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Becky Martin: The February Slayings Part 2 · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: The Gone Call. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
0:05
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised.
0:09
Speaker 2: The February nineteen sixty seven rape and murder of thirty
0:13
Speaker 2: eight year old Mildred May devastated her family and stumped
0:17
Speaker 2: the Fort Worth Police. Though there were apparent witnesses and
0:22
Speaker 2: evidence found in the form of the woman's discarded purse
0:25
Speaker 2: contents some distance from where her body was found, detectives
0:30
Speaker 2: couldn't come up with a viable suspect. The crime got
0:34
Speaker 2: plenty of attention in the newspapers and on local television
0:37
Speaker 2: news for weeks, but at about the same time the
0:41
Speaker 2: stories dwindled the case went cold. For years. There was
0:45
Speaker 2: seldom mention of Mildred's murder in the media, and her
0:49
Speaker 2: case file collected dust in a filing cabinet at the
0:52
Speaker 2: police station. Even when another abduction and slang took place
0:57
Speaker 2: six years later and in the same month that Mildred
1:00
Speaker 2: was violently taken, not a mention of her case can
1:04
Speaker 2: be found. This victim, the second in the series of
1:08
Speaker 2: crimes that would eventually be dubbed the February Slangs, was
1:12
Speaker 2: twenty one year old Becky Martin.
1:34
Speaker 1: Well, I'm gonna look it up on the Internet, and
1:36
Speaker 1: when I look I was just amazed that her case
1:40
Speaker 1: didn't show up on the ward whole case, it didn't
1:45
Speaker 1: show up at all.
1:45
Speaker 3: It was just like it didn't exist.
2:16
Speaker 2: Born Becky Berlin Whittaker on August twelfth, nineteen fifty one,
2:21
Speaker 2: in Fort Worth, Becky was one of four children in
2:24
Speaker 2: her household. Growing up, she attended Tremble High School, also
2:29
Speaker 2: in Fort Worth. A straight A student, Becky was intelligent
2:34
Speaker 2: and described as happy and friendly. She never met a stranger.
2:40
Speaker 2: Becky was still in high school and working as a
2:42
Speaker 2: waitress on nights and weekends when she met David Martin,
2:46
Speaker 2: who worked for Lone Star Gas Company at the time.
2:50
Speaker 2: David was a little older than Becky, but they hit
2:52
Speaker 2: it off as friends right away. The two got to
2:55
Speaker 2: know each other well and their friendship blossomed. Frequented the
3:00
Speaker 2: Burger drive in where Becky waited tables on Miller Avenue.
3:05
Speaker 2: Eventually they started dating. Even before Becky finished high school.
3:10
Speaker 2: The two spoke often of marriage, and though she wanted
3:14
Speaker 2: to drop out so they could tie the knot, David
3:17
Speaker 2: insisted that they not marry until after she graduate. Becky
3:22
Speaker 2: graduated in nineteen sixty nine, and her and David wasted
3:26
Speaker 2: little time getting married. They welcomed a baby girl into
3:30
Speaker 2: their lives shortly thereafter. Becky began taking classes at Tarrant
3:35
Speaker 2: County Junior College in the fall of nineteen seventy two,
3:39
Speaker 2: and had also begun waiting tables at Kip's Big Boy
3:43
Speaker 2: on University Drive. Around that same time. David too had
3:48
Speaker 2: just undergone a change in employment. He no longer worked
3:52
Speaker 2: for Lone Star Gas by this time, having since taken
3:55
Speaker 2: a job as a truck driver for the fort Worth
3:58
Speaker 2: Independent School District. David described Becky as a great mother
4:03
Speaker 2: who wanted to take her daughter everywhere she went. He
4:07
Speaker 2: said she'd have taken her to school with her if
4:09
Speaker 2: she could. Becky did take little Carrie to work with
4:13
Speaker 2: her sometimes. We did everything together, David said. We had
4:18
Speaker 2: two ten speed bikes with a carrier on one for Carrie.
4:23
Speaker 2: On Wednesday, February seventh, nineteen seventy three, Becky and David
4:28
Speaker 2: were in the process of moving to their new home
4:31
Speaker 2: in Everman, a fort Worth suburb. They'd begun moving the
4:35
Speaker 2: day before. Their baby daughter had caught the flu, so
4:39
Speaker 2: it was hectic managing moving Becky's job and school work,
4:43
Speaker 2: David working and caring for the toddler. Becky was forced
4:48
Speaker 2: to skip class on Monday the fifth to nurse for
4:51
Speaker 2: the sick child, and though David expected her to skip,
4:54
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, she had an exam and insisted that she
4:58
Speaker 2: couldn't afford to miss it. It was cold and raining,
5:02
Speaker 2: and Becky drove to the Terrant County Junior College south
5:06
Speaker 2: of campus to attend her English class. David Martin remembers
5:10
Speaker 2: the day, well.
5:13
Speaker 1: We were moving. That evening, well, it was really raining hard.
5:18
Speaker 1: We had a load of furniture on the pickup and
5:22
Speaker 1: had a talk over it. We got to the new
5:24
Speaker 1: house and she said, well, I got to go to school.
5:28
Speaker 1: She had some final exams at night she had to
5:32
Speaker 1: go take so just right up the road. It wasn't
5:35
Speaker 1: probably two miles up there to the school. So she said,
5:39
Speaker 1: I'll be home early. I know this stuff and I'll
5:43
Speaker 1: be able to finish my kiss early and leave as
5:45
Speaker 1: soon as I'm finished. And normally she didn't get home,
5:49
Speaker 1: she wouldn't get home till about nine o'clock at night
5:51
Speaker 1: on a normal night at school. But she said I
5:54
Speaker 1: should be home by seven point thirtieth.
5:56
Speaker 3: The ladies, I said, okay.
5:59
Speaker 1: So anyway, I stayed at the house and she was
6:02
Speaker 1: going to help me unload the trip when she got home.
6:05
Speaker 1: And our daughter was really sick. I had a little
6:08
Speaker 1: we had a little baby girl, and at the time
6:12
Speaker 1: she was really sick. He was running a high fever.
6:14
Speaker 1: So I didn't want to get her out in the
6:16
Speaker 1: out in the rain and stuff, you know.
6:18
Speaker 2: And later Wednesday night, at about ten, Becky hadn't shown
6:23
Speaker 2: back up at the house.
6:25
Speaker 1: Seven thirty came and went, eight thirty came and went,
6:29
Speaker 1: nine thirty come and went. I was getting really worried.
6:32
Speaker 1: By then.
6:33
Speaker 2: A classmate told David that she did indeed attend the
6:37
Speaker 2: class and take the test. She finished early and left
6:41
Speaker 2: class at around eight thirty. David, worried she might have
6:45
Speaker 2: had car trouble, bundled up their daughter and went looking
6:48
Speaker 2: for her. He drove the campus's parking lot row by
6:52
Speaker 2: row and finally spotted Becky's car.
6:55
Speaker 1: So about ten o'clock, I was really worried, so I
7:00
Speaker 1: modeled up my daughter put her in the trail, still
7:03
Speaker 1: loaded with fine cher so we drove up to the
7:06
Speaker 1: schoo well. There was a few cars scattered on the
7:10
Speaker 1: lot parking lot south parking lot of the schoo and
7:14
Speaker 1: it was still pouring down rain, and I saw her
7:16
Speaker 1: car sitting out there, and we drove up to it
7:20
Speaker 1: and the door was a jar on it.
7:22
Speaker 2: When he got out to inspect it, he found muddy
7:25
Speaker 2: footprints smeared on the seats and dash, and mud caked
7:29
Speaker 2: on the tires, which detective said appeared to be a
7:33
Speaker 2: type found abundantly at Lake Arlington. The muddy tires were
7:38
Speaker 2: especially concerning since Becky should have never left asphalt between
7:42
Speaker 2: her house and the college. Books and class notes were
7:46
Speaker 2: scattered on the floor of the back seat as if
7:49
Speaker 2: they'd been hastily thrown, and a wet umbrella was also within.
7:54
Speaker 2: The keys weren't there, but David had another set. The
7:57
Speaker 2: car started and didn't appear to be having any problems.
8:02
Speaker 2: Note cards Becky had been using for English class were
8:05
Speaker 2: found approximately one hundred and fifty feet from the automobile,
8:09
Speaker 2: strewn by the wind. In the lot.
8:12
Speaker 1: There was papers all over the ground soak, it wet
8:16
Speaker 1: and it's winded, blown, scared of and I picked one
8:20
Speaker 1: of them up and it was her papers. So I
8:23
Speaker 1: was really panicked in and I got back in the truck.
8:26
Speaker 1: I didn't touch the car or anything. I drove around
8:29
Speaker 1: to the security office and they were sitting in the
8:32
Speaker 1: office in there, and I tried to tell them what
8:35
Speaker 1: was going on, what the deal was, so they said, well,
8:38
Speaker 1: we'll check it out.
8:40
Speaker 2: Becky was petite. She stood only five feet one inch
8:44
Speaker 2: tall and weighed about one hundred pounds. Her hair was
8:48
Speaker 2: long and reddish brown in color. That evening, she had
8:52
Speaker 2: left the house dressed in Levi's bell bottoms, a red
8:56
Speaker 2: shirt and a blue corduroy jacket.
9:00
Speaker 1: Well, I got to do something with my daughter because
9:02
Speaker 1: she was just burning up with fever.
9:04
Speaker 3: My mom and dad lived about.
9:05
Speaker 1: Two miles up the road the other direction, toward Ford,
9:09
Speaker 1: so I took my daughter up there.
9:11
Speaker 3: Well, my dad we got in his.
9:13
Speaker 1: Truck and come back to the college campus. Dad was driving,
9:18
Speaker 1: and we went out there and car was there and
9:22
Speaker 1: talked to security is curiously.
9:23
Speaker 3: Well there's nothing we could do, you know.
9:25
Speaker 1: She I probably rode home with somebody else. But anyway,
9:29
Speaker 1: I called the Fort Worth PD and reported it, and
9:33
Speaker 1: they were forever getting there, and we were waiting on
9:36
Speaker 1: the lot and they were forever getting there. When they
9:38
Speaker 1: got there, they said, well, there's nothing we can do
9:40
Speaker 1: about it. For seventy two hours, it's just considered a
9:44
Speaker 1: missing person.
9:45
Speaker 3: They said, maybe your wife left you.
9:48
Speaker 1: I said no, Well, they wouldn't do anything for seventy
9:52
Speaker 1: two hours. They wouldn't touch the thing, and so anyway,
9:56
Speaker 1: I was just panicked, and it was by this time
9:58
Speaker 1: it was midnight or later. The first thing we've done
10:02
Speaker 1: is drove around. They said, well, maybe she went home
10:05
Speaker 1: with somebody, another family member or something. So we drove
10:09
Speaker 1: around to different family member's houses. Of course, the lights
10:13
Speaker 1: were out and they were sleep and there was no cars,
10:17
Speaker 1: you know, movement or anything. So we were just went
10:20
Speaker 1: by our house, our old house, and our new house
10:23
Speaker 1: several times. We just kind of drove around in a
10:26
Speaker 1: panic most of the.
10:27
Speaker 2: Night while the Fort Worth Police contained their searches for
10:43
Speaker 2: twenty one year old Becky Martin to parks, small fields,
10:47
Speaker 2: and wooded areas near Arrant County Junior College. Her husband, David,
10:52
Speaker 2: was longing for a more aggressive effort. He came across
10:56
Speaker 2: some help the morning following his wife's disappearance.
11:00
Speaker 1: Next morning got mid morning, I got a knock on
11:03
Speaker 1: the door and it was Chief of police. From everyone
11:06
Speaker 1: to the little town we had moved into. He wanted
11:09
Speaker 1: to know that he had heard over the radio, dispatch
11:13
Speaker 1: radio or something the incident last night, he asked me,
11:17
Speaker 1: And I told him the story and told him what
11:19
Speaker 1: we did the night before, and blah blah. Well, anyway,
11:22
Speaker 1: he said, do you mind if we go up and
11:25
Speaker 1: look at the car. I said no, not at all.
11:27
Speaker 1: So I got clothes on and rode with him up
11:30
Speaker 1: to the college campus and looked at my wife's car.
11:34
Speaker 1: It was still sitting there in the same plot, and
11:36
Speaker 1: the door was opened, but this time, you know, the
11:38
Speaker 1: raining quit, it halfway cleared off, and he opened the
11:42
Speaker 1: door easily. Put on some rubber gloves or something, opened
11:46
Speaker 1: the doors. We wouldn't mess up anything if they had
11:49
Speaker 1: fingerprints or in anyway. There was claw marks all over
11:53
Speaker 1: the inside of the door pannel, and all down the
11:55
Speaker 1: outside of the car. It was an obvious struggle. Of course,
11:59
Speaker 1: he had dirt all over it, and so the claw
12:02
Speaker 1: marks showed up real easy on the outside, and the
12:05
Speaker 1: inside was red interior, and it had crawled completely through
12:10
Speaker 1: the norverheight interior, you know, craped then over height off.
12:13
Speaker 1: So it was real obvious. It was. It was a
12:16
Speaker 1: struggle in there in a severe struggle at that he said,
12:21
Speaker 1: do you mind if I get involved in this? He said,
12:24
Speaker 1: this is obviously an abduction, and I said, no, I
12:27
Speaker 1: appreciate all the help I didn't get. So he contacted
12:31
Speaker 1: for Work Police and I don't know what they told him,
12:33
Speaker 1: but he got frustrated with them. But anyway, he took
12:36
Speaker 1: it on his own to call a investigator. His police
12:41
Speaker 1: department paid for it for him to do a forensic
12:44
Speaker 1: investigation of it, and he proved me on the shadow
12:48
Speaker 1: of doubt it was an abduption. So he got hold
12:51
Speaker 1: of foot Work Police and I guess it really embarrassed him,
12:55
Speaker 1: and so they got gone hold on it and decided
12:58
Speaker 1: to send some detectives out. Anyway, they shut up for
13:01
Speaker 1: Insic team or something out and done the same thing
13:04
Speaker 1: he did. He had already done. The chief of police
13:07
Speaker 1: had already in and so that's when fort Work got
13:10
Speaker 1: involved in.
13:12
Speaker 2: David the Everman, police Chief, Billy Tuttleman and fort Worth
13:16
Speaker 2: detectives searched several different areas of the city for clues
13:20
Speaker 2: as to the whereabouts of Becky. Over the course of
13:23
Speaker 2: the next several days, plenty of calls started pouring in
13:27
Speaker 2: after the Fort Worth Press and Star Telegram reported the
13:31
Speaker 2: disappearance of the young woman, David voluntarily took a polygraph examination,
13:37
Speaker 2: which detectives said verified his account and showed no deception.
13:44
Speaker 2: One possible witness was found, but it is unclear if
13:48
Speaker 2: the information he supplied ever produced leads or was even
13:51
Speaker 2: connected to Becky's disappearance.
13:54
Speaker 1: Detective started questioning people that were at schoo that night,
14:00
Speaker 1: come out the door and seen anything, you know, out
14:02
Speaker 1: on the parking lots on for there was one young
14:06
Speaker 1: man that said that he had to walk out over
14:11
Speaker 1: the other side of the drive that come up to
14:13
Speaker 1: the building. His mother picked him up there and he
14:17
Speaker 1: had to run out of the car there and he
14:19
Speaker 1: it was raining, he hard bee. The only thing he
14:21
Speaker 1: noticed was a light blue pickup truck driving around out there,
14:27
Speaker 1: around up and down the aisle, real slow by her car,
14:30
Speaker 1: and it was one of these four Grandchild trucks. He said,
14:35
Speaker 1: it was a car tat truck. That was the only
14:39
Speaker 1: person that supposedly saw anything. Everybody else was still inside
14:44
Speaker 1: taking their tests and finishing up. So that was about
14:47
Speaker 1: about seven point thirty at the time. She said she
14:50
Speaker 1: should be getting out, and he had finished his test,
14:54
Speaker 1: Earlyn was going out too well. Anyway, that's the only
14:57
Speaker 1: witness or anything that they had. He didn't see anything
15:01
Speaker 1: really other than that ticket driver around.
15:05
Speaker 2: David searched for Becky for hundreds of hours, as did
15:08
Speaker 2: the fort Worth Police, the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, and
15:12
Speaker 2: the Everman Police in an unofficial capacity. Becky's car was
15:17
Speaker 2: looked over, of course, day after.
15:20
Speaker 1: They got through with it forging thing. They told me
15:22
Speaker 1: you didn't take the car home, you know, they wasn't
15:24
Speaker 1: going to impound it or anything. So I took the
15:27
Speaker 1: car back to the house, parkt in the garage.
15:31
Speaker 2: On February eleventh, David Martin and five of his friends
15:35
Speaker 2: combed Carter Park after it was reported that a woman's
15:39
Speaker 2: body was seen there, but they found nothing. The police
15:44
Speaker 2: weren't having any better luck finding the missing woman. They
15:48
Speaker 2: dispatched a helicopter to search the north end of Eagle
15:51
Speaker 2: Mountain Lake after receiving a tip that a body was
15:54
Speaker 2: floating in the water, but it was reported that only
15:58
Speaker 2: a dead cow was found. Fort Worth homicide Detective Lieutenant
16:03
Speaker 2: Oliver Ball reported receiving and checking out many tips that
16:07
Speaker 2: were called in on Becky's case, a county judge vacationing
16:12
Speaker 2: in Mexico sent Lieutenant Ball a photograph of a young
16:15
Speaker 2: woman he thought might be Becky. Ball examined the teeth
16:20
Speaker 2: of the woman in the picture and ascertained that it
16:23
Speaker 2: was not her. Another report placed Becky in a cafe
16:27
Speaker 2: and corsicana, but Navarro County Sheriff's Office deputies found no
16:32
Speaker 2: evidence she'd been there. There seemed to be no trace
16:36
Speaker 2: of Becky Martin at all anywhere. After days without any
16:41
Speaker 2: word from the young woman, the Fort Worth police were baffled,
16:45
Speaker 2: and two year old Carrie continually cried for her mother,
16:49
Speaker 2: unable to understand where she was or why she was gone.
16:54
Speaker 1: So they told me that they'd check into it, and
16:57
Speaker 1: there wasn't any thing they could do. At the moment.
16:59
Speaker 1: I would tell what work police wouldn't tell me anything.
17:02
Speaker 1: A few days went by, I got a call from him.
17:05
Speaker 1: They want to know if I could come up and
17:07
Speaker 1: take a look at a gentleman that they had in custody.
17:11
Speaker 1: So I said yes I would. So I wouldn't go
17:13
Speaker 1: up there by myself. My dad went with me and
17:17
Speaker 1: we went into this room with the two sided glass
17:22
Speaker 1: you know where the person in custody couldn't see through
17:24
Speaker 1: the glass anyway. This old boy was crazy as a loon,
17:28
Speaker 1: and he was at a split personnel and everything, and
17:31
Speaker 1: they were asking him all kinds of questions. Anyway, they
17:35
Speaker 1: finally deemed that he wasn't the one, you know he was.
17:39
Speaker 1: I don't know whether he had an alibi from somewhere
17:42
Speaker 1: else or what. Anyway, he wasn't one. And so that's
17:46
Speaker 1: the only contact I had with him for almost six weeks.
17:52
Speaker 2: More than a month after Becky was last seen, a
17:55
Speaker 2: strange and troubling case was unfolding thirty two miles to
17:59
Speaker 2: the east in Dallas. On Sunday, March eleventh, nineteen seventy three,
18:05
Speaker 2: the FBI arrested forty five year old Raymond Clarence Beckley
18:10
Speaker 2: for the kidnapping for ransom of fourteen year old Leslie
18:13
Speaker 2: Janis Ward from her upscale neighborhood of Highland Park. Agent
18:18
Speaker 2: in charge Jay Gordon Shanklin, semi famous for his role
18:23
Speaker 2: in the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
18:28
Speaker 2: was already on Beckley's tail before the kidnapping. He'd stabbed
18:32
Speaker 2: and killed a fellow merchant seaman months before while docked
18:36
Speaker 2: at Denong Harbor in Vietnam, and had been on the
18:39
Speaker 2: lamb ever since. Luckily, Beckley's kidnapping victim only suffered exhaustion
18:46
Speaker 2: and fear and was returned to her family unharmed. Had
18:50
Speaker 2: she been held longer, Leslie might have been killed, as
18:54
Speaker 2: a plywood coffin like box was found in the small
18:58
Speaker 2: rented Oak Cliff house where she was held the fact
19:03
Speaker 2: that it was an abduction case led the Dallas police,
19:06
Speaker 2: who knew about the case of Becky Martin, to call
19:10
Speaker 2: their Fort Worth counterparts, but that was hardly the only
19:13
Speaker 2: thing that got their attention. In June of nineteen seventy two,
19:18
Speaker 2: a sixteen year old Houston girl answered a newspaper ad
19:22
Speaker 2: promising employment. She was led to an empty apartment and
19:26
Speaker 2: tied up in what was described as a net of
19:29
Speaker 2: ropes which were attached to eyebolts in the walls. The
19:34
Speaker 2: man who placed the ad, Raymond Clarence Beckley, raped the
19:38
Speaker 2: girl three times. Not long after she picked Beckley out
19:43
Speaker 2: of a photo lineup immediately and without hesitation, and there
19:48
Speaker 2: was more. While executing a search warrant, officers found a
19:52
Speaker 2: map of the border town of Laredo. It pinpointed an
19:56
Speaker 2: ink the location where a murdered school teacher was last
20:00
Speaker 2: seen alive. Police declined to name the victim, nor did
20:05
Speaker 2: they mention the names pertaining to their next discovery. A
20:10
Speaker 2: map of Houston was also found, which was marked where
20:14
Speaker 2: the bodies of two young girls were discovered the year prior.
20:18
Speaker 2: Another map of Dallas showed an ex marked on an
20:22
Speaker 2: illegal dumping site just outside the city limits in Irving.
20:26
Speaker 2: It was about ten minutes away from where Leslie Ward
20:29
Speaker 2: was being held. When detectives visited the site, they found
20:34
Speaker 2: a recently dug hole that measured four feet deep, five
20:37
Speaker 2: and a half feet long, and three and a half
20:39
Speaker 2: feet wide. There was plenty of room for the plywood
20:43
Speaker 2: box found at the house alongside Leslie. The arrest of
20:48
Speaker 2: Raymond Clarence Beckley, however, proved to be little help in
20:52
Speaker 2: the case of Becky Martin's abduction. She was still missing
20:57
Speaker 2: and after questioning fort Worth police detective decided the cases
21:01
Speaker 2: were not related. On Monday, March twenty sixth, nineteen seventy three,
21:18
Speaker 2: at about five point thirty pm, James Edward Anguish twenty six,
21:23
Speaker 2: stopped his car near a culvert on White Settlement Road
21:26
Speaker 2: for reasons never specified clearly. The two lane asphalt Road
21:31
Speaker 2: was an extension of White Settlement Road that ran westward
21:35
Speaker 2: toward the county line and mainly served dairy farms and
21:39
Speaker 2: a small housing development on the western edge of Terrant County.
21:43
Speaker 2: Where the three had stopped was a rural area approximately
21:47
Speaker 2: a mile from a Carswell Air Force Base munition's dump,
21:51
Speaker 2: about three miles from the base itself, and around three
21:55
Speaker 2: miles from General Dynamics as well. Anguish, his wife, Maxine,
22:01
Speaker 2: and mother in law Ruby Little had been visiting R. J.
22:04
Speaker 2: Smellie's dairy farm just up the road. The three were
22:09
Speaker 2: walking along the roadside when they saw what looked like
22:12
Speaker 2: a decomposed body inside the colvert. The area surrounding this
22:17
Speaker 2: covert and the point in the road in which they
22:20
Speaker 2: stopped was more or less prairie land. Thick brush was
22:24
Speaker 2: prevalent around the creek, and the colvert was located in
22:27
Speaker 2: one of the several clusters of small woods scattered throughout
22:31
Speaker 2: the area. According to Anguish, when he went down the
22:35
Speaker 2: culvert to look, it was immediately obvious that the skeletal
22:39
Speaker 2: remains were human. He went to the first house he
22:42
Speaker 2: came upon and called the police. When sheriff's deputies arrived,
22:48
Speaker 2: they immediately knew the body was too badly decomposed to
22:51
Speaker 2: make any identification. At the scene, there was no clothing
22:56
Speaker 2: on the skeletal remains, nothing at all to make an
22:59
Speaker 2: immediate day tentative identification. Before an autopsy. Terrant County Chief
23:05
Speaker 2: Medical Examiner Felix Quotes said he believed the body was
23:09
Speaker 2: an adult female. Investigator's first thought was that it was
23:14
Speaker 2: Becky Martin's remains, but after preliminary examination at the emmy's office,
23:20
Speaker 2: Quotes said it was most likely not her body. These
23:25
Speaker 2: teeth are close together. Missus Martin was supposed to have
23:28
Speaker 2: a gap in her front teeth, Quotes said, adding, the
23:32
Speaker 2: police are going to check a list of missing persons,
23:35
Speaker 2: but it looks like it is a middle aged, possibly
23:38
Speaker 2: even elderly woman. Doctor Quots said this individual could have
23:43
Speaker 2: been strangled, shot, or stabbed through the stomach. He determined
23:48
Speaker 2: that she was killed elsewhere and then placed in the colvert,
23:52
Speaker 2: though he never explained how this determination was made. Police
23:57
Speaker 2: found no clues as to the identity or cause of death.
24:00
Speaker 2: After searching the area thoroughly, A single shoe was found nearby,
24:05
Speaker 2: but was speculated as having been washed into the culvert
24:08
Speaker 2: by recent rains. The culvert was dry and clean, other
24:13
Speaker 2: than some debris and a beer can pushed up against
24:16
Speaker 2: the body, suggesting that water had flowed through the culvert
24:20
Speaker 2: at some point while the body laid there. Detectives agreed
24:24
Speaker 2: with Felix Quotes's determination that the female had been murdered
24:28
Speaker 2: somewhere else and subsequently dumped, though the medical examiner had
24:35
Speaker 2: ruled it out. David Martin was convinced that the remains
24:38
Speaker 2: were Becky's.
24:40
Speaker 1: Seventh week. I was at my aunt's house one night
24:45
Speaker 1: eating dinner and we were watching television and the news
24:49
Speaker 1: came on and I saw that they had found this
24:52
Speaker 1: body on a dead end road out toward Carswell Air
24:56
Speaker 1: Force Base AMMO dump and this was holding an news.
25:00
Speaker 1: I was watching this when they showed the corner picking
25:05
Speaker 1: up the skeleton, you know, the putting it on the gurney.
25:09
Speaker 1: They showed it on television. Well, they had it covered up.
25:13
Speaker 1: The hair on the skeleton fell out out from under
25:16
Speaker 1: the cover and it was real pretty dark. Harbing Grid.
25:22
Speaker 1: The newscast later on that night was saying that they
25:26
Speaker 1: deemed that that was about a sixty five year old
25:28
Speaker 1: woman that had stumbled around or something and must have
25:32
Speaker 1: fallen and died anyway, I told my aunt, I said,
25:35
Speaker 1: I had never seen a sixty five year old woman
25:37
Speaker 1: a dark harbord hair. You know, most of them it's black, gray,
25:41
Speaker 1: or silk or somethbody.
25:43
Speaker 2: Tuesday, David stayed home from work sick. The police called
25:48
Speaker 2: and confirmed that after further investigation, they believed the body
25:53
Speaker 2: was indeed his wive's. Becky's friends and former neighbors gathered
25:58
Speaker 2: shortly thereafter to be with the family. David wiped his
26:02
Speaker 2: face with a wet cloth, his daughter dancing in and
26:05
Speaker 2: out of the room. We haven't told her yet, David
26:09
Speaker 2: said of his child. She knows her mother is gone,
26:12
Speaker 2: but that's all. She kind of senses something's wrong, but
26:15
Speaker 2: we aren't going to tell her for a while. She
26:18
Speaker 2: has a bad heart and she has trouble when she
26:21
Speaker 2: gets excited. It could kill her. She can't afford to
26:24
Speaker 2: get excited, he added. The skeletal remains were positively identified
26:31
Speaker 2: as Becky's after being compared to an X ray of
26:34
Speaker 2: her bridge work by dentist H. L. Stewart. On Wednesday,
26:39
Speaker 2: February twenty fourth, nineteen seventy three, two days after the
26:44
Speaker 2: body was found, it was announced that the remains belonged
26:48
Speaker 2: to Becky Martin. Doctor Quotes determined the death was a homicide.
26:53
Speaker 2: He concluded that she may have been dead a month
26:56
Speaker 2: or more, but because of the condition of the body,
26:59
Speaker 2: he was on able to determine the cause of death.
27:03
Speaker 2: The night before the remains were found, David was staying
27:06
Speaker 2: at his mother's house. David had nightmares all night long.
27:10
Speaker 2: Missus Margie Martin told reporters for the fort Worth Press
27:14
Speaker 2: and fort Worth's Star Telegram. I was up all night
27:17
Speaker 2: with the baby too. She had them all night. Maybe
27:21
Speaker 2: somebody was trying to tell me something. David had known
27:25
Speaker 2: the minute he saw the body on the evening news
27:28
Speaker 2: that it was Becky. It was covered up except for
27:31
Speaker 2: the hair. He told the press the hair was showing.
27:35
Speaker 2: She had long, wavy hair. It came all the way
27:38
Speaker 2: down to her waist, beautiful hair fixed all in curls.
27:42
Speaker 2: The night she disappeared, though he was told it wasn't Becky,
27:46
Speaker 2: he never had doubts that the remains belonged to his wife.
27:51
Speaker 1: And I was persistent that was not a sixty five
27:55
Speaker 1: year old woman. So I got all of the chief. Tuttleton,
27:58
Speaker 1: that was the chief of polased, helped me out in Neverman,
28:01
Speaker 1: and he got an opportunity for us to go up
28:05
Speaker 1: there together to the corner's office. I talked to the
28:09
Speaker 1: corner and I said, look, I said, how about and
28:12
Speaker 1: we check out some dental records. I said, my wife
28:15
Speaker 1: was having dental work done at the time, and she
28:18
Speaker 1: hadn't had it completed. I said, what would it hurt
28:22
Speaker 1: if you called in her dentist and had it look
28:25
Speaker 1: at this skeleton, you know. So the corner agreed to it,
28:29
Speaker 1: and sure enough it turned out to match perfect.
28:32
Speaker 2: He never had a single doubt that the remains belonged
28:35
Speaker 2: to his wife. Police wholeheartedly believed Becky's killer was familiar
28:42
Speaker 2: with the area where her body was found. They were
28:45
Speaker 2: convinced whoever was responsible was lying in wait in the
28:49
Speaker 2: college's parking lot, waiting for the right opportunity and the
28:53
Speaker 2: right victim to strike. Still, they had no suspects. A
29:00
Speaker 2: week after her body was found, a rancher who worked
29:03
Speaker 2: at General Dynamics was out looking for cattle thieves. He
29:07
Speaker 2: came upon a man parking on the side of the
29:10
Speaker 2: road near the colvert where Becky's body was found. The
29:14
Speaker 2: rancher couldn't remember the exact day, but said he decided
29:18
Speaker 2: to talk to the driver to ask if the man
29:20
Speaker 2: was having trouble. The man replied, no, we're all right,
29:24
Speaker 2: but the rancher didn't see anyone else with him. He
29:28
Speaker 2: wrote down the license plate number of the vehicle, he
29:31
Speaker 2: told police, and carried it in his pocket for three
29:34
Speaker 2: days until he threw it away. The rancher later told
29:38
Speaker 2: reporters that it was the dumbest thing he's ever done,
29:53
Speaker 2: from their hesitation to begin the investigation when he reported
29:57
Speaker 2: Becky missing, to their lack of accept of his input,
30:01
Speaker 2: David Martin's frustration with the Fort Worth Police's handling of
30:05
Speaker 2: his wife's case was titanic and lingers to this day.
30:10
Speaker 1: They were in very big time. One over, Chief Tuttleton
30:15
Speaker 1: proven that it was an abduction. The Chief told me
30:18
Speaker 1: that had they started the search for that night like
30:22
Speaker 1: they should have, there have been a strong possibility she
30:25
Speaker 1: could have been found a life. So they were embarrassed there,
30:29
Speaker 1: and then they were in very big time the second
30:31
Speaker 1: time when the corner was assisted that that being an
30:36
Speaker 1: old lady's skeleton, and it turned out to be, you know,
30:39
Speaker 1: a young girl. So they just don't seem to accept
30:43
Speaker 1: any of your boss or information or anything like that.
30:47
Speaker 1: They got their own train of thought and they won't listen.
30:52
Speaker 2: Little is known about possible suspects or persons of interest
30:56
Speaker 2: in Becky's case, other than the fact that there were
30:59
Speaker 2: very few. There is one suspect known to have been
31:03
Speaker 2: questioned and cleared by one of the twelve lie detector
31:06
Speaker 2: tests given in the case, perhaps David himself. The status
31:11
Speaker 2: of the other eleven is unknown. A twenty one year
31:15
Speaker 2: old man named Michael Foster Vines was scrutinized for Becky's murder,
31:19
Speaker 2: but it was a long shot. Vines was arrested for
31:23
Speaker 2: the murder of twenty one year old Unetta Franks in
31:26
Speaker 2: February of nineteen seventy four. His three known victims were
31:31
Speaker 2: stabbed to death, and his confessions to other murders and
31:34
Speaker 2: denial of involvement in Becky's led police to lay off
31:38
Speaker 2: of him in her case. Then Terrant County Sheriff's Office
31:43
Speaker 2: investigator Jim Mentor traveled to Austin to question a man
31:47
Speaker 2: who was arrested there and who was a known rapist.
31:51
Speaker 2: He said, this too was a long shot and it
31:54
Speaker 2: turned up nothing. The following year, Mentor tirelessly cross referenced
31:59
Speaker 2: Beckye's case with Carla Walker's kidnapping and homicide. Some persons
32:05
Speaker 2: of interest in Becky's case became so by becoming suspects
32:09
Speaker 2: in Carla Walker's murder a year later.
32:13
Speaker 1: Her in my life. Both disappeared right there within the
32:17
Speaker 1: same time frame. You know, it was a year difference,
32:20
Speaker 1: both within the same month's area. There a time of
32:23
Speaker 1: the year, same circumstances before they founder in the remote
32:27
Speaker 1: area and things. So I've you know, I could see
32:30
Speaker 1: the similarity where they'd look for this. I've never to
32:33
Speaker 1: this day ever got a positive on anything, and wasn't
32:37
Speaker 1: doing any good to ask questions. I wouldn't get anywhere.
32:41
Speaker 2: Tommy Rayneland was thought to have been a viable suspect
32:45
Speaker 2: for Becky's death only after being suspected in Carla's Neeland
32:50
Speaker 2: was responsible for the brutal nineteen seventy two murders of
32:53
Speaker 2: two teenagers in Fort Worth, Mary Jane Handy and Robert Golson,
32:58
Speaker 2: and twenty seven year old high wife Nancy Mitchell and Kermit,
33:02
Speaker 2: Texas in nineteen seventy. He readily confessed to these crimes
33:07
Speaker 2: when apprehended for a failed kidnapping at age twenty four,
33:11
Speaker 2: so hiding responsibility for Becky's murder seems unlikely. William Ted
33:17
Speaker 2: Wilhoyt was seen as a good candidate for the murder
33:19
Speaker 2: by the public thanks to fort Worth burglary detective and
33:23
Speaker 2: local legend John Terrell's insistence that he was responsible for
33:27
Speaker 2: Carlo's death.
33:29
Speaker 1: Jenire down the road. I tried to contact them every
33:32
Speaker 1: time I saw something on the news that was related.
33:36
Speaker 1: There was a case where they arrested a young man
33:39
Speaker 1: that was a Sunday school teacher and they found all
33:42
Speaker 1: these trinkets in his na wall in a sack. I
33:47
Speaker 1: got a hold of them and asked about that. David
33:49
Speaker 1: didn't contact me. I contacted them anyway. They had me
33:53
Speaker 1: come up look at some of these trinkets to see
33:55
Speaker 1: if it was any of my wife's. It was just
33:58
Speaker 1: cost him jury, piece of costume curiory, but none of
34:02
Speaker 1: it belonged to my wife.
34:04
Speaker 2: Will Hoyt came close to murdering a woman he was
34:07
Speaker 2: attempting to rape in a moment of cowardly panic. However,
34:11
Speaker 2: he who would have been nineteen years old when Becky
34:14
Speaker 2: was killed, has never been charged with any murder, and
34:18
Speaker 2: his methods of operation consisted of assaulting women in their homes.
34:24
Speaker 2: Many in local law enforcement believed the same man was
34:27
Speaker 2: responsible for both Becky and Carla's murders, given their similarities.
34:32
Speaker 2: When seventy seven year old Glenn Samuel McCurley was arrested
34:36
Speaker 2: for Carla Walker's slang in September of twenty twenty, current
34:40
Speaker 2: cold case detectives strongly believed that he might also be
34:44
Speaker 2: responsible for Becky's murder, but with the condition of her
34:48
Speaker 2: remains meaning skeletonized, finding the perpetrator's DNA will be a
34:54
Speaker 2: difficult challenge at the very least. Still, the few known
34:59
Speaker 2: facts of Becky Martin's case, a parking lot abduction and
35:03
Speaker 2: her body being found in a rural covert outside the
35:06
Speaker 2: city limits match the methods of operation in Carla Walker's
35:10
Speaker 2: case to a t. David Martin has always had his
35:15
Speaker 2: own suspicions when it comes to his wife's case.
35:19
Speaker 1: My wife come from a I guess you'd call it
35:21
Speaker 1: a violent family. The daddy would go get drunk, come home,
35:25
Speaker 1: beat the kids up, and there was three girls and
35:28
Speaker 1: a boy, and he'd make them stand there and watch
35:31
Speaker 1: him beat the mother up too. Well, anyway, he had
35:36
Speaker 1: he had come down to our house and we lived
35:38
Speaker 1: there in Polly's and beat my wife up. I come
35:41
Speaker 1: home one night ment a gentleman that I worked with,
35:44
Speaker 1: and he caught him in the act of doing that.
35:46
Speaker 1: We escorted him out the door and call the police
35:49
Speaker 1: or sad and doing that anyway, So that's that was
35:53
Speaker 1: the reason we decided to move. My wife just scared
35:55
Speaker 1: the death of it. The witness if they questioned the
35:59
Speaker 1: police question the night her disappearance, said he saw this
36:02
Speaker 1: blue car tat pickup driving around. Well, my ex father
36:05
Speaker 1: in law had one that was called his drinking car,
36:09
Speaker 1: and he'd go out drinking drive that one because he
36:11
Speaker 1: was all beat up thinged up already. But not once
36:15
Speaker 1: I asked him asking ask not once did they ever
36:18
Speaker 1: question him. They never called him her family or anything
36:22
Speaker 1: in any question. Now they claim they went by his
36:26
Speaker 1: house a couple of times the night she disappeared. Well,
36:29
Speaker 1: me and my dad went by there. I was going
36:31
Speaker 1: to tell him, tell the fall in law what happened,
36:33
Speaker 1: And you know, inform him to let him at least
36:36
Speaker 1: know what was going on, because that was serious and
36:40
Speaker 1: his blue pickup was gone. Well, the police said they
36:43
Speaker 1: went by there and knocked on the door and nobody
36:46
Speaker 1: came to the door. And there was two cars to drive. Well, yeah,
36:49
Speaker 1: he had two other cars that he used this old
36:52
Speaker 1: truck to go drinking it. And the reason nobody came
36:55
Speaker 1: to the door is the mother in law as deff
36:57
Speaker 1: as could be. She'd take her here and he's out
37:00
Speaker 1: and she couldn't hear nothing. I tried to explain that
37:03
Speaker 1: to him, you know, and so but they never once
37:06
Speaker 1: would call him in and questioning. And another thing is
37:10
Speaker 1: he caused this big scene at the funeral home behind
37:13
Speaker 1: the scene and come in there drunk and renting and raving,
37:17
Speaker 1: wanting to see the body and blah blah blah. I
37:21
Speaker 1: didn't object to him send the body or anything. But
37:24
Speaker 1: the funeral director I told him, I said, told the
37:27
Speaker 1: funeral director, I said, go ahead, let him see it. Well,
37:29
Speaker 1: he went there and saw it, and then he'd come
37:31
Speaker 1: out just sober faced, but he got violent again right
37:34
Speaker 1: outside the door and they had to call.
37:36
Speaker 3: The police and have a mess.
37:38
Speaker 1: Cordy out at the funeral hall. He didn't come dressed
37:41
Speaker 1: to come to a funeral, and he didn't. He didn't come.
37:45
Speaker 1: He wasn't at he just daring race game. And you know,
37:49
Speaker 1: all that stuff put off a heavy rent signal to
37:51
Speaker 1: me if there's some involvement there somewhere. And another thing
37:55
Speaker 1: is sound fishy about this whole story too. When my
37:58
Speaker 1: wife was missing. During the weeks she was missing, my
38:02
Speaker 1: father in law had a second cousin to my wife.
38:05
Speaker 1: I don't know what exact relationship was there. He was
38:08
Speaker 1: quite a bit older to my wife, but he was
38:11
Speaker 1: a second cousin. He was the fall along drinking buddy,
38:15
Speaker 1: and he'd go drinking with him all the time at night.
38:18
Speaker 1: And he went by my mother's house to see He
38:22
Speaker 1: claims he went by there to see how my daughter
38:25
Speaker 1: was doing, you know, because she had that heart problem thing.
38:28
Speaker 1: But he never ask anything about my daughter. All he
38:31
Speaker 1: could do is try to question my mom about well,
38:34
Speaker 1: if they heard anything about they found out any information,
38:36
Speaker 1: they got any clues. I mean, he just really grilled
38:39
Speaker 1: my mother about that instead of what he's supposedly come
38:42
Speaker 1: by for. And my mother told him, she says no,
38:46
Speaker 1: but he said she told him his son as they
38:48
Speaker 1: find out something. If they find out something definite and
38:52
Speaker 1: they tell David about it, she said, I'm afraid I
38:55
Speaker 1: will hear whoever it is, and it's scared. That guy's death,
38:58
Speaker 1: I guess because he got car and left real quick
39:01
Speaker 1: shid He didn't say bye or nothing. He didn't show
39:04
Speaker 1: up for work that night. The next day, somebody went
39:07
Speaker 1: over to his apartment. He wasn't married. Somebody went to
39:10
Speaker 1: the apartments to check on him because he didn't show
39:12
Speaker 1: up for work that he had already emptied out the apartment.
39:15
Speaker 1: He was long gone. Nobody seen her since. Didn't that
39:18
Speaker 1: sound a little strange. I'm going to tell you what
39:21
Speaker 1: my opinion on all this is, and it's just an opinion.
39:24
Speaker 1: It's not no facts involved here. But I think what
39:28
Speaker 1: happened is the fall in law was mad because we
39:32
Speaker 1: moved and didn't tell him about it. He knew back
39:35
Speaker 1: he went to school at pc JAC, so he went
39:38
Speaker 1: out there that night. We drove around until he saw
39:41
Speaker 1: her car park was side of the car till she
39:44
Speaker 1: came out, confronted her, and he probably slapped her around
39:49
Speaker 1: or hit her a little too hard. I think he
39:51
Speaker 1: killed her and he didn't. You know, he didn't know
39:54
Speaker 1: he killed her, didn't mean to. It was just him
39:56
Speaker 1: being mean, and then he didn't know what to do,
39:59
Speaker 1: so I think he hauled her off and him and
40:02
Speaker 1: his drinking buddy carried her out there wherever they jumped,
40:05
Speaker 1: or that dead end road, And that's why he was
40:09
Speaker 1: gone all night. His pickup trip was there at his
40:12
Speaker 1: house all night. And the reason I feel sure it's
40:17
Speaker 1: him too, is because they said whoever jumped the body
40:21
Speaker 1: out there where they found it had to know the
40:23
Speaker 1: area because it was so remote it was a dead
40:26
Speaker 1: end road. Well, he grew up out there in that
40:29
Speaker 1: area and he rabbit hunted all that ground, so you know,
40:33
Speaker 1: there's too many things to call that direction. And it
40:37
Speaker 1: just totally surprised me. The police never even called him
40:39
Speaker 1: in question me. He never did come by the house
40:42
Speaker 1: to check on check on my daughter, or never call
40:46
Speaker 1: or nothing. I mean, everything just points that direction, and
40:49
Speaker 1: I just just totally amazed that the police couldn't see
40:53
Speaker 1: that and didn't even question that.
40:55
Speaker 2: Becky Berlin Martin was laid to rest on the afternoon
40:59
Speaker 2: of March thirtieth, nineteen seventy three, at Mount Olivet Cemetery.
41:06
Speaker 2: Next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime June ward
41:11
Speaker 2: the February Slangs, Part three. If you have any information
41:16
Speaker 2: about the murder of Becky Martin, please contact the Fort
41:19
Speaker 2: Worth Police Department Cold Case Unit at eight one seven
41:23
Speaker 2: three nine to two four three zero seven. You can
41:28
Speaker 2: find more information about Michael Foster Vines by becoming a
41:32
Speaker 2: supporter at our Patreon and looking for the episode titled
41:36
Speaker 2: Doped Up and Ready to Kill. For as little as
41:39
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