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The Mysterious Death of Helen Holladay · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:13
Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In 1979, Lake Granbury was only
0:25
Speaker 1: about ten years old. The Brazos River had been dammed
0:29
Speaker 1: south of town, flooding its way through Hood County and
0:33
Speaker 1: creating miles of new shoreline where there had once been ranchland,
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Speaker 1: river bottom, and open country. The change came quickly. Developers
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Speaker 1: carved roads into the brush. Property was divided into lots
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Speaker 1: and sold to retirees, weekenders, fishermen, and families looking for
0:54
Speaker 1: inexpensive land near the water. Mobile homes, travel trailers, and
0:59
Speaker 1: recreational vehicles appeared beside small houses and cabins, sometimes with
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Speaker 1: long stretches of vacant property between them. Hood County was booming.
1:11
Speaker 1: but the communities around the lake were still taking shape.
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Speaker 1: Some roads were little more than rough lanes. Some lots
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Speaker 1: were occupied year-round. Others were used only on the weekends.
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Speaker 1: People came and went often enough that an unfamiliar car,
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Speaker 1: a new trailer, or a stranger along the shoreline might
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Speaker 1: not have drawn much attention. Whippoorwill Bay was part of
1:38
Speaker 1: that changing landscape. It sat along the northern reaches of
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Speaker 1: Lake Granbury, close enough to town for convenience sake, but
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Speaker 1: far enough from the courthouse square to feel removed from it.
1:52
Speaker 1: The lake had brought thousands of people into Hood County.
1:56
Speaker 1: Places like Whippoorwill Bay weren't completely isolated. There were neighbors,
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Speaker 1: and they were close enough to see things. In late
2:05
Speaker 1: September 1979, Some of those neighbors saw something taking place
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Speaker 1: inside a motorhome belonging to a middle-aged couple, Helen and
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Speaker 1: Herman Holliday. Within days, she would be reported missing. For
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Speaker 1: almost 35 years, nobody would know where she had gone.
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Speaker 1: And from the beginning, Helen's family believed the people responsible
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Speaker 1: for finding out hadn't tried hard enough. Helen Elizabeth Tatum
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Speaker 1: was born in Erath County, Texas, on February 22, 1934,
3:08
Speaker 1: to Theola and William Tatum. She grew up in Purvis,
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Speaker 1: a tiny, unincorporated rural community about eight miles from Dublin.
3:20
Speaker 1: She began attending Dublin High School in 1947 as a
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Speaker 1: member of what would become the graduating class of 1951.
3:29
Speaker 1: During her sophomore year, Helen participated in the Future Homemakers
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Speaker 1: of America, and the following year she was named runner-up
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Speaker 1: in the school's Who's Who selections. One former schoolmate remembered
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Speaker 1: the class of 1951 as particularly close-knit, with friendships that
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Speaker 1: endured beyond high school. When describing Helen, almost everyone specifically
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Speaker 1: mentioned her beautiful smile. Classmate Jewel Dean Herbert remembered her
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Speaker 1: as someone with whom she had shared plenty of good times.
4:04
Speaker 1: Jewel said she was a lot of fun. In 1950,
4:08
Speaker 1: during Helen's senior year, she met a man named Oren
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Speaker 1: Wade Boatwright of nearby Carleton. Oren was the son of
4:17
Speaker 1: a farmer and had recently returned to the area following
4:21
Speaker 1: a short period of military service in Korea. He had
4:25
Speaker 1: also served in World War II toward its end. Their
4:28
Speaker 1: romance was a whirlwind, and the two married before Helen
4:33
Speaker 1: even finished high school. By the time her senior annual
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Speaker 1: was published, she was listed there as Helen Tatum Boatwright.
4:42
Speaker 1: After Oren found work as an electrician at General Dynamics,
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Speaker 1: they left the Dublin area and moved to Fort Worth,
4:50
Speaker 1: where they purchased a modest brick home in the Western
4:53
Speaker 1: Hills neighborhood at 7820 Lano Avenue. The house was only
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Speaker 1: about 1,100 square feet, but it became the center of
5:02
Speaker 1: the family they built together. Their first daughter Karen was
5:07
Speaker 1: born in July of 1953. Their second daughter, Sharon, followed
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Speaker 1: in October of 1958. Although Helen now lived in the city,
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Speaker 1: she never lost the personality shaped by rural Erath County.
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Speaker 1: Family remembered her as still being very country, a little loud,
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Speaker 1: and full of heart. The Boatwrights, anyway, maintained their connection
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Speaker 1: to Purvis and Carlton, in addition to their Fort Worth home.
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Speaker 1: The family kept a farm near their home communities, where
5:41
Speaker 1: Oren raised peanuts and a small number of cattle. In
5:45
Speaker 1: June of 1972, while visiting that farm, Oren suffered a
5:50
Speaker 1: heart attack. He died at only 44 years old. Helen
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Speaker 1: was suddenly a widow. Not long afterward, she met a
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Speaker 1: man named Herman Terry Holliday. Herman Holliday married Doyle Marie
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Speaker 1: Hodge in Waco in March of 1949, when he was
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Speaker 1: 18 years old. The following September, he joined the United
6:16
Speaker 1: States Air Force. According to records, had Herman remained in
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Speaker 1: the service for only one more day, his discharge would
6:24
Speaker 1: have occurred exactly one year after he enlisted. Herman and
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Speaker 1: Doyle had two children together, a daughter named Anita, and
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Speaker 1: a son, Herman III, but their marriage didn't last. By 1958,
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Speaker 1: there were already indications that alcohol was becoming a major
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Speaker 1: problem in Herman's life. That October, and again in December,
6:49
Speaker 1: at 28 years old, he was charged with drunk driving. Likely,
6:55
Speaker 1: that problem began much earlier, and it certainly lasted a
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Speaker 1: lot longer. Helen Tatum Boatwright married Herman Holliday on February 13, 1973,
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Speaker 1: less than a year after Oren's death. By the end
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Speaker 1: of the summer of 1979, Helen's daughters Karen and Sharon
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Speaker 1: were grown, married, and living outside their mother's home. Helen
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Speaker 1: and Herman had no children together, and on weekends, the
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Speaker 1: couple almost always left Fort Worth. to stay at the
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Speaker 1: recreational vehicle they kept at Whippoorwill Bay on Lake Granbury,
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Speaker 1: roughly 30 miles southwest of the house where they lived,
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Speaker 1: the same one on Lano Avenue that Oren and Helen
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Speaker 1: had bought when they first came to the city. On
7:44
Speaker 1: the last weekend of September 79, they went to the
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Speaker 1: lake as usual, but this time something happened there, and
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Speaker 1: Helen never returned. On Tuesday, October 2, 1979, 26-year-old Karen
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Speaker 1: Boatwright Stewart got a telephone call from her stepfather. Herman
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Speaker 1: Holliday asked whether she had seen or heard from her mother.
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Speaker 1: Karen hadn't. She immediately began trying to locate Helen, contacting
8:16
Speaker 1: everyone she could think of who might have spoken with her.
8:20
Speaker 1: She also called law enforcement agencies and Hood General Hospital.
8:24
Speaker 1: thinking her mother had been injured in a car accident.
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Speaker 1: According to Herman, he hadn't seen Helen since the evening
8:32
Speaker 1: of Saturday, September 29th, meaning four days had already passed
8:37
Speaker 1: before he called Karen. The day after he finally did,
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Speaker 1: she filed a missing person report with the Hood County
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Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office. She explained that her mother was normally conscientious
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Speaker 1: about letting relatives know when she left town, and that
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Speaker 1: going several days without contacting anyone was completely unlike her. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: Helen didn't have the money necessary for some spontaneous extended trip,
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Speaker 1: particularly one requiring her to stop reporting for work. Deputies
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Speaker 1: went to Whippoorwill Bay to inspect the motorhome. Helen's parents
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Speaker 1: and brother met them there. What they discovered made the
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Speaker 1: assumption that Helen had merely decided to up and go
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Speaker 1: somewhere on a whim, especially difficult for the family to accept.
9:28
Speaker 1: Hood County Sheriff's Office Deputy James Johnson began speaking with
9:32
Speaker 1: residents near the Holiday property. Neighbors described a loud and
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Speaker 1: violent argument between Helen and Herman on Saturday. At some
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Speaker 1: point during the confrontations, Helen broke the glass out of
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Speaker 1: a window in the door of the motorhome. She pushed
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Speaker 1: her hand through the broken opening, cutting herself badly enough
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Speaker 1: that blood was running from her wounds, and she called
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Speaker 1: for help. Apparently, no one intervened. By the time Helen's
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Speaker 1: parents and brother arrived with deputies, the scene still bore
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Speaker 1: signs of what had happened. Dried blood was visible running
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Speaker 1: down the door beneath the shattered window, and Deputy Johnson
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Speaker 1: reported finding additional blood on the outside steps of the trailer.
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Speaker 1: Whatever happened inside that RV, Helen eventually got away. She
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Speaker 1: left Whippoorwill Bay in her and Herman's white-over-green 1973 Chevrolet
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Speaker 1: pickup truck. Neighbors watched her drive from the development onto
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Speaker 1: Country Road 405. They said Helen drove into a ditch,
10:42
Speaker 1: managed to get the truck out, then continued east toward
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Speaker 1: Highway 51, also known as Weatherford Highway. At Highway 51,
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Speaker 1: she turned south toward Granbury. As far as her family knew,
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Speaker 1: that was the last time she was ever seen. There
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Speaker 1: was blood at the Holiday Motorhome. There was a broken window.
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Speaker 1: There were witnesses describing a violent argument. There were family
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Speaker 1: members telling authorities that Helen would not simply disappear without
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Speaker 1: contacting them. and there was a husband who had waited
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Speaker 1: four days before asking Helen's daughter if she knew where
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Speaker 1: her mother was. Helen's co-workers at Edison's Jewelers and Hewlin
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Speaker 1: Mall also told deputies they had not heard from her
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Speaker 1: since Friday, September 28th, the day before she disappeared. Yet,
11:35
Speaker 1: Hood County authorities initially treated Helen Holliday's disappearance essentially as
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Speaker 1: a runaway case. investigators told the family she'd probably fled
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Speaker 1: to cool off and would eventually return. Nothing about that
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Speaker 1: explanation reassured them. Helen had a job. She had a
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Speaker 1: family she loved and was close to her daughters. Karen's
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Speaker 1: one-year-old daughter had been born less than a year before
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Speaker 1: and was Helen's first grandchild. She recalled trying unsuccessfully to
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Speaker 1: convince deputies that something serious had happened to her mother.
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Speaker 1: She said they remained steadfast in their opinion Helen had
12:18
Speaker 1: simply left. There wasn't anything they could do, deputies told Karen.
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Speaker 1: On October 25, 1979, nearly a month after Helen vanished,
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Speaker 1: the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published a brief article about the disappearance.
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Speaker 1: The story described Helen as 5 feet 6 inches tall,
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Speaker 1: and approximately 120 pounds, with auburn hair. They neglected to
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Speaker 1: describe her blue eyes or what she was last seen wearing,
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Speaker 1: a red and white pantsuit. The newspaper account also omitted
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Speaker 1: the violent circumstances that had immediately preceded her disappearance. And
13:02
Speaker 1: after that brief story, like the woman herself, Helen Holliday's
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Speaker 1: name disappeared from the newspaper. For years, a single article
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Speaker 1: in a Fort Worth newspaper was the only account of
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Speaker 1: Helen Holliday's disappearance, the only sign the Hood County Sheriff's
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Speaker 1: Office was doing anything to help find her. In reality,
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Speaker 1: the case was never taken seriously, and authorities performed only
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Speaker 1: the most basic of tasks and formalities. In 1986, after
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Speaker 1: the seven-year waiting period required for the action, Karen and
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Speaker 1: Sharon had their mother declared legally dead. Herman Holliday, Helen's husband,
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Speaker 1: died later that same year, on November 24, 1986, at
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Speaker 1: 56 years old. Whatever he knew about Helen's disappearance went
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Speaker 1: with him, and it would still be a few more
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Speaker 1: years before the truth about the night she vanished would surface.
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Speaker 1: In September 1991, The Hood County News reported on the case,
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Speaker 1: bringing Helen's story back into public view for the first
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Speaker 1: time in over a decade. Karen, by then 38 and
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Speaker 1: living in Fort Worth, explained that the uncertainty had never
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Speaker 1: gone away. She said it was hard not knowing what
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Speaker 1: happened to her mother or where she is. The article
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Speaker 1: also came with revelations. pertinent details that were left out
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Speaker 1: in the single article that had been published all those
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Speaker 1: years before. Family members strongly suspected Herman Holliday was responsible
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Speaker 1: for Helen's disappearance. Not only were the events of the
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Speaker 1: day she was last seen finally brought to light in public,
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Speaker 1: but also the fact that Helen had been living in
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Speaker 1: fear for years. Herman had a severe drinking problem and
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Speaker 1: physically abused her regularly. At least two of those beatings
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Speaker 1: were serious enough that Helen had to be hospitalized. Karen
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Speaker 1: described the cycle her mother seemed unable to escape. Helen
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Speaker 1: would try to leave Herman, and he would interfere with
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Speaker 1: her ability to do so. He sometimes removed parts from
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Speaker 1: her vehicle so it wouldn't start. If she forced him
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Speaker 1: out of the house after being beaten, he would either
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Speaker 1: stand outside ringing the doorbell throughout the night or appear
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Speaker 1: at Helen's workplace and pressure her to take him back.
15:48
Speaker 1: Once a month, Karen said, her mother would arrive at
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Speaker 1: the doorstep of one of her daughter's homes looking for
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Speaker 1: somewhere to stay when the marriage had become unbearable. Each time,
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Speaker 1: they pleaded with her not to return. She always did.
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Speaker 1: Helen also attempted to divorce Herman. but according to her daughter,
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Speaker 1: repeatedly ran out of money before she could complete the process.
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Speaker 1: And then there were the threats Herman made while drinking.
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Speaker 1: He repeatedly told Helen he was going to kill her
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Speaker 1: and take all of her property. Her family was still
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Speaker 1: asking why these circumstances hadn't triggered a much more aggressive
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Speaker 1: investigation at the get-go. Other details also added to the
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Speaker 1: urgency in which deputies had never taken and was now
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Speaker 1: long lost. The paycheck she had been carrying in her
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Speaker 1: purse was never cashed, and her credit cards never saw
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Speaker 1: any activity. There was no indication at all that Helen
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Speaker 1: had established another life somewhere else. Investigators had long considered
16:57
Speaker 1: another possibility as well. Chief Deputy Doug Johnson said authorities
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Speaker 1: had searched portions of Lake Granbury after Helen vanished, operating
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Speaker 1: under the theory that her truck might be at the bottom.
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Speaker 1: Some within the Hood County Sheriff's Office apparently considered suicide
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Speaker 1: a possibility, believing she might have deliberately driven into the
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Speaker 1: lake after the violent confrontation with Herman. Though some in
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Speaker 1: her family agreed she might very well be in the lake.
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Speaker 1: they found the suicide theory outlandish and impossible to accept.
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Speaker 1: They considered another possibility was far more likely, that Herman
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Speaker 1: had killed Helen, and after placed her and the truck
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Speaker 1: in the water to hide both what he'd done and
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Speaker 1: give the runaway wife story credibility. Alan Harden, a Brazos
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Speaker 1: River Authority Lake Ranger, said he believed searchers detected Helen's
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Speaker 1: pickup in the northern part of Lake Granbury in 1981.
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Speaker 1: Before officers could properly examine the location, however, heavy flooding
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Speaker 1: struck the area. When authorities returned, the object was gone.
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Speaker 1: Helen's family conducted searches of their own throughout Hood County
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Speaker 1: and around Lake Granbury. They became desperate enough for answers
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Speaker 1: to consult psychics, but those efforts produced no result. At
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Speaker 1: least one investigator who joined the Hood County Sheriff's Office
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Speaker 1: after Helen vanished viewed Herman Holliday as a strong suspect.
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Speaker 1: Detective Cecil Kirkendall reportedly administered several polygraph examinations to the
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Speaker 1: man in connection with his wife's disappearance, all of which,
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Speaker 1: for whatever it was worth, Herman failed. Deputy Johnson told
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Speaker 1: the newspaper he had no knowledge of these polygraphs, although
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Speaker 1: he didn't bother taking a look in the case file
19:01
Speaker 1: to be sure either way. By then, the original investigation
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Speaker 1: had been sitting largely dormant for more than a decade.
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Speaker 1: That finally began changing in late 1992. Former Granbury Police
19:17
Speaker 1: Sergeant Larry Gowen was hired as chief deputy by newly
19:21
Speaker 1: elected Hood County Sheriff Rodney Janisse. Gowen took a serious
19:27
Speaker 1: interest in Helen Holliday's disappearance and began looking at areas
19:32
Speaker 1: investigators had apparently never pursued in any meaningful way. Early on,
19:38
Speaker 1: he checked whether Helen's social security number had been used
19:42
Speaker 1: since September of 1979. It hadn't. Under his charge, investigators researched...
19:50
Speaker 1: registration records connected to Helen's 1973 white-over-green Chevrolet pickup. The
19:57
Speaker 1: truck had never resurfaced. The new chief deputy explained he
20:02
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot to go on at first, but
20:04
Speaker 1: he did develop new leads. Although he wouldn't elaborate much
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Speaker 1: on those, he was unusually candid about what had happened
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Speaker 1: before his arrival. Viewing Helen's disappearance as a domestic violence
20:18
Speaker 1: situation from which she had just fled, Gowen said his
20:23
Speaker 1: predecessors had not conducted an extensive investigation. Lake Granbury, nevertheless,
20:31
Speaker 1: remained one of Chief Deputy Gowen's primary focuses. On the
20:36
Speaker 1: morning of July 24, 1996, investigators brought in a Texas
20:41
Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety helicopter to survey the lake while
20:45
Speaker 1: water levels were unusually low. Sheriff Jaunice acknowledged that his
20:51
Speaker 1: deputies had received information identifying particular portions of the lake
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Speaker 1: which they wanted to examine. The first helicopter search was
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Speaker 1: unsuccessful because of high winds. so investigators returned several days later.
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Speaker 1: Gowen was joined aboard the aircraft by Hood County Game
21:10
Speaker 1: Warden Danny Tuggle and Lake Ranger Gary Turner. They primarily
21:16
Speaker 1: concentrated on the water near Whippoorwill Bay and hoped sonar
21:20
Speaker 1: equipment similar to fish-finding technology might reveal the shape of
21:24
Speaker 1: a submerged vehicle. Several major floods had occurred since 1979,
21:31
Speaker 1: meaning anything on the bottom might have been covered in
21:34
Speaker 1: a thick layer of sediment, but Gowen remained hopeful. The
21:38
Speaker 1: helicopter search found nothing, so he went back again. On
21:44
Speaker 1: October 30, 1996, Gowen spent the day searching North Lake
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Speaker 1: Granbury from the water. Fishing rider Bob Hood volunteered his
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Speaker 1: bass boat and a Lowrance X-16 computer sonar, and together
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Speaker 1: the two searched the shoreline east of Sky Harbor, as
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Speaker 1: well as an old deep waterboat ramp in the Alta
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Speaker 1: Vista subdivision. There, 18 feet beneath the surface, the sonar
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Speaker 1: displayed something big. It looked enough like a vehicle that
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Speaker 1: Gowen began probing the object with a large magnet. The
22:22
Speaker 1: magnet brought strands of wire back to the surface. For
22:26
Speaker 1: a moment, there was reason to hope Divers from the
22:30
Speaker 1: Hood County Rescue Unit returned the following Monday. The object
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Speaker 1: was not Helen's Chevy truck. It was a pile of
22:39
Speaker 1: rocks pushed into the water during construction of the boat ramp.
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Speaker 1: Gowan and Hood also examined the lake around the FM
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Speaker 1: Road 51 North Bridge, where some officers theorized Helen's truck
22:53
Speaker 1: might have gone into the water near its southern end.
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Speaker 1: But again, the men found no trace of Helen Holliday.
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Speaker 1: Another potential development came on November 26, 1997, when human
23:08
Speaker 1: bones were discovered in Somerville County near the Bosque County line,
23:13
Speaker 1: approximately 20 miles north of Whippoorwill Bay. Gowen hoped the
23:18
Speaker 1: remains might finally provide Helen's family with an answer. Dental
23:23
Speaker 1: records proved they belonged to someone else. After years of
23:39
Speaker 1: searching Lake Granbury without finding Helen Holliday's truck, Hood County
23:44
Speaker 1: Chief Deputy Larry Gowen's theory began to change. He came
23:49
Speaker 1: to believe Helen had been murdered and concealed somewhere she
23:53
Speaker 1: might never be recovered. One piece of information was especially
23:58
Speaker 1: important to that theory. Gowen located a witness who said
24:03
Speaker 1: they had dined with Helen at a restaurant on Fort
24:05
Speaker 1: Worth's West End after she left Whippoorwill Bay on the
24:10
Speaker 1: night of September 29, 1979. If that witness was correct,
24:16
Speaker 1: Helen had successfully made it back to the city after
24:19
Speaker 1: neighbors watched her drive south on Highway 51, the opposite direction.
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Speaker 1: That opened up another possibility altogether. Helen might have driven
24:30
Speaker 1: from the restaurant to her home at 7820 Lano Avenue
24:35
Speaker 1: in Western Hills. If she did, Gowen wondered whether whatever
24:40
Speaker 1: ultimately happened to her might have occurred there rather than
24:44
Speaker 1: at Lake Granbury. He wanted to search the house, but
24:48
Speaker 1: he couldn't. He didn't think he had the probable cause
24:52
Speaker 1: needed to justify a search warrant. There was another obstacle
24:56
Speaker 1: the lawmen could never overcome. Herman Holliday had been dead
25:01
Speaker 1: for years. I sure wanted to interview the husband, he said.
25:06
Speaker 1: Even without a body, Gowen was convinced Helen was no
25:10
Speaker 1: longer alive. People sometimes voluntarily disappear, he acknowledged, but they
25:16
Speaker 1: generally leave evidence of another life somewhere. Employment records, social
25:22
Speaker 1: security activity, vehicle registrations, and or financial transactions. Helen hadn't
25:29
Speaker 1: left a trace behind. Despite the work he'd done, Larry
25:35
Speaker 1: Goen never got close to finding Helen. He eventually retired
25:40
Speaker 1: from the Hood County Sheriff's Office and became a deputy
25:43
Speaker 1: fire marshal. In 2009, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
25:49
Speaker 1: He fought it hard and with optimism, but he died
25:52
Speaker 1: the following year at age 67. No one had worked
25:57
Speaker 1: as hard on Helen Holliday's case as Larry Gowen had.
26:01
Speaker 1: It seems the investigation died with him. For nearly a
26:07
Speaker 1: decade after Gowen's last publicized efforts on Helen's case, the
26:12
Speaker 1: missing woman's name once again disappeared from newspaper articles and
26:16
Speaker 1: the case was cold again. Then a big break came.
26:23
Speaker 1: At approximately 11.30 in the morning on Thursday, April 17, 2014,
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Speaker 1: a City of Granbury employee noticed something protruding from the
26:33
Speaker 1: surface of the lake behind the old Brazos Motel at
26:38
Speaker 1: 905 West Pearl Street. The location was approximately five miles
26:43
Speaker 1: south of Whippoorwill Bay. The entirety of Texas was experiencing
26:49
Speaker 1: severe drought conditions that year. and Lake Granbury had fallen
26:53
Speaker 1: to a record low, roughly 10 feet beneath its normal level.
26:59
Speaker 1: The object in the water resembled part of a vehicle.
27:02
Speaker 1: The employee reported it. When authorities arrived, they quickly recognized
27:08
Speaker 1: the exposed section as the tailgate of a pickup truck.
27:13
Speaker 1: At normal lake level, The vehicle would have been submerged
27:17
Speaker 1: beneath 15 to 16 feet of murky water and positioned
27:21
Speaker 1: about 15 feet beyond the usual shoreline. Crews pulled the
27:27
Speaker 1: truck from the lake. Corrosion had destroyed much of it.
27:31
Speaker 1: Sections of the pickup bed, roof, and exterior door surfaces
27:36
Speaker 1: had deteriorated away, and green slime covered much of what remained.
27:42
Speaker 1: The license plates had disintegrated almost completely, and investigators initially
27:47
Speaker 1: could not read the vehicle identification number. The truck's cab
27:52
Speaker 1: was packed with decades of accumulated sediment. As investigators began
27:58
Speaker 1: removing that material, they found human bones. Crews continued digging
28:04
Speaker 1: through the truck throughout the afternoon and into the night. Eventually,
28:09
Speaker 1: they recovered a complete skeleton. Investigators also found a purse
28:14
Speaker 1: buried beneath the sediment inside the vehicle. No driver's license
28:19
Speaker 1: was recovered, but there was a charge card. The name
28:24
Speaker 1: printed on it was Helen Holliday. Authorities immediately understood what
28:30
Speaker 1: they had probably found. Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds initially
28:35
Speaker 1: refused to make an official identification until forensic examination could
28:41
Speaker 1: confirm it. The location itself raised questions. The pickup had
28:47
Speaker 1: not been found adjacent to a road, which made an
28:51
Speaker 1: accidental traffic crash unlikely. Someone had put a tremendous amount
28:56
Speaker 1: of effort getting it into the water the way it
28:59
Speaker 1: was found. The truck was transported to the sheriff's office
29:04
Speaker 1: for examination. The following Monday, a forensic anthropologist from the
29:10
Speaker 1: University of North Texas in Dent joined lead investigator Sonny
29:14
Speaker 1: Frisbee to begin going through the evidence. They initially expected
29:20
Speaker 1: DNA testing might be necessary. Helen's daughters Karen and Sharon
29:25
Speaker 1: were prepared to provide comparison samples, potentially requiring months before
29:31
Speaker 1: an official identification could be completed. But it didn't take months.
29:37
Speaker 1: On April 24th, one week after the pickup was discovered,
29:42
Speaker 1: authorities announced that the remains were Helen's. Mark Ingram, a
29:48
Speaker 1: forensic examiner with UNT Health Science Center, compared the missing
29:53
Speaker 1: woman's dental records to the teeth recovered from the skeletal remains.
29:58
Speaker 1: They matched. Investigators also managed to recover the Chevy's badly
30:04
Speaker 1: corroded VIN. That matched Helen's truck. Along with the personal
30:10
Speaker 1: items bearing Helen's name inside the purse, the evidence was sufficient.
30:15
Speaker 1: Everything went back to Helen. Like they'd believed for most
30:20
Speaker 1: of the years since she vanished, she'd been in Lake
30:23
Speaker 1: Granbury the entire time, just nowhere near where they thought.
30:29
Speaker 1: There was, however, one answer the lake couldn't provide. The
30:34
Speaker 1: Hood County Sheriff's Office could not determine how Helen died.
30:39
Speaker 1: No bullet holes were found, and after nearly 35 years underwater,
30:43
Speaker 1: there was no obvious physical evidence proving that Helen had
30:47
Speaker 1: been killed before the truck entered the lake. I don't
30:51
Speaker 1: know if we'll ever know for sure, Sheriff Deeds remarked.
30:55
Speaker 1: The case, he emphasized, was not closed. Helen's uncle, Tommy Tatum,
31:03
Speaker 1: said the family had long believed the lake held the answer.
31:08
Speaker 1: The woman's father had been convinced she was there, and
31:11
Speaker 1: Tommy remembered personally searching the shoreline with his brothers. He
31:16
Speaker 1: also knew what Helen's relatives had always believed about Herman.
31:22
Speaker 1: Her parents and one of his brothers suspected Herman had
31:25
Speaker 1: got rid of her, particularly after learning about the violent
31:29
Speaker 1: fight immediately before she disappeared. After Helen was declared dead,
31:35
Speaker 1: he said, Herman had attempted to claim Helen's Fort Worth
31:39
Speaker 1: home and take it away from her daughters. He was unsuccessful,
31:43
Speaker 1: although he was allowed to continue living at the house,
31:47
Speaker 1: preventing Karen and Sharon from collecting their mother's things for years.
31:53
Speaker 1: Karen had spent most of her adult life without knowing
31:57
Speaker 1: where her mother was. She had almost stopped believing that
32:01
Speaker 1: would ever change. It was hard on her and her sister.
32:05
Speaker 1: But so were the lingering questions. We don't really know
32:09
Speaker 1: the how yet, Karen said. or if we ever will.
32:14
Speaker 1: But after 35 years, knowing where her mother had been helped.
32:19
Speaker 1: On Saturday, May 3rd, 2014, approximately 40 members of Helen's
32:25
Speaker 1: family gathered at Carleton Cemetery near Dublin. After three and
32:30
Speaker 1: a half decades, Karen and Sharon could finally bury their mother.
32:36
Speaker 1: Helen was laid to rest beside Oren Boatwright, her first
32:40
Speaker 1: husband and father to her children. It remains unknown how
32:46
Speaker 1: or exactly when Helen Holliday ended up where she did.
32:52
Speaker 1: Herman Holliday told everyone he never saw Helen after their
32:55
Speaker 1: argument on September 29, 1979. But knowing about the abuse
33:02
Speaker 1: he put Helen through for years, it's unlikely anyone would
33:06
Speaker 1: ever take his word for it. If the investigation into
33:10
Speaker 1: Helen's death has continued, it isn't publicly known. Her two daughters, anyway,
33:17
Speaker 1: probably don't have much hope the Hood County Sheriff's Office
33:21
Speaker 1: will ever solve the case. A feeling that, perhaps, has
33:25
Speaker 1: been around since the beginning. If an official refuses to
33:30
Speaker 1: interview someone and they tell you that your mother left
33:33
Speaker 1: of her own accord, there is nothing you can do,
33:37
Speaker 1: Karen once said. If you have any information about the
33:42
Speaker 1: death of Helen Holliday, please contact the Hood County Sheriff's
33:47
Speaker 1: Office at 817-579-3307. If you'd like to join Goncold's mission
33:57
Speaker 1: to shine a light on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases,
34:01
Speaker 1: get the show ad-free, and have access to bonus content,
34:05
Speaker 1: you can at patreon.com slash goncoldpodcast. You can also support
34:11
Speaker 1: the show by leaving a five-star rating and written review
34:14
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen. However you
34:19
Speaker 1: choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.