Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Slaying of Carolyn Kolas
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
- 0:05Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. By nineteen ninety five, Midland, Texas
- 0:12Speaker 1: had grown far beyond its railroad routes into one of
- 0:15Speaker 1: the business centers of the Permian Basin. Petroleum money shaped
- 0:20Speaker 1: the skyline, the office culture, the neighborhoods, and the city's
- 0:25Speaker 1: sense of itself. But Midland was not made up of
- 0:28Speaker 1: only executives and company offices. It was also mechanics, truck drivers,
- 0:35Speaker 1: warehouse workers, construction crews, clerical staff, teachers, nurses, retail workers,
- 0:42Speaker 1: and all the other people whose labor sat underneath the
- 0:45Speaker 1: city's polished image. It was prosperous, yes, but unevenly so,
- 0:52Speaker 1: a working city as much as a wealthy one. In
- 0:56Speaker 1: the mid nineties, the city's population was just under ninety
- 0:59Speaker 1: five eight thousand, with the larger Odessa Midland metro area
- 1:04Speaker 1: topping two hundred and forty one thousand. It wasn't some
- 1:09Speaker 1: tiny patch of West Texas out on its own. It
- 1:12Speaker 1: was a real regional city, busy and growing with all
- 1:16Speaker 1: the ordinary habits and hidden tensions that come with that,
- 1:20Speaker 1: And like plenty of American cities at the time, it
- 1:24Speaker 1: was not untouched by violence, growth inevitably brought pain. Midland
- 1:31Speaker 1: recorded eight murders and non negligent manslaughters in nineteen ninety five,
- 1:36Speaker 1: along with hundreds of other violent crimes. It wasn't lawless,
- 1:40Speaker 1: but it wasn't insulated either, not even for a woman
- 1:44Speaker 1: like Carolyn Coelis, whose life and habits were anything but
- 1:48Speaker 1: careless or risky. On the morning of her tragic and
- 1:52Speaker 1: untimely death, In fact, she was doing something familiar and unremarkable,
- 1:58Speaker 1: the kind of daily routine that makes what happened next
- 2:02Speaker 1: feel especially cruel. Carolyn Glenn Morris was born on October
- 2:33Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen fifty three, in del High, Louisiana, to
- 2:37Speaker 1: John and Ruth Morris. Her family later moved to Abilene
- 2:42Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, then to Colorado City, where she
- 2:46Speaker 1: graduated from high school. In May of nineteen seventy nine,
- 2:51Speaker 1: she married Daniel Edwin Colis and Odessa, and the couple
- 2:55Speaker 1: settled in Midland that same year. Over the next decade
- 2:59Speaker 1: and a half, they built a life there. Their son, Jonathan,
- 3:04Speaker 1: was born in nineteen eighty four. Their daughter Emily was
- 3:07Speaker 1: born in nineteen ninety three. Carolyn attended Midland College, was
- 3:12Speaker 1: a member of Victory Family Christian Church, and was involved
- 3:16Speaker 1: with Big Spring AKC or the American Kennel Association. By
- 3:22Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen ninety five, she was also taking
- 3:26Speaker 1: classes at Odessa College to become a certified Nurse's aid
- 3:30Speaker 1: she wasn't drifting through life, she was in the middle
- 3:33Speaker 1: of changing it. According to her family, Carolyn was once
- 3:38Speaker 1: seriously overweight and was told by her doctor that if
- 3:42Speaker 1: she did not lose that weight, she was going to die.
- 3:46Speaker 1: She also suffered from high blood pressure. Carolyn took the
- 3:50Speaker 1: doctor's warning seriously. She quit smoking. She committed herself to
- 3:55Speaker 1: a strict routine, which included a lot of walking, some
- 4:00Speaker 1: times two and three times a day. By Memorial Day
- 4:03Speaker 1: weekend in nineteen ninety five, she had lost more than
- 4:07Speaker 1: one hundred pounds, and, according to later family comments, closer
- 4:11Speaker 1: to two hundred. The people who knew her described her
- 4:15Speaker 1: as determined, disciplined, and deeply focused on improving her health
- 4:20Speaker 1: and her future. Her daughter was less than two years old,
- 4:24Speaker 1: and the last thing Carolyn wanted was to leave Emily
- 4:28Speaker 1: or her nine year old son John without a mother.
- 4:32Speaker 1: She was trying to better her life, better her family's
- 4:35Speaker 1: life and move into healthcare work. She believed in her
- 4:40Speaker 1: walking was a major part of that transformation. But it
- 4:43Speaker 1: was more than exercise. It was also routine. It was discipline.
- 4:49Speaker 1: It was quiet, the part of the day Carolyn carved
- 4:52Speaker 1: out for herself before everything else began. That early morning
- 4:56Speaker 1: walking time was when she could think, watch the sun
- 4:59Speaker 1: come up, and still make it home in time to
- 5:02Speaker 1: care for the children, get breakfast going, and see her
- 5:06Speaker 1: husband off for work. Over time, she had started walking
- 5:10Speaker 1: earlier and earlier in the morning so she could fit
- 5:13Speaker 1: everything into the day. What looked simple from the outside
- 5:18Speaker 1: was actually the backbone of the life she was trying
- 5:21Speaker 1: to build. Sometime in the pre dawn hours of Saturday,
- 5:26Speaker 1: May twenty seventh, nineteen ninety five, that routine was broken,
- 5:31Speaker 1: but not by forty one year old Carolyn Colis. At
- 5:35Speaker 1: around four am that morning, neighbors heard a scream. One
- 5:40Speaker 1: man in the area Less Snyder later said his Catahula
- 5:44Speaker 1: dog started barking right at four o'clock. He remembered hearing
- 5:49Speaker 1: a strange sound outside, something he first dismissed as stray
- 5:53Speaker 1: cats fighting or mating. While his dog kept going wild.
- 5:58Speaker 1: At the time, he had no way of knowing he
- 6:01Speaker 1: may have been hearing the sounds of a woman being
- 6:03Speaker 1: attacked and killed nearby. Just prior to that, Carolyn had
- 6:09Speaker 1: left home on foot for one of her usual walks.
- 6:12Speaker 1: Her house was a slate, blue wood frame home on
- 6:15Speaker 1: the thirty one hundred block of Marianna Avenue, about five
- 6:20Speaker 1: and a half blocks north of there, in an alley
- 6:23Speaker 1: off Powell Street between the three thousand blocks of Ohio
- 6:27Speaker 1: and Michigan Avenues. Her body was found later that morning
- 6:31Speaker 1: by a passing motorist. She was lying on the grassy
- 6:35Speaker 1: part of the alley, away from the tire ruts. She
- 6:39Speaker 1: still had on a pullover shirt and white socks, but
- 6:42Speaker 1: she was unclothed from the waist down. Her underwear were
- 6:46Speaker 1: found beneath her body. Carolyn's white walking shoes were gone,
- 6:52Speaker 1: her shorts were gone, and her protective pepper spray so
- 6:57Speaker 1: was the bladed weapon used to cut her throat. Midland
- 7:01Speaker 1: Police Sergeant David Garcia later said there was a brutal
- 7:05Speaker 1: clarity to the details. The crime scene suggested sudden violence,
- 7:10Speaker 1: close violence, and an offender who left with key items
- 7:14Speaker 1: that might have told investigators much more. Authorities immediately knew
- 7:19Speaker 1: they were missing critical evidence, not just the weapon, but
- 7:24Speaker 1: clothing and the pepper spray Carolyn had carried to defend herself.
- 7:28Speaker 1: If she had reached for it, it did not save her.
- 7:32Speaker 1: If she never got the chance, That says something too,
- 7:35Speaker 1: something else entirely. At the Kolis home, Carolyn's husband Daniel
- 7:41Speaker 1: woke and found his wife gone, which was not unusual
- 7:45Speaker 1: if she had gone out walking early. His wife's walking
- 7:48Speaker 1: time varied, was often early, sometimes before Daniel got out
- 7:52Speaker 1: of bed. He had some work to do at school
- 7:56Speaker 1: that morning, so he took their children with him. After
- 7:59Speaker 1: finding out Carolyn still had not returned, he drove her
- 8:03Speaker 1: walking route with the kids. At around eight thirty or
- 8:07Speaker 1: eight forty five that morning, he came upon police at
- 8:10Speaker 1: the scene where her body had been found. A neighbor
- 8:14Speaker 1: later recalled that when officers pulled the sheet back to
- 8:17Speaker 1: expose Carolyn's body, Daniel started shaking. Police Chief Richard Czeck
- 8:25Speaker 1: called the killing horrendous and said the department was using
- 8:28Speaker 1: all its resources to solve it. He said detectives were
- 8:32Speaker 1: working around the clock and urged residents in the area
- 8:36Speaker 1: to report anything suspicious or any piece of possible evidence.
- 8:41Speaker 1: The police didn't want to panic the community, Sergeant Garcia
- 8:45Speaker 1: told a reporter for the Midland Reporter Telegram, but they
- 8:48Speaker 1: did want people to understand that whoever committed this vicious
- 8:52Speaker 1: crime was still at large. For the people living nearby,
- 8:57Speaker 1: the murder landed with the kind of force that changed
- 9:00Speaker 1: just how a neighborhood feels overnight. Johnny Gonzalez, who was
- 9:05Speaker 1: moving out of a duplex directly across from where Caroline's
- 9:08Speaker 1: body was found, said people walked through that neighborhood every morning,
- 9:13Speaker 1: usually alone. He feared the attacker had been watching her,
- 9:18Speaker 1: scoping the lady. As he put it, he described the
- 9:22Speaker 1: area as a nice, quiet, laid back neighborhood where nothing
- 9:26Speaker 1: ever happened, which is exactly the sort of thing people
- 9:30Speaker 1: say until something terrible happens right in front of them.
- 9:34Speaker 1: Patty Geerans rushed to the area because her mother lived
- 9:38Speaker 1: there and was now afraid to go home. Jeremy Hone,
- 9:42Speaker 1: a twenty three year old postal worker who lived next
- 9:45Speaker 1: door to the Coulis's, put it another way. You always
- 9:49Speaker 1: think something tragic is going to happen to somebody else
- 9:52Speaker 1: in another town. Life, he said, can just slip by
- 10:07Speaker 1: the murder of Caroline Coelis was not a crime Midland
- 10:11Speaker 1: could tuck away as an isolated domestic dispute behind closed doors,
- 10:16Speaker 1: or a crime that happened somewhere unfamiliar. Carolyn was killed
- 10:21Speaker 1: outside in her own neighborhood while doing something neighbors themselves
- 10:25Speaker 1: did all the time. The attack made people look differently
- 10:29Speaker 1: at the dark at early morning, quiet at the familiar
- 10:33Speaker 1: routes they had trusted just a day before. Police, at
- 10:38Speaker 1: least publicly in those first days, appeared to be treating
- 10:42Speaker 1: the killing as a random attack. Sergeant Garcia described it
- 10:46Speaker 1: as appearing to be a random act of violence, a
- 10:49Speaker 1: stranger on stranger crime. There had been no public witnesses
- 10:54Speaker 1: identifying the killer, no obvious murder weapon left behind, no
- 11:00Speaker 1: suspect immediately named, just a woman attacked outdoors before dawn,
- 11:06Speaker 1: and a crime scene that suggested someone had come into
- 11:09Speaker 1: her path, did his worst, and left again, carrying the
- 11:13Speaker 1: evidence with him. Police urged residents to use caution, not panic.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Do not walk alone after dark or before dawn. Be
- 11:23Speaker 1: aware of your surroundings, be aware of the people around you.
- 11:28Speaker 1: They were trying to calm the city and warn it
- 11:31Speaker 1: at the same time The juxtaposition of that mission wasn't
- 11:35Speaker 1: lost on them. As Carolyne's family began speaking publicly, they
- 11:41Speaker 1: filled in the emotional truth of who she was. Her
- 11:45Speaker 1: sister in law Kathy Coelis said walking with something Carolyne
- 11:49Speaker 1: always did, and that she walked to live. Kathy described
- 11:54Speaker 1: her as the most determined woman she had ever known.
- 11:58Speaker 1: When Carolyn said she was going to do something, Kathy said,
- 12:02Speaker 1: she did it. She was bound and determined to improve
- 12:06Speaker 1: her health, find work she enjoyed, and keep moving forward.
- 12:11Speaker 1: Carolyn was not passive, Kathy added, and would have fought
- 12:15Speaker 1: her attacker rather than simply submit to something like rape.
- 12:19Speaker 1: Because of the details of the crime, everyone just assumed
- 12:23Speaker 1: she had been assaulted in that way. Cathy's comment couldn't
- 12:27Speaker 1: account for what happened in the alley, but it did
- 12:30Speaker 1: suggest how those closest to her understood her nature. Carolyn
- 12:35Speaker 1: was not someone who simply gave up. Quite the opposite.
- 12:39Speaker 1: She was in the middle of reclaiming her life. Her sister,
- 12:44Speaker 1: Melinda Frayley, described Carolyn as very trusting, someone who did
- 12:49Speaker 1: not think ill of other people. She said Carolyn had
- 12:53Speaker 1: arranged her walking routine earlier and earlier so she could
- 12:56Speaker 1: make time for her children and husband. Her aunt, Jannita Ramirez,
- 13:02Speaker 1: remembered her laughter, her big brown eyes, and the years
- 13:06Speaker 1: she spent battling her weight before finally overpowering it. She
- 13:11Speaker 1: said Carolyn walked religiously, and that the early morning was
- 13:15Speaker 1: her quiet time, the time she spent thinking before the
- 13:19Speaker 1: rest of the day belonged to everyone else. As police
- 13:25Speaker 1: worked the case, they were not just looking for a killer.
- 13:29Speaker 1: They were also looking for what had vanished with him.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Carolyne's size eight walking shoes, her shorts, her pepper spray,
- 13:37Speaker 1: and later her family would also say her walkman audio
- 13:41Speaker 1: cassette player was missing. They were not small omissions. They
- 13:46Speaker 1: were everyday pieces of Caroline's life now, pieces of the
- 13:50Speaker 1: last minutes of her life, pieces of what happened in
- 13:54Speaker 1: the struggle, pieces of what the killer touched, took, or
- 13:58Speaker 1: deliberately removed. Without them, detectives were left trying to build
- 14:03Speaker 1: a murder case around a body, a location, a time window,
- 14:08Speaker 1: and a community already frightened enough to imagine danger in
- 14:12Speaker 1: every unfamiliar face. Soon they would give the city exactly that,
- 14:18Speaker 1: an unfamiliar face to look for. On June first, nineteen
- 14:23Speaker 1: ninety five, Less than a week after Carolyn Coelis was killed,
- 14:28Speaker 1: the Midland Police released a composite sketch of a man
- 14:31Speaker 1: they wanted to question in connection with her murder. Sergeant
- 14:35Speaker 1: David Garcia was careful with the wording. He emphasized that
- 14:40Speaker 1: the man was wanted for questioning only and was not
- 14:43Speaker 1: being looked at as a suspect. Police were simply following
- 14:48Speaker 1: up on a lead, he said. Still, once a sketch
- 14:52Speaker 1: goes out, people do what people always do. They looked
- 14:56Speaker 1: harder at strangers. They replayed who they sa, where they
- 15:01Speaker 1: saw them, and whether somebody who seemed merely out of
- 15:04Speaker 1: place a few days earlier might have been something much worse.
- 15:09Speaker 1: The man in the sketch was described as white, nineteen
- 15:12Speaker 1: to twenty three years old, about six foot two and
- 15:15Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy pounds, with dark hair and dark eyes.
- 15:20Speaker 1: He reportedly spoke with a country draw, a description typical
- 15:24Speaker 1: of folks from West Texas, and had rough, dirty hands,
- 15:29Speaker 1: perhaps an oil filled roughneck. He was last seen near
- 15:33Speaker 1: three thousand and eight West Ohio Avenue, wearing black coveralls,
- 15:38Speaker 1: a baseball cap, and black work boots. Police also believed
- 15:43Speaker 1: he was left handed. According to Garcia, the man had
- 15:47Speaker 1: been spotted in the area a few days before Carolyn's murder.
- 15:52Speaker 1: Neighbors around her residence reportedly said he did not belong
- 15:56Speaker 1: in the neighborhood and had been acting suspiciously. The details
- 16:01Speaker 1: were the kind that can fasten themselves into the public imagination,
- 16:05Speaker 1: a young, tall man, dark, dirty and behaving strangely, especially
- 16:12Speaker 1: in a case where fear is leading over answers. For
- 16:16Speaker 1: a while, that sketch seems to have represented the strongest
- 16:20Speaker 1: public facing lead police had, but even then the investigation
- 16:25Speaker 1: was still waiting on medical answers. Sergeant Garcia told reporters
- 16:31Speaker 1: that detectives were awaiting preliminary autopsy results from Dallas. Those results,
- 16:37Speaker 1: at least in part, were released on June sixth, a
- 16:41Speaker 1: little more than a week after the murder. Police said
- 16:44Speaker 1: Carolyn died as the result of a cut inflicted on
- 16:47Speaker 1: her throat. That officially established the cause of death, though
- 16:52Speaker 1: it did not settle every question raised by the condition
- 16:55Speaker 1: of the crime scene, and it was something everyone already knew,
- 17:00Speaker 1: Garrett said. A key point in the investigation involved whether
- 17:04Speaker 1: Carolyn had been raped, but detectives were not releasing any
- 17:08Speaker 1: information one way or the other. On that subject, that
- 17:12Speaker 1: silence is telling, almost as telling as the crime scene.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Carolyn had been found nude from the waist down, her
- 17:21Speaker 1: shorts taken. Those facts naturally raised the possibility of rape,
- 17:26Speaker 1: and police clearly considered that question important enough to identify
- 17:31Speaker 1: it as a key point in the case, but publicly
- 17:35Speaker 1: they would go no further. By then, investigators still had
- 17:40Speaker 1: no suspect publicly named in the case. The composite sketch
- 17:45Speaker 1: remained out there, the missing items remained missing, and crime
- 17:50Speaker 1: stoppers continued offering up to one thousand dollars for information
- 17:54Speaker 1: leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or
- 17:57Speaker 1: persons responsible. Two months later, Carolyn's family raised the stakes themselves.
- 18:04Speaker 1: On August first, nineteen ninety five, the local newspaper reported
- 18:08Speaker 1: that the family had offered a five thousand dollars reward
- 18:11Speaker 1: for information concerning her murder, bringing the total to six
- 18:16Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Rewards can be practical, but they are also emotional.
- 18:22Speaker 1: They're a family's way of saying this cannot be allowed
- 18:25Speaker 1: to fade, that somebody has held on to a piece
- 18:28Speaker 1: of information long enough that maybe money will finally pry
- 18:32Speaker 1: it loose, but as the months passed, the case did
- 18:36Speaker 1: what so many unsolved murders do. It moved from front
- 18:41Speaker 1: page urgency into the slower, lonelier space of unresolved police work.
- 18:47Speaker 1: Nearly ten months after Carolyn's death, on March sixteenth, nineteen
- 18:52Speaker 1: ninety six, police spokesman Sergeant David Garcia said what nobody
- 18:57Speaker 1: in Midland wanted to hear, but everyone had all already understood.
- 19:01Speaker 1: The longer a case goes on, the colder the trail gets.
- 19:06Speaker 1: He stressed that murder investigations are never closed and remain
- 19:10Speaker 1: open indefinitely, but he also admitted that in Carolyn's case,
- 19:14Speaker 1: the leads had been few and far between from the beginning.
- 19:18Speaker 1: Without solid leads and physical evidence, he said, all of
- 19:23Speaker 1: the department's investigative powers and expertise could only go so far.
- 19:28Speaker 1: Police had an obligation to the victim, the family, and
- 19:32Speaker 1: the community to catch the person or persons responsible and
- 19:36Speaker 1: bring them to justice, but that obligation does not create
- 19:40Speaker 1: evidence where none exists. Garcia called the situation frustrating and
- 19:46Speaker 1: said all investigators could do was hope and pray for
- 19:50Speaker 1: a break in the case. One of the hardest truths
- 20:04Speaker 1: in unsolved cases is that determination is not the same
- 20:08Speaker 1: thing as progress. A police department can work hard and
- 20:12Speaker 1: still be tracked by what was lost in the first hours.
- 20:16Speaker 1: In Carolyn Collis's case, the missing weapon, missing clothing, and
- 20:21Speaker 1: limited leads appear to have haunted the investigation from the start.
- 20:26Speaker 1: The newspaper noted that at the time of Carolyn's death,
- 20:29Speaker 1: hers had been Midland's fourth homicide of nineteen ninety five.
- 20:34Speaker 1: By year's end, though the city had recorded thirteen slangs,
- 20:40Speaker 1: her case, which had shocked the community in May, had
- 20:43Speaker 1: by then become one unresolved file among a handful of
- 20:47Speaker 1: cases that were wrapped up neatly and usually relatively quickly.
- 20:53Speaker 1: The passage of time had not made what happened to
- 20:56Speaker 1: Carolyn less brutal, and it only made it easier institutionally
- 21:01Speaker 1: and publicly for attention to drift. Then the case went
- 21:05Speaker 1: before a grand jury on May second, nineteen ninety six,
- 21:10Speaker 1: court officials said they still had no new information in
- 21:14Speaker 1: the nearly one year old murder. The Midland County District
- 21:18Speaker 1: Attorney's office had presented Carolyn's case again to the grand
- 21:22Speaker 1: jury the day before, but no action was taken. A
- 21:26Speaker 1: grand jury had already investigated it in the fall, apparently
- 21:31Speaker 1: without meaningful results. Though the investigation had moved beyond street
- 21:36Speaker 1: level rumor and routine detective work and into formal legal review,
- 21:41Speaker 1: it still had not produced charges. Somewhere, behind the scenes,
- 21:46Speaker 1: police and prosecutors apparently believed there was enough to examine seriously.
- 21:52Speaker 1: Then at the one year mark, Midland learned just how
- 21:56Speaker 1: sharply the focus of the case had changed. On May
- 22:01Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nineteen ninety six, the Midland Reporter Telegram reported
- 22:06Speaker 1: that a year after Carolyn Collis's death, her husband remained
- 22:11Speaker 1: the prime suspect, according to police, although he'd never been
- 22:15Speaker 1: publicly named as one before. It was a dramatic turn
- 22:19Speaker 1: from the early impression of a likely stranger on stranger attack.
- 22:24Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant B. G. Bulldog Johnson said, plainly, he is
- 22:29Speaker 1: our suspect. At the same time, he made clear Daniel
- 22:34Speaker 1: Edwin Colis had not been charged, was not out on bond,
- 22:38Speaker 1: and was free to go anywhere he wanted. By then,
- 22:42Speaker 1: he reportedly had moved to El Paso. Johnson said Daniel
- 22:47Speaker 1: had appeared before the Midland County Grand Jury on May first,
- 22:51Speaker 1: during its investigation into Carolyn's slang. The grand jury, he said,
- 22:57Speaker 1: had passed it and requested a day information on the case.
- 23:02Speaker 1: Investigators were working on that. District Attorney al Shore said
- 23:07Speaker 1: the grand jury had heard evidence in its role as
- 23:10Speaker 1: an investigative body, and that they were still working on
- 23:14Speaker 1: the case, but it still wasn't enough. A year in
- 23:19Speaker 1: police were fixed in on Daniel, prosecutors were unable or
- 23:23Speaker 1: unwilling to move forward without more, and a family was
- 23:27Speaker 1: still living inside grief without resolution. Carolyn's mother, Ruth Morris
- 23:33Speaker 1: of Odessa, visited the site of her daughter's death for
- 23:37Speaker 1: the first time the weekend before her son in law
- 23:40Speaker 1: was publicly outed as the prime suspect. She said she
- 23:44Speaker 1: had never been able to gather the courage to come
- 23:46Speaker 1: there before. Ruth described Carolyn as a good woman, someone
- 23:51Speaker 1: who read her Bible every morning and then took her walk.
- 23:56Speaker 1: Carolyn's sister, Melinda Fraeley, placed two white wooden crosses in
- 24:01Speaker 1: the alley off Powell Street between Michigan and Ohio where
- 24:05Speaker 1: Carolyn had died, or at least where her body was found.
- 24:10Speaker 1: The crosses were decorated with purple and lavender flowers. Carolyn's father,
- 24:16Speaker 1: John Morris, had made the one bearing her name and
- 24:20Speaker 1: the words in loving memory. Melenda said they were doing
- 24:24Speaker 1: it so the people of Midland wouldn't forget Carolyn, and
- 24:28Speaker 1: they wouldn't forget that the murderer was still out there.
- 24:32Speaker 1: She said the police had done a commendable job, but
- 24:35Speaker 1: there was still not enough proof to bring anyone in.
- 24:39Speaker 1: Carolyn's son, Jonathan, was with his father, Emily was living
- 24:43Speaker 1: with her grandmother in Olpasso, and while Ruth Morris was
- 24:47Speaker 1: grieving Carolyn, she was also still burdened by the memory
- 24:51Speaker 1: of losing her oldest daughter, Terry Lynn Cobb in nineteen seventy.
- 24:57Speaker 1: Now more than a quarter century later, her young guest
- 25:00Speaker 1: daughter had been murdered, and once again the family was
- 25:03Speaker 1: left waiting for the criminal justice system to do something
- 25:07Speaker 1: it had not yet done, and once again the husband
- 25:12Speaker 1: was the suspect. The word had certainly gone through the
- 25:15Speaker 1: Midland rumor mill even before police made it public. Several
- 25:20Speaker 1: neighbors and friends believed Daniel was responsible. One neighbor said
- 25:25Speaker 1: Carolyn had lost a great deal of weight and was
- 25:28Speaker 1: starting to do things she normally would not do, and
- 25:31Speaker 1: described Daniel as a very strange man, saying there were
- 25:35Speaker 1: bad vibes in that home. Another said Carolyn was really
- 25:39Speaker 1: coming out of her shell at the time. One person
- 25:43Speaker 1: claimed Carolyn had told her she was going to file
- 25:46Speaker 1: for divorce. Daniel moved away not long after the murder,
- 25:51Speaker 1: one person observed. Others said they had long felt police
- 25:55Speaker 1: needed to look harder at the husband because the relationship
- 25:58Speaker 1: appeared rocky. One person said Daniel quit cooperating with police
- 26:04Speaker 1: right before he moved, but not everyone agreed. Another person,
- 26:09Speaker 1: who said she knew the victim well and visited almost daily,
- 26:14Speaker 1: said Carolyn usually walked around eight, not earlier in the morning,
- 26:18Speaker 1: and that she had been concerned about some man on
- 26:21Speaker 1: the block while out walking. That same person said Carolyn
- 26:25Speaker 1: and Daniel did have problems and that Carolyn's family wanted
- 26:29Speaker 1: her to get a divorce, but she never thought Daniel
- 26:32Speaker 1: had done it. In the end, even the rumor mill
- 26:36Speaker 1: couldn't agree on what happened. Some are convinced the husband
- 26:40Speaker 1: did it. Others remember Carolyn expressing concern about someone outside
- 26:46Speaker 1: the home. Some recall her walking very early, Others say
- 26:51Speaker 1: that was not her normal time. Once a case stays
- 26:55Speaker 1: open for years, rumor begins doing what evidence could not.
- 26:59Speaker 1: Filing the silence, whether accurately or not, with or without them,
- 27:05Speaker 1: The case of the murder of Carolyn Glenn Colis is cold.
- 27:11Speaker 1: The victim's mother, Velma Ruth Morris, died in June two
- 27:15Speaker 1: thousand and two at age seventy eight in Comanche. Her father,
- 27:20Speaker 1: John Clay Morris died in June twenty thirteen at age
- 27:24Speaker 1: eighty nine in Mills County. Both of them died without
- 27:28Speaker 1: seeing Carolyn's case resolved. In a February twenty eighth, twenty
- 27:33Speaker 1: twenty three News West nine report, the only report on
- 27:37Speaker 1: Carolyn's case in decades, Midland Police Detective Jenny Alonso discussed
- 27:43Speaker 1: the murder. She said, a cold case is one where
- 27:46Speaker 1: the leads have dried up and investigators no longer know
- 27:50Speaker 1: which direction to go by. Then, Alonzo had been in
- 27:54Speaker 1: the Crimes against Persons unit for nearly seven years, and
- 27:57Speaker 1: Carolyn's case had already been cold for nearly thirty. Detective
- 28:02Speaker 1: Alonzo described Carolyn as someone who had a pattern of
- 28:06Speaker 1: going out walking every morning and suggested that maybe someone
- 28:10Speaker 1: learned that pattern and victimized her for it. In that
- 28:14Speaker 1: twenty twenty three retelling, Alonzo said that on May twenty seventh,
- 28:19Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, at about seven forty five in the morning,
- 28:23Speaker 1: Midland Police officers were dispatched to the north alley of
- 28:27Speaker 1: the thirty two hundred block of West Ohio, where they
- 28:30Speaker 1: found Carolyn deceased. Alonzo said Carolyn had been stabbed several times.
- 28:37Speaker 1: Detective Alonzo said investigators had looked into several different suspects
- 28:41Speaker 1: over the years, but there was never enough to charge anyone. Still,
- 28:47Speaker 1: Alonzo expressed hope the case could yet be solved through
- 28:50Speaker 1: DNA or through tips from the public. If you have
- 28:56Speaker 1: any information about the murder of Carolyn Glenns, please contact
- 29:01Speaker 1: Midland Crimestoppers at four three two six nine four eight
- 29:06Speaker 1: four seven seven. If you'd like to join gon Coold's
- 29:11Speaker 1: mission to shine a light on unsolved homicides and missing
- 29:15Speaker 1: persons cases, get the show at free and have access
- 29:19Speaker 1: to bonus content, you can at patreon dot com slash
- 29:23Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcast. You can also support the show by
- 29:27Speaker 1: leaving a five star rating and written review on Apple
- 29:30Speaker 1: Podcasts or wherever else you listen. However you choose to
- 29:35Speaker 1: support Gone Cold, we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.