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The Murder of Terressa Lynn Vanegas · 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. Dickinson, Texas, is located about thirty miles southeast of the
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heart of Houston in northwestern Galveston County. After several decades as little more than
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a quiet agricultural community producing crops like potatoes, figs, and sugar cane,
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in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Galveston gangsters
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Sam and Rose Masio, empowered by the enactment of Prohibition in nineteen twenty,
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brought their bootlegging business to town. In no time, speakeasies, gambling dens,
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and brothels became Dickinson tourist drawls, which all thrived because the Macio syndicate
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owned the local politicians and the Galveston County sheriff. Even after pro Ambition ended,
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the vice economy in Galveston County continued relatively unfettered, but the legalization of
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gambling in Nevada certainly slowed it down. In fact, the Masio brothers split
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and headed to the new Sin City to legitimize their business activities. They got
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out just in time. Throughout the late nineteen forties and into the fifties,
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the Texas Rangers began working alongside other Texas law enforcement agencies at the county level
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to shut down vice across the state. When Paul Hopkins was elected Sheriff of
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Galveston County in nineteen fifty six, the last holdout of vice in Texas,
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he set out to end all illegal businesses there, and with the help of
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the Texas Rangers, that's exactly what happened. Slowly but surely, and free
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of mafia's style organized crime at least, Dickinson became what it is today.
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Like other relatively small towns along the area's creeks, lakes, and bays,
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the ten square mile city has grown substantially over the last couple decades. Once
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a haven for tourists seeking a respite from the long arm of the law,
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Dickinson became home to folks seeking both a respite from and relatively easy commute to
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the behemoth city of Houston. Dickinson's population remains relatively small, at about twenty
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thousand in twenty twenty three, and residents range primarily from the working class to
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the upper middle class, with the latter sharing the majority of properties that line
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Dickinson Bayou with area industry. Though crimes like burglary and assault aren't necessarily a
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rarity in Dickinson, murder is. Since two thousand and four, there have
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been only nine murders in the city. Two thousand and six, however,
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was a particularly deadly year in Dickinson, with three recorded homicides, including the
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tragic murder of a sixteen year old girl, Teresa Venegas. Teresa Lynn Venegas
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was born to parents Javier and Jeannette on August ninth, nineteen ninety. The
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youngest of five children in the Venegas home, she was inseparable from her sisters,
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Jackie, Amber, and Amanda since an early age. Teresa loved painting
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her sister's nails and styling their hair even more than she enjoyedoyd styling her own.
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Just being included in her big sister's activities likely made Teresa happy. According
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to her brother, Frankie, Teresa enjoyed school, and though she wasn't involved
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in any extracurricular activities as a freshman at Dickinson High School, she kept up
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her grades and was a good student. Though Teresa had a lot of friends,
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she is reported to have been insecure around people. She felt at ease
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the most around her grandmother Betty, with whom she spent a lot of time.
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Teresa visited her frequently on the weekends and during the summer. As is
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the case with virtually every normal teenager, life wasn't without its problems. In
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late October two thousand six, Teresa Venegas went missing. Dickinson Police later told
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reporters that this wasn't the first time the sixteen year old had left and stayed
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away from home without notice, though it is unclear if this or any of
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her previous excursions could actually be considered running away, as her grandmother, Betty
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would also later say that she was known to disappear for a couple days at
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a time while hanging out with friends. Teresa's disappearance, of course, worried
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her parents, but the wayward and perhaps rebellious teenager returned home and everyone's anxious
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minds were eased. On Tuesday, October thirty first, two thousand and six
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Halloween, Teresa Venegas attended classes at Dickinson High and returned home after a typical
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uneventful day in the life. Even as she left home to go visit different
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friends' houses. The day was nothing beyond the usual, not even necessarily Teresa's
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plans to sleep over with one on a school night, so far as everyone
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knew, at least that evening. For reasons unknown, the plan to stay
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the night at a friend's fell through, and though she was seen walking in
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the direction of her house, Teresa Lynn Venegas was never seen alive again.
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The following day, Wednesday, November one, two thousand and six, when
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Teresa failed to return home from school, her parents and siblings set out looking
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for her. After failing to find her, and after learning her plans to
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stay with a friend the night before fell through, a missing person's report was
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filed with the Dickinson Police Department. A beyond the lookout was issued for the
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sixteen year old, thought to be wearing a white buttoned down dress and blue
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pants. Though she'd seemingly vanished before, a sense of foreboding seemed to be
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in the air, this time, fueled by the fact that none of her
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friends claimed to have seen her since the night before. A few days later,
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that foreboding feeling was unfortunately realized. On the early afternoon of Friday,
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November three, two thousand and six, A man was riding his dirt bike
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around an area behind Dickenson High School and about two hundred yards away, out
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of the corner of his eye, he saw something shocking and did a double
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take. His mind wasn't playing tricks. In a shallow drainage ditch that ran
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alongside the former soccer practice field was the body of a girl, face down
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and partially unclothed. The biker abandoned his vehicle and sprinted to an adjacent apartment
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complex, where he frantically called out for help for someone to call police.
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A woman there called nine one one at twelve twenty one PM, and Dickinson
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authorities soon arrived at the scene. Like the dirt biker, officers were at
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the discovery, the girl wore no shoes, her top had been ripped off
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of her and her pants pulled down to her knees. There was a belt
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laced tightly around her neck. Having limited resources at their immediate disposal, the
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Dickinson police brought in the Galveston County Sheriff's Office Crime scene Unit to help process
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the scene. The body was taken to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office for
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identification and an autopsy, it didn't take long for the body to be identified
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as sixteen year old Teresa Lynn Venegas. Although authorities wouldn't let her mother,
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Jeannette, see the body, police showed her a photo taken by an official
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at the Medical Examiner's office to make the identification. Jeannette positively identified Teresa,
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who the mother later said had been brutally beaten, her face badly bruised and
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swollen. All Teresa's prized long, wavy brown hair, the hair that she
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took such pride in brushing, had been cut short. While the Dickinson police
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remarked that there were no clear signs of how Teresa died, Detectives John Florence
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and Captain Arnold Moreno were perhaps slightly less tight lipped. Florence said that there
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were definitive signs of foul play, and Captain Moreno commented that Teresa had suffered
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many different types of injuries. The Medical examiner determined, of course, that
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her death was a homicide, although it was estimated Teresa had been dead for
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two days, her time of death just hours after she was last seen.
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Further testing was required to determine the exact cause, but to this day police
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have yet to make an official statement about exactly how Teresa died. Considering the
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belt that was laced tightly around her neck when her body was found, it
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was immediately obvious that one possible cause of Teresa in Venegas's death was strangulation.
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At the teenager's funeral the Wednesday following the discovery of her body, the casket
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remained closed. However, Javier Venegas requested to see his daughter's body prior to
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her burial. When the casket was opened, he observed what Jeanette Venegas had
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seen when Dickinson police detectives showed her a photograph for identification, major bruising and
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swelling to her face. Javier also inspected Teresa's hands and each bore several cuts.
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Later that afternoon, November sixth, two thousand and six, the Dickinson
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based search and Recovery organization Texas ECUSEARCH returned with a Vinegus family to the scene
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where Teresa's body was found. Teresa's best friend, Kimberly Ramsay and Kimberly's boyfriend
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Cody Birdwell had gone missing two days before. She was last seen alive on
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October twenty ninth, and ecusearch officials worried the disappearances might be connected to Teresa's
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murder. The entire area was exhaustively searched, using tools including a methane gas
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detector, but there were no signs of any other bodies nearby and no clues
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that might suggest Kimberly and Cody's whereabouts. But that's not to say no evidence
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was found. Incredibly, searchers found something not fifteen feet away from where Teresa's
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body was discovered something both Dickinson Police and Galveston County Sheriff's Office crime scene investigators
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had missed. The teenager's glasses and hairclip. Aqusearch marked the location of these
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items and called Dickinson detectives to come in and bag the evidence they somehow left
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behind. Though an official cause of death or other autopsy details were never formally
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released to the public, Teresa's family said they discovered she'd been raped, severely
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beaten with a blunt object, and then strangled to death with her own belt.
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Judging by the accounts reported to police and the estimated time of Teresa's death,
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all of those things likely took place somewhere near, if not at,
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the exact site where her body was found. Beginning in the late afternoon of
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October thirty, first to thousand and six, Teresa Venegas hung out with a
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close friend for several hours before going to the home of another friend, whose
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house was located at a trailer park off California Avenue. From there, she
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called a nineteen year old man she'd met online a few months earlier. He
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lived in Abilene, Texas, three hundred and eighty miles northwest of Dickinson,
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and Teresa apparently told this man she was going to a nearby convenience store to
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purchase a map. Shortly after that, she was reported to be seen near
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the Green Cay Subdivision at approximately eleven PM. It should be noted here before
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we proceed that these sightings occurred sometimes a mile and sometimes a half a mile
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apart, and it appears that when she is reported as being seen, it's
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always on foot. Depending on exactly where she was seen in the Green Cay
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Subdivision, she'd have traveled anywhere between a little less than a mile and a
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mile and a half, meaning that if all the sightings are true, Teresa
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didn't stay put at any one place very long. That night. At eleven
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thirty PM. A friend of her mother's later said Teresa was again on California
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Avenue walking. Another witness placed Teresa at a house party on Bramble Lane,
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about a half mile east from exactly that time until twelve thirty am, it
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appears, yet another witness claims to have seen Teresa at a different party on
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Bramble Lane. Remember it was Halloween, and at this house she was seen
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out front speaking with an older man whose description has not been provided in reports.
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It has been said that the identity of this man remains unknown, as
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does the subject of their conversation, but perhaps there's a clue. Various witnesses
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reported that Teresa was asking for a ride to Abilene, a six hour plus
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drive, and according to one individual, she couldn't be talked out of making
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the trip. Other witnesses put the sixteen year old at a Texaco service station
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about a half mile away from California Avenue, but by the time Dickinson police
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detectives got word of this and visited the store to get the video surveillance footage
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it had been recorded over though the siding could not be confirmed, it jibed
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with reports that she was looking to buy a map and dead set on getting
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to Abilene. Perhaps one of the most important details that can be ascertained from
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the witness reports are the California Avenue and Bramble Lane sidings. The streets run
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parallel to one another north to south and are a couple blocks apart. The
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connecting roads, thirty fourth Street and Melvin Utley Drive provide a relatively straight shot
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between them directly in the middle. More or less since Dickinson High School and
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the former soccer practice field where the body of Teresa Venegas was found, it's
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likely a no brainer to most folks that the nineteen year old man from Abilene
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would be a priority of the investigation from the get go, but that might
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not have been the case. Teresa met him on the website Dope House Records,
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the Houston music label founded by Christian hip hop artist turned gangster rapper and
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then, eventually, in two thousand and two, convicted pedophile Carlos coy aka
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SPM. In two thousand and six, when Facebook, Twitter, and particularly
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read It hadn't yet caught the attention of every single human being on the planet,
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many websites hosted their own chat rooms, usually consisting of threads that covered
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a wide variety of different topics. Dope House Records had such chat rooms,
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and Teresa Venegas frequented them. That's where she met Ambroso, the man from
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Abilene. Journalist David lor after calling and messaging with Ambroso, reported the following
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He and Teresa had known each other about three months. Ambroso said they began
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talking and hit it off over their relationship problems. He asked her out,
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Ambroso told Laur she said yes. They continued to talk. He asked her
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to marry him, and again Teresa said yes. On Halloween, Ambroso continued.
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He spoke with Teresa at about ten PM, and she told him she
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was having difficulty getting a ride. She said she was trying to get a
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friend to give her a lift to Abilene, and Ambroso never spoke with her
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again. He didn't even get the chance to tell her he loved her,
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he told Lore. When asked if he'd talked to the cops yet, the
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man from Abilene wrote in a message to Lore, no, I haven't,
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but it's bad enough I'm talking to you. I hate cops, but imagine
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if you will. Z's in the place of the essays, although due diligence
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wasn't necessarily done in the case of ambroso it appears he is almost certainly a
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dead end in the investigation anyway. Another witness later came forward and claimed to
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have seen a white male with long black hair walking out of the field where
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Teresa's body was found, but prior to the discovery. Although they've reported that
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evidence suggested the teenager wasn't killed where her body was found, Dickinson Police Chief
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Ron Morales seemingly contradicted that when he told reporters it's not inconceivable her body could
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have been there for two days without being spotted. There's a lot of high
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grass and it's not a place where a lot of people go. By December
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two thousand and six, Dickinson police detectives were collecting DNA samples from known area
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sex offenders, all but officially confirming that Teresa Venegas had been raped. They
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told the deceased teenager's family they were checking those samples for matches with a DNA
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profile lifted from the body, though they'd never reported the results. There was
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obviously no match. The investigation, judging by all outward appearances, had quickly
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gone cold, failing to follow up on the man from Abilene named Ambroso wasn't
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the only potential misstep in the investigation. It seems a potential link between Teresa's
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murder and the disappearances of her friend Kimberly Ramsey and Kimberly's boyfriend Cody Birdwell weren't
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even on the CoP's radar until Texas Ecusearch came in and began to ask questions.
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It was Ecusearch investigators that discovered the connection in the first place, after
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speaking with both Teresa's and Kimberly's mothers. Texas Ecusearch had been involved in searches
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for Kimberly Ramsey in the past. Like Teresa Venegas, she'd run away a
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few times before, and they once ran away together earlier in the month.
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In fact, Kimberly and her mother had appeared on the Doctor Phil show,
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the namesake of which sent her to one of those Scared themself straight to camps
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disguised as a therapy camp. Runaways are at an extremely high risk of becoming
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victims of exploitation or other violent crime, and if there was a killer on
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the loose. In Dickinson, a volunteer for Texas. ECU Search said Kimberly
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was easy prey. She had no car, no cell phone, and no
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money. Cody Birdwell and Kimberly Ramsey were found alive in nearby Rusk relatively quickly
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after ECU Search started looking on November ninth, two thousand and six. Their
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disappearances were apparently a coincidence and had nothing to do with Teresa's murder. The
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day after, Kimberly and Cody were found alive, on Friday, November tenth,
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two thousand and six, a woman was found dead about thirteen miles away
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at seven am that morning in lam off the Interstate forty five access road near
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Texas Highway one forty six, in a marshy area at the eastern edge of
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Omega Bay and about five feet off the road, two fishermen discovered the body
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of a woman lying face down. Using the woman's tattoos, Lamark police were
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able to tentatively identify the deceased as twenty seven year old Amanda Callum, who
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was known to most as Nikki, the shortened diversion of her middle name Nicole.
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Family members later made the identification official. The woman's t shirt was tied
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around her neck, and though police originally believed she'd been shot to death,
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the holes in her chest were actually stab wounds, several of them. She
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was dumped at the spot where she was found shortly before her body was discovered.
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The cops ascertained about three or four hours before. Nicki had a record
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of more than a dozen convictions, ranging from drug possession to prostitution, and
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had been living in low cost motels near the sea wall in Galveston. Lamark
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Police Captain Donald Harold told the press that because of these factors, an arrest
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and conviction would likely prove difficult. The murder of twenty seven year old Amanda
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Nicki Kellum police and Dickinson decided had absolutely nothing to do with their case,
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the murder of sixteen year old Teresa Venegas. In the years since Teresa's violent
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sexual assault and murder, her name began appearing in some lists alongside victims of
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what is known as the Texas Killing Fields or the I forty five serial killings,
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But like most series of murders, clustered in and around Texas's bigger cities
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like Houston, in San Antonio and Dallas, and spread out over years or
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decades, It's certainly plausible that a few might be connected, but incredibly unlikely
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a great deal of them are. There are many murderers, in fact,
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who have been either identified or convicted of several of the Texas Killing Field's murders.
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In twenty twenty one, Teresa's mother, Jeanette Venegas told ABC thirteen News
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Houston, I'd like to get some answers around her birthday and around Halloween time.
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It's hard, It's just hard. I know somebody out there, I
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know they know who did it. Teresa's sister Amanda also made a plea for
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someone to come forward. Fifteen years is long enough. If somebody knows anything,
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come forward, say something. We want whoever did this to be where
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they need to be, behind bars so he doesn't hurt someone else another little
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girl. Betty, Teresa's beloved grandmother, struggled after the murder. Imagining what
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Teresa must have gone through haunts her and knowing who did and what happened is
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about the only thing that might help her move on. Jeanette went on to
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say that the Dickinson police won't communicate with her, leaving her to wonder if
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the case is ever truly under active investigation. In twenty sixteen, detectives said
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they developed many suspects and interviewed around forty five people over the past ten years,
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but the department has never had the evidence to make an arrest. Then,
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in twenty twenty one, Dickinson Police Chief Ron Morales said there was suspect
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DNA and CODIS. I'm a strong believer in that he will mess up.
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Morales continued. When that does happen, will have our person. That quote
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might lead one to believe the department is not aware of forensic genetic genealogy,
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a process that, if given to the right lab, virtually ends the hoping
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and waiting game and instead provides results relatively quickly. Morales told reporters it's only
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a matter of time, but the fact is it doesn't have to be whatever
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authorities decide to do or what not to do. Teresa's mother refuses to give
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up. I'll keep working on this until the day I die, Jeanette told
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ABC Houston. If I have to solve it myself, I will. If
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you have any information about the murder of Teresa Lynn Venegas, please call the
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Dickinson Police Department at two eight one, three, three seven forty seven hundred
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or Galveston cas crime Stoppers at two eight one, seven, six, three,
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