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The Two Lives and Slaying of Ruth "Liz" Bettis · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

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Speaker 1: Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent or graphics subject matter.
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Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In an article published on January
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Speaker 1: TEWOD nineteen eighty three, The Austin American Statesman called the
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Speaker 1: year nineteen eighty two the bloodiest on record. Homicides that
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Speaker 1: year were up forty six percent above the previous year,
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Speaker 1: and above the previous record holding year nineteen eighty by
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Speaker 1: almost as much. Austin police couldn't provide insight as to
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Speaker 1: why the rates had climbed like they did in eighty two.
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Speaker 1: There's just no way to tell, Lieutenant Robert Wissien said.
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Speaker 1: Most murders are crimes of passion at the spur of
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Speaker 1: the moment. The lieutenant went on to say that of
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Speaker 1: the fifty seven homicides that year, only five were killed
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Speaker 1: by strangers. Thirty three of the fifty seven, he said,
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Speaker 1: involved drugs or alcohol. The end of nineteen eighty two,
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Speaker 1: the department had solved all but three of those, one
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Speaker 1: of which, the rape and murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis,
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Speaker 1: remains unsolved today. In twenty twenty five, Ruth Elizabeth Bettis
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Speaker 1: was born in Travis County, Texas, on September twenty sixth
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, to parents Dale and Rebecca. She was
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Speaker 1: known by her middle name, or Liz for short, for
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Speaker 1: most of her life, though as she sought autonomy in
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Speaker 1: her teenage years, she would begin to go by the
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Speaker 1: first name Gibson. Liz's upbringing and the story of her
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Speaker 1: parents is perhaps vital to reach a full understanding of
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Speaker 1: her own. The year she was born, Elizabeth's father, doctor
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Speaker 1: Dale Gaillard Bettis, received a master's degree in Engineering mcaynix
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Speaker 1: from the University of Texas College of Engineering. Even before
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Speaker 1: earning his masters, doctor Dale assisted in astronomy research and
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Speaker 1: taught mathematics at the university. After receiving the degree, he
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Speaker 1: went on to spend some time in Pasadena, California, at
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Speaker 1: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where doctor Dale would impress with
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Speaker 1: his acute understanding of orbital mechanics. From there, he'd go
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Speaker 1: on to Yale, earning a Master of Science degree in
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven and in nineteen sixty nine a PhD
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Speaker 1: in astronomy. Doctor Dale's dissertation on the theory of integration
2:40
Speaker 1: of the differential equations of celestial and orbital mechanics using
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Speaker 1: numerical techniques brought him and his family, wife Rebecca and
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Speaker 1: daughters Catherine and Liz, to Zurich, Switzerland. The family was
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Speaker 1: in Zurich for about a year during doctor Dale's post
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Speaker 1: doctoral fellowship there, before returning to Austin in nineteen seventy.
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Speaker 1: Switzerland was only one of the brief relocations for the
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Speaker 1: Betis family. Other moves included Maryland, where doctor Dale taught
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Speaker 1: mathematics at the US Naval Academy as a commissioned officer
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Speaker 1: in Annapolis, and Connecticut. He and Rebecca's children were already
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Speaker 1: worldly beyond their ages. Katherine was older than Liz by
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Speaker 1: about three years and had attended school in Switzerland and England,
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Speaker 1: among other places. Though the experiences certainly gave the young
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Speaker 1: girls a unique understanding and education, the geographic instability and
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Speaker 1: multiple social startovers were hard on them. It was rough
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Speaker 1: on doctor Dale and Rebecca's marriage, too, and the couple
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Speaker 1: separated when Liz was only six years old. Much less
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Speaker 1: is known about Liz's mother, Rebecca, a University of Texas graduate.
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Speaker 1: After she and da doctor Dale split up, Rebecca was
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Speaker 1: working as a freelance writer in Philadelphia and struggled to
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Speaker 1: make ends meet as she supported Liz and Catherine as
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Speaker 1: a single mother, even with child support payments coming in
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Speaker 1: from Doctor Dale. Liz's determination and intelligence impressed her teachers
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Speaker 1: early on. Unlike her father, who was scientifically gifted, her
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Speaker 1: prowess lied in the arts. She excelled at poetry, writing, dance,
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Speaker 1: and piano. It wasn't necessarily and always natural talent. When
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Speaker 1: Liz mastered an art, a teacher later remarked, it was
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Speaker 1: often her determination. If she wanted and was determined to
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Speaker 1: do something, there was little doubt she'd do it. Liz
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Speaker 1: stood out among her peers and was awarded a scholarship
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Speaker 1: to a prestigious college preparatory school. The campus of Pomfret
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Speaker 1: Boarding School, located in its namesake town in Connecticut, sits
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Speaker 1: a midung New England's rolling hills along a picturesque, plush
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Speaker 1: green countryside. The school was founded in eighteen ninety four
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Speaker 1: and boasts an alumnus of highly acclaimed and accomplished artists, journalists, athletes, scientists,
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Speaker 1: and surgeons. Much of the early architecture still stands at Pomfret,
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Speaker 1: beautiful ivy covered red brick late nineteenth century and early
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Speaker 1: twentieth century school houses, some with intricate French thirteenth century
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Speaker 1: stained glass windows. Liz's sister Catherine, who was also said
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Speaker 1: to be incredibly gifted, already attended the school. Though some
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Speaker 1: who knew Liz said she was driven to excel by
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Speaker 1: good old sisterly competition. She did everything she could to
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Speaker 1: separate herself from her sister so the two could not
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Speaker 1: be compared. She certainly followed her sister's academic success, but
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Speaker 1: Liz strongly sought to be her own person. Pomfrett is
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Speaker 1: said to be difficult and intense, but both Liz and
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Speaker 1: Catherine did well there. Liz was a piano virtuoso. She
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Speaker 1: chose a complex piece of music to play at a
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Speaker 1: chapel service one year. The piece her teacher thought was
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Speaker 1: something impossible to learn in time, and her jaw hit
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Speaker 1: the floor when Liz played it beautifully. Liz, however, felt
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Speaker 1: the unavoidable social separation between someone like her and Katherine
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Speaker 1: and the students at Pomfret, who were wealthy children of
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Speaker 1: social elites. She watched her mother's struggle financially to raise
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Speaker 1: her and Catherine, and resented particularly that the students who
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Speaker 1: paid the nine four hundred dollars a year to be
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Speaker 1: there had very little to worry about. She would say,
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Speaker 1: they don't have to worry about anything. They don't know
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Speaker 1: what the world is like. A friend of hers later remarked, Liz,
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Speaker 1: in contradiction to her complaints about the rich kids, had
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Speaker 1: plenty of friends. By her junior year at Pomfret in
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, her push for independence and autonomy from
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Speaker 1: her family became stronger. She decided that she'd rather go
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Speaker 1: by the first name Gibson, her grandmother's maiden name, as
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Speaker 1: Liz was too feminine and Gibson allowed no connotations. She
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Speaker 1: began rebelling once leaving Pomfret without permission, hitchhiking to see
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Speaker 1: friends in Massachusetts. It's incredibly stupid to take off in
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Speaker 1: hitchhike somewhere when you weigh one hundred pounds, are five
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Speaker 1: foot four and a woman. I think she was crying
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Speaker 1: out for help. Friend and classmate Lauren Harkness later said,
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Speaker 1: regardless of her acting out somewhat, Liz was determined to
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Speaker 1: get out of Pomfret and get to college, though her
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Speaker 1: mother objected and her family and peers insisted she wouldn't
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Speaker 1: be accepted to a university without completing her senior year
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Speaker 1: of high school. Liz applied to several colleges and was
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Speaker 1: accepted to every single one. Arranging financial aid herself, she
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Speaker 1: enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia at
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Speaker 1: only sixteen years old. She began classes there in the
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Speaker 1: fall of nineteen eighty, attempting to follow the footsteps of
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Speaker 1: her father by studying mathematics and the sciences. Liz was
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Speaker 1: interested in becoming an aeronautical engineer. She was most interested
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Speaker 1: in writing poetry and was really good at it. A
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Speaker 1: friend later said of her choice of studies, she wasn't
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Speaker 1: very good at math and science, and she knew it,
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Speaker 1: but that's what she wanted to do, maybe just to
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Speaker 1: challenge herself. Challenging herself was certainly true to form for Liz.
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Speaker 1: After attending the Universe City of South Carolina for a while,
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Speaker 1: Liz Betis discovered that she could make good money working
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Speaker 1: as a dancer in a topless bar near campus. Upon
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Speaker 1: hearing her daughter's plan to do so and her subsequent
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Speaker 1: plan to work as a nightclub mud wrestler, Rebecca panicked
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Speaker 1: and began attempting to dissuade her for the time being,
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Speaker 1: Liz was talked out of it. She said that she
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Speaker 1: wouldn't because everyone was begging her not to, but insisted
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Speaker 1: that she could have handled the work just fine. Liz
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Speaker 1: and her sister sometimes spent summers at their father's historic
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Speaker 1: nineteenth century limestone home near Austin. Her father, Doctor Dale,
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Speaker 1: later remarked that the young woman was having trouble growing up.
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Speaker 1: He and Rebecca's divorce was part of that. It's plausible, too,
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Speaker 1: perhaps even likely, that Liz's father's affluence while her mother
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Speaker 1: struggled to make ends meet, contributed to her negative feelings
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Speaker 1: toward the wealthy students at Pomfret. In the summer of
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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, Liz decided she would move back to
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Speaker 1: the Austin area and enrolled at Southwestern University in Georgetown.
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Speaker 1: The divorce was a hard and confusing thing for her,
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Speaker 1: Liz's sister, Catherine said, continuing, when she came to Texas,
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Speaker 1: she wanted to start her relationship with her father again.
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Speaker 1: It was a hard thing for her to sort out.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Dale, according to Catherine, hadn't been a big part
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Speaker 1: of their lives. Living in a campus dorm, Liz returned
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Speaker 1: the focus of her studies to her natural inclination the arts,
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Speaker 1: and she studied often and hard. She was already a
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Speaker 1: junior when most students her age were just entering the
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Speaker 1: university as freshmen. While at Southwestern University, Liz met and
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Speaker 1: became quick friends with Diane, a fine arts major. In
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Speaker 1: her senior year, Diane and her boyfriend rented a large
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Speaker 1: house in North Austin on Pansy Trail, and in May
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Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty two, she asked Liz to move there.
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Speaker 1: Though she was broke, Liz agreed to move in, promising
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Speaker 1: Diane she'd get work quick and pay rent. She kept
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Speaker 1: her promise and began working at Sugars the second week
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Speaker 1: it was open in June. One of the owners of
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Speaker 1: Sugars boasted that his Topless club was unique compared with
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Speaker 1: the other typical clubs in the area. Sugars, he said,
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Speaker 1: offered a first class atmosphere that catered to businessmen wooing clients.
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Speaker 1: The deco styled club served fine foods at low prices,
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Speaker 1: he said, with the most beautiful women around, we're trying
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Speaker 1: to make it more acceptable entertainment on a first class basis,
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Speaker 1: a place where businessmen can bring a customer, have a
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Speaker 1: good time and not get ripped off. The Sugar's owner
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Speaker 1: once commented Liz worked days at the club, starting her
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Speaker 1: shift at eleven am. Fellow dancer Georgia said of Liz,
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Speaker 1: she seemed like a student who needed extra money and
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Speaker 1: didn't want to run to her family for it. Liz
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Speaker 1: did well at the club, making around two hundred dollars
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Speaker 1: a day, and paid off the remainder of the note
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Speaker 1: on her baby blue nineteen sixty nine Volkswagen Beetle not
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Speaker 1: long after she started, and still managed to buy a
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Speaker 1: Baby Grand piano for one thousand bucks. Everyone at the
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Speaker 1: club liked Liz, and later noted that she wasn't the
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Speaker 1: typical topless dancer. Coworker Georgia said she always danced to
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Speaker 1: really good music, like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and the Beatles.
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Speaker 1: It was stuff you wouldn't necessarily expect to hear in
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Speaker 1: a strip joint. A Sugar's DJ called her faith in
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Speaker 1: man endearing and said that she was trusting of people
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Speaker 1: to a fault, perhaps naive. Liz's manager commented on her
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Speaker 1: dependability and her kind disposition. The club's owner late remarked
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Speaker 1: that she never should have worked there, and guessed that
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Speaker 1: family dynamics are what led her to become a dancer
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Speaker 1: in the first place. It would have been different, he
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Speaker 1: said if she had been a biker's girl. Liz's sister
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Speaker 1: Catherine said that she didn't intend to keep the job
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Speaker 1: long and that she probably only decided to take it
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Speaker 1: to try something different, something brave, and off the beaten
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Speaker 1: path of normality. Her roommate Diane, however, said that Liz
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Speaker 1: began thinking of college as something that was expected of her,
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Speaker 1: and that dancing at Sugars opened her eyes to a
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Speaker 1: whole new world where she could get along without pursuing
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Speaker 1: her education. It made sense to those who knew Liz
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Speaker 1: it was a new experience to be had. She was
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Speaker 1: confident in difficult situations and welcomed challenges. Liz had also
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Speaker 1: developed a protectiveness for anyone she thought needed it. At
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Speaker 1: some point, she'd even become the protective sister. Though she
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Speaker 1: was three years younger than Catherine. Liz might have had
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Speaker 1: her own issues to grapple with, but she was incredibly
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Speaker 1: strong and selfless. She was immensely empathetic and not only
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Speaker 1: understood others problems, but also felt them. It's likely Liz
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Speaker 1: immediately developed a protectiveness and sense of empathy toward her
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Speaker 1: fellow dancers, and perhaps found a secure and lasting bond
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Speaker 1: of friendship among them. Whatever solidified the decision to put
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Speaker 1: a hiatus on academics to concentrate on her new work,
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Speaker 1: it was most likely enhanced by the drug habit she
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Speaker 1: had developed. Liz's roommate, Diane, worried that her casual cocaine
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Speaker 1: habit mixed with her trusting nature was a bad thing.
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Speaker 1: A comment Diane later made suggests that the casual habit
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Speaker 1: was becoming a little more than that, when she described
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Speaker 1: an incident at Sugars one evening when she and her
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Speaker 1: boyfriend were visiting Liz. There, a stranger, she said, walked
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Speaker 1: up to her and Liz when Diane's boyfriend was in
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Speaker 1: the restroom. He asked if they wanted to snort some
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Speaker 1: coke outside in the parking lot. Diane told the stranger yes,
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Speaker 1: but only if her boyfriend could tag along too. Liz
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Speaker 1: later told Diane that she should have suggested that her
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Speaker 1: boyfriend was a relative, so the man thought they were single.
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Speaker 1: Diane was shocked at Liz's suggestion of leading a stranger
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Speaker 1: on to secure the cocaine. It was dangerous. She thought
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Speaker 1: if someone offered her something she wanted, like cocaine, and
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Speaker 1: she always wanted it, she would have gone with them,
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Speaker 1: Diane said. By November of nineteen eighty two, nineteen year
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Speaker 1: old Liz's drug habit was probably best described as an addiction,
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Speaker 1: but she wasn't in the drug world per se, simply
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Speaker 1: a user. That month, Liz Bettis was murdered. Liz Bettis,
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Speaker 1: who danced under the name Gibson, worked her regular hours
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Speaker 1: at Sugars on Wednesday, November twenty fourth, nineteen eighty two,
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Speaker 1: from eleven am to seven pm. After her shift ended,
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Speaker 1: she hung around the club for a while, finally leaving
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Speaker 1: around seven forty five pm. Carrying her leather European styled satchel,
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Speaker 1: she made her way to her light blue nineteen sixty
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Speaker 1: nine Volkswagen Beetle, which was parked in a spot at
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Speaker 1: the front of Sugars. She climbed into the driver's seat.
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Speaker 1: As she was preparing to leave the establishment, a bouncer
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Speaker 1: at the club saw a black Mail leaning over the
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Speaker 1: driver's side window speaking with Liz. Other witnesses also observed
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Speaker 1: the two speaking and described the conversation as heated. A
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Speaker 1: few seconds after the talk began, the man walked around
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Speaker 1: to the passenger side and entered the Beetle. Liz and
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Speaker 1: the man drove away at about eight eight pm, just
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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes after leaving Sugars, a witness saw Liz's nineteen
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Speaker 1: sixty nine baby blue Volkswagen Beetle pull into a field
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Speaker 1: on Sprinkle Cutoff Road in northeast Travis County, about seven
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Speaker 1: miles from the Strip Club. The vehicle was observed near
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Speaker 1: that same area, which was rural and isolated at the time,
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Speaker 1: at about nine pm. At two pm the following day, Thursday,
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Speaker 1: November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, Thanksgiving, as Liz's mother, Rebecca,
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Speaker 1: was exchanging vals in a wedding ceremony eighteen hundred miles
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Speaker 1: from Austin in Connecticut, the body of her daughter was
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Speaker 1: being discovered. Liz was left in the cold in a
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Speaker 1: field near a low water crossing, behind a small thicket
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Speaker 1: of cedar trees, about fifteen feet from Sprinkle Cutoff Road,
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Speaker 1: just outside of Austin. She was nude from the waist down,
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Speaker 1: clothed only in a red Hoganda's ice cream t shirt,
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Speaker 1: a white and green sweater, a brown corduroy jacket, blue socks,
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Speaker 1: and a single leather moccasin. A toxicology report later showed
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Speaker 1: that Liz had used cocaine the night she died. An
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Speaker 1: autopsy showed that Liz had been manually strangled and shot
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Speaker 1: once above the right eye with a twenty two caliber pistol.
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Speaker 1: The time of death, the medical examiner estimated, was between
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Speaker 1: the hours of ten PM and midnight. The previous night.
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Speaker 1: Liz had also been sexually assaulted. There is no physical
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Speaker 1: evidence at the scene. Travis County Sheriff's Office Detective Jerry
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Speaker 1: Wiggins commented as he explained that investigators were entertaining the
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Speaker 1: possibility that she was killed elsewhere and subsequently dumped in
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Speaker 1: the field. Liz's Volkswagen Beetle was parked approximately one hundred
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Speaker 1: yards from where her body was found. Only hairs from
19:02
Speaker 1: Liz's dog an abused animals she'd recently adopted, were in
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Speaker 1: the vehicle. Nothing of evidentiary value, authorities reported. Travis County
19:13
Speaker 1: homicide investigators removed the seat covers and door panels in
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Speaker 1: the car and sent them to FBI Labs in Washington,
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Speaker 1: d c. For testing. Detectives immediately began interviewing friends, acquaintances,
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Speaker 1: and co workers of Liz's, interrogating more than two hundred
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Speaker 1: individuals when it was all said and done, But there
19:33
Speaker 1: was a significant problem to consider. There isn't a common
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Speaker 1: thread running through this. She had different groups of friends
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Speaker 1: and none of them knew each other. It's an unusual case,
19:44
Speaker 1: Detective Wiggins remarked. What Wiggins meant was that it had
19:49
Speaker 1: only been a few months since Liz began dancing at Sugars,
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Speaker 1: and the friends she had gained from working there were
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Speaker 1: far removed from the young woman's college friends. Police were
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Speaker 1: able to develop a composite sketch of the last known
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Speaker 1: man Liz had been seen with within days of the
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Speaker 1: discovery of her body, the man who she was seen
20:10
Speaker 1: arguing with and who entered the passenger side of her
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Speaker 1: vehicle just before the two drove away from Sugars. The
20:17
Speaker 1: suspect was described as black, well dressed, around thirty years old, slender,
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Speaker 1: with a short afro hairstyle and no facial hair. Still,
20:28
Speaker 1: police said they didn't have much to go on even
20:31
Speaker 1: after the composite was released alongside a crimestopper's reward of
20:35
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars for information leading to the man. Sugars too,
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Speaker 1: offered a one thousand dollars reward. Frustrated at the lack
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Speaker 1: of evidence and the investigation's stagnation, Travis County Sheriff Doin
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Speaker 1: Bailey said, you can't disregard any possibility. Every possibility has
20:56
Speaker 1: to be checked out. It wouldn't be until nineteen eight
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Speaker 1: eighty nine that the Travis County Sheriff's Department stumbled onto
21:03
Speaker 1: what might have been their strongest lead in the case,
21:07
Speaker 1: but there were other possibilities before then. Twenty nine year
21:22
Speaker 1: old Leonard Charles Williams was a serial rapist in Austin.
21:27
Speaker 1: In June of nineteen eighty three, Williams was taken into
21:31
Speaker 1: custody after being let out of prison on parole for
21:34
Speaker 1: a nineteen seventy six robbery fourteen months prior. The charge
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Speaker 1: of aggravated robbery was a plea bargain. Williams was originally
21:44
Speaker 1: charged with attempted murder, since he stabbed a man and
21:48
Speaker 1: a woman in the perpetration of that crime. With his
21:52
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three arrest, he was charged with the sexual
21:55
Speaker 1: assault of one woman and suspected of a minimum of
21:58
Speaker 1: seven others. On Monday, May twenty third, nineteen eighty three,
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Speaker 1: just after midnight, Williams abducted a twenty two year old
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Speaker 1: woman from Quick Wash coin laundry on the eighty nine
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Speaker 1: hundred block of North Lamar Boulevard in Austin. He made
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Speaker 1: the woman drive to a desolate area off Sprinkle Cutoff Road,
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Speaker 1: raped and sexually abused her at knife point. Williams then
22:23
Speaker 1: forced the woman to drive him back to the laundromat.
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Speaker 1: Police became aware of Williams after an officer witnessed him
22:31
Speaker 1: ride his bike into a pole in front of the
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Speaker 1: Quick Wash moments after he abducted and sexually assaulted the woman,
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Speaker 1: which prompted the officer to ask his name. The rapist
22:43
Speaker 1: apparently was no liar. After the woman described the man
22:47
Speaker 1: who raped her, police put two and two together and
22:50
Speaker 1: obtained a warrant for him. Nine sexual assault survivors were
22:55
Speaker 1: subsequently brought to the station to view a line up,
22:58
Speaker 1: resulting in the suspense of Williams for a total of
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Speaker 1: seven rapes. All were raped at knife point, and one
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Speaker 1: other besides the Quickwash woman was forced to Sprinkle Cut
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Speaker 1: Off Road to be assaulted. The road where Liz Bettis's
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Speaker 1: body was found, though that particular detail was striking, and
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Speaker 1: Leonard Charles Williams was scrutinized for Liz's rape and murder,
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Speaker 1: he hadn't shot any of his other victims, and standing
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Speaker 1: only five feet five inches tall, he was significantly shorter
23:31
Speaker 1: than the man thought to be responsible. Though it's unlikely
23:36
Speaker 1: that Mark Allen Norwood or Lewis homer Wan were seriously
23:40
Speaker 1: considered suspects in Liz Bettis's murder for longer than a
23:45
Speaker 1: fleeting moment, a peculiarity involves her in the former's twenty
23:49
Speaker 1: thirteen trial for murder, or rather in advance of the trial.
23:55
Speaker 1: As a quick side note, the details of Norwood's crimes
23:59
Speaker 1: are mass and include the long incarceration of an innocent man,
24:04
Speaker 1: a victim's husband, and it's worth looking into if you
24:07
Speaker 1: get the chance. A pre trial motion in Norwood's case, anyway,
24:13
Speaker 1: was filed by the state to prevent evidence in or
24:16
Speaker 1: the mention of Liz Bettis's case in his trial for
24:20
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty eight murder of Deborah Baker. The thought
24:25
Speaker 1: was that Norwood's attorneys would use Liz's murder in a
24:28
Speaker 1: strategic attempt to implicate a one time friend of their client,
24:33
Speaker 1: one who would now testify against him, Lewis Homer Juan
24:38
Speaker 1: Norwood had sold One a pistol, a weapon stolen from
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Speaker 1: the home of a woman he had murdered, in order
24:45
Speaker 1: to both separate himself from it and to implicate his friend.
24:49
Speaker 1: At the same time, he also attempted to implicate onan
24:53
Speaker 1: in Liz's murder, and investigators seemed to bite, if only briefly.
25:00
Speaker 1: In laws owned the property where Liz's body was found,
25:03
Speaker 1: and the man had a lengthy criminal record. Besides that,
25:08
Speaker 1: detectives claimed One knew who Liz was. He knew that
25:12
Speaker 1: her family, her grandfather specifically owned a small chain of
25:17
Speaker 1: stores Bettis TV and Appliances, and had bought a washer
25:21
Speaker 1: and dryer set and an ice box there. When interviewed,
25:26
Speaker 1: One told investigators that he was going out to the
25:28
Speaker 1: area where Liz's body was found the day it was
25:32
Speaker 1: found to fire a new gun. He had purchased a
25:35
Speaker 1: forty four magnum, but changed his mind when it began
25:38
Speaker 1: to rain. But one, like Leonard Charles Williams, didn't match
25:44
Speaker 1: the description of the man they were looking for. One
25:48
Speaker 1: was shorter at five feet eight inches tall and white.
25:53
Speaker 1: In a twenty eleven interview with police, one told investigators
25:57
Speaker 1: that he thought it was a police officer who killed
26:00
Speaker 1: Liz Bettis. There was undoubtedly reason for One to make
26:04
Speaker 1: the comment he did, because in nineteen eighty nine, Travis
26:08
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office investigators brought in at least two Austin
26:12
Speaker 1: law enforcement officers for questioning and Liz's slang. Neither of
26:18
Speaker 1: the Austin Police Department officers questioned in the murder of
26:22
Speaker 1: Liz Bettis, of course, have been named in the press.
26:27
Speaker 1: What's known about the investigation into them two leaves much
26:31
Speaker 1: to be desired, but it's certainly enough to raise an eyebrow.
26:36
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty nine, investigators with the Drug Enforcement Agency
26:40
Speaker 1: were given a tip. The tipster alleged that two officers,
26:44
Speaker 1: who will call Cop Number one and Cop Number two,
26:48
Speaker 1: were at Sugars the evening Liz Bettis was last seen alive.
26:53
Speaker 1: Both men were active police officers at the time by
26:57
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, though one of them, Cop number one,
27:01
Speaker 1: was no longer on the force. The source of the
27:04
Speaker 1: tip alleged that Cop Number one was sitting at a
27:07
Speaker 1: table with Liz that evening, and Cop number two arrived separately.
27:13
Speaker 1: Cop number one left Sugars with Liz, and minutes later
27:17
Speaker 1: Cop number two also left. The description of the man
27:22
Speaker 1: who was seen in what was called a heated conversation
27:25
Speaker 1: with Liz and who subsequently left with her met the
27:28
Speaker 1: general description of Cop number one. Both Cop number one
27:33
Speaker 1: and Cop number two were brought in for questioning by
27:36
Speaker 1: Travis County Sheriff's Office investigators and interrogated on January twelfth,
27:42
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine. They both denied being at Sugars that night,
27:47
Speaker 1: let alone being involved in her murder. Cop number one,
27:51
Speaker 1: who had resigned after an unrelated internal affairs investigation in
27:55
Speaker 1: the years after the murder, declined to be polygraphed, while
27:59
Speaker 1: number two agreed, though it is unclear whether the examination
28:04
Speaker 1: was ever undergone. The story of Cop number one's resignation
28:09
Speaker 1: perhaps took place in nineteen eighty seven, unless the department
28:13
Speaker 1: was infested with widespread corruption at the time. The story
28:17
Speaker 1: of the following officer is most likely the individual questioned
28:22
Speaker 1: in Liz's murder. These allegations, investigation, and resignation are consistent
28:28
Speaker 1: with what is known about Cop number one. The officer's
28:32
Speaker 1: age too, matches the description, as he'd have been around
28:36
Speaker 1: thirty years old at the time of Liz's slang. In
28:40
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, a thirteen year veteran of the Austin
28:43
Speaker 1: Police Department was accused of sexual misconduct with a three
28:47
Speaker 1: year old girl by the girl's mother, a former acquaintance
28:51
Speaker 1: of the officer. The mother provided a written complaint and
28:55
Speaker 1: her toddler daughter gave a statement of the abuse. Authority
29:00
Speaker 1: used specially trained child abuse officers to speak with the girl,
29:04
Speaker 1: which they videotaped, and investigators believed what she said. They
29:09
Speaker 1: remarked that her statement did not appear to be rehearsed
29:13
Speaker 1: and that she was convincing. Internal affairs immediately began an investigation.
29:20
Speaker 1: The accused officer, likely Cop Number one, who performed his
29:24
Speaker 1: duties from a North Austin substation, was placed on restrictive duty,
29:29
Speaker 1: but appeared at the station with his lawyer the day
29:32
Speaker 1: following the opening of the investigation and resigned. A ur
29:37
Speaker 1: analysis showed positive for the officer's use of cannabis, which
29:41
Speaker 1: he was given because the mother of the child also
29:44
Speaker 1: told investigators he used controlled substances regularly. Because Cop Number
29:50
Speaker 1: one was no longer under internal affairs jurisdiction once he resigned,
29:54
Speaker 1: that investigation ended, but Austin police continued to investigate, though
30:01
Speaker 1: a Travis County Sheriff's officer said that he didn't think
30:05
Speaker 1: Liz was killed where she was discovered because of the
30:07
Speaker 1: lack of evidence. The timeline severely limits the possibility that
30:12
Speaker 1: she was taken somewhere else, raped, killed, and then dumped
30:16
Speaker 1: in the field. There simply was not enough time, according
30:21
Speaker 1: to the accounts of witnesses at Sugars and who saw
30:24
Speaker 1: Liz's vehicle near the field. Perhaps the lack of evidence
30:28
Speaker 1: found in the Volkswagen Beetle and at the scene where
30:31
Speaker 1: her body was discovered strengthened the possibility that someone familiar
30:36
Speaker 1: with crime scene procedures was involved, as it surely doesn't
30:40
Speaker 1: lessen the possibility. Still solid leads pertaining to Liz's murder
30:46
Speaker 1: eluded detectives. It wasn't until two thousand and seven when
30:51
Speaker 1: Travis County Sheriff's Office detective Jim Anderson sent in evidence
30:55
Speaker 1: for DNA testing. That and the fingerprints he was able
30:59
Speaker 1: to lift with the new advanced methods. Anderson said all
31:03
Speaker 1: belonged to individuals who were not suspects, whose prints and
31:08
Speaker 1: DNA were justified being present, presumably meaning they all belonged
31:12
Speaker 1: to police. Detective Anderson said he could not rule out
31:17
Speaker 1: Lewis Homer Jan as well as a handful of others.
31:22
Speaker 1: He said, what the department needs is for someone to
31:24
Speaker 1: come forward with information. The Texas Rangers began featuring Liz's
31:29
Speaker 1: case on their cold Case website in October twenty seventeen,
31:34
Speaker 1: offering a reward for such information. A lot of time
31:38
Speaker 1: has gone by, Travis County Sheriff's Detective Jim Anderson told
31:42
Speaker 1: the Austin American Statesman in twenty seventeen, adding we're looking
31:47
Speaker 1: at thirty five years. People's ties to certain people have changed.
31:52
Speaker 1: Maybe someone that was afraid to talk back then will
31:54
Speaker 1: speak now. A reward hopefully will generate some interest. It
32:00
Speaker 1: appears it did not. If you have any information about
32:06
Speaker 1: the murder of Ruth Elizabeth Bettis, please call Texas Crime
32:10
Speaker 1: Stoppers at eight hundred two five two eight four seven seven.
32:16
Speaker 1: If you'd like to join gon Cold's mission to shine
32:19
Speaker 1: a light on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get
32:23
Speaker 1: the show at free and have access to bonus content
32:27
Speaker 1: you can at Patreon dot com slash Gone Cold podcast.
32:32
Speaker 1: You can also support the show by leaving a five
32:35
Speaker 1: star rating and written review on Apple Podcasts, or wherever
32:38
Speaker 1: else you listen. However you choose to support Gone Cold,
32:43
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all,