Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / SERIAL KILLER WILLIAM REECE GETS AWAY WITH MURDERS, RAPES FOR 30 YEARS

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SERIAL KILLER WILLIAM REECE GETS AWAY WITH MURDERS, RAPES FOR 30 YEARS · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Seven women that we know
0:16
Speaker 1: of murtyred, raped, getting away by the skin of their teeth.
0:25
Speaker 1: Why has a one man wrecking ball managed to walk
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Speaker 1: free for so long? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
0:37
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
0:39
Speaker 1: and series XM one eleven. With so many crime victims,
0:45
Speaker 1: I hardly know where to start, but I'm gonna start
0:49
Speaker 1: with a gorgeous young girl, Kelly. Take a listen to
0:53
Speaker 1: our friends at Fox four Now. The summer of nineteen
0:56
Speaker 1: ninety seven, the disappearance of Kelly Cox was huge news
0:59
Speaker 1: here at University of Texas and in Denton. There were
1:02
Speaker 1: search parties that in the days and months that followed,
1:05
Speaker 1: and we even reported on several developments over the last
1:07
Speaker 1: seventeen years. Now that picture, the new picture of what
1:10
Speaker 1: she would look like, and fresh hope for her family
1:13
Speaker 1: who have always believed that she's still alive. I believe
1:19
Speaker 1: she's out there somewhere and we just need to bring
1:22
Speaker 1: her home. Not a day goes by that jan Binham
1:25
Speaker 1: doesn't think about her daughter, Kelly and where she might be.
1:28
Speaker 1: Is today today She's going to come through the door?
1:30
Speaker 1: Is today to day? She's going to call or is today. Today,
1:34
Speaker 1: I'm going to get answers. The fact that the family
1:36
Speaker 1: for so many years believes that their little girl, Kelly
1:40
Speaker 1: is still alive is heartbreaking in itself. I've got an
1:43
Speaker 1: all star panel, but first I'm going to go to
1:45
Speaker 1: doctor Angela Arnold joining me. We'renowned psychiatrist out of Atlanta.
1:49
Speaker 1: Doctor Angie, What is it about us humans that, in
1:53
Speaker 1: the face of overwhelming evidence that our loved one is dead,
2:00
Speaker 1: will not accept it? What is that, Nancy? I believe
2:04
Speaker 1: that it's hope, because well, we all have to have
2:08
Speaker 1: hope inside of us for different things. And if we
2:11
Speaker 1: don't have hope. For example, one of the questions that
2:14
Speaker 1: we ask patients when they come in and if they're
2:18
Speaker 1: exhibiting signs of suicidal ideation and things like this, one
2:21
Speaker 1: of the top things that you look for is a
2:24
Speaker 1: feeling of hopelessness. So a feeling of hopelessness is a
2:29
Speaker 1: very difficult thing to treat. So as long as people
2:33
Speaker 1: have hope, that is a very positive thing for them
2:37
Speaker 1: to feel. I know that about hope, but I think
2:41
Speaker 1: it's a survival tactic. I want to go to a
2:43
Speaker 1: special guest joining us investigative reporter Rob Arnold out of
2:48
Speaker 1: KPRC to Houston. Rob, you have been on this case
2:53
Speaker 1: through so much when you see family members against all
3:00
Speaker 1: choosing to believe their daughter is as you just heard
3:05
Speaker 1: the mom say, out there somewhere still alive. I mean,
3:10
Speaker 1: what do you do in the face of a parent
3:13
Speaker 1: when you know the person is dead but you hear
3:20
Speaker 1: the family insisting there alive. Well, I think it's particularly
3:23
Speaker 1: cool when a person disappears and their body is not found.
3:28
Speaker 1: One of the things, and it wasn't just Kelly Ncox's
3:31
Speaker 1: family was also just Kaine's family as well, who never
3:35
Speaker 1: really knew what happened to their daughter. And it is
3:37
Speaker 1: particularly cool. And I'll never forget Jessica's mom telling me
3:40
Speaker 1: something that every day you think, is she hungry? Is
3:44
Speaker 1: she cold? Is she tired? Those are the things that
3:48
Speaker 1: just plague parents when their child is not found. It
3:52
Speaker 1: is I think it is a particularly cruel faith for
3:56
Speaker 1: parents who suffer something like this. I mean, of course,
3:59
Speaker 1: Rob Arnold joining me at KPRC to Houston, what child
4:05
Speaker 1: would just disappear willingly, voluntarily and be gone for years
4:09
Speaker 1: and years, leaving behind their world, sometimes their own children
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Speaker 1: their mom and dad to wonder. Of course they wouldn't. Well, No,
4:17
Speaker 1: Kelly and Cox was a young mother. She had just
4:20
Speaker 1: had a baby, a baby who for years kept looking
4:24
Speaker 1: for her mom. So that so this isn't just what
4:27
Speaker 1: happened to one family. This happened to this child. In
4:30
Speaker 1: Jessica Kane's case, she was coming home from a restaurant
4:34
Speaker 1: with friends, her car parked on the side of I
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Speaker 1: forty five, her person the front seat. You know that
4:39
Speaker 1: she didn't just simply walk away exactly. I mean, if
4:43
Speaker 1: she were going to run away, you know, you know
4:46
Speaker 1: that drives me crazy. Rob Arnold when a cop where
4:50
Speaker 1: de Teke says, oh, they just went to be with
4:51
Speaker 1: another man, Like no, her cars on the side of
4:55
Speaker 1: the street, with her pocketbook, And of course I'm jumping ahead,
4:59
Speaker 1: I'm jumping Kelly. We were just hearing her family and
5:02
Speaker 1: now we're talking about Jessica. But they're all interwoven. It's
5:06
Speaker 1: hard to talk about one of these murdered victims there.
5:10
Speaker 1: I'll just put it out there, and I hate saying
5:13
Speaker 1: that to family members when they're still clinging to hope,
5:17
Speaker 1: but it's the truth. They're so interwoven. It's hard to
5:21
Speaker 1: discuss one without the other. Okay, Back to Kelly. Back
5:24
Speaker 1: to Kelly, and Rob Arnold joining me. KPRC. You're like
5:28
Speaker 1: drinking from the fire hydrant. You have all this knowledge.
5:30
Speaker 1: You're coming at me too fast, too much. It wants
5:32
Speaker 1: to slow it down so I can understand what happened
5:36
Speaker 1: to all these women, seven that we know of. Take
5:41
Speaker 1: a listen now to our friends at crime online dot com.
5:43
Speaker 1: We're talking about Kelly Ann Cox. Is she the first
5:47
Speaker 1: murder victim chronologically? I don't even know, but I do
5:52
Speaker 1: know she is a murder victim. So let's start with
5:56
Speaker 1: Kelly and Cox. Listen. Kelly and Cox was just twenty
5:59
Speaker 1: years old when she disappeared. She was a mom of
6:02
Speaker 1: a young daughter and a full time student at the
6:05
Speaker 1: University of North Texas. That morning, Cox dropped her daughter
6:08
Speaker 1: off at the babysitters and joined her criminal justice class
6:12
Speaker 1: for a tour of the Denton City Jail. Around noon.
6:16
Speaker 1: After the tour, Cox heads back to her car, only
6:19
Speaker 1: to find her key won't work the door, so she
6:22
Speaker 1: makes a phone call to her boyfriend from a pay
6:24
Speaker 1: phone asking for help. When he arrives, the car is
6:27
Speaker 1: in the parking lot, but Kelly is nowhere to be
6:30
Speaker 1: found by five thirty. That evening Cox's family knew something
6:34
Speaker 1: was wrong. Kelly was supposed to pick up her daughter Alexis,
6:37
Speaker 1: but didn't. Now I want to go to Joe Scott Morgan,
6:40
Speaker 1: Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, Starva.
6:45
Speaker 1: Another hit series. This one is Body Bags with Joseph
6:49
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan on iHeart Joe Scott. I already I'm only
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Speaker 1: on victim number two, and I see a pattern. They're
6:56
Speaker 1: both connected to cars. You heard Rob Arnold state that
7:01
Speaker 1: Jessica's car was just there on the side of the street.
7:07
Speaker 1: I think you said the highway with her pocketbook in it. Okay,
7:10
Speaker 1: Now I'm hearing about Kelly, who is has a new
7:14
Speaker 1: baby and she's in school. That's not easy. She goes
7:17
Speaker 1: to get back in her car after a criminal justice
7:20
Speaker 1: tour and whoa, what about that? What a coinkie inc
7:24
Speaker 1: Her key suddenly will not fit her car door, it
7:28
Speaker 1: won't work anymore. And then when the boyfriend and others
7:32
Speaker 1: get to the car, the cars there, but no Kelly. Yeah,
7:36
Speaker 1: and that's something you have an individual that's perhaps stalking
7:41
Speaker 1: folks and in this particular case, I'm really curious about
7:45
Speaker 1: this lock on the door, Nancy, from a forensic standpoint,
7:50
Speaker 1: was there any evidence at all that something had been
7:52
Speaker 1: placed in there, perhaps and broken off, so that when
7:55
Speaker 1: you go to try to enable the key to work
7:59
Speaker 1: the lock, you can't even actually get the key in there,
8:02
Speaker 1: or maybe just maybe you got something jammed in there
8:05
Speaker 1: and it's not allowing the teeth to fall in the
8:07
Speaker 1: correct position in order to operate it. And that would mean,
8:11
Speaker 1: I think, in some people's minds at least, is that
8:14
Speaker 1: there might be evidence that the thing had been fiddled with.
8:19
Speaker 1: And if that is the case, the instrument or the
8:22
Speaker 1: item that was placed in there to disable it can
8:24
Speaker 1: be tied back to something. And I think, you know,
8:26
Speaker 1: when you're developing a case, you look at that's because
8:29
Speaker 1: that's very that's very specific for somebody to do that.
8:33
Speaker 1: It's very bold. What about it, Rob Arnold? What do
8:36
Speaker 1: we know about that? Because she the car's working fine,
8:39
Speaker 1: she goes in for the tour, she comes back, and
8:41
Speaker 1: suddenly her key won't work. I don't think it was
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Speaker 1: ever one hundred percent to determine exactly what happened with
8:45
Speaker 1: Kelly AM's car. But I do know that the mo
8:47
Speaker 1: with a lot of these young ladies was their cars
8:50
Speaker 1: were tampered with tire slash things of that nature, and
8:54
Speaker 1: then someone came along and offered them help and they disappeared. Okay,
8:57
Speaker 1: you know, Rob Arnold, you didn't even have to put
9:00
Speaker 1: on the scary voice to sound scary when you just
9:02
Speaker 1: said that someone comes along and offers help and then
9:06
Speaker 1: the women are never seen again. Let's follow up with
9:10
Speaker 1: Kelly Cox. Take a listen to our friends at Fox
9:14
Speaker 1: for Dallas. This was her daughter, Kelly Cox, seventeen years ago,
9:19
Speaker 1: a student at unt mother to a nineteen month old
9:22
Speaker 1: baby girl named Alexis. She was last seen at this
9:25
Speaker 1: Conico gas station on July fifteenth, nineteen ninety seven. Over
9:30
Speaker 1: the years, that Conico has been turned into a car wash.
9:33
Speaker 1: This is a picture of Kelly in nineteen ninety seven.
9:36
Speaker 1: Now take a look at this picture. It's a time
9:39
Speaker 1: progression photo of what Kelly would look like now at
9:42
Speaker 1: age thirty seven. It was recently posted on the website
9:45
Speaker 1: for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Binum
9:49
Speaker 1: hope someone will see it and give her the answers
9:52
Speaker 1: she's been looking for. Ast it's always that hope that
9:55
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, maybe something happened and he ended up
10:00
Speaker 1: somewhere and someone's going to go wow. I mean, I
10:04
Speaker 1: do know that young lady. Back in nineteen ninety seven,
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Speaker 1: Cox had just finished touring the Denton Police Department with
10:10
Speaker 1: a class when she realized she had locked her keys
10:12
Speaker 1: in her car. She called her boyfriend. When he arrived
10:15
Speaker 1: at that Conico station, her car was there, but the
10:18
Speaker 1: young college student was gone. Just thinking about arriving at
10:22
Speaker 1: that car and you're looking for Kelly and you see
10:26
Speaker 1: the car, but no Kelly. Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
10:46
Speaker 1: How has a one man wrecking ball as I described
10:51
Speaker 1: him earlier, allowed to continue to stop the streets of
10:56
Speaker 1: innocent women obviously with an m O A modus Operandian
11:02
Speaker 1: method of operation. I mean Matthew Mangino joining me, high
11:07
Speaker 1: profile lawyer, former district attorney, author of the Executioners, told Matthew,
11:14
Speaker 1: We've seen it before. People like the person that took Kelly,
11:20
Speaker 1: the person that took Jessica, and so many others. They're
11:24
Speaker 1: like a wolf. They may not even realize that they
11:28
Speaker 1: have an m A defined method of operation, but they do.
11:34
Speaker 1: And his MO is to find a woman to either
11:38
Speaker 1: disable her car, as you're hearing Rob Arnold from kp
11:42
Speaker 1: ORC to Houston, or to find someone with a disabled car. Already,
11:48
Speaker 1: I vote for disabling the car himself. That's what I
11:52
Speaker 1: think happened. Yeah, there's no question that there seems to
11:56
Speaker 1: be emerging at least from these two murders. You know,
11:59
Speaker 1: some um, you know m in terms of you know,
12:03
Speaker 1: how this perpetrator, how this killer, this monster works. It
12:08
Speaker 1: should certainly have grabbed the attention of investigators and prosecutors
12:14
Speaker 1: when you have two very similar, you know, disappearances of
12:18
Speaker 1: young people within relatively early a month, and and you know,
12:24
Speaker 1: a seventeen year old or twenty year old just disappear.
12:28
Speaker 1: So I would think, you know, there's immediately some connection
12:33
Speaker 1: made and already some people should be thinking, hey, there's
12:36
Speaker 1: some similarity here. Yeah, exactly, But did they have enough
12:40
Speaker 1: at that juncture? Your dad on Matthew Mangino yet again,
12:44
Speaker 1: Rob Arnold, KPRC to Houston. We're talking about whether these
12:49
Speaker 1: two cases are connected. We're talking about Kelly Cox, and
12:53
Speaker 1: we're also talking right now about Jessica Kine. Kelly around
12:57
Speaker 1: twenty Jessica, as I recall around seventeen. Did they look similar?
13:04
Speaker 1: Were they physically similar? Because I will never forget Rob
13:08
Speaker 1: the first time I looked at all of Ted Bundy's victims,
13:12
Speaker 1: I'm like, what nearly all of them long brunette hair,
13:16
Speaker 1: parted in the middle, white females, slight, even the same
13:21
Speaker 1: height many of them. What did these two women look
13:25
Speaker 1: like physically? They did? They did look similar to one another.
13:30
Speaker 1: They had brunette hair. Jessica's hair changed quite a bit,
13:35
Speaker 1: but several of the pictures she had long brunette hair
13:37
Speaker 1: and some it was parted down the middle, very similar
13:41
Speaker 1: to Kelly Ancost the guests. I mean, if you look
13:43
Speaker 1: at all these women, they definitely fit a type for
13:47
Speaker 1: at least for him. You heard Rob Arnold KPRC to
13:51
Speaker 1: Houston bring up the name Jessica Kane. Now we've been
13:55
Speaker 1: talking about Kelly. Remember she's the one that went on
13:59
Speaker 1: the tour connected to a criminal justice class, A young
14:03
Speaker 1: mom back in school, twenty years old. Now we've got
14:07
Speaker 1: ten girl, Jessica Kane. What happened to her? Take a
14:11
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at crime online dot Com. Seventeen
14:14
Speaker 1: year old Jessica Kane was celebrating her performance in her
14:18
Speaker 1: Catholic high school musical went great. A cast party took
14:21
Speaker 1: place at the local men Against restaurant. Kane drove her
14:25
Speaker 1: dad's truck to get there, but the white pickup was
14:28
Speaker 1: found parked on the shoulder of Interstate forty five in
14:31
Speaker 1: Galveston County. Kane's purse was locked inside. Kane was never
14:36
Speaker 1: seen again. Okay, back to you, Rob. Tell me about
14:40
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Jessica Kane and how close geographically was
14:46
Speaker 1: Jessica's disappearance as it relates to Kelly's disappearance Kelly and Cox. Oh,
14:51
Speaker 1: there were hundreds of miles aparty. I mean, the trip
14:54
Speaker 1: from Houston and Dallas is about four hours in Jessica
14:58
Speaker 1: disappeared about forty five minutes south of Houston and Kelly
15:02
Speaker 1: Anne disappeared about twenty minutes north of Dallas, so they
15:05
Speaker 1: were they were quite a ways apart. Okay, there's your
15:08
Speaker 1: answer right there, Joe Scott and Matthew And now we're
15:12
Speaker 1: talking about should and cops have put it together. No,
15:15
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have, because when you've got two different jurisdictions
15:19
Speaker 1: like Houston and Dallas, they're not going to be looking
15:22
Speaker 1: at what the others doing. They're looking at what they're doing,
15:25
Speaker 1: what's happening in their jurisdiction. So I can't say that
15:28
Speaker 1: they're wrong in any way by not connecting these two.
15:32
Speaker 1: What about the dates, the dates that they occurred. No,
15:36
Speaker 1: Jessica disappeared on August seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven, and I believe,
15:43
Speaker 1: let's see, Kelly Anne disappeared July fifteenth, nineteen ninety seven,
15:46
Speaker 1: so there was about a month in there. But still
15:49
Speaker 1: because the geography, I don't believe that cops would have
15:52
Speaker 1: connected at time wise the m O time, yes, M yes.
15:58
Speaker 1: Physical appearance yeah, I believe both were in daylight hours. No,
16:04
Speaker 1: Jessica was at night. Jessica was at night. But these
16:07
Speaker 1: were missing purses cases. These weren't murder cases. These were
16:09
Speaker 1: missing pursing cases because they had not yet been solved.
16:14
Speaker 1: We are talking about as it relates to right now,
16:18
Speaker 1: Kelly and Jessica, But there are so many more, and
16:22
Speaker 1: these are the ones we know of. Take a listen
16:25
Speaker 1: to our friends at Khou. The murders took place in
16:29
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven. My daughter went on a run this morning,
16:34
Speaker 1: and he's been gone a lot longer than I expected
16:37
Speaker 1: in which her name Pleasure Bob. That was the last
16:41
Speaker 1: morning Bob saw his twelve year old daughter, Laura. Days later,
16:45
Speaker 1: the young woman found beld Way h is Laura Kaye Smither.
16:51
Speaker 1: In August of nineteen ninety seven, Jessica Kine's family felt
16:55
Speaker 1: the same pain. They released this video those muscles, hoping
17:00
Speaker 1: it would help bring her home. They held prayer vigils
17:04
Speaker 1: on Tiqui Island, where the seventeen year old was France.
17:07
Speaker 1: So let me understand, Rob Arnold, and a lot of
17:11
Speaker 1: people would say, Rob Arnold, that these can't be connected
17:15
Speaker 1: because the other victims were seventeen and twenty and now
17:19
Speaker 1: you've got it dead twelve year old girl. That the
17:23
Speaker 1: m O a killer wouldn't stretch it that far the
17:26
Speaker 1: ages of the victims. That is absolutely not true. Remember
17:31
Speaker 1: at the end of Bundy, he was grabbing a very
17:35
Speaker 1: young girl who he attacked and murdered. He got sloppier
17:39
Speaker 1: and sloppier in his m O and he just basically
17:43
Speaker 1: grabbed her and killed her in the woods. She was
17:45
Speaker 1: much younger than the other victims, so at first Blush
17:49
Speaker 1: I would think that she may not be connected. Laura,
17:54
Speaker 1: tell me about the disappearance of Laura, Well, Laura, Laura
17:58
Speaker 1: was only a quarter mile from her own house. She
18:00
Speaker 1: had asked her parents could she go for a jog.
18:03
Speaker 1: She was aspiring ballerina and was trying to stay in
18:06
Speaker 1: good physical shape, so she asked her parents going to
18:07
Speaker 1: go for a quick job before breakfast. She was a
18:10
Speaker 1: quarter mile from her house. Now, if you speak to
18:14
Speaker 1: Laura's mother, Gay Smither, she believes that this was just
18:18
Speaker 1: a crime of opportunity, that this person driving by just
18:22
Speaker 1: happened to see her on the street and probably mistook
18:25
Speaker 1: her for somebody being older than she was. And at
18:30
Speaker 1: that time, just like Jessica and just like Kelly, it
18:33
Speaker 1: was like Laura had stepped into a hole in the universe,
18:35
Speaker 1: just disappeared. I mean, think about that, a quarter mile
18:38
Speaker 1: from your own house and you just vanish in it.
18:41
Speaker 1: About three weeks before they found her. I want to
18:43
Speaker 1: find out how they found her. The condition of her body.
18:46
Speaker 1: Was she clothed, unclothed in the woods? Was she in
18:49
Speaker 1: a shallow grave? Was a retention pond? Retention pond, I
18:54
Speaker 1: want to talk about her actual kidnap. You said this
18:58
Speaker 1: was before breakfast, correct. You know what's interesting, Well, so
19:02
Speaker 1: many things. But one thing that's interesting about that, Rob Arnold,
19:06
Speaker 1: is you don't see a lot of kidnap, murdering, rape
19:10
Speaker 1: before breakfast to just got Morgan. Statistically, these things, these
19:15
Speaker 1: type of crimes happen either much later in the day
19:19
Speaker 1: as they're getting around the time people are getting come
19:21
Speaker 1: from work, or more typically at night or in the
19:25
Speaker 1: darkened hours like one, two, three o'clock in the morning.
19:28
Speaker 1: But I would say the sweet spot for murders, if
19:32
Speaker 1: there is such a thing, would be after say nine
19:36
Speaker 1: or ten o'clock at night, but not first thing in
19:38
Speaker 1: the morning. For Pete's sake. Yeah, that'd be very difficult
19:41
Speaker 1: to I think, you know, when you begin to think
19:43
Speaker 1: about it, you have the cover of darkness in order
19:46
Speaker 1: to facilitate you know, what you're attempting to do with
19:49
Speaker 1: these murders, to stay out of sight. But if you
19:52
Speaker 1: have somebody that falls into a pattern, say for instance,
19:56
Speaker 1: with targeting individuals that are near their isolated and I
20:00
Speaker 1: think that's a big part of that. Do you really
20:02
Speaker 1: see this as a crime of opportunity, rob Arnold, I do.
20:06
Speaker 1: I believe this. This individual was supposed to work at
20:09
Speaker 1: construction job that morning it got rained out, and I
20:12
Speaker 1: think it was just bad luck. I still wonder if
20:16
Speaker 1: Laura would be alive that had not rained that day.
20:18
Speaker 1: But Rob, what we think we know is that this
20:25
Speaker 1: killer would target. He would target a woman and a car.
20:31
Speaker 1: And then wait, so you know what, maybe you're right,
20:37
Speaker 1: Like I keep referring back to Ted Bundy, why because
20:40
Speaker 1: he killed so many people that we can make a
20:43
Speaker 1: lot of comparisons. But you're right, his inmo changed and
20:48
Speaker 1: he went all the way from approaching women with a
20:53
Speaker 1: cast on to getting them into his vehicle where they
20:57
Speaker 1: lock on their door wouldn't work for them anyway, all
21:01
Speaker 1: the way to breaking into the coy Omega house at
21:05
Speaker 1: a Florida university. So the ms can change. So you're right.
21:10
Speaker 1: What do you make of that, doctor, Angie Arnold? Nancy?
21:12
Speaker 1: What I make of that is the serial killers become emboldened.
21:17
Speaker 1: They haven't been caught, and so they pushed. They keep
21:20
Speaker 1: pushing the envelope. These are not good people. These things
21:26
Speaker 1: excite them in several different ways, and so of course
21:30
Speaker 1: it becomes more and more exciting to them to push
21:33
Speaker 1: the envelope and do things differently than they've gotten away
21:36
Speaker 1: with before. Tell me about the discovery of her body.
21:40
Speaker 1: Rob Arnold, he was a father and son training their
21:44
Speaker 1: hunting dog out in the retention pond. And they're they're
21:48
Speaker 1: the ones who came across her body. What a shock.
21:53
Speaker 1: Did any suspicion fall on them? No? No, not at all.
21:56
Speaker 1: Well you know what their love because I want to
21:58
Speaker 1: tell about two cases, which I'm sure you know of.
22:00
Speaker 1: You're the investigative reporter and guys, you can find Rob
22:03
Speaker 1: Arnold on Facebook. You can find him on Twitter at
22:07
Speaker 1: KPRC to Robert on insta, same handle, Rob. I'll give
22:12
Speaker 1: you two examples. Do you remember when Kelly Anthony went missing?
22:15
Speaker 1: I mean who doesn't. And then the worker, the state worker,
22:20
Speaker 1: municipal worker, was out doing his job and he sees
22:24
Speaker 1: what turned out to be Kelly's body and he called
22:27
Speaker 1: repeatedly and said, look, somebody needs to come look at this.
22:30
Speaker 1: And so when they did finally get out there, they
22:34
Speaker 1: realized it's Kelly, and suspicion first went on him. He
22:38
Speaker 1: was nothing but a good samaritan. And another case, Jo
22:41
Speaker 1: Scott and doctor Angie and I have covered this one together.
22:43
Speaker 1: It's a case of Debbie Randall, a young girl. I
22:46
Speaker 1: believe Davie was twelve, wasn't she Jackie nine? Thank you?
22:50
Speaker 1: When she went missing from the laundry mat right across
22:53
Speaker 1: from her parents home and time passes. Volunteers are out
22:59
Speaker 1: looking for her, and a guy in a local fraternity
23:03
Speaker 1: that was part of the search truth finds her, and
23:06
Speaker 1: of course then he had to be cleared. He went
23:09
Speaker 1: under the fifth degree of investigation to make sure he
23:13
Speaker 1: wasn't part of it. In this case, I'm glad to
23:15
Speaker 1: hear that wasn't too. So father and son find her
23:19
Speaker 1: and her body is swear in a retention pond near
23:22
Speaker 1: a piece of road called Beltway eight. Can you give
23:25
Speaker 1: me the mode of death? No, not exactly, not exactly
23:28
Speaker 1: the mode of death because her body had been in
23:31
Speaker 1: a state of decomposition when they found her, exactly, explained
23:35
Speaker 1: Joe Scott, I have to say that in this particular case,
23:38
Speaker 1: this young girl who's found in the retention font following that,
23:42
Speaker 1: and she had not been down for a protracted period
23:45
Speaker 1: of time, and I'm talking about that from the perspective
23:47
Speaker 1: of forensics fancy. In her particular case, there was an opportunity,
23:51
Speaker 1: I think to begin to develop evidence off of her
23:54
Speaker 1: remains as opposed to say, for instance, if you had
23:57
Speaker 1: remains that had been buried somewhere for a protracted period
23:59
Speaker 1: of time. So Scott, where all the victims raped? I
24:02
Speaker 1: don't know. I know that in one particular case that
24:06
Speaker 1: really stands out and is quite telling, there was a significant,
24:12
Speaker 1: significant sample of seamen that was found on or in
24:16
Speaker 1: the body. And just in my limited experience, and I've
24:20
Speaker 1: worked several series of serial killings over the course of
24:22
Speaker 1: my career, you will have individuals that will kill and
24:26
Speaker 1: then masturbate over bodies, and that does, in fact happen
24:30
Speaker 1: many times. Rob Arnold, you have told me that you
24:34
Speaker 1: don't want to discuss the details of the attack and
24:40
Speaker 1: murder on Laura K twelve years old, thrown in a
24:44
Speaker 1: retention pot that tells me you've had significant contact with
24:49
Speaker 1: her family. And I know in cases that I prosecuted,
24:55
Speaker 1: I would ask the family to leave before I put
24:59
Speaker 1: up medical amateur because I did not want them to
25:02
Speaker 1: know what I knew. I can still remember when I
25:06
Speaker 1: walked out of the courtroom at my fiance's murder trial,
25:10
Speaker 1: seeing his bloody shirt. I've never forgotten it. I don't
25:13
Speaker 1: want to see the autopsy report. I don't want to
25:15
Speaker 1: know anymore because it will torture me, just like that
25:20
Speaker 1: tortures me. What I'm getting at, Robbins, could you just
25:23
Speaker 1: tell me about Laura Kate Smither's family and what they
25:27
Speaker 1: have been through. Oh, I mean, they've been through absolute hell.
25:32
Speaker 1: Not only did they go through that period of desperately
25:34
Speaker 1: searching for their daughter and the sleepless nights. I'll never
25:39
Speaker 1: forget the images of Gay Smithers standing on the side
25:42
Speaker 1: of the road in Friendswood, that's the bedroom community south
25:45
Speaker 1: of Houston where they live, holding up flyers pictures of
25:48
Speaker 1: her daughter to anybody passing by, begging them. All the
25:53
Speaker 1: people that went out there searching day after day after
25:56
Speaker 1: day after day, I mean, it was goud wrenching. And
25:59
Speaker 1: then when they do find out that she has been
26:02
Speaker 1: the victim of a murder, then they go through this
26:04
Speaker 1: agonizing process of waiting to see somebody charged with that crime.
26:07
Speaker 1: And in this case we're talking it took decades before
26:11
Speaker 1: that happened, but they kept pushing and fighting in One
26:14
Speaker 1: thing that did come from this was the Lower Recovery Center,
26:17
Speaker 1: and that was created out of this, which helps other
26:20
Speaker 1: families with missing children, much like your friend Tim Miller
26:24
Speaker 1: does with Equiser, So that came from this book. Theyve
26:27
Speaker 1: never stopped fighting. It's dominated their lives, their entire lives,
26:30
Speaker 1: fighting for justice for their daughter. Let me understand something.
26:33
Speaker 1: Did you say, Rob Arnold, joining us from KPRC, that
26:39
Speaker 1: this twelve year old girl, Laura Kate Smither's parents would
26:45
Speaker 1: stand outside with a sign begging for him with a flyer. Yes,
26:52
Speaker 1: I remember Gay Smither distinquished, you know, holding up holding
26:57
Speaker 1: up a flyer with their daughter's picture on it. Cars
26:59
Speaker 1: going by, hoping somebody, somebody would know something somewhere, you know,
27:03
Speaker 1: Doctor Angie Arnold, I just can you even imagine standing outside, waving,
27:10
Speaker 1: trying to get anybody to help you. It's such a
27:13
Speaker 1: sign of desperation, It's so it's gut wrenching, Nancy. And
27:18
Speaker 1: you know, I wonder what the people thought of her.
27:20
Speaker 1: I wonder if people even looked. I wonder if people
27:23
Speaker 1: even knew what she was doing. So in saying that,
27:26
Speaker 1: with that being said, she was doing this really for herself.
27:30
Speaker 1: There's such little chance of anyone responding to an act
27:34
Speaker 1: like that. Oh, the desperation the parents are going through.
27:39
Speaker 1: Oh yes, guys, Now we have a tally. Rob Arnold,
27:43
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, because you're the expert on this.
27:46
Speaker 1: You've got seventeen year old girl, Jessica Lee Kane. You've
27:49
Speaker 1: got a new mom back to college that's Kelly Ancock's
27:53
Speaker 1: twenty and now we've got a twelve year old girl
27:57
Speaker 1: that is found and every tension pot as she is
28:02
Speaker 1: being found, more is happening in another case. Take a
28:08
Speaker 1: listen to our forensic KTRK. We are just off of
28:12
Speaker 1: the Goal Freeway, about a mile or so from where
28:14
Speaker 1: Jessica Kane went missing in Lamarck, and this park bench
28:17
Speaker 1: has been dedicated to Jessica. Today, we need a visit
28:21
Speaker 1: onto the family home of Jessica Kane. They were not
28:23
Speaker 1: home today, but in the past they've told us that
28:25
Speaker 1: they thought Jessica was kidnapped and taken to Mexico. Her
28:29
Speaker 1: mom came to me when they moved off of Tikillen
28:35
Speaker 1: and she said, we moved our home phone to our
28:42
Speaker 1: neighbor's house in case Jessica escapes and she calls home. Yeah, yeah,
28:50
Speaker 1: it was pretty said, Pretty said. Okay. The reason I
28:54
Speaker 1: played that, Rob Arnold, was because we were talking about
28:58
Speaker 1: the desperation that twelve year old lad Kate Smithers. A
29:02
Speaker 1: family was suffering, and now you hear what that family,
29:07
Speaker 1: Kelly's family was going through. They had to move, but
29:11
Speaker 1: they were so afraid she would get free that they
29:15
Speaker 1: put their home phone in their next her neighbor's home.
29:19
Speaker 1: I mean, Rob Arnold, the suffering these parents have been through. Well,
29:23
Speaker 1: that goes to what I had said earlier about why
29:26
Speaker 1: I think it's particularly cruel when a child disappears and
29:29
Speaker 1: has never found, because there is never a moment that
29:32
Speaker 1: that parent does not stop wondering is she hungry, is
29:35
Speaker 1: she cold, is she's tired, is she happy? As she said,
29:39
Speaker 1: it's a constant worry for decades, every single day without knowing. Guys,
29:45
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friend Phil Archer at KPRC.
29:50
Speaker 1: You can see police have set up a command post
29:52
Speaker 1: about one hundred yards into that pasture from us. They
29:56
Speaker 1: are not talking, commenting at all about what they're doing there,
29:59
Speaker 1: but the source close to the investigation confirms they are
30:01
Speaker 1: looking for Cox, who may have been the victim of
30:03
Speaker 1: a serial killer. If Kelly and Cox is found, it
30:06
Speaker 1: will solve an eighteen year old mystery. Investigators are using
30:10
Speaker 1: bacos and bulldozers to search for in this lonely field
30:13
Speaker 1: near Highway to eighty eight and FM fourteen sixty two.
30:17
Speaker 1: Cox was twenty years old, an honors student at North
30:19
Speaker 1: Texas State in Denton and the mother of a baby
30:22
Speaker 1: girl when she disappeared in July nineteen ninety seven after
30:26
Speaker 1: touring the Denton jail with her criminology class. But then
30:30
Speaker 1: we have a twist in the case, a twist in
30:36
Speaker 1: the case an aggravated assault. But in that twist do
30:42
Speaker 1: we get answers? Take us to our friensic ktr K
30:46
Speaker 1: Webster Police Sergeant James Lovell responded to the abduction called
30:49
Speaker 1: almost twenty years ago. It just seemed very calculated to level,
30:54
Speaker 1: says Reese had it all planned, slashing one of Sanders
30:57
Speaker 1: Saupa's tires so she'd break down. And later a guy
31:01
Speaker 1: on a white dewy truck pulls up kind of behind her,
31:04
Speaker 1: almost blocking her in, and says, do you have a
31:07
Speaker 1: flat tire? She says yes. He says he needs some
31:10
Speaker 1: help changing it. She said yes. Soon after he kidnapped
31:13
Speaker 1: her and headed down at forty five Sappa managed to
31:17
Speaker 1: free herself. She probably knew at that point like if
31:20
Speaker 1: I don't want ump out of this car, then I
31:21
Speaker 1: might na see tomorrow. Sapa was seriously injured from the jump.
31:25
Speaker 1: Eventually she was able to give details about his truck
31:28
Speaker 1: and the case. This is her testifying in nineteen ninety eight.
31:32
Speaker 1: Level took the stand two and remembers looking at Reese
31:35
Speaker 1: in the courtroom. He just kind of sat there and
31:38
Speaker 1: sneakers as is sixty years in prison time stories with
31:56
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace to Rob Arnold joining me KPRC. Sandra lived.
32:09
Speaker 1: She managed to fight him off. But could you detail
32:13
Speaker 1: for everyone the m O that was used. She would
32:18
Speaker 1: have been his next murder victim. How did he get
32:21
Speaker 1: her in his vehicle? Well, to believe, he slashed her tires,
32:25
Speaker 1: And when she came out to her car and she
32:27
Speaker 1: sees she's got a flat tire, he comes in again,
32:30
Speaker 1: do you need some help, and gets out, grabs her,
32:33
Speaker 1: throws her into his truck. And the thing that's amazing
32:36
Speaker 1: about Sandra, this wasn't like they were just driving down
32:39
Speaker 1: the road. They were on Interstate forty five and she
32:41
Speaker 1: jumped out of his truck and that's how she was
32:44
Speaker 1: able to save herself. And she never wavered in her
32:48
Speaker 1: identification of this person ever, and that's why this person
32:51
Speaker 1: finally went to prison. I mean, you know, as I
32:54
Speaker 1: always say, Matthew Mangino, former prosecutor and author, when you
32:59
Speaker 1: don't know a horse, look at his trick record. Here,
33:02
Speaker 1: he's got this girl, Sandra in his vehicle, same m O.
33:07
Speaker 1: Disables the car, offers to help, and suddenly she's in
33:11
Speaker 1: his vehicle facing rape and death. Same thing. You want
33:16
Speaker 1: to tell me they're not connected. Well, what's interesting is
33:20
Speaker 1: that this arrest, ultimately for abducting Sandra was investigated, there
33:29
Speaker 1: was a connection made, there wasn't arrest made, But the
33:32
Speaker 1: three other murders, you know, Laura, Jessica, and Kelly, were
33:37
Speaker 1: not immediately connected to this assailant. So even though you
33:44
Speaker 1: had missing persons in a short period of time which
33:50
Speaker 1: had a similar m to this situation, yeah, you're right,
33:54
Speaker 1: they can't connect them just on the m O to
33:57
Speaker 1: Rob Arnold was Sad abducted in late nineteen ninety seven,
34:03
Speaker 1: May of ninety seven, you know, And the thing is
34:05
Speaker 1: you keep kind of I mean, I know we haven't
34:07
Speaker 1: really gone over this chronologically, but Sandra was kidnapped in
34:12
Speaker 1: May of ninety seven, and then Kelly Anne disappeared in
34:16
Speaker 1: July ninety seven. You know, so this all didn't happen
34:20
Speaker 1: in chronological order. This kept happening. So now we have
34:24
Speaker 1: the case starting to unfold. And because Sandra lived, as
34:30
Speaker 1: you heard Rob stating, she never wavered, and her identification
34:34
Speaker 1: of the perp, that perp, William Reese, she never wavered,
34:42
Speaker 1: and she got in behind bars on aggravated assault, and
34:46
Speaker 1: then at all started to fit together. Listen to Robert Arnold,
34:52
Speaker 1: our friend from KPRC. Reese was serving a sixty year
34:55
Speaker 1: prison sentence from the nineteen ninety seven kidnapping of Sandra's St.
34:58
Speaker 1: Paul in Galveston County. Saba escaped and helped put him
35:01
Speaker 1: away while in a Texas prison. Oklahoma investigators used new
35:05
Speaker 1: technology to link Reese's DNA to Johnston's body, along with
35:09
Speaker 1: a phone card used shortly before she disappeared. Charged with
35:13
Speaker 1: that crime, Reese started talking and hoping to cut a deal.
35:16
Speaker 1: Reese admitted to his involvement in the kidnapping and murder
35:19
Speaker 1: of Laura Smither, who disappeared from her friend's Wood neighborhood
35:22
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven. Her body was found a few
35:24
Speaker 1: weeks later. That same year, Jessica Kane disappeared near her
35:28
Speaker 1: Tiki Island home, and Kelly Anne Cox disappeared from Denton. Okay,
35:32
Speaker 1: let's talk about Tiffany Johnson. Tiffany Johnson nineteen years old.
35:38
Speaker 1: Suddenly her name is ejected into this scenario. Tell me
35:42
Speaker 1: about Tiffany rob Arnold. Well, Tiffany Johnston was actually murdered
35:47
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma, So this wasn't even in Texas. Who was
35:50
Speaker 1: Bethany Oklahoma? Here, Oklahoma City, typical deal. She was at
35:55
Speaker 1: a car, washes grabbed her, killed her, and her body
36:00
Speaker 1: was found. I believe the following day next to the interstate.
36:05
Speaker 1: Had she been raped? I believe so, yes, ma'am. The
36:07
Speaker 1: reason I'm asking is I want to know how all
36:09
Speaker 1: of these victims are ultimately pieced together. How did they
36:14
Speaker 1: finally figure out they're all connected? Well, you know, the
36:17
Speaker 1: interesting thing is Johnston. If you're going in order chronologically here,
36:23
Speaker 1: she was next to last. So he killed Tiffany after
36:28
Speaker 1: he had kidnapped and killed Kelly An Cox, after he
36:30
Speaker 1: had kidnapped Sandra's Sayball, and after he had kidnapped and
36:34
Speaker 1: killed Laura Smither. Then after he killed Johnston. That's when
36:40
Speaker 1: Jessica Kane disappeared as well, so he kept going it. Really,
36:44
Speaker 1: if it had not been for Sandra's say ball by
36:47
Speaker 1: being him in putting him in prison for sixty years,
36:49
Speaker 1: these killings would have continued. She's a huge part of
36:52
Speaker 1: the reason as to why these killings stopped. Explain that place.
36:55
Speaker 1: So because of the way the chronology went, Reese was
36:59
Speaker 1: not as it until after Jessica Cane had disappeared, but
37:02
Speaker 1: he was arrested on the kidnapping of Sandras Baugh. He
37:06
Speaker 1: was then put in jail, and then the trial happened
37:09
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety eight and that's when he was convicted
37:11
Speaker 1: in sentenced to sixty years in prison. So that's why
37:14
Speaker 1: the killings suddenly stopped. Jessica Cane being the last young
37:18
Speaker 1: lady to disappear amazing and amazing, go ahead, jump in.
37:22
Speaker 1: It's mad means you know. The thing that's amazing about
37:26
Speaker 1: it as well, is that he wasn't connected to Tiffany
37:31
Speaker 1: Johnson her death until he his DNA matched evidence from
37:38
Speaker 1: the crime scene. And that DNA was taken as a
37:41
Speaker 1: result of a state law that required everybody to who
37:46
Speaker 1: was convicted of a clony to provide a DNA sample.
37:49
Speaker 1: So really, you know, we you know, these cases although
37:53
Speaker 1: that we can see an m from where we're looking
37:56
Speaker 1: from our Vanna's point right now, these cases weren't solved
38:00
Speaker 1: until the DNA match and then his confessions. Yeah, they
38:04
Speaker 1: really are not solved until Sandra could identify him as
38:09
Speaker 1: her kidnapper. And then because he then had to at
38:13
Speaker 1: the point where you had to submit DNA, that's what
38:16
Speaker 1: cracked the case wide open. Take a listen to our
38:20
Speaker 1: cut nine KPRCY. Last month, he accompanied police to another
38:23
Speaker 1: dig site in southeast Houston on March nineteenth. They found
38:27
Speaker 1: skeletal remains there that may or may not be those
38:30
Speaker 1: of seventeen year old Jessica Kan, the Tiki Island girl
38:34
Speaker 1: who disappeared the same year as Cox. The remains have
38:37
Speaker 1: yet to be identified. Reese is cooperating with Check's rangers
38:41
Speaker 1: and Denton police. Cox's mother says it's the first real
38:44
Speaker 1: break in the case since her daughter disappeared. My police
38:47
Speaker 1: would be for him to tell whoever needs to be
38:52
Speaker 1: told so we can know what happened. Reese was charged
38:54
Speaker 1: with murdering kidnapping last year after DNA evidence linked him
38:58
Speaker 1: to a teenage Oklahoma girl who was killed in nineteen
39:01
Speaker 1: ninety seven. He's also a suspect in the kidnapping and
39:04
Speaker 1: murder of twelve year old Laura Smither of Friendswood, who
39:07
Speaker 1: was killed the same year. And now they are searching
39:10
Speaker 1: for Kelly Cox. The daughter she left behind is a
39:14
Speaker 1: woman now twenty years old, the same age as her
39:16
Speaker 1: mother when she disappeared. Kelly did not just leave home
39:20
Speaker 1: and grow up somewhere far far away. She is dead
39:23
Speaker 1: at the hands of Reese. Take a listen to our
39:26
Speaker 1: friends at ABC. Accompanied by seven officers in four vehicles,
39:31
Speaker 1: Confessed serial killer William Reese was brought back to the
39:34
Speaker 1: Friendswood City Jail from Oklahoma to face three murder charges.
39:38
Speaker 1: I sentence you to death. The transport comes six months
39:42
Speaker 1: after he was sentenced to death in Oklahoma for the
39:44
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven murder of Tiffany Johnston. His return, the
39:48
Speaker 1: Friendswood Police chief says, was always part of the plan.
39:52
Speaker 1: In accordance with the interstate Agreement of detainer, he was
39:56
Speaker 1: required to be returned to the state of Texas, and
40:00
Speaker 1: so there was enough time that passed with his appeal
40:03
Speaker 1: and whatnot to get started, and a judge signed the
40:06
Speaker 1: order on Friday, he'll have his own jail cell and
40:09
Speaker 1: this will be Reese's second state in the Friendswood City Jail.
40:12
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, after confessing to the nineteen ninety seven
40:16
Speaker 1: kidnappings and murders of Laura Smither, Jessica Kane, and Kelly Cox,
40:21
Speaker 1: Rees spent five months here. He also struck a deal
40:24
Speaker 1: lead investigators to the remains of Kane and Cox, which
40:27
Speaker 1: he did and avoid the death penalty. I mean, Rob Arnold,
40:31
Speaker 1: you know this case like the back of your hand,
40:33
Speaker 1: joining us from KPRC. There was a time in court
40:37
Speaker 1: where he actually snickered at the victims left during the
40:41
Speaker 1: Oklahoma trial. He was still just a very defiant, mean,
40:47
Speaker 1: just just nasty looks to the parents of victims, especially
40:52
Speaker 1: Kathy Dobry that Tiffany Johnston's mother. So he still was
40:56
Speaker 1: just a very defiant, mean human being that at that
41:00
Speaker 1: point a little different though when he came back to
41:02
Speaker 1: Galveston County and finally fled to Kelly Ancock and Jessica
41:08
Speaker 1: Kane and Laura Kate. Smither's smart when you say he
41:10
Speaker 1: was different, how he seemed that in this in my
41:13
Speaker 1: opinion of looking at him in the trial. He did
41:15
Speaker 1: not seem to have lost that defiant He seemed to
41:19
Speaker 1: maybe actually feel something. He couldn't look at Gay Smither
41:23
Speaker 1: when she was giving her statement. Rob, please get a
41:27
Speaker 1: hold of yourself. He's not feeling anything. Well, he wasn't
41:31
Speaker 1: defiant anymore like he was in Oklahoma. If he was
41:34
Speaker 1: feeling anything, it was about himself, not for anything. I mean,
41:39
Speaker 1: think about it, laughing snickering at what the victims went
41:43
Speaker 1: through in open court. What do you think it would
41:46
Speaker 1: be like as a young girl, a twelve year old
41:49
Speaker 1: girl caught in the car with him, what she went through?
41:55
Speaker 1: Last question, Rob Arnold, I don't believe this is all
41:58
Speaker 1: his victims. I think there are more victims. I know
42:01
Speaker 1: there are others that believe that, and so does Laura's mother.
42:03
Speaker 1: Laura's mother believes that as well. What I can tell
42:06
Speaker 1: you is right now, there's nothing that's directly linking him
42:10
Speaker 1: to anything else. I know that there's a lot of
42:11
Speaker 1: other young ladies in these areas that disappeared under similar circumstances.
42:16
Speaker 1: That nothing directly linking him at this point that we
42:19
Speaker 1: know of is his DNA in the databank being compared
42:22
Speaker 1: to their cases. His DNAs that uploaded to codis. I
42:25
Speaker 1: do know that, and so far we had not heard
42:27
Speaker 1: of any other hits at this time. At this time,
42:29
Speaker 1: are there are three other rape victims? Well, I know
42:32
Speaker 1: that there are two others. There were the two some
42:34
Speaker 1: are the two in Oklahoma before he started the murders.
42:37
Speaker 1: How one guy hasn't managed to murder, rate and terrorize
42:43
Speaker 1: so many women is just beyond me. But we cannot
42:50
Speaker 1: give up seeking justice. If you know or thank you
42:56
Speaker 1: know anything about a crime connected to this man, defendant,
43:01
Speaker 1: William Reese, please call the tip line three one zero
43:06
Speaker 1: four seven seven sixty five sixty five. Nancy Grace Crumbs
43:11
Speaker 1: Story signing off, goodbye friend