly, in news reports released
33:05
Speaker 1: in both 2025 and 2026, the writer quotes the Ector
33:10
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Department as saying, quote, Lois had ties to
33:14
Speaker 1: Ector County, And although we don't know if she had
33:16
Speaker 1: children or close family still in the area, investigators say
33:21
Speaker 1: they would love to speak with anyone who knew her
33:24
Speaker 1: or her husband at the time. End quote. But there
33:28
Speaker 1: is absolutely no evidence Lois was ever married or had children. Recently,
33:34
Speaker 1: composite sketches of the man and woman seen at Lois'
33:38
Speaker 1: home were updated to reflect what they might look like
33:41
Speaker 1: now in 2026. If you have any information about the
33:48
Speaker 1: murder of Lois Ann Lloyd, please contact Odessa Crime Stoppers
33:52
Speaker 1: at 432-333-8477 or submit a tip anonymously at 333tips. org. If
34:04
Speaker 1: you'd like to join Goncold's mission to shine a light
34:08
Speaker 1: on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show
34:12
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34:31
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.