The Texas Killing Fields: Two victims identified in a decades long mystery
The Texas Killing Fields: Two victims identified in a decades long mystery
By The Signal reporter Agueda Jimenez
Since 1971, there has been over 30 girls and women missing from the Houston-Galveston area. A string of women’s bodies have been found in fields and bayous down the Interstate Highway-45 corridor, giving it the names the “Texas Killing Fields” and the “Highway to Hell.” Some of the missing women have never been found, while most of the cases have gotten cold over the years as hunting down those responsible has proven a challenge for local detectives.
By The Signal reporter Agueda Jimenez
Since 1971, there has been over 30 girls and women missing from the Houston-Galveston area. A string of women’s bodies have been found in fields and bayous down the Interstate Highway-45 corridor, giving it the names the “Texas Killing Fields” and the “Highway to Hell.” Some of the missing women have never been found, while most of the cases have gotten cold over the years as hunting down those responsible has proven a challenge for local detectives.
A notable field among the Texas Killing Fields, located in the 3000 block of Calder Road in League City, is at the center of four cold cases.
Between 1984 and 1991, four victims were found in the abandoned oil fields on Calder Road. The victims were Heide Villarreal-Fye, Laura Miller, and the two other victims known only as Jane Doe and Janet Doe for the past three decadesꟷ until now.
League City detectives, with the use of genetic genealogy, were able to identify the victims as Audrey Lee Cook and Donna Prudhomme.
League City Police Department held a press conference on April 15, 2019, to release the identity of the victims.
League City Police Department press conference
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A search was first conducted in the Calder field in 1984 after a family’s dog brought a skull to a nearby home. The search resulted in the discovery of Fye’s body, who had been missing for six months. A year after Fye’s disappearance, Miller went missing. Both Fye and Miller were last seen at the same convenience store located on West Main Street and Hobbs in League City.
Tim Miller, Laura Miller’s father, urged police to search the Calder Road fields, but his requests were denied. About 17 months later, kids riding dirt bikes stumbled across a body. The body was that of Cook (then unidentified) who went missing in December 1985. While at the scene, police found an additional body a few feet away that was identified as Laura Miller. Prudhomme’s (at the time) unidentified body was found by two horseback riders on Calder Road in September 1991. She went missing in July 1991.
ARTICLE: "Bodies found in the ‘killing fields’ haunted Southeast Texas for decades. Will new clues lead to a suspect?"
Suspects came up in the Calder Road case. One suspect was Robert Abel, a former NASA engineer, who owned property next to the Calder Road fields.
In 1993, a search was conducted in Abel’s home but no evidence was found connecting him to the murders. Abel died in 2005 in an apparent suicide by train.
ARTICLE: "Is Robert Abel Getting Away With Murder?" https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/is-robert-abel-getting-away-with-murder/
A second suspect in the case is Clyde Hedrick who is currently serving a 20 year sentence on a different murder charge. While in jail, Hedrick’s fellow inmates reached out to prosecutors, claiming to witnessing a confession from Hedrick that he killed Fye, Miller and Cook.
Tim Miller has devoted his life to helping find missing people. He founded Texas Equusearch Search and Recovery, a nonprofit organization composed of volunteers on horseback in search of missing people. https://www.texasequusearch.org/about/
A memorial was held on April 17, 2019, to honor the lives of Cook and Prudhomme.
Investigations are ongoing as police hope the identification of Cook and Prudhomme will help someone to come forward with new information that would lead to an arrest in the Calder Road case.
For leads or tips, contact the League City Cold Cases Unit at 281-338-8220 or email coldcase@leaguecitytx.gov.