Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / Bridgette Gearen Part 1: Killing on Crystal Beach

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Bridgette Gearen Part 1: Killing on Crystal Beach · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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The Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter. Listener discretion
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is advised. Located seventy one miles southeast of Houston, Texas, the semi
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secluded Bolivar Peninsula is one of the state's most popular vacation destinations. Boulevar's coast
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stretches about twenty seven miles across the Gulf of Mexico and is home to what
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some say are the most beautiful beaches in Texas. The approximately twenty four hundred
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residents that lived in the southeastern most portion of Galveston County in two thousand and
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seven, like they are today, were mostly split up between five communities,
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Kaplan Port, Boulevar, Gilchrist High Island, and Crystal Beach. High Island
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perhaps has the richest history of them all. It's where one of the last
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of Jean Lafitte's freebooters turned Texas revolution utionary, Charles Kronia, was buried in
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eighteen ninety three. It's also the area that reaped the most benefits of the
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peninsula's major oil boom in the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. Because many houses
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on the Boulevard Peninsula are vacation homes. These days, there are significantly more
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dwellings than dwellers. The folks who live there are largely retirees, something that
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wildly skews median household income numbers, but that also helped define the area as
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a place where life moves at a slower speed. Most residents who are still
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working commute to the nearby cities of Port Arthur, Galveston, and Beaumont,
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which certainly adds to Bolvar's laid back way of living. Though ranching and agriculture
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once fueled the local economy, earning the peninsula the nickname the bread Basket of
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Galveston and the watermelon capital of Texas, well before the two thousands, it
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was tourist cash that kept the lights on, especially in Crystal Beach. Crystal
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Beach is a place where folks from all over Texas and beyond come seeking respite,
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whether that means just sunbathing on the beach or taking in one of the
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many recreational activities there, such as saltwater fishing, hunting, camping, or
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swimming. It's the holidays, particularly when folks come down to party. The
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visitors from many different walks of life intermingling with the locals for a good time,
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earned Crystal Beach the nickname the Zoo. The Moniker probably wouldn't have stuck
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like it did if it weren't for the hooton and hollerin that went along with
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the beach gatherings, which often consisted of bonfires and blaring boomboxes, and almost
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always, of course, beer. No place is immune to but Crystal Beach
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sees little vacation in college kids or roughnecks. Throwing loud parties on the beach
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is about as rowdy as the community gets, one resident said in two thousand
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and seven, adding that underage drinking seems to be the worst outcome a vast
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majority of the time, even during high volume times. Violence at the Zoo
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is rare, and a crime such as homicide almost unheard of. In July
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of two thousand and seven, however, a crime shook the laid back community
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of Crystal Beach to its core. Ever since, the brutal murder of Bridget
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Gearin, shocking in both motive and perpetration, has haunted the Bolvar Peninsula town.
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Bridget Lynn Gearen was born to parents Pamela Geeran and Bobby Goodson, the
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second on August seventeenth, nineteen seventy eight, in Galveston County, Texas.
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She grew up in Orange, a small city about thirty miles east of Beaumont.
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Orange is the easternmost city in Texas, just across the Sabine River from
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Louisiana. In nineteen ninety six, Bridget graduated from Orangefield High School. Friends
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described her as a loving person. She was fun to be around, they
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said, and tended to veer toward the bright side of things. Tragedy,
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no doubt, had at least some role in shaping Bridget's character going into adulthood.
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In March of nineteen ninety eight, her old older brother Bobby, was
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walking alongside southbound Highway sixty two in Orange when a driver making his way around
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a curve there struck and killed him. Bobby was only twenty years old.
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Even before the terrible event, Bridget was known to try and make the folks
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around her feel better, often lightning morose or gloomy moods with bursts of comedic
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expression, such as doing a silly little dance. She liked to make people
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laugh, and Bridget was a hard worker, as her family and colleagues attested
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to when she worked at Mazio's Pizza in Orange, coworker said she wore all
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the hats cook, cashier, waitress, and then some. An intelligent and
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capable individual, she had little problem bouncing back and forth between positions. On
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a social media account, Bridget described herself as someone who asks a million questions
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about anything that pops into her head, either to herself, she wrote,
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or to whoever happens to be in the room at that moment. Perhaps it
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was that curiosity that led her to pursue work as a legal secretary with a
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keen eye on later becoming an attorney herself. Eventually, she landed a job
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at Provost and Humphrey law firm in Beaumont. But it wasn't just Bridget's work
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that kept her busy. At age twenty eight, in two thousand and seven,
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Bridget lived with her seventy four year old grandfather, Jimmy Wayne Geeren,
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so she could help take care of the aging man. On the same social
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media account, as she described herself, she called Jimmy her hero, someone
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who she said had saved her so many times and in so many ways throughout
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her life. The two had an unbreakable bond and it wasn't just Bridget taking
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care of him. It was a mutual arrangement. Jimmy had always looked after
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his granddaughter and he wasn't about to stop just because the old bones were starting
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to creak a little. Plus, he had another granddaughter to look after,
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now a great granddaughter, Jimmy was more than happy to take on an active
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role in the life of Bridget's daughter, Kira. In fact, Bridget wrote
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that Jimmy was there for Kira just as he had been for her. He'd
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been a good influence on her, the only man she knew, Bridget wrote
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on social media, who is a truly good guy? That goodness rubbed off
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on her. She was the first to help a friend in need and always
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gave everyone a hug, whether it was to try and lift their spirits or
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simply a greeting. Everyone was important to Bridget, but Kiro was her world.
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Motherhood, her aunt Lisa said, was the most important thing in the
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world to her. To her mother, Pamela, Bridget was still her baby
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girl, grown up or not. In July of two thousand and seven,
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friends and colleagues at Provost and Umphrey Law firm invited Bridget Geerin and her two
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year old daughter Kira, to a weekend getaway. Four couples and their children
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rented a beach house on the Boulevard Peninsula at Crystal Beach, just a short
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walk away from the busiest piece of the coast there, the one nicknamed the
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Zoo. Bridget and Kyra's father Brandon, might have been the fifth, had
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the engaged couple not broken things off not long before. Tragically, it will
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never be known if the break would prove to only be a temporary one.
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When the getaway drew near, Bridget was conflicted her close friend Allison was throwing
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a birthday party that weekend for her seventeen year old daughter, with whom she
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was also close. Since she'd already committed to going to Crystal Beach with her
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colleagues, Ultimately, Bridget decided that's what she needed to do. The decision
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was essentially made out of integrity, something she had in spades. When the
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beach weekend finally came, it was likely a welcome retreat from Bridget's busy life.
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The rented house where they were staying was just one among the vibrantly painted
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residences, all of which rested on stilts at least ten feet above the ground,
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but because it was midsummer, many of them sat empty, some unoccupied
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by the owners, and some unrented. Crystal Beach was busy enough at the
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time, but because it wasn't a holiday weekend, the crowd wasn't overwhelming.
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The rented house was about as short a walk to the beach as it gets,
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so they had an ideal spot at about the halfway point of the trip.
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As the night of Saturday, July fourteenth, two thousand and seven neared
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its end, Bridget and a few of the folks she was staying with decided
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to go for a late night ride around the beach, while a few stayed
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behind to keep an eye on the sleeping children. Though the moon's phase only
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allowed for a sliver of light to reflect from its surface, a moonlit tore
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of the beach seemed like a relaxing nightcap. At approximately eleven fifty six pm,
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Bridget left the house alone, heading down the tall flight of stairs,
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a little before the others were ready to, perhaps to enjoy a peaceful minute
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to herself. Those still inside heard the rusty hinges on the stairs gate creak
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open and then closed a minute and a half later, it was initially reported
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the others followed Bridget down. When they got to the bottom of the stairs,
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they looked for her, but Bridget was nowhere. In sane this moment
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began a long, frantic night of searching and ended in unimaginable tragedy. The
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Hargin women seemed to have it all. We We're blessed, My mom was
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amazing, but detectives would soon discover inside the house there were the bodies of
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two women. A story of betrayal you would struggle to believe if it wasn't
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true. I am just praying to guy, this is a sick to from
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forty eight hours. This is Blood is Thicker The Hargin Family Killings. Listen
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to Blood Is Thicker The Hargin Family Killings, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Just minutes past midnight on Sunday, July fifteenth, two thousand and seven,
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the friends and colleagues with whom twenty eight year old Bridget Year was spending the
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weekend began looking for her after she seemingly disappeared from outside the house where they
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were staying. As they looked for Bridget and called out for her, other
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beach goers joined in on the search effort. For several hours, her friends
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and folks who volunteered combed the beach and drove around the neighborhood streets, But
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as the sun began its slow ascent over the horizon, none of the searchers
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had any luck finding her. Bridget's friends knew something wasn't right. There was
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no way in hell the loving, attentive mother would have gone off and left
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her two year old daughter for this long. After looking a little more with
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the helpful addition of sunlight, and still coming up empty handed, Bridget's travel
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companions called nine to one one. The jurisdiction was under the Galveston County Sheriff's
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Office. The call emergency operators quickly ascertained might be related to another they had
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received about an hour earlier. At approximately six twenty a m. About one
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hundred yards from where Bridget Gearen was last seen on leave, military paramedics who
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were camping on the beach woke up and opened the door of their camper truck.
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Immediately they noticed the body of a young woman partially floating where the calm
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waves gently lapped against the shore. Galveston County Sheriff's Lieutenant Tommy Hanson was on
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call that weekend, but he had no idea his summons to the scene would
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begin a sixteen year plus long investigation. When authorities arrived on Crystal Beach at
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the scene of the discovery of a woman's body, many were not prepared.
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Lieutenant Hanson was certainly among the most seasoned deputies there, having been with the
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department at that point for well over thirty years, but even he was shocked
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by the brutality he was witnessing. The woman had been bludgeoned on her face
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and head with an unknown blunt object. She was partially unclothed, though she
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wore a red haltertop, she wore no bottoms and none could be found at
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the scene. Hanson knew right away the likelihood the victim was sexually assaulted was
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high. It was simply a law of probability. This young woman, Lieutenant
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Hanson thought to himself, had been tortured, A complicated idea to grasp,
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but plain and simple to ascertain. A preliminary autopsy soon after would prove the
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law man right. The woman had suffered a brutal sexual assault, a terrible
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beating, and had been strangled. It was tentative, of course, but
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the state of the woman's body made these details obvious. The body was later
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identified as twenty eight year old Bridget Lynn Gearin. Galveston County Sheriff's deputies wasted
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no time combing the beach for clues. They searched by mounted posse while bloodhounds
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and their Galveston City Police handlers attempted to sniff out evidence or perhaps the killer's
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trail. Immeasurable amounts of sand were sifted and the shorelines carefully inspected for anything
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that might have washed up. The organization Texas Ecusearch quickly moved into the area
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and set up a mobile command post. Other deputies meanwhile descended upon the community
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to seek out information, speaking not only with residents and local business owners,
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but also renters and campers. Flyers that had been quickly created were passed around
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at every stop. These flyers asked for anyone who had seen Bridget Gearin at
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any time during the weekend to call the Galveston County Sheriff's office. She was
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described as a white female with brown hair and blue eyes. She stood five
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feet three inches tall and weighed around one hundred and ten pounds. Bridget was
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wearing a red haltertop and cut off blue jeans. The description continued. The
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shorts, it's been reported, have never been found. Major Ray Tutelamando of
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the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, in fact, commented that investigators were lacking many
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details and clues. Altogether, a public plea was made for folks to come
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forward with anything they knew, whether or not they thought it Menadam, they
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severely lacked leads. Major Tutelamando said, even after a couple days of ceaseless
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effort, the first forty eight hours ended with little progress, and it was
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not for a lack of trying. No one had any idea if Bridget's killer
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was someone with whom she was acquainted or an opportunist. By Wednesday, July
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eighteenth, two thousand and seven, local business owner Bob McMeekin had managed to
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collect five thousand dollars toward a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
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The Bob's Sports Bar owner remarked that the stretch of beach between where Bridget
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disappeared and where her body was found was one of the busiest surely, he
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added, at least one of the folks out there saw something. That same
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day, the Galveston County Medical Examiner released the results of the autopsy. The
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depth was ruled a homicide, of course, and was caused by manual strangulation
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and blunt force trauma to the face and head, described as massive injuries.
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Bridget, the me determined, was the victim of a bruder sexual assault.
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Within the week, the pathologist released further details, including the determination that Bridget
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had fought hard for her life. Not only did this provide a potential clue
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as far as the perpetrator's appearance, since investigators believed there was a good chance
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the killer or killers might have had injuries like bruising, scratching, or even
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bite marks, but also it gave them potential forensic evidence. This evidence,
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on which investigators refused to specifically comment, was sent to a Texas Department of
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Public Safety crime lab. It was also reported that the assault, or more
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accurately, multiple assaults, might have lasted as long as two hours. The
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next day, Thursday, July nineteenth, two thousand and seven, Bridget Lyn
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Geeren was memorialized in the chapel at Dorman Funeral Home in Orange before being buried
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in Autumn Oak's Memorial Park. Over a golden white casket blanketed by pink flowers,
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the reverend ed Rawls poignantly stated that we all must face the evils of
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this world. Bridget's assault and murder should not have happened. More than one
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hundred people attended the funeral. Family and friends of the beloved young woman embraced
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and wept while sharing memories and condolences between the service and the procession. Bridget
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Gearin, they remembered, was so kind and vibrant, so full of life,
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that it was difficult to imagine she was gone. None of it felt
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real. At the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, leads were pouring in. They'd
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followed at least one hundred almost right off the bat, though going by the
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department's initial comment to reporters that details were scarce because leads were lacking. The
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lines of investigation were more about the usual suspects than actually following clues, but
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plenty of tips had been called. In late Wednesday, the eighteenth, and
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into the following morning, investigators were pursuing one tip in Beaumont, about sixty
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one miles northeast. Besides doing interviews there, Galveston County authorities were conducting some
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type of surveillance operation that was never publicly explained. The tip was reportedly nothing
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more than a grudge fueled hoax perpetrated by one neighbor against another. Because investigators
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lost fifteen hours working this lead, the Sheriff's office was considering bringing the tipster
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up on false report charges, but it's unclear if they ever did. Another
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tip led Lieutenant Tommy Hansen to East Texas, but it too was no good.
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Deputies continued to work throughout the week and win weekend, handing flyers to
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and speaking with beach goers and residents, but the information that resulted continued to
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lead investigators to nothing but roadblocks and dead ends. Their luck in that regard,
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however, was soon to change. On Tuesday, July twenty fourth,
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two thousand and seven, the Galveston County Sheriff's Office held a special press conference
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meant to persuade someone to come forward with what they knew. Major Ray Tutelamando
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made an appeal. Investigators had zip, he said, and knowing someone out
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there saw something, he pleaded for them to come forward. Lieutenant Tommy Hanson,
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the lead investigator on the case said much the same thing. An individual
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out there somewhere has said something. Someone out there was talking about what they
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did. The lieutenant added he asked for folks who took photos or videos on
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Crystal Beach during the weekend of July fourteenth and fifteen to come forward and share
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them. There was a reason the cops had nothing. After ruling out several
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people who knew or were acquainted with Bridget, investigators had concluded that the horrific
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attack was at the hands of a stranger. The person or persons involved had
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no ties to the twenty eight year old woman. Lieutenant Hanson even went so
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far as to say the brutality of the act suggested it was not the rapist
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and killer's first time perpetrating such a crime. The most powerful plea at this
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press conference came from the family Jimmy Wayne Geeren, the grandfather for whom Bridget
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cared so deeply, who she declared was her hero, sobbed and solibly while
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asking for help. Bridget's brother, Jimmy Goodson, a twenty seven year old
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active duty marine, also had a plea for the sake of his sister,
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For the sake of her daughter Kira, for the sake of his family,
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he asked for someone to please come forward with what they know. Both Jimmy's
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words inspired others to take charge in more ways than one. A couple days
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later, it was announced that the Bolevar Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
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had doubled the reward fund by meeting with and collecting funds from local business owners.
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The reward now stood at ten thousand dollars. Bob's Sports Bar owner Bob
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mcmeekon, who was also a member of the board, was continuing his flyer
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campaign by distributing the updated information to all local businesses. The First Texas Bank
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display the reward information on their marquee. Those things happen everywhere else, mcneekon
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told a reporter for The Orange Leader, a newspaper from Bridget's hometown, just
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not here. The people of Crystal Beach wanted Bridget Gearn's murder solved. Meanwhile,
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Galveston County Sheriff's investigators were getting impatient waiting for the evidence they sent to
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a state crime lab to be processed. On Saturday, July twenty eighth,
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two thousand and seven, the Galveston County Sheriff's office announced that they finally had
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a lead that might get them somewhere. As the result of new information,
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investigators were now seeking a very specific vehicle. Witnesses oddly described as young kids
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had come forward and told authorities that while gathering around a bonfire on the beach,
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they heard a scream. They all turned toward the commotion saw a dark
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colored suv. Though whatever took place happened on the other side of the vehicle,
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the witnesses were able to see legs and feet between the ground and the
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SUVs undercarriage. The people on the other side got into the vehicle and it
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sped off, but the witnesses couldn't tell if Bridget was forced into the suv
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or if she got in willingly. Though it didn't have any evidentiary value,
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realistically, it was easy to ascertain the young woman was forced. The scream
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the witnesses heard said as much. The folks who knew Bridget best described her
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as cautious and afraid, presumably meaning fearful of falling victim to a predator.
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Her mother, Pamela, later backed up that notion, calling what happened to
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Bridget her nightmare come true. She added that her daughter was afraid of the
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dark Bridget's friend Allison told the Hue and Chronicle she would never have gone off
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with strange men willingly, even if she'd met them earlier that day. It
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just wasn't in her character. Multiple men were involved in this crime. The
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witnesses who saw the vehicle believed all of the several witness accounts corroborated one another.
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The vehicle was described as a newer model small to mid size suv with
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four doors, either dark blue, gray, or black. It had a
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spared tire mounted to the back, and the third center brake light was positioned
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at the top of the back window. The windows were darkly tinted, described
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as a limo tent, and the car was clean and factory stock. News
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about Bridget Gearan's case in the media abruptly ended following the announcement of the dark
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colored suv and presumed abduction, perhaps suggesting reporters trusted the case was near a
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resolution. It was not, though confident they'd make an arrest in the future.
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The Galveston County Sheriff's office had little evidence and tons more boxes to check,
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including a significant number of sexual assaults in the areas surrounding Boulevar Peninsula in
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places like Beaumont, Galveston, and Houston. Though sexual assaults were down slightly
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in each from the previous year, the numbers were still significant, particularly of
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course, in Houston. Murders in Beaumont and Galveston, however, were up
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and by fifty percent. In the former Investigators had traveled to Crosby, Orange
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and several other Texas cities, chasing down leads that ultimately got them no closer
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to finding Bridget's killer or killers, in between short reward advertisements over the next
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couple months. In mid August, it was reported that Galveston County Sheriff's Office
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investigators were busy sifting through and following up on more than one hundred and eighty
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tips and leads that had come their way several months before. In March two
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thousand and seven, a forty six year old woman had been abducted at gunpoint
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as she walked down the street in Port Arthur. She was then driven to
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an alleyway where her captor brutally beat and raped her. She was left nude
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and bloodied in the alley. The suspect's car didn't match the description of the
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dark colored suv in Bridget's case, but someone capable of such a crime is
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likely capable of taking it just one step further. It's one of the many
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examples of the leads the Galveston County authorities had to pursue, one of many
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that presumably led nowhere, though the case remained active, extremely so, Lieutenant
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time Hanson said he could only describe the leads that he was following as of
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interest. Nothing was pointing them to a strong suspect, not yet. The
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tragedy of Bridget's death was amplified at the beginning of the following year. On
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Tuesday, January fifteenth, two thousand and eight, six months to the day
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after Bridget's violent death, seventy four year old Jimmy Wayne Geeren, the victim's
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grandfather, died suddenly while driving in Newton County near Devil's Pocket. Jimmy suffered
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a heart attack without breaking his truck, left the roadway, and he was
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later found in it, deceased. After Bridget's murder, Jimmy wasn't the same.
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It was as if he'd lost his will to go on. He was
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Bridget's hero and she was everything to him. The uncertainty and the lack of
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accountability for her killer or killers was unbearable. Toward the end of the summer
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of two thousand and eight, around the year anniversary of Bridget Gearan's brutal murder,
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it was announced that Galveston County Sheriff's Office investigator Lieutenant Tommy Hansen was onto
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something multiple persons of interest. Just as things were heating up, however,
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Mother Nature threw about as big a wrench into the investigation as is imaginable.
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That's next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime. If you have any
30:36
information about the two thousand and seven murder of Bridget Lynn Geeren, please contact
30:41
the Galveston County Sheriff's Office at four zero nine seven sixty six two three zero
30:48
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