It's been 30 years since some of Hawkins' best and brightest young people were murdered, yet many in the community are still coming to terms with the loss. There was a much stronger case to be made, he felt, for the involvement of Tab Harper, whom witnesses had seen at the park that night and whose name he had encountered in police reports and interviews several times. Wileys willingness to meet with interested parties on matters of criminal justice should never be construed as support for, or against, a person or issue being discussed.) Dannen made a presentation, and UT gave him more funds, which he sent to FSA for another round of testing. I could never have asked for the death penalty if I didnt sincerely believe they were guilty. He has already raised doubts about the DNA evidence, saying he believes the material has been tampered with. With James Stewart, Strother Martin, Mayf Nutter, James Hampton. (a) A person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence causes the death of an individual. Decades later the violence that unfolded that summer continues to defy explanation and understanding. People were scared, worried. Hed say, June, I didnt do this. Once a year, she would bring the couples two sons, Joel and Jason, for a four-hour, no-contact visit. Schonemann found himself without a job. On that Friday, she said, I think Ive found out what happened. Because Melendez pleaded guilty, the burden to prove his innocence is especially great. None of the officers on the scene had ever encountered a crime this grisly. McFadden was the principle suspect in all three murders, but he was only charged with Suzanne's death. Deebs trial, which began on February 25, lasted twelve days and featured forty witnesses, many of whom had testified against Spence, including one jailhouse informant. After his direct appeal had been denied, the former shop-keeper, who never wavered in his protestations of innocence, had resolved to free himself: sitting on the floor of his cell at the Ellis Unit, hed studied law books and typed out cases, trying to learn the rhythms of legal writing. But that didnt bother me like this. The murders, another official said, were the most sadistic and cruel he had seen in his career. Evans had seen plenty of murder and mayhem in her career, but nothing this macabre. But their curiosity had quickly turned to horror: a young man, in jeans and an orange shirt, lay gagged, his hands bound behind him. Schonemann and Schwartz had no time to lose. ADVERTISEMENT Beasley, 29, of Hawkins, was charged in the June 15, 1986, shooting and stabbing deaths of his father, Paul Owen Beasley Sr., 71; his mother, Ruth J. Beasley, 62; and his sister, Linda Birkinbine, 37, of Euless. Waco didnt get much credit for physical beauty, but this lake, just inside the citys western border, was a jewel, deep and blue. Dannen, on the ground in Texas, immersed himself in the case. He did it! After Simons calmed her down, she explained how, earlier in the evening, Deeb had taken her and a friend to a gory movie. WILLIAMS, Nanon Mckewn Yusuf Hawkins with his mother Diane Hawkins. This menacing appearance seemed to be amplified by his less than seventh grade education, long history of mental instability and an inner fury that was unpredictable, violent and sometimes unbridled. HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Harris County Sheriff's Office announced a breakthrough in two unrelated cold case murders Thursday morning. ", Former Wood County Sheriff's deputy and retired constable David Barber, a 38-year lawman. On May 4, 1986, Suzanne Harrison, 18, and Gena Turner, 20, decided to visit Lake Hawkins in Wood County, Texas. The police had seen the letter, and theyd questioned Frueh back in 1982 before letting him go. I dont know how he does it, said one of his fellow officers around the time of the investigation, and I dont want to know. (Simons declined to be interviewed for this story.). Tony said he had learned of the lake murders from other inmates, the media, and interviews with Simons; though he had insisted to his lawyers that he was innocent, hed pleaded guilty because they warned him he would get the death penalty if he went to trial. The New York Times-bestselling true crime author reveals the full story of murder and deception behind the Lifetime movie Secrets of a Gold Digger Killer. And theres not a shred of doubt in my mind that Anthony Melendez is innocent. Dannen had paid for all the DNA testing himself; by the time the results came in, hed spent close to $10,000. Simons crouched down next to her lifeless body. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Yet there was one nagging question: How to explain the many people whod heard him say he was the murderer? If the DNA test excludes Tony, Spence, and Gilbert, said Reaves, and it includes somebody else who was originally considered a suspect, that would be enough for an actual innocence writ or a clemency petition to the governoror both., But even those results wouldnt necessarily mean a get-out-of-jail-free card. In this article on My Crime Library . He wasnt very intelligent. She still had on a Waxahachie High. He wanted to be something more than he was, something big, she told me. I dont think it ever goes away for them. "I wrote the parole board and asked them not to parole him to this area," then-sheriff Frank White said in a May 13, 1986 newspaper. I kept shaking my head, he told me. He also played audio from Feazells tapes, including one in which Feazell spoke disparagingly about Simonss investigative methods. It had been fifteen years since Dannens initial book contract, and most peoplejournalists, editors, his old friends in Wacohad given up on ever seeing his research in print. After that, however, the teenagers trail vanished. A mold was promptly made of Williamss teeth too. Try again. Simons, who had become a private investigator after retiring from the sheriffs department in 2000 and now did work for Feazell, agreed. Suzanne and two former classmates from Hawkins High School vanished May 4, 1986 during a Sunday evening drive around Lake Hawkins. They had been looking for a place to fish when theyd spotted the body near the foot of a tree, lying beneath some low-hanging branches. He and Spence had been riding around in Spences car, he said, drinking and smoking, when they went to Koehne Park. Price was astounded to find that a few days before her death, White had received a letter from Spence that had been sent to him by Robert Snelson, one of the men who had testified against him; he was the informant who told jurors that Spence had confessed to biting off Jills nipple. Unless they get something powerfully exculpatory, Tonys not getting out, he told me. More than 800 mourners gathered at Hawkins High School to say goodbye. Jacque Hilburn-Simmons is an award-winning journalist who has been writing professionally for 30 years. But "they just kind of lived different lives," Bluffington said. The court was not impressed: one week before Spences execution date, the judges denied his appeal, sending Owen and Schonemann into another scramble. See pricing and listing details of Hawkins real estate for sale. His older brother, 16-year-old Daniel Hawkins, was killed in the Sunday night crash on Temescal . The large, elegant slab of Dakota Mahogany granite was decorated by Jills mother with the girls photo, a poem, and the inscription Forever Seventeen. Not only had Simons kept his promise to avenge Jill, he had also made sure she would never be forgotten. (A representative from Perrys office insists today that the meeting was solely about funding: Ms. Informants they interviewed offered myriad allegations about Feazell and Simons, and the two cops found themselves having to consider the sources. new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help He had had such an obviously unfair trial, he told me. Simons turned on a tape recorder as Melendez recounted the events of that night. 0 cemeteries found in Yoakum, DeWitt County, Texas, USA. Ive seen a lot of gory things, Salinas later told a Waco reporter. When Schonemann arrived for work, in the summer of 1991, he was immediately enthralled by the TRCs pace. I dont know if I want to see an innocent man get freed or if I just so deeply want to know who the guilty people are. Campbell identified four bite marks on Whites body and testified that the dentition of Mr. Williams [was] consistent with the injury on her hip. On instinct, he kept returning to Jill, who he sensed had been the main target. Like a legal MASH unit.. After the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty, in 1976, the first Texas execution took place in 1982; by the end of that decade, the state was responsible for 33 of the countrys 116 executions. If Id gone to trial, Id be dead. One testified that he had heard Deeb ask Spence if he knew of someone who could get rid of Kelley for a share of insurance money and that Spence had replied he could do it. Tony Melendez, the last living Lake Waco murders defendant, died on Friday, January 13, 2017, at 57 at a prison hospice at the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony, not far from Palestine. He gave Simons a cryptic message: soon, Butler said, hed be able to tell the deputy whether his theory that Spence had killed the teenagers was correct. But Melendez later recanted, saying he had only confessed because hed been threatened with the death penalty. Judy Whitley, a 17-year-old sophomore at Clifton High School, was found raped and murdered in June 1985. No, Melendez said, flashing a rare smile. Opening it, he read that there were still no definitive leads. Krauss did, choosing five experts around the country. This, and only this, would ultimately lead to a hearing where Reaves could question the men who put Melendez and the others in prison and sent Spence to his death, making them answer for their actions a generation ago. Though Price had been the police departments investigating officer, she wasnt called as a state witness. Her throat had been slashed. When Simons took a break, Fortunewhod been present for the interrogationmentioned that he too knew Chili. Hawkins could be described as a largely blue-collar town built on the sweat and sore muscles of the oil industry. You have permission to edit this article. Yes, admitted Deeb; he often spent time at the Rainbow Drive Inn. McFadden, before his escape, was being held in jail on charges he raped and murdered Suzanne Harrison, 18, of nearby Hawkins, Texas, in May. More important, Tony, in the expectation of getting help with parole, had agreed to give a more detailed statement and testify against Spence. We had life-size pictures of the marks and a cast of [Spences] teeth brought into the jury room, remembered one juror afterward. Simons was undeterred; he felt that his relationship with Spence was the key to solving the case. The families are now undergoing a "formal grieving process" now that they know "that their loved one is actually deceased, not just missing or living a new life somewhere," Bluffington said. On that last day, Jill had stopped by to see Thompson on her way to Waco. Feazell and Simons were hailed all over McLennan County as heroes. Several years after that, one of the men was put to death, and the stakes were raised: Had Texas executed an innocent man? Dannen and Reaves, as Williamss lawyer, arranged for all the evidence to be tested at a lab in California named Forensic Analytical, and the DNA results came back in November 2000: the semen did not belong to either Washington or Williams. "I used to be a forest ranger where the girl was found," retired lawman Roger Don Holeman said recently. The results, as they came in, proved astonishing. In return Melendez got two life sentences. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). But Im still here.. A search was launched and neighbors reported seeing the missing friends with a scruffy man in a blue-and-white vehicle, possibly a Chevrolet Blazer or Ford Bronco. Im really getting tired of this shit, Spence whispered to his father, Edwin, before being sent to the Ellis Unit, outside Huntsville. As Pardo worked through the documents, he grew incredulous. A week later, Simons felt like taking another look around the lake. He had now spent about $30,000 on testing, and the FSA lab had found nothing earth-shattering. Fred was interested in David Spence.. All rights reserved. (There were times I thought I was going to be ambushed at my house, she told me.) Did you say it to be a big man? He said yes. He gave her a partner, Officer Frank Turk, and took them off all other cases so they could look directly into the DAs and Simonss handling of the White case. Between 1982 to 1985 she lived in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area, moving to Austin in 1986, Ratliff said. When Kenneths mother moved away, the boy had lived with Franks and his partner, Kenneth King. After campaigning on the promise to shake up a complacent DAs office, hed been elected in an upset, and he now set about hiring more prosecutors, tightening protocols for defense attorneys, and increasing security measures. Burial. Melendez had been suffering from multiple maladies, including bone cancer and kidney failure. the Murderpedia project stay alive. She was ex-cited about the trip and changed clothes several times before going to meet Raylene. The nonprofits executive director scrambled to find a firm to represent him, but no one wanted to defend a man whod twice been convicted of butchering three teenagers. SOUTHERN CHARM REAL ESTATE. But on this particular day, they left the beach towels and portable radio behind. Id interviewed mafiosi and hung with the triads in Hong Kong, he told me, but the first time in my career I felt Id put myself in harms way was being a Jewish boy from New York investigating Texas law enforcement.. It was well into the next day before the battered, partially clad body of a young woman was found around noon Monday at Barnwell Mountain, a remote roadside park off State Highway 155 north of Gilmer. Her body was left in a wooded area near a local grocery store. The case was quickly assigned to WPD lieutenant Marvin Horton, who headed up a special investigative force of seven full-time officers. Either you believe in the system or you dont, he said. They kept saying, Tell us the truth. ``Hes gutless, Harrison said of McFadden. We were pulling out all the stops, Schonemann explained to me. This whole experience changed my life, radicalized me, he said. Timothy Wayne I killed them. Though he then apologized and said he was joking, Kelley felt certain he was not. He was arrested two days later after the biggest fugitive hunt in Texas state history. Melendez had been suffering from multiple maladies, including bone cancer and kidney failure. The defense tried its best. Authorities were eager to locate the unkempt man. I think were really close, said the usually cautious Reaves in late January. They also learned that McFadden had traveled with a woman he knew in 1979 to the Pacific Northwest a trip that would have put him in Oregon at the time when Hlavka was murdered. Finally Franks relented, and the two men met at a Lubys on Valley Mills Drive. Feazell also included Chief Scott, who had publicly accused him of refusing to prosecute valid criminal cases. If Simons had a job at the jail, he could get close to Spence and use him to solve the lake murders. Occasionally he slipped back into Texas to do a clandestine interview when a source, such as Harpers sister, agreed to talk. Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. On the same day the three friends disappeared, McFadden just months into his release was trying to stay one step ahead of authorities. There had been no suppression of exculpatory evidence, the brief stated, and the police reports would not have made a difference in Spences verdicts. The suspect pulled a weapon, but eventually let the couple leave after they convinced him they had no cash, records show. The interview went smoothly, so the two were surprised when, as they got up to leave, the conversation took a turn. He spoke as if he were getting ready for battle. But he hadnt felt any violence at Speegleville. This Hawkins County Tennessee Most Wanted List posts the top 50-100 fugitive criminals on the run. Spences lawyer in the abuse case, an earnest attorney just three years out of law school named Walter Reaves, had instructed his client not to speak to Simons, but Spence ignored him; when Spences father asked Simons if he should hire a lawyer for his son for the murder case, the deputy said Spence didnt need one because he hadnt been charged with murder. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. (903) 769-3962 Add Website Map & Directions 8993 S Fm 14 Hawkins, TX 75765 Write a Review. Mainly because of the number of them, Scott stated in his own deposition. The next day, Simons pulled all the police reports that had been filed in the case and, with the help of Baierwhom Scott assigned to assist Simonsbegan looking for any leads that hadnt been exhausted. Jan Price was arresting our witnesses on the Juanita White case and holding them in the city jail, incommunicado, without access to a magistrate or attorney, trying to pressure them to change their stories, he wrote in an email.). The results sent Simons into despair. The criminal trials for the lake murders were the most anticipated in Wacos history. He was later found guilty of Harrisons death and executed in October 1999 at age 51. Spence was the kind of criminal Simons knew well: rough, poor, and full of swagger. To uncover any facts that might help save their clientsthat prosecutors had concealed evidence, for example, or that an inmate had suffered an abusive childhood or was mentally disabledthe attorneys had to reinvestigate every case, searching through files and trial transcripts, visiting with inmates, and traveling far and wide to find old and new witnesses. He was sentenced to concurrent stays in the Texas Department of Corrections, but was paroled in 1978 after serving only a few years. Weve updated the security on the site. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. Blood samples were analyzed. With each passing hour, hope for the safe return of the duo began to fade. But there was just one problem McFadden didn't like following rules. Dannen and Blum also drove to Dallas to meet Muneer Deeb, who in his years out of prison had been profiled in Life magazine; filed a $100 million civil suit against Feazell, Simons, and other law enforcement officials (it was thrown out of court); started a limo company; and spoken on Amnesty International panels, including one with the Dalai Lama. He was a little twitchy, she told me. In the spring of 1997 Fredric Dannen had just returned to New York City after a month of reporting in Hong Kong for a magazine article on organized crime. Based on his reporting, he felt sure it involved Harper, who was allegedly both a drug dealer and close to Kenneth, and two henchmen. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. Dannen, who had read every file in the Lake Waco case, remembered the affidavit Price had given Schonemann in 1991, in which she identified a suspect named Benny Carroll. When Campbell reported his results, his conclusion was different from Halesit was Williams, he said, not Washington, who had bitten White. Now she told Price in detail how Simons had visited her after hearing that she had dated Washington; though shed told him she had no information to offer, he kept returning, even bringing crime-scene photos. I dont know whats happened to you, he whispered in her ear, but I promise you one thing. Pardo set up a war room at his corporate headquarters and hired additional investigators. Simons and Baier set out to investigate. GUTIERREZ, Jessie I assumed she wouldnt be willing to speak with us, but she was candid and forthcoming. Sitting at a Dennys in Waco, the three discussed Simonss work with informants, and Price gave an affidavit about the Juanita White case. Their journey was not so much about tanning, but about meeting up with a friend, Bryan Boone, 19, and taking a slow cruise around the water's edge. Simons investigation included numerous promises to jailhouse inmates and the outright fabrication of evidence against the unlucky suspects, she alleged. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. We feel the angels have been with us, a fragile-looking Nancy told news reporters at the close of the trial. Baier didnt see the resemblance, but Simons mentally filed the detail. It wasnt right, he said. Deeb wasnt from here, he recalled. Though the experts identified several patterns that were possibly bite marks, they couldnt go much further. In late 1999 he felt a spark of optimism when he received a couple of visits from Fredric Dannen, who interviewed him for his book and told him about the DNA testing being done on the crime-scene evidence. Hunt and Fuller promptly called their own expert, who said the quality of the photos was too poor to make a valid comparison. They had hoped to introduce evidence showing that the crime could have been committed by two other menJames Bishop, a former Waco resident who had moved to California right after the murders and then been arrested for raping and attempting to kill two high school girls on a beach, and Ronnie Breiten, a man who had been seen in bloody clothes after a night fishing at the lake.
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