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Serial Killer Documentary - The Killer Who Thought He'd Never Be Found · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:07
Speaker 1: On the 16th of February, 1974, in Fort Worth, Texas,
0:13
Speaker 1: after attending a high school dance, 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted.
0:19
Speaker 2: The predator came out of the darkness, and he said,
0:23
Speaker 2: you're going with me, aren't you, sweetie?
0:25
Speaker 1: It was the last time Carla would be seen alive.
0:29
Speaker 1: When police found her body, they knew they were looking
0:33
Speaker 1: for a callous and merciless killer.
0:35
Speaker 3: She was beat from head to toe and strangled and raped.
0:42
Speaker 4: It was horrific.
0:43
Speaker 3: It was simply horrific.
0:44
Speaker 5: I had nightmares.
0:45
Speaker 1: It would take almost half a century before Carla's depraved
0:50
Speaker 1: attacker was revealed to be church-going family man Glenn McCurley.
0:57
Speaker 6: He is the kind of person that we tell our
1:00
Speaker 6: daughters about, makes us not go out alone at night.
1:08
Speaker 6: He is the evil predator of our nightmares.
1:12
Speaker 1: Glenn McCurley had finally been exposed as one of the
1:16
Speaker 1: world's most evil killers. It was a murder that went
1:43
Speaker 1: undetected for nearly 50 years. When 17-year-old schoolgirl Carla Walker
1:50
Speaker 1: was murdered in Fort Worth, Texas in February 1974, nobody
1:56
Speaker 1: knew the identity of her killer until decades later, cutting-edge
2:01
Speaker 1: DNA testing finally led investigators to 77-year-old Glenn McCurley.
2:08
Speaker 7: All of a sudden, We had, after 47 years, we
2:12
Speaker 7: had finally solved it.
2:14
Speaker 1: The brutal killer who'd escaped justice for so long had
2:18
Speaker 1: no place left to hide.
2:19
Speaker 8: Well, if y'all knew all that, why didn't you come
2:23
Speaker 8: get me back then or something?
2:25
Speaker 2: Because they didn't know, but we do.
2:28
Speaker 5: Carla's grieving family.
2:30
Speaker 1: Would learn that her murderer had been living in their
2:33
Speaker 1: midst all along.
2:35
Speaker 9: Of course, everybody immediately gets on their computers and does
2:39
Speaker 9: research on this guy. They discover he's a guy who
2:41
Speaker 9: lived blocks from Carla.
2:45
Speaker 2: Everybody on his street thought he was a great guy.
2:48
Speaker 2: But when he's looking at you, he's not looking at
2:50
Speaker 2: you as a friend. He's looking at you as a
2:54
Speaker 2: real possibility to come see you one night when you're
2:57
Speaker 2: asleep or by yourself.
3:02
Speaker 1: On the surface, Glenn McCurley was a church-going family man,
3:06
Speaker 1: but beneath the mask, he was a calculating predator. This
3:12
Speaker 1: killer's story begins in 1943. Glenn Samuel McCurley was born
3:18
Speaker 1: on January the 5th in Holmes County, Florida. His childhood
3:22
Speaker 1: was spent in West Texas.
3:27
Speaker 10: He was the eldest of three brothers.
3:30
Speaker 6: When he was a teenager, he was sent away from
3:32
Speaker 6: his family to the Westview Boys' Home in southwest Oklahoma.
3:38
Speaker 1: In 1961, weeks after McCurley's 18th birthday, he found himself
3:43
Speaker 1: on the wrong side of the law.
3:45
Speaker 2: He stole a car and led the highway patrol on
3:48
Speaker 2: a high-speed chase, and they finally caught him. Then he
3:51
Speaker 2: was convicted of car theft.
3:54
Speaker 6: He served 11 months in Huntsville Unit Prison before being
3:59
Speaker 6: granted parole.
4:01
Speaker 4: Not long after he gets out, in February 1963, he
4:06
Speaker 4: marries a girl called Judy. They had a son and
4:09
Speaker 4: another son a year.
4:10
Speaker 5: Or two later.
4:13
Speaker 4: At this point, Glenn McCurley is working as a truck driver.
4:17
Speaker 5: They've moved to West Fort Worth in Texas.
4:23
Speaker 1: The suburban neighborhood suited the couple. It was an ideal
4:28
Speaker 1: place to raise children.
4:32
Speaker 11: It was very family oriented, very church going, very laid
4:37
Speaker 11: back and trusting and what you would think of as
4:40
Speaker 11: an idyllic childhood. The neighborhoods were full of kids and
4:44
Speaker 11: we walked everywhere and had pretty much the run of
4:47
Speaker 11: the place. It really was a great place to grow up.
4:54
Speaker 9: It was definitely thought of as a place where you
4:56
Speaker 9: don't necessarily have to lock your car doors and Your
4:59
Speaker 9: kids are safe to run around the streets and go
5:02
Speaker 9: to parties and, you know, do what they do.
5:05
Speaker 1: Just over a mile away from the McCurleys was 17-year-old
5:09
Speaker 1: Carla Walker's family home.
5:15
Speaker 11: Her father was the strict military disciplinarian, but also the
5:19
Speaker 11: protector of the family. They were really, you know, kind
5:22
Speaker 11: of that typical all-American family.
5:25
Speaker 1: Jim Walker was the family's fifth and youngest child.
5:30
Speaker 2: I had a mom, Charlene. My dad was Layton. I
5:34
Speaker 2: had two older brothers, Charles and Steve, and two older sisters,
5:38
Speaker 2: Cindy and Carla.
5:40
Speaker 5: Had a good life.
5:41
Speaker 2: It was a good life. Carla was five years older
5:46
Speaker 2: than me, and she was just kind of entering the
5:49
Speaker 2: prime of her life.
5:55
Speaker 1: At Western Hills High School, Carla was a popular student.
6:00
Speaker 3: Carla was different. She didn't belong to really a clique
6:04
Speaker 3: sort of thing.
6:05
Speaker 11: She was one of those students who traveled easily among
6:08
Speaker 11: all the different sort of groups. And so that's what
6:11
Speaker 11: made her the all-American kind of girl and very approachable
6:15
Speaker 11: and sort of that girl-next-door sweetheart.
6:18
Speaker 2: She was 4'11, 95 pounds, blonde hair, piercing blue eyes,
6:24
Speaker 2: beautiful teeth and lips, just incredibly cute.
6:31
Speaker 11: She was dating the football player, Rodney McCoy, who was
6:36
Speaker 11: in my class. He was not your typical jock. He
6:40
Speaker 11: wasn't full of bravado. He was also very approachable and
6:43
Speaker 11: personable and got along with all kinds.
6:45
Speaker 3: Of different kids.
6:50
Speaker 2: Carla was on the cheer squad. Rodney was a quarterback.
6:53
Speaker 2: And from all accounts, they were kind of the it
6:57
Speaker 2: couple at the high school. And they were a very
6:59
Speaker 2: sweet couple to everybody. into each other.
7:04
Speaker 1: In the winter of 1974, Carla had just turned 17
7:10
Speaker 1: and had an exciting date on her calendar.
7:12
Speaker 2: It was a Saturday. Carla and Rodney were going to
7:16
Speaker 2: a high school Valentine's Day dance on February 16th. The
7:21
Speaker 2: dance went from 8 to 12. Carla got dressed here.
7:26
Speaker 2: The ladies were all fussing over Carla, getting her all
7:28
Speaker 2: fixed up and Carla was beaming, smiling, had her beautiful
7:31
Speaker 2: dress on.
7:36
Speaker 11: Carla was wearing a baby blue dress with lots of
7:39
Speaker 11: white ruffles.
7:41
Speaker 3: It was very cute and pretty and went with her
7:44
Speaker 3: strawberry blonde hair.
7:45
Speaker 11: I don't think any of us will ever forget that dress.
7:50
Speaker 2: Rodney pinned on the corsage and pictures were taken and
7:54
Speaker 2: Anson and my mom fussed over Carla and Dad and
7:57
Speaker 2: the guys talked a little bit to Rodney, said, y'all
7:59
Speaker 2: be safe, have fun. See you when you get home.
8:03
Speaker 2: And that's not exactly how it went that night.
8:11
Speaker 11: But I went to the Valentine's dance that year because
8:13
Speaker 11: I was yearbook editor. And I do remember seeing Carla
8:16
Speaker 11: and Rodney and just, you know, saying hi to them.
8:18
Speaker 9: It was kind of a typical high school dance, you know.
8:23
Speaker 9: After that, they rode around with some friends kind of
8:27
Speaker 9: going by the usual haunts, you know, the hangouts.
8:30
Speaker 11: There were two fast food restaurants right there farther on
8:35
Speaker 11: Camp Vuey, Highway 183.
8:37
Speaker 3: It was Mr.
8:37
Speaker 11: Quick's Hamburgers in one part, and they shared a parking
8:40
Speaker 11: lot with the Taco Bell. And so that's kind of
8:43
Speaker 11: where the high school students would congregate.
8:46
Speaker 2: They drove through the parking lot, got out, would talk
8:48
Speaker 2: with everybody. But unfortunately, the bathrooms had been shut down.
8:51
Speaker 2: They weren't working, so Carla needed to use the restrooms.
8:55
Speaker 2: and Rodney drove her a block and a half south
8:58
Speaker 2: of Camp Bowie to an all-night bowling alley.
9:05
Speaker 1: The couple visited the bowling alley twice during the evening.
9:09
Speaker 1: On the second occasion, just after midnight, they decided to
9:13
Speaker 1: remain in the parking lot. It was a decision that
9:18
Speaker 1: would change their lives forever.
9:21
Speaker 9: They began making out in the car and kind of
9:24
Speaker 9: leaning up against the passenger side door as they were
9:26
Speaker 9: using her purse as her pillow I believe and the
9:29
Speaker 9: door jerks.
9:30
Speaker 2: Open Carla started to fall and Rodney grabbed her back
9:35
Speaker 2: of her head and started to pull her back in
9:37
Speaker 2: but when he reached down to grab her he started
9:40
Speaker 2: seeing stars he didn't know what was happening and he.
9:45
Speaker 4: Attacks him viciously and he's very dazed and the man
9:50
Speaker 4: hits him again He was.
9:51
Speaker 2: Just stunned, had no idea what was going on. Rodney
9:55
Speaker 2: said he saw a hand come in and grab Carla
9:58
Speaker 2: and say to Carla, you're going with me, aren't you, sweetie?
10:01
Speaker 2: And Carla was pulled out of the car.
10:05
Speaker 9: Rodney's suffering head injuries, bleeding all over the place in
10:08
Speaker 9: his eyes, pretty bad. So Carla tells the man, I'll
10:13
Speaker 9: go with you, stop hitting him.
10:16
Speaker 1: Rodney had been beaten with a handgun. When the beating stopped,
10:20
Speaker 1: his attacker spoke directly to him.
10:23
Speaker 2: He was in the darkness looking in and all Rodney
10:26
Speaker 2: could see was the pistol coming in to his face.
10:29
Speaker 2: Rodney says, the guy points it right at my forehead
10:32
Speaker 2: and says, I'm going to kill you. The guy pulled
10:37
Speaker 2: the trigger and it just clicked.
10:39
Speaker 1: The evening which had started like a fairy tale had
10:43
Speaker 1: turned into a horror story, and the nightmare had only
10:48
Speaker 1: just begun. The night 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted from
11:00
Speaker 1: a parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas, her family was
11:04
Speaker 1: expecting her and her boyfriend to return home from a
11:08
Speaker 1: school dance.
11:14
Speaker 2: We waited for Carla and Rodney to come back to
11:16
Speaker 2: hear about all the fun details of the dance.
11:20
Speaker 1: In the parking lot of the bowling alley, Rodney regained consciousness.
11:25
Speaker 5: He knew he had to get help.
11:29
Speaker 9: He hightails it to the Walker home.
11:32
Speaker 2: I was standing over by the front door and I
11:34
Speaker 2: heard a car, tires hitting a curb head on going
11:38
Speaker 2: pretty quick. My parents and uncle did too.
11:42
Speaker 9: He's pretty frantic, saying they got her.
11:44
Speaker 11: Mr.
11:44
Speaker 2: Walker, they got her. His right side of his face
11:47
Speaker 2: was lit up and it was all bloody. Big, long cut,
11:51
Speaker 2: like somebody had taken a knife and slit his cheek
11:53
Speaker 2: open a couple inches.
11:55
Speaker 4: Every mother's nightmare, every parent's nightmare. Their daughter's been abducted
11:59
Speaker 4: at gunpoint. by an unknown man.
12:06
Speaker 2: I stepped back with my back toward the fireplace watching
12:09
Speaker 2: all the events take place up here. To see these
12:12
Speaker 2: people who were solid, solid people become panicked. When dad
12:18
Speaker 2: found out what had happened and where it had happened,
12:20
Speaker 2: he got his pistol. He was out this door to
12:23
Speaker 2: my left.
12:26
Speaker 1: At 2.01 a.m., the police were called. A search of
12:30
Speaker 1: the area surrounding the Brunswick Ridgely bowling alley was carried out.
12:36
Speaker 5: Detectives recovered Carla's purse.
12:40
Speaker 11: I found out about it on the news with Carla's picture.
12:43
Speaker 11: It was just shocking. And from that point on, I
12:46
Speaker 11: was riveted, all of us were, to where she was,
12:50
Speaker 11: what had happened to her.
12:52
Speaker 9: Carla's abduction... launches this gigantic search. And you got high
12:58
Speaker 9: school kids from her school searching. You have virtually every
13:02
Speaker 9: law enforcement officer in the area searching.
13:06
Speaker 2: Helicopters, dogs, all that stuff. They're searching alleys behind buildings,
13:12
Speaker 2: construction sites, pastures, rivers, gorges, tunnels.
13:19
Speaker 9: There was a magazine in the parking lot. Rodney told
13:23
Speaker 9: police the story of being hit on the head with
13:25
Speaker 9: a gun. Obviously, when he tried to shoot Rodney, the
13:28
Speaker 9: magazine had fallen out in the parking lot.
13:30
Speaker 2: The reason the pistol didn't go off, the perpetrator was
13:34
Speaker 2: hitting Rodney when Rodney fell out with Carla. He ejected
13:38
Speaker 2: his own clip, and there was a bullet in the chamber,
13:40
Speaker 2: but that gun could not be fired without the clip
13:43
Speaker 2: being inserted.
13:48
Speaker 1: Police had their first real piece of evidence The attacker
13:52
Speaker 1: had a Ruger 22 pistol, a recent model. What they
13:56
Speaker 1: didn't have was Carla or the name of the person
14:00
Speaker 1: who'd taken her.
14:03
Speaker 11: It was frightening to know that there was someone out
14:06
Speaker 11: there who could do something like that.
14:09
Speaker 6: Carla was abducted from a public place. She was abducted
14:14
Speaker 6: in front of a witness as well, and that's an
14:17
Speaker 6: incredibly reckless thing for the abductor to do, This is
14:22
Speaker 6: somebody who's particularly dangerous.
14:26
Speaker 2: There's a panic in this house, a spirit of fear.
14:32
Speaker 2: Law enforcement started constantly streaming through that front door for
14:36
Speaker 2: several days.
14:41
Speaker 1: On the Monday morning, her shell-shocked classmates at Western Hills
14:45
Speaker 1: High School struggled to make sense of what had happened
14:49
Speaker 1: to their friend.
14:51
Speaker 11: They were devastated. They were like shell-shocked. I don't know
14:54
Speaker 11: how they managed through school that day.
14:58
Speaker 9: There was a lot of speculation about it being classmates
15:01
Speaker 9: and even Rodney McCoy.
15:03
Speaker 11: Maybe he's got her captive somewhere, or maybe he drove
15:06
Speaker 11: her out of town.
15:07
Speaker 3: It was those kinds of speculations.
15:09
Speaker 2: 98% of the time, it's somebody that knows their victim,
15:17
Speaker 2: and the victim knows the perpetrator.
15:21
Speaker 1: The school itself became a focus of inquiry. Detectives spoke
15:25
Speaker 1: to students about the night of the dance in a
15:28
Speaker 1: bid to locate anyone Carla may have interacted with.
15:33
Speaker 11: I went to the principal's office, and when I got there,
15:36
Speaker 11: there was a police officer and a detective and our principal.
15:41
Speaker 11: They explained to me that because of what had happened
15:43
Speaker 11: to Carla, they would like for me to look at
15:45
Speaker 11: all of the photo negatives from the Valentine's dance that
15:49
Speaker 11: the yearbook photographer had taken.
15:51
Speaker 3: And I didn't see anything.
15:54
Speaker 1: As the hours turned to days, local, state, and federal forces,
15:59
Speaker 1: as well as family and friends, were all active in
16:03
Speaker 1: the hunt for Carla.
16:05
Speaker 2: She just disappeared out of the parking lot. I met
16:08
Speaker 2: FBI agents, Texas Rangers, Sheriff's Department, City of Fort Worth, Benbrook, detectives,
16:15
Speaker 2: law enforcement officers. I do remember a palpable tension because
16:21
Speaker 2: I think these seasoned law enforcement officers knew the longer
16:25
Speaker 2: without results, the more likely negative outcome.
16:31
Speaker 11: A lot of my classmates were part of those search
16:34
Speaker 11: groups that were just going out and walking fields and
16:37
Speaker 11: walking around Benbrook Lake, walking at different places where they
16:41
Speaker 11: thought that they could find something, anything that would have
16:44
Speaker 11: to do with Carla's case.
16:46
Speaker 2: A team of officers were working a road that's now
16:49
Speaker 2: called Pearl Ranch Road. There was cattle culverts you could
16:53
Speaker 2: hardly see. One of the officers got out of the
16:56
Speaker 2: car while the other officer was waiting, and he went
16:58
Speaker 2: over and leaned over and looked under, and he said,
17:01
Speaker 2: she's here.
17:06
Speaker 9: She was found in a culvert, concrete culvert where cattle
17:11
Speaker 9: crossed through under the road, and she's found deceased.
17:24
Speaker 1: At 6.35 p.m. on the 20th of February, three days
17:29
Speaker 1: after she was taken, Carla's body was found five miles
17:33
Speaker 1: southwest of the Ridgely Bowling Alley. The case was now
17:37
Speaker 1: a homicide investigation.
17:41
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever heard a guttorial scream
17:44
Speaker 2: from a mom who just found her baby dead. It
17:50
Speaker 2: was one of those kind of screams. It's hard to
17:52
Speaker 2: articulate the sound.
17:55
Speaker 11: That night at the 10 o'clock news, there was actual
17:58
Speaker 11: footage of them taking the body bag out of the
18:01
Speaker 11: culvert near Benbrook Lake. I will never forget that feeling
18:06
Speaker 11: of seeing a body bag and knowing that there was
18:09
Speaker 11: someone I knew inside that body bag.
18:19
Speaker 1: That same evening at the All Saints Hospital morgue, Carla's
18:23
Speaker 1: body was autopsied. It revealed multiple injuries, evidence of sexual
18:29
Speaker 1: assault and strangulation.
18:32
Speaker 3: They found traces of morphine.
18:34
Speaker 11: Yeah, the medical examiner did say that she had been
18:37
Speaker 11: kept alive and hadn't been dead that long, but she
18:40
Speaker 11: didn't die there in the culvert.
18:42
Speaker 3: She had died before.
18:44
Speaker 10: During that time.
18:46
Speaker 6: She was probably going through the most horrendous experience, and
18:51
Speaker 6: the person who abducted her was clearly enjoying hurting her,
18:56
Speaker 6: making her frightened, dominating her, or he would have killed
19:00
Speaker 6: her straight away.
19:03
Speaker 9: I know the parents were freaked out and beginning to
19:06
Speaker 9: keep their kids in at weekend nights.
19:08
Speaker 11: From that day forward, we locked our car doors. To
19:12
Speaker 11: this day, when I get in the car, the door
19:14
Speaker 11: gets locked.
19:16
Speaker 1: On February the 22nd, just two days after the discovery
19:20
Speaker 1: of her body, Carla's funeral was held at the Western
19:24
Speaker 1: Hills Church of Christ. It was attended by more than 1,200 mourners.
19:30
Speaker 2: A thousand plus people were there. The procession line going
19:33
Speaker 2: from the church, which was law enforcement, had it all
19:36
Speaker 2: wired up and was recording, taking pictures of everybody, thinking
19:39
Speaker 2: that perhaps the suspect would be there.
19:41
Speaker 6: There's always the possibility of that in a crime like this,
19:46
Speaker 6: that maybe the killer will turn up at the funeral
19:51
Speaker 6: or will be standing around on the edges or will
19:53
Speaker 6: be watching and the police will always want to be
19:57
Speaker 6: mindful of that.
19:59
Speaker 11: They had us all filed by the open casket and
20:01
Speaker 11: that is probably one of the most traumatizing things I
20:04
Speaker 11: remember from that, especially at that age. The poor girl
20:08
Speaker 11: had been beaten and strangled, and it was simply horrific.
20:13
Speaker 5: I had nightmares.
20:17
Speaker 1: The funeral yielded nothing on Carla's killer. The best lead
20:22
Speaker 1: investigators had was eyewitness Rodney McCoy.
20:26
Speaker 10: Carla's boyfriend, Rodney, would be a prime suspect.
20:32
Speaker 8: When a woman....
20:34
Speaker 6: The first suspect will always be the intimate partner, the boyfriend.
20:38
Speaker 4: Rodney McCoy was interviewed, but the problem the authorities had
20:44
Speaker 4: was that because of his head injuries, he couldn't remember
20:47
Speaker 4: very clearly what had happened to him on that fateful
20:50
Speaker 4: night on the 16th of February, 1974. They sent him
20:54
Speaker 4: to a hypnotherapist to see if they could dislodge his memories.
20:57
Speaker 12: I want you to tell me what you see. I've
21:00
Speaker 12: got a gun on my face. First thing I noticed
21:04
Speaker 12: is his short hair, kind of a skinny nose, some
21:09
Speaker 12: kind of greenish, sleeveless jacket, a cowboy hat.
21:15
Speaker 2: He fell off. What color cowboy hat?
21:19
Speaker 5: It's real white.
21:21
Speaker 2: He said the guy was dressed like a cowboy. I
21:24
Speaker 2: do remember him saying he had a vest of some sort.
21:27
Speaker 1: Basing their investigation on the magazine cartridge left at the scene,
21:33
Speaker 1: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were enlisted to
21:37
Speaker 1: find Fort Worth-registered owners of Ruger pistols. With no gun database,
21:43
Speaker 1: it was a mammoth task, taking hundreds of man-hours.
21:48
Speaker 9: So they began a check of all the Ruger pistols,
21:51
Speaker 9: which that magazine belonged to, in the area.
21:55
Speaker 4: Authorities come back with around 30 names. The police take
22:00
Speaker 4: their time and interview each one of the 30 people
22:04
Speaker 4: who owned a Ruger 22. One of the people they
22:08
Speaker 4: interview is Glenn McCurley, Jr., the truck driver.
22:12
Speaker 1: As with the other Ruger 22 owners, McCurley was brought
22:17
Speaker 1: in for questioning.
22:19
Speaker 2: He said that his gun was stolen. He said, I
22:23
Speaker 2: was fishing and I always took this gun for safety.
22:27
Speaker 2: had it wrapped up in a towel under the front
22:29
Speaker 2: seat of my truck, and I could hear a truck
22:31
Speaker 2: spinning off and taking off, and so I went up
22:34
Speaker 2: there to check my truck, and lo and behold, my
22:35
Speaker 2: gun was gone. And he said that happened like before
22:38
Speaker 2: Carla was abducted.
22:39
Speaker 9: Police didn't have anything else on this guy. They gave
22:41
Speaker 9: him a polygraph test, and from what I understand.
22:44
Speaker 2: He passed.
22:47
Speaker 4: Very, very little evidence. We're in the days before DNA.
22:50
Speaker 4: There's no CCTV. There's no number plate recognition. It just
22:54
Speaker 4: goes cold.
22:55
Speaker 5: Despite the efforts of investigators, all leads had been exhausted.
23:01
Speaker 1: For over four decades, the stranger who abducted, raped, and
23:06
Speaker 1: murdered Carla Walker remained a free man. Until invisible evidence
23:12
Speaker 1: left behind at the crime scene finally led detectives to
23:18
Speaker 1: the killer's door. In the decades that followed the 1974
23:30
Speaker 1: rape and murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker, her family in
23:35
Speaker 1: Fort Worth refused to give up hope.
23:38
Speaker 9: Cindy, her sister, and Carla's mom spent a lot of
23:42
Speaker 9: their time, a lot of their lives, keeping Carla's story alive.
23:46
Speaker 2: I saw my mom from 74 until really 79. What
23:53
Speaker 2: I know now to be go through a chronic clinical
23:56
Speaker 2: disease depression. She still got up, she still washed clothes,
23:59
Speaker 2: made dinner, tried to have happy Christmases, happy events, but
24:04
Speaker 2: she had changed. My dad was, to me, my hero
24:07
Speaker 2: because he carried my mom.
24:09
Speaker 1: The mystery of Carla Walker's unsolved murder was one which
24:14
Speaker 1: never went away.
24:16
Speaker 6: These cases never get absolutely shut down. They never say
24:20
Speaker 6: case closed where they haven't arrested anybody. So it becomes
24:25
Speaker 6: what we refer to as a cold case.
24:26
Speaker 7: 1974, 1978, 1985, every time a new lead came in,
24:32
Speaker 7: they jumped on it and they investigated it thoroughly. It
24:35
Speaker 7: was one of those cases that detectives worked their whole
24:37
Speaker 7: careers on. And so as the cases would go through
24:40
Speaker 7: and technology would change, it.
24:41
Speaker 3: Would come back up.
24:43
Speaker 11: Things kind of quieted down and then things would pop
24:46
Speaker 11: up if there was a suspect, but then they would
24:50
Speaker 11: say that he had been cleared or whatever. You would
24:53
Speaker 11: have conversations semi-regularly about, hey, there's this new technology, should
24:58
Speaker 11: we try it? Hey, we are thinking about sending this
25:01
Speaker 11: off for testing, what do you think?
25:04
Speaker 1: In 2016, Carla's story caught the attention of podcaster Vincent Strange.
25:11
Speaker 1: it would catapult the case back into the spotlight.
25:17
Speaker 9: I came upon Carla's story, just kind of internet search,
25:21
Speaker 9: and it grabbed me right away. There was one Facebook page.
25:27
Speaker 9: It was Justice for Carla, and there was just no
25:31
Speaker 9: activity on it. There was nothing happening. We need to
25:34
Speaker 9: get this out before the public, shine a.
25:36
Speaker 5: Light back on it.
25:38
Speaker 11: When Vincent called me out of the blue... at my
25:41
Speaker 11: job one day and just he introduced himself and he said,
25:45
Speaker 11: I was told that you were the high school yearbook
25:47
Speaker 11: editor and that you knew a lot of people and
25:50
Speaker 11: that you might be able to help me get it started.
25:53
Speaker 1: Carla's friends and family took part in the podcast. The
25:58
Speaker 1: renewed interest in her murder motivated her brother to give
26:03
Speaker 1: it one more shot with the police.
26:11
Speaker 4: Jim, who was only 12 when the killing took place,
26:15
Speaker 4: never forgot and kept in touch with the detectives throughout
26:18
Speaker 4: the ensuing years, badgering them to look into what might
26:21
Speaker 4: have happened, keeping on at them.
26:24
Speaker 7: Fort Worth PD had reopened the case at Jim Walker's urging.
26:27
Speaker 7: He literally called up the cold case department and said,
26:30
Speaker 7: all right, I hear there's a new detective and I
26:33
Speaker 7: need y'all.
26:33
Speaker 3: To start looking at it again.
26:35
Speaker 9: Leah Wagner, cold case detective, received a call from Jim
26:38
Speaker 9: that was stern and pretty to the point.
26:41
Speaker 2: You've worked hard. Problem is, whoever killed my sister is
26:46
Speaker 2: either dead, dying, or getting extremely old right now. I
26:51
Speaker 2: think we need a new set of eyes on Carla's
26:54
Speaker 2: case because we're running out of daylight, and I would
26:56
Speaker 2: like to find this person, why he's got a pulse.
27:00
Speaker 1: The paperwork on the case was extensive, over 6,000 pages
27:04
Speaker 1: of information.
27:06
Speaker 7: There were two banker boxes filled with handwritten notes of
27:10
Speaker 7: leads and investigation tips and investigations the police had begun
27:14
Speaker 7: on their own. They truly left no stone unturned.
27:18
Speaker 2: They were re-interviewing everyone.
27:19
Speaker 9: I know a lot of that focus was on Rodney still.
27:23
Speaker 1: I went through, I interviewed, interviewed, and, you know, one time,
27:28
Speaker 1: I think it picked me up at one of my
27:29
Speaker 1: best talks ever.
27:32
Speaker 7: Every time a new investigator would pick up the case
27:34
Speaker 7: and they would write out there who I want to
27:36
Speaker 7: talk to list, Rodney was always number one on the list.
27:38
Speaker 7: I think the ultimate list maybe had 38 people on it.
27:42
Speaker 3: Let's re-interview these people.
27:44
Speaker 1: The team were hopeful that DNA testing could help the investigation.
27:48
Speaker 1: The science did not exist in 1974, but perhaps now
27:53
Speaker 1: could help name the rapist and murderer.
27:57
Speaker 7: And so we went to go pull the evidence to
27:59
Speaker 7: see what we had. And when I tell you It
28:02
Speaker 7: is like an angel spoke to the crime scene officers
28:05
Speaker 7: in 1974. They did everything right. They preserved it in
28:09
Speaker 7: ways they didn't even know were going to be so important.
28:12
Speaker 5: DNA tests are expensive. There's no question of that.
28:16
Speaker 4: And to carry out the DNA tests that was necessary
28:20
Speaker 4: on Carla's clothing would have cost $ 20, 000.
28:25
Speaker 1: Vincent Strange's podcast about Carla's murder had gained a lot
28:29
Speaker 1: of exposure. One listener, a TV presenter, offered to put
28:34
Speaker 1: up the money to fund the DNA testing. In 2019,
28:40
Speaker 1: an unexpected call came in to the police department.
28:46
Speaker 7: They got a call from NBC Universal saying, we want
28:50
Speaker 7: to do a case in your cold case division today.
28:53
Speaker 7: The detectives were literally working on Carla Walker's case at
28:56
Speaker 7: the time. And so they paid for some testing. Whatever
29:01
Speaker 7: our DNA was going to come from, it was going
29:03
Speaker 7: to come from Carla's clothes. There was so much of
29:07
Speaker 7: Rodney's blood on her dress from his head injury. Finding
29:13
Speaker 7: DNA on the dress that was not Carla's and was
29:16
Speaker 7: not Rodney's was hard to do. There was definitely a
29:20
Speaker 7: male sample that didn't belong to Rodney, that was semen,
29:24
Speaker 7: was on Carla's bra strap. And so in 2020, they say,
29:29
Speaker 7: here we go. And we waited. We get the call
29:36
Speaker 7: that says there were no matches. and it was so disheartening.
29:44
Speaker 4: Not one single hit is found not one well we're
29:47
Speaker 4: back at square one except we aren't another DNA test
29:51
Speaker 4: is conducted by a different company.
29:55
Speaker 7: We had so many little DNA left to test.
29:58
Speaker 3: We had four nanograms, which is nothing. It's nothing. And
30:02
Speaker 3: we knew this was it. We had one shot to
30:04
Speaker 3: test it.
30:05
Speaker 2: They were able to take these, like maybe two cells.
30:09
Speaker 2: Starting in June of 2020, they started working Carla's case.
30:15
Speaker 7: When you get forensic genetic genealogy results, they don't tell
30:19
Speaker 7: you who a person is. You're going to have A
30:21
Speaker 7: list of someone who is in the database for having
30:24
Speaker 7: given their DNA to a commercial database. And what you
30:27
Speaker 7: get is, hey, we know this person here is a
30:30
Speaker 7: second degree, a third degrees away relative.
30:34
Speaker 1: On Independence Day weekend of 2020, the DNA tests finally
30:40
Speaker 1: revealed a familial match.
30:43
Speaker 7: We've got a family named McCurley. We think you should
30:45
Speaker 7: look into McCurley. There were three boys. They lived kind
30:48
Speaker 7: of in the Denton area. And before he can even
30:50
Speaker 7: finish talking, Detective Bennett, who knew the file backwards and forwards,
30:54
Speaker 7: which is an impossibility given the size of the file,
30:57
Speaker 7: but he did, he hops up and says, I know
31:01
Speaker 7: Glenn McCurley.
31:01
Speaker 3: He's on our list.
31:05
Speaker 2: And I think he had 84 suspects on that list.
31:09
Speaker 2: I think McCurley was 18th on that list.
31:12
Speaker 1: The DNA analysis linked semen found on Carla's bra strap
31:17
Speaker 1: to the McCurley family. Next, they set out to demonstrate
31:22
Speaker 1: that it belonged to the man they interviewed in 1974
31:24
Speaker 1: about the Ruger. 22 pistol, the now 77-year-old Glenn McCurley.
31:40
Speaker 7: We did what's called a trash run, which means you
31:42
Speaker 7: wait until someone puts their trash out on the street,
31:44
Speaker 7: because then it is no longer private property. And in
31:48
Speaker 7: the middle of the night, the police come and take
31:50
Speaker 7: a trash bag, and they take it back to the lab,
31:52
Speaker 7: and you try to find things in the trash that
31:54
Speaker 7: you know are going to have DNA on it. In
31:55
Speaker 7: this particular case, it was a McDonald's straw.
31:58
Speaker 2: Law enforcement did all their due diligence, redoing the DNA
32:01
Speaker 2: profile to make sure the profile that came out of
32:04
Speaker 2: the trash grab was the same profile discovered on the
32:07
Speaker 2: inside of Carla's bra strap, which was a semen.
32:10
Speaker 1: To make sure the DNA evidence would be admissible in court,
32:14
Speaker 1: detectives needed to obtain an official DNA sample from Glenn McCurley.
32:19
Speaker 1: Police went to his home to speak to him again.
32:23
Speaker 12: In order for us to eliminate you, the quickest way
32:25
Speaker 12: to do that is to get your DNA.
32:27
Speaker 3: Is that something that you would be okay with?
32:30
Speaker 4: Glenn McCurley is an upright member of the community. He
32:33
Speaker 4: and his wife, Judy, are churchgoers. They're well-known in that
32:37
Speaker 4: suburb of Fort Worth. He hesitates for a moment and
32:40
Speaker 4: then agrees to have his cheek swabbed for DNA.
32:45
Speaker 10: And all it is is two big cotton swabs.
32:46
Speaker 2: I promise they won't go up your nose. They're going
32:49
Speaker 2: to be the inside of your cheek.
32:51
Speaker 7: We had a search warrant ready to go, but he
32:54
Speaker 7: ultimately consensually gave his DNA. We sent that back off
32:57
Speaker 7: to the lab, and they said, this matches the straw.
33:00
Speaker 7: which matches the bra, which matches the crime. And so
33:04
Speaker 7: all of a sudden, we had, after 47 years, we
33:07
Speaker 7: had finally solved it.
33:14
Speaker 2: Glenn Samuel McCurley. It was the guy who killed my sister.
33:18
Speaker 9: At a press conference in Fort Worth, it was announced.
33:21
Speaker 5: His name was announced.
33:22
Speaker 9: It was a shock to everyone because this was a
33:24
Speaker 9: guy who lived blocks from Carla.
33:28
Speaker 11: He had sons that went to Western Hills. His wife, Judy,
33:31
Speaker 11: worked in the nursery at one of the churches that
33:34
Speaker 11: a lot of people went to. His family was known
33:37
Speaker 11: in the area.
33:39
Speaker 2: Since 1974 until the day he was arrested, he drove
33:42
Speaker 2: up and down Williams Road almost every day. Drove by
33:44
Speaker 2: the house. He knew exactly where we lived. I'm pretty
33:46
Speaker 2: sure he came by here when we had garage sales.
33:49
Speaker 7: He is a man who was able to commit this
33:51
Speaker 7: heinous crime and live amongst us like he's a normal person.
33:55
Speaker 3: There's nothing more terrifying than that.
33:57
Speaker 1: After so many years of torment, Carla Walker's loved ones
34:02
Speaker 1: were within touching distance of the truth about her brutal
34:06
Speaker 1: rape and murder in February 1974. But Glenn McCurley wasn't
34:12
Speaker 1: going down without a fight, and at his upcoming trial,
34:16
Speaker 1: he was going to plead.
34:20
Speaker 5: not guilty.
34:27
Speaker 1: On September the 21st, 2020, the man who detectives had
34:32
Speaker 1: linked with the murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker was arrested.
34:38
Speaker 1: Glenn McCurley was taken to the police station to be
34:42
Speaker 1: interviewed about that fateful night of February the 16th, 1974.
34:56
Speaker 7: They went to his home and they arrested him and
34:58
Speaker 7: they took him to the police station and they interviewed him.
35:02
Speaker 8: I just, I don't know the girl. I've never seen her.
35:05
Speaker 8: And I haven't, I haven't killed anybody.
35:09
Speaker 7: For the first hour, he starts saying he doesn't even
35:12
Speaker 7: know who Carla Walker is.
35:14
Speaker 8: Well, I don't see how you could have anything on
35:16
Speaker 8: me because I don't have, I don't know anything about it.
35:20
Speaker 1: During the three-hour interview, police work to get a confession
35:24
Speaker 1: from McCurley.
35:26
Speaker 6: How are you going to make things right before you
35:28
Speaker 6: pass away if you don't admit to the things that
35:31
Speaker 6: you've done?
35:35
Speaker 3: No matter how many times I watch that video.
35:37
Speaker 12: This is just your opportunity to tell your side of
35:40
Speaker 12: what happened.
35:43
Speaker 3: Every time I hold my breath. Where he pauses.
35:49
Speaker 7: And he gets real quiet and he puts his head down.
36:01
Speaker 2: I did do it, I guess. That's basically his confession there.
36:08
Speaker 2: They got him.
36:10
Speaker 7: He says, I strangled that little girl. Justice was going
36:14
Speaker 7: to be served that day. It's a pretty magical moment.
36:18
Speaker 9: McCurley said that he was saving Carla, that Rodney was
36:22
Speaker 9: assaulting her.
36:24
Speaker 2: And he kind of comes in and saves the day.
36:26
Speaker 9: She went with him willingly and they started having consensual relations.
36:33
Speaker 8: She started hugging me, thanking me.
36:37
Speaker 7: We know that's not what happened, but it does definitely
36:40
Speaker 7: put him there with her, which was the important part.
36:43
Speaker 1: After 46 years, McCurley had admitted to being responsible for
36:48
Speaker 1: the death of Carla Walker. Andy had another confession about
36:53
Speaker 1: the gun he'd claimed was stolen. He also tells them
36:57
Speaker 1: where he's hidden the gun, a Ruger 22.
37:00
Speaker 4: He's wrapped in a towel and put it in the
37:02
Speaker 4: attic of his house. You might ask yourself, why on
37:05
Speaker 4: earth did he keep the gun?
37:07
Speaker 5: Was it a souvenir, a trophy?
37:10
Speaker 7: No one thought he kept the gun. We didn't even
37:12
Speaker 7: think to ask it because why would you?
37:15
Speaker 10: He could relive what he did to Carla.
37:18
Speaker 6: Through that gun, but they do like to relive their crimes,
37:23
Speaker 6: visit back those feelings that they felt when they were
37:27
Speaker 6: committing those crimes.
37:28
Speaker 10: And that gun was a link for him.
37:31
Speaker 7: So the police leave the interview and go back to
37:34
Speaker 7: his house and look, and sure enough, there's the gun.
37:38
Speaker 7: In 2020, court systems were taking a little bit of
37:40
Speaker 7: a break due to COVID. Due to McCurley's age, we
37:44
Speaker 7: knew we needed to try it sooner rather than later.
37:47
Speaker 2: When we started going through pretrial hearings in May of 2021,
37:50
Speaker 2: I knew Justice was going to be served. I knew
37:53
Speaker 2: I personally would be able to make sure he would never,
37:57
Speaker 2: ever breathe the air of a free man.
38:01
Speaker 7: We knew, obviously, the biggest portion of this case that
38:03
Speaker 7: was going to be contested would be the new science,
38:06
Speaker 7: the forensic genetic genealogy. It actually had never been admitted
38:10
Speaker 7: in the United States at that point.
38:13
Speaker 1: In Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1, Carla's friends
38:18
Speaker 1: and family had their first glimpse of the man accused
38:21
Speaker 1: of her murder almost half a century ago.
38:25
Speaker 3: He was actually kind of an imposing figure. He was
38:28
Speaker 3: very tall.
38:29
Speaker 7: He definitely had kind of a gruff exterior the whole time.
38:33
Speaker 7: He also was in a wheelchair, even though I had
38:36
Speaker 7: seen him walk in and out of the courtroom on
38:38
Speaker 7: days when the cameras weren't there.
38:42
Speaker 11: He just looked like a confused, angry old man. He
38:45
Speaker 11: had cancer. He wasn't expected to live long. I certainly
38:49
Speaker 11: had no sympathy for him.
38:52
Speaker 1: Inside the courtroom, Carla's friends and family sat on one side.
38:58
Speaker 1: On the other, those who'd come to support the defendant,
39:01
Speaker 1: Glenn McCurley.
39:03
Speaker 9: Watching his son was pretty brutal. His son was just devastated.
39:08
Speaker 9: It was unbelievable, the pain in his eyes and his face.
39:11
Speaker 9: McCurley's wife, on the other hand. They were blowing each
39:13
Speaker 9: other kisses and stuff like that during the trial. It
39:17
Speaker 9: was a bit strange.
39:19
Speaker 1: In the courthouse, under the glare of the national media,
39:23
Speaker 1: the prosecution worked hard to tell the story of what
39:27
Speaker 1: had happened to Carla.
39:29
Speaker 6: On the night that Carla was abducted McCurley's wife was
39:33
Speaker 6: away so he had complete freedom really to come and
39:38
Speaker 6: go from the house his.
39:40
Speaker 9: Wife happened to be out of town he went out
39:42
Speaker 9: drinking and he certainly knew what he was looking for
39:45
Speaker 9: I think He didn't just stumble across Carla on accident.
39:52
Speaker 9: He was lying in wait for somebody.
39:55
Speaker 4: How did he manage to confront his wife at church
39:57
Speaker 4: every Sunday morning, knowing that he'd quite premeditatedly taken this
40:02
Speaker 4: young girl's life? Without a moment's hesitation. And what's more,
40:08
Speaker 4: tortured her, dumped her, raped her.
40:10
Speaker 5: How do you do that? I.
40:13
Speaker 3: Saw the trial every day, even though I wasn't there
40:15
Speaker 3: in person.
40:16
Speaker 11: And when Leah Wagner, the detective, pulled Carla's dress out
40:21
Speaker 11: of that evidence bag, it took my breath away. To
40:25
Speaker 11: see that dress again just put me right back to 1974.
40:29
Speaker 7: This wasn't a minimal crime by any stretch of the imagination.
40:37
Speaker 7: She was beat from head to toe and strangled and raped.
40:47
Speaker 1: At the start of the third day of Carla Walker's
40:50
Speaker 1: murder trial, Glenn McCurley, who for so long had denied
40:55
Speaker 1: his role in Carla's murder, spoke to his attorney.
41:02
Speaker 7: The medical examiner and Carla's brother, Jim, were going to testify.
41:06
Speaker 7: They were about to go through that in excruciating detail.
41:09
Speaker 7: And I think he just didn't want to sit through
41:12
Speaker 7: it and didn't want his family to hear it. And
41:13
Speaker 7: so he asked to plead guilty. The judge has him
41:17
Speaker 7: sit down and says, are you pleading guilty?
41:19
Speaker 11: And all of a sudden, the room got silent. That
41:25
Speaker 11: was pretty amazing. I don't think any of us expected that.
41:29
Speaker 7: I remember turning around and looking at the Walker family
41:33
Speaker 7: and just thinking, I can't believe I get to be
41:35
Speaker 7: here for this moment.
41:39
Speaker 1: On the morning of Tuesday, August the 21st, 2021... Almost
41:45
Speaker 1: half a century since Carla's murder, 78-year-old Glenn McCurley pleaded
41:51
Speaker 1: guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in
41:55
Speaker 1: prison without the possibility of parole.
42:00
Speaker 5: For Jim Walker, it provided.
42:02
Speaker 1: The opportunity that he'd waited nearly 50 years for, to
42:08
Speaker 1: look the man who killed his sister in the eye.
42:13
Speaker 2: Because I believe in God, I'm a Christian. So I
42:15
Speaker 2: told him, I said, I want you to know, I
42:17
Speaker 2: forgive you and I hope and pray to see you
42:19
Speaker 2: in heaven.
42:20
Speaker 7: Never in my career have I ever seen anything like that. Never,
42:23
Speaker 7: probably will again. So then I see Jim begin to
42:29
Speaker 7: hug McCurley's son.
42:30
Speaker 2: I told his son, you don't own the sins of
42:34
Speaker 2: your dad. It's not on you. You've been victimized as well.
42:38
Speaker 7: He was 12 when his sister died and he had
42:42
Speaker 7: the grace to walk over and hug that man's family and.
42:46
Speaker 3: Show them love.
42:48
Speaker 2: I was so happy for our community, for Carlos' friends.
42:51
Speaker 2: I was so happy for Rodney because he'd been under
42:54
Speaker 2: a cloud of suspicion for decades. I can't describe the
42:57
Speaker 2: peace other than I knew where it came from. I
42:59
Speaker 2: had peace, and I still have peace.
43:02
Speaker 1: Nine months after his conviction, in one final desperate act,
43:07
Speaker 1: Glenn McCurley appealed his conviction, but the killer was unsuccessful.
43:13
Speaker 2: I pushed for the death penalty, but because of his age,
43:18
Speaker 2: we figured he was going to die in prison anyway.
43:22
Speaker 7: The appeal process was finalized in May of 2023, and
43:27
Speaker 7: McCurley died in prison that summer.
43:32
Speaker 1: On the 14th of July, 2023, 80-year-old Glenn McCurley died
43:37
Speaker 1: in the Gibb-Lewis unit, Texas, taking his secrets to the grave.
43:43
Speaker 11: He never said why. He never really said how. The
43:46
Speaker 11: police who found her body said that she wasn't killed there.
43:50
Speaker 11: She was killed somewhere else and dumped there. There's still
43:52
Speaker 11: a lot of questions that we would have liked answered.
43:56
Speaker 1: For the family, justice for Carla, but also a legacy
44:00
Speaker 1: offering hope for other families that forensic genetic genealogy be
44:06
Speaker 1: available to help solve their cases.
44:09
Speaker 2: The Carla Walker Act will provide forensic genetic genealogy funds
44:14
Speaker 2: to focus in on code cases and get those code
44:18
Speaker 2: cases work hopefully resolved. Never give up. You're the voice
44:25
Speaker 2: for your loved one. We don't know why we go
44:27
Speaker 2: through these things, but remember, goodness is always there. There's
44:31
Speaker 2: good people there who want to walk through this difficult
44:34
Speaker 2: time with you, but don't give up. Have hope.
44:38
Speaker 1: He abducted, raped, and killed a young girl in the
44:41
Speaker 1: prime of her life. He spent a lifetime watching the
44:45
Speaker 1: carnage he'd caused and the ruined lives of those left behind.
44:50
Speaker 1: Because of this, Glenn Samuel McCurley's name will be remembered
44:55
Speaker 1: as one of the world's most evil killers.