Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Bathroom Slayings Part Two: Geneva Jackson

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The Bathroom Slayings Part Two: Geneva Jackson · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Call podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. The Abilene police failed to identify
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: who killed Sharon K. Watts in September of nineteen sixty seven.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't for a lack of trying. Detectives spent years
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  Speaker 1: pursuing leads, comparing a palm print found at the scene
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  Speaker 1: to both the usual suspects and those who came across
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  Speaker 1: their radar after her murder. It was perhaps for a
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  Speaker 1: lack of experience and resources. Though Abilene was one of
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  Speaker 1: the largest cities in the region, it wasn't exactly known
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  Speaker 1: as a haven for violent crime, not by a long shot.
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  Speaker 1: But times were changing, and heinous crimes like the March
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one raven murder of ten year old Tona
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  Speaker 1: Washington by airman James Duke Kreole had the city on
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  Speaker 1: edge for six years. Anyway, life in Abilene moved forward,
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  Speaker 1: while the Sharon Watts case stayed cold and even forgotten
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  Speaker 1: about or assumed to have been solved by residents. Then,
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  Speaker 1: just days before Christmas in nineteen seventy three, another brutal
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  Speaker 1: homicide stunned the city, one in which the similarities to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Sharon's slang were hard to ignore, But this time the
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  Speaker 1: victim was not a young department store employee. She was
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  Speaker 1: a respected teacher, a widow, a mother of three, and
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  Speaker 1: a grandmother. She was a woman whose life revolved around
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  Speaker 1: her students, her church, and her family. Born on March seventeenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, to parents Bessie and Jack Lauver in White Deer, Techxis,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Geneva Lucille Lauver grew up in the Texas Panhandle, where
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: education often took place in one room schoolhouses. From an
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  Speaker 1: early age, Geneva knew she wanted to be a teacher.
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  Speaker 1: After graduating from White Deer High School, she attended West
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  Speaker 1: Texas State College and earned her degree in nineteen forty one,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: majoring in biology. Soon after, she accepted her first teaching
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  Speaker 1: position in Claude, a place about thirty miles southwest of
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  Speaker 1: her hometown, where she taught social studies. It was there
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  Speaker 1: that Geneva met James Robert Jackson, a native of Childress.
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  Speaker 1: The couple fell in love and married on December twenty first,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, at the Presbyterian Church in White Deer.
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  Speaker 1: James had registered for the draft about a year and
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  Speaker 1: a half before, and both he and Geneva's lives would
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: soon be shaped by World War II. Like many wartime families,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: they built theirs around military assignments rather than permanent homes.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: James and Geneva's first daughter, Jane, was born the year
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: following their vows while he was stationed at Pampa Army Airfield,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and two more daughters, Mary and Laura, would follow as
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: James served a twenty year career in the Army Air
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Corps and then the Air Force after its creation in
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven. During portions of the war, Geneva and
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the girls stayed with family while James served overseas, and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: no matter where the Air Force sent them, Geneva continued teaching.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: She even taught in California, accepting a position with the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Crystal Union School District while James was stationed on the
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: West Coast. Teaching was more than a profession for Geneva.
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  Speaker 1: It was what she wanted to do and something that
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  Speaker 1: became the constant in every chapter of her adult life.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty one, James was transferred to Dais Air
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  Speaker 1: Force Base, which brought the family to Abilene Geneva got
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: a job teaching seventh grade math at Madison Junior High
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  Speaker 1: which had opened that year, and where she remained for
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  Speaker 1: the next twelve years. Principal Phil Boone later described her
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  Speaker 1: as an excellent teacher, and colleagues remembered her as professional, organized,
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  Speaker 1: and deeply committed to her students. Friends recalled her as
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  Speaker 1: dependable and punctual. If she made a commitment, you could
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  Speaker 1: always count on her to come through. Outside the classroom,
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  Speaker 1: Geneva lived a quiet life. She was active in Park
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  Speaker 1: Baptist Church, remained close to her three daughters as they
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  Speaker 1: each went out on their own, and treasured her role
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  Speaker 1: as a grandmother when that time came. After serving in
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  Speaker 1: the Air Force for ti two decades, James retired and
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: got a job at Smitty's Auto Supply from nineteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: four to nineteen seventy. After a long battle with heart disease,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: he died of an abdominal aortic aneurism on February twenty first,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two. For the first time in more than
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: thirty years, Geneva found herself living alone. Even so little
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  Speaker 1: about her life changed. She continued teaching, attended church regularly,
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  Speaker 1: and maintained the steady routine that had defined her for decades,
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  Speaker 1: something that likely gave her comfort through the difficult time.
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  Speaker 1: Geneva's home, on the thirty three hundred block of Edgemont
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  Speaker 1: Drive was in one of Abilene's newer neighborhoods, a quiet
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  Speaker 1: street lined with similar ranch style homes occupied mostly by teachers,
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  Speaker 1: military families, and retirees. Located in the city's southwest last,
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  Speaker 1: the subdivision was a place where neighbors were close and
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  Speaker 1: were well acquainted with one another's vehicles. They noticed strangers
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and unfamiliar cars attracted attention, but both of those things
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: were rarities there. The neighborhood was considered safe and saw
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  Speaker 1: little crime. Violent crime was almost unheard of. Almost Friday,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: December fourteenth, nineteen seventy three was unremarkable. Christmas vacation was
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  Speaker 1: only days away, and fifty six year old Geneva Jackson
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  Speaker 1: spent another day teaching before returning home late that afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: The weekend began much like countless others before it. The
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  Speaker 1: following morning, however, something unusual occurred. Geneva never arrived at
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  Speaker 1: the beauty shop for her appointment. Her beautician immediately recognized
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  Speaker 1: the absence as unusual and mentioned it to another Madison
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  Speaker 1: High School teacher, B. C. Goodwin, who also had an
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  Speaker 1: appointment that morning. Concerned, Goodwin and her husband drove to
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  Speaker 1: Geneva's home to check on her. Everything appeared normal. When
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: they arrived, they knocked on the front door, which they
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: realized was locked. After jiggling the knob, no one answered.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: As the good Ones walked around the house, they discovered
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  Speaker 1: the back door was open. Reluctant to enter alone, they
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  Speaker 1: asked next door neighbor Sam Kroom to accompany them inside.
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  Speaker 1: At first, they expected to find Geneva ill or injured. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they found something far worse. Moving through the house, at
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  Speaker 1: around one pm, Sam found Geneva in the bathroom, faced down,
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  Speaker 1: partially clothed, and partially submerged in water tented deep red.
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  Speaker 1: He turned her over to be sure it was her.
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  Speaker 1: Then he and the good Ones left the house and
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  Speaker 1: called the Abilene Police. Within minutes, the quiet residential street
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  Speaker 1: filled with patrol cars, detectives, and emergency personnel. Curious neighbors
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  Speaker 1: gathered outside as officers secured the property and began documenting
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  Speaker 1: what had quickly become one of Abilene's most shocking police
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  Speaker 1: investigations since the murder of Sharon K. Watts six years earlier.
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Dwayne Piburn was among the first officers at the scene.
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  Speaker 1: While he confirmed detectives suspected foul play, he declined to
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  Speaker 1: discuss what they'd found inside with reporters and refused to
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  Speaker 1: speculate about how Geneva had died. Justice of the Peace
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  Speaker 1: Silas Clark soon reached the residence. He also told reporters
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  Speaker 1: that the evidence on the scene suggested foul plays. Body
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was transported for an autopsy. As detectives began processing the home.
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  Speaker 1: The house showed no signs of having been ransacked. The
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  Speaker 1: furniture was in place and drawers were undisturbed. Nothing appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be missing, something family members later confirmed, leading investigators
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  Speaker 1: to quickly dismiss robbery as a motive. The why may
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: have been a mystery, but there was plenty at the
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  Speaker 1: scene that allowed detectives to theorize how the crime took place.
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  Speaker 1: What police described as a great deal of blood was
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  Speaker 1: found in the den and living room, and blood also
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  Speaker 1: stained a nearby cabinet. The assault likely began in one
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  Speaker 1: of those rooms, and Geneva appeared to have fought fiercely
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  Speaker 1: before being dragged approximately forty feet through the house and
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  Speaker 1: placed into the bathtub. Detectives said that much of the
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  Speaker 1: blood had soaked into the carpet pooling below it, making
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: it nearly impossible to collect footprints or other impressions. Next
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  Speaker 1: to the chair where Geneva usually sat, police found a
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  Speaker 1: stack of school papers she'd been grading. On the table
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: was a freshly baked cake. The back door had been
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: found open, which was unusual in itself. Neighbors told police
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  Speaker 1: Geneva kept both of her doors locked, likely the perpetrator
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  Speaker 1: fled out the back and threw an alley behind the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: house to avoid being seen, leaving the door open. Neither
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  Speaker 1: the front nor back door jams showed damage, and there
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  Speaker 1: were no shattered windows, meaning the home hadn't been broken into.
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  Speaker 1: Detective Jim Nance explained that when there is no evidence
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  Speaker 1: of forced entry, they must consider the possibility that the
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  Speaker 1: victim either knew the killer or willingly allowed that person inside,
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  Speaker 1: and either scenario suggested Geneva trusted them. Whether fifty six
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: year old Geneva Lucille Jackson knew the person who murdered
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  Speaker 1: her became one of the central questions of the investigation,
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  Speaker 1: a medical examiner determined that Geneva had endured a prolonged
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  Speaker 1: and extraordinarily violent assault. The autopsy later revealed she had
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  Speaker 1: been beaten with a blunt object consistent with a club
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  Speaker 1: or club like object in her head and face. The
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  Speaker 1: exact number of blows impossible to conclude, It was only
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  Speaker 1: clear that there were many. She was also stabbed three
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  Speaker 1: times in the chest and three times in the back
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  Speaker 1: with some sort of sharp instrument. Despite the severity of
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  Speaker 1: those injurieses none were fatal, though the bludgeoning had likely
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  Speaker 1: rendered her unconscious. The official cause of death was drowning.
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  Speaker 1: Peace Justice Silas Clark had formally ruled the death a homicide.
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  Speaker 1: The scene, the location and distribution of Geneva's defensive wounds
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  Speaker 1: indicated that she had fought desperately, likely in the den
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  Speaker 1: and in the living room. She was then rendered unconscious
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  Speaker 1: and dragged into the bathroom, where she was placed in
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  Speaker 1: the bathtub, face down, drowning as the result. The crime
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  Speaker 1: was especially violent and seemed personal, unlike a shooting. Detectives
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  Speaker 1: believed the killer remained in close physical contact with Geneva
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  Speaker 1: throughout the assault. The attack required time, strength and determination,
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  Speaker 1: and also carried tremendous risk. Every additional minute spent inside
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  Speaker 1: the house in priest the chance that a neighbor might
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  Speaker 1: notice something unusual or that someone might unexpectedly arrive. Theoretically,
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  Speaker 1: Geneva had the opportunity to scream. When detectives finally stepped
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  Speaker 1: away from the crime scene the evening after Geneva Jackson
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  Speaker 1: was found, one fact had become painfully clear. They were
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  Speaker 1: investigating an exceptionally brutal homicide, but particularly without a motive
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  Speaker 1: to work from, they still had no idea who committed it.
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  Speaker 1: The responsibility for finding Geneva Jackson's killer fell to Detective
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  Speaker 1: Jim Nance and Captain George Sutton of the Abilene Police
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  Speaker 1: Department's Criminal Investigation Division. Neither man was new to homicide cases.
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  Speaker 1: Just two years before, Captain Sutton headed up the case
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  Speaker 1: of ten year old Tona Worthington. He and his men
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  Speaker 1: quickly solved that case. Both Sutton and Nance understood that
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the first several days after a murder often determined whether
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: a case would be solved quickly or become a long,
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  Speaker 1: frustrating and often fruitless search for answers. Witnesses. Memories were
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  Speaker 1: freshest physical evidence was least likely to have been contaminated,
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  Speaker 1: and if the killer had made a mistake, detectives had
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  Speaker 1: the best chance of finding it. Every available resource was
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  Speaker 1: directed toward Geneva's case. Crime scene officers moved methodically from
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  Speaker 1: room to room, photographing every area of the residence before
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  Speaker 1: collecting evidence. Nothing was considered too insignificant to preserve. Blood
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  Speaker 1: and hair samples, clothing, fibers, and other trace evidence was
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  Speaker 1: carefully bagged and cataloged. Every item that might contain fingerprints
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  Speaker 1: or any other evidence was preserved. One object immediately stood out.
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  Speaker 1: Lying on the carpet was a small splinter of varnished wood,
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  Speaker 1: approximately two inches long. To detectives, it was a solid
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  Speaker 1: lead if the killer had used a wooden club or
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: club like object, the fragment might have broken off during
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  Speaker 1: the attack. If they could determine what it came from,
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  Speaker 1: they might identify the murder weapon, or perhaps even connect
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  Speaker 1: it to a suspect. The small splinter of wood became
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  Speaker 1: one of the investigation's most intriguing clues, if not the
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  Speaker 1: only piece of physical evidence worth a down. Everything believed
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  Speaker 1: capable of producing forensic evidence was submitted to the Texas
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  Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Austin. There in
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: an era long before DNA and other modern forensic technologies,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: scientists relied on blood typing, microscopic hare and fibercare comparisons,
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  Speaker 1: latent fingerprint examinations, and other careful analysis of whatever trace
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  Speaker 1: evidence investigators managed to recover from a scene. Abilene police
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: detectives remained optimistic. DPS laboratories were, for the time, progressive
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  Speaker 1: and state of the art. If they could identify the
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  Speaker 1: source of the woods splinter, recover usable fingerprints, or determine
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  Speaker 1: whether any of the recovered hairs belonged to someone other
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  Speaker 1: than Geneva, the investigation might quickly move from an unknown
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  Speaker 1: offender to a specific suspect. While DPS began examining the evidence,
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  Speaker 1: detective Jim Nance turned his attention to Geneva herself. He
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  Speaker 1: later told reporters for the Abilene Reporter News that homicide
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: investigations almost always begin with the victim. Before detectives can
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  Speaker 1: identify a killer, they must first understand the per person
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  Speaker 1: who was killed, the people who knew Geneva visited her home,
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  Speaker 1: had seen her during her final hours, and who knew
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  Speaker 1: she was living alone. Those answers Nance believed would veer
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  Speaker 1: the investigation toward the person responsible. Police began interviewing everyone
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: connected to the victim, including family members, friends, neighbors, fellow teachers,
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  Speaker 1: her students and members and officials at her church. Anyone
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: who might possess even the smallest bit of information was contacted.
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  Speaker 1: The interviews painted a remarkably consistent picture of Geneva, who
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: everyone described in much the same way. She was dependable
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and quiet. She lived a normal life and was devoted
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: to her daughters and grandchildren. The deeper detectives looked into her,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the more difficult it became to identify anyone who might
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: have wanted to harm her. At the same time, officers
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: canvassed Edgemont Drive and the surrounding streets extensively, knocking on
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: doors throughout a five block proximity surrounding the Jackson home.
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  Speaker 1: Residents were asked whether they had seen unfamiliar vehicles, strangers
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: walking through the neighborhood, or anything else unusual during the
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: late evening hours of Friday, December fourteenth. The response was frustrating.
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  Speaker 1: No one reported seeing anyone coming or going from Geneva's house.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: There were no reports of suspicious cars or strange people,
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  Speaker 1: and no one recalled hearing screams or any other sounds
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  Speaker 1: that might suggest a violent struggle. One woman living three
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: houses away told investigators she had stayed awake reading until
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: almost two o'clock Saturday morning. During that time, she heard
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: nothing unusual coming from Geneva's home or from the alley
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  Speaker 1: that ran behind the homes on Edgewood and High Meadows
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: to the south. The silence puzzled detectives, as the evidence
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: inside Geneva's home suggested she had fought fiercely against her attacker.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Whether the attack happened more quietly than investigators expected, or
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: whether neighbors were all sound asleep would never be determined.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Detectives also worked to establish Gina's final timeline. They confirmed
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: that the last known contact with her occurred around seven
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: pm Friday evening, though police never expounded upon the nature
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: of it. The medical examiner narrowed the estimated time of
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: death to some time after ten thirty pm. That caused
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: detectives to focus the investigation on a relatively short window
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: late that Friday night. As the timeline reinforced what they'd
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: already suspected from the condition of the house Geneva, they
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: believed hadn't yet prepared for bed. As the Abilene police
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: read constructed her final hours. With the fact that no
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: one had forcefully entered the house in mind, attention naturally
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: turned to the people closest to her. Looking at the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: people closest to the victim is standard procedure in every
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: homicide investigation, particularly when all the evidence suggests they trusted
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: their killer. Family, close friends, possible love interests, and the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: victim's closest associates are almost always interviewed first, not always
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: because detectives presume their involvement, but because they usually knew
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the victim's habits, routines, recent concerns, and relationships better than
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  Speaker 1: anyone else. Eliminating those closest to the victim is often
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and requires few resources. It also allows them to expand
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the investigation with greater confidence. Two of the first family
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: members detectives examined was that of Geneva's youngest daughter, Laura
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and her husband, David Webb. David was an eighteen year
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: old airman stationed at Dyas Air Force Base. Just days
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: before Geneva's murder. He had returned to Abilene and reunited
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: with Laura after temporary duty in Germany. Like everyone else
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: close to the victim, the young couple cooperated fully. Both
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: voluntarily agreed to submit to polygraph examinations. Afterward, detectives informed
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: them that neither test indicated deception. Captain George Sutton declined
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to discuss the examinations in detail, explaining only that detectives
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: continued following every available lead and that no one connected
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: to the case had been ruled out solely because of
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: a polygraph. The Webbs account of the weekend helped establish
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: part of the timeline. According to David, he and Laura
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: had spent Friday evening watching television with his mother, leaving
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: only briefly during the night. Nothing about the evening stood
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: out as unusual. The following morning, David accompanied his father
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: on several errands. Later Saturday afternoon, Laura and her mother
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: in law drove to Geneva's house. Laura had been staying
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: there while David was on active duty overseas, and she
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: wanted to retrieve some clothing and other belongings. Instead of
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a pleasant visit with Geneva. However, they arrived to discover
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: patrol cars, police officers, and crime scene tape surrounding the home.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: The investigation widened steadily over the following days. Police interviewed
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: us of people connected to Geneva's life, and several more
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: individuals also voluntarily submitted to polygraph examinations. By the end
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: of the week, six people had taken LIE detector tests.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Detectives repeatedly emphasized that agreeing to a polygraph should not
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: be viewed as evidence of suspicion. In most cases, people
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: volunteered simply to eliminate themselves from consideration and to allow
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: law enforcement to focus their attention elsewhere. Behind the scenes,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Detective Jim Nance and Captain George Sutton reviewed every report, interview,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and piece of physical evidence. Each new lead was compared
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: against the growing timeline of Geneva's final hours. Interviews were
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: checked against one another, and alibis were verified whenever possible.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: The work was methodical, time consuming, and often frustrated. Captain
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Sutton remained cautiously optimistic, but he also understood how quickly
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: homicide investigations could grow cold. Unfortunately, Geneva Jackson's murder was
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: already beginning to follow that pattern. It had been more
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: than a week and they'd failed to identify a single suspect.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: They couldn't even theorize a motive. Geneva's friends, family, and
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: colleagues all told police that the victim hadn't been acting
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: unusual or on edge, nothing to suggest she had been
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: threatened or was in any other kind of trouble. The
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: evidence collected from the house had provided the hope for answers,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: but it only kept the questions alive or rendered more.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: The Texas Department of Public Safety carefully examined the two
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: inch splinter of varnished wood recovered from the carpet, hoping
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: it might identify the object used during the attack. The
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: The results were disappointing. Analysts couldn't determine where it had originated.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: With few other leads, detectives decided to take it further.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: The splinter was shown to local carpenters, cabinet makers, and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: woodworking specialists in hopes that someone might recognize the type
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: of wood or identified the object from which it had broken.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: No one could. The other physical evidence proved equally frustrating.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Hair recovered from the scene could not identify a suspect,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and no unexplained fingerprints were found inside the home. It
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: appears detectives never determined the other weapon that was used
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: either the one used to cause the stab wounds. Still,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: they refused to scale back the investigation. The search for
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: anyone who might have known Geneva lived alone, anyone who
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: might have visited the house that Friday evening, or anyone
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: whose account of the weekend could not be verified, proved fruitless.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: The weeks passed, and Christmas came and went. The woman
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: who had spent more than a decade teaching math to
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Abilene Junior High students, raising a family, and serving her
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: church had been buried, and her killer remained free. The
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: investigation increasingly shifted from gathering new evidence to re examining
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: what detectives had already collected. They searched for inconsistencies in
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: timelines and alibis, overlooked details, or anything that might point
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: them in the right direction. Leads that had initially seemed
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: insignificant were revisited in hopes that, when viewed alongside newly
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: developed information, they might reveal a pattern that had been missed.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Despite those efforts, no clear suspect emerged. Police also worked
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: to determine whether Geneva's murder might be connected to any
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: other crimes in the Abilene area. Comparison was unavoidable. Six
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: years earlier, Sharon K. Watts was found murdered in her
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: apartment under circumstances that had also baffled detectives. Her killer
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: was never identified. They carefully examined both investigations, searching for
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: similarities in the victims, the crime scenes, and the methods
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: used during the attacks. The cases shared certain broad characteristics.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Both victims were killed inside their homes, in their bathrooms,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and both crimes lacked a definitive motive, but beyond that,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the two cases could not be linked. Still, the similarities
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: were difficult to ignore. For many residents. Geneva's murder felt
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: like history repeating itself. People who had followed the Sharon
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Watts investigation six years earlier suddenly found themselves asking the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: same questions all over again. They wondered if the same
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: killer had struck twice, or if Abilene was dealing with
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: another killer altogether. Police couldn't answer either question. Detectives continued
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: searching for anyone who may have seen Geneva after her
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: last confirmed contact at approximately seven o'clock Friday evening. Through
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: newspaper articles. They encouraged anyone with information, no matter how insignificant,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: it seemed to contact police, but no breakthrough ever came.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: The original reward offered by her eldest daughter Jane, five
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars for information leading to an arrest and conviction,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: didn't produce a single response. It was increased in an
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: effort to generate new leads, hitting fifteen hundred dollars after
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: neighbors and friends of the victim pitched in. Once again,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the response was disappointing. No new leads came, although they
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: had chased clues from Eastland, Texas to Fort Worth and
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: received a tip. In the early nineteen eighties, Geneva Jackson's
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: murder case remained as it had from nearly the beginning.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Cold Detectives periodically reopened the file, reinterviewed witnesses when necessary,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: and evaluated new information the few times it surfaced. But
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: as frustrating and perplexing as the case was for police,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Geneva's family suffered far more from the lack of answers.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Holidays came and went, reminding those who loved her of
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: just how much was missing from their lives without her.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Grandchildren grew older, deprived of the valuable life lessons and
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: unconditional love that Grandmont Geneva would have offered students who
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: had once sat in her math classroom, graduated, started careers,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and raised families of their own. Murder of Geneva Jackson
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: remains among Abilene's oldest unsolved homicides, which also include the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven murder of Sharon K. Watts and a
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: shocking case in nineteen seventy seven in which authorities repeated
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: past mistakes. That's next time on Gone Cold, Texas True Crime.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: If you have any information about the murder of Geneva
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Lucille Jackson, please contact Aplene crime Stoppers at three two
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: five six seven six eight four seven seven. If you'd
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: like to join Gon Cold's mission to shine a light
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the show
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: at free and have access to bonus content, you can
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: at Patreon dot com slash Gone Cold Podcast. You can
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: also support the show by leaving a five star rating
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: However you choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, y'all,