Robert Abel, a former NASA engineer who ran a minor horseback-riding business, remained one of the chief suspects in the Texas Killing Fields Murders case. Investigators have flown over his land in helicopters and brought in cadaver dogs to look for bodies. }); LEAGUE CITY, TEXAS: With the Netflix true crime documentary 'Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields' being on the top 10 of the streaming giants service, it is a show that is not at all to be missed. Robert, though, immediately insisted on his innocence and always maintained he was not involved in the murders in any way, shape, or form. One suspect was Robert Abel, a former NASA engineer, who owned property next to the Calder Road fields. Why wouldnt I be? he asked me. When I was working on a story about the murders, I too focused on Abel (Is Robert Abel Getting Away With Murder?, October 1999). I didnt kill any of those girls. Bittner and his team came up with nothing. Speech, Jim Jordan's Crime Hearing Takes Surprising Turns, China's 'Artificial Sun' Smashes Nuclear Fusion Record, Putin Issues Ominous Warning About How Russian Navy Could be Deployed, Who Is Ralph Yarl? . The suspect on a piece of land he owns. if(document.querySelector("#ads")){ None of the dead womens clothing or jewelry was found. Whats more, he has never been arrested for any crime, nor is there any known record of a criminal complaint filed against him. The chilling discoveries have sparked fears that a serial killer or killers may be on the loose.. Four women were found dead between 1983-1991 and ex-Nasa engineer Robert Abel was among the . I dont think people here realize that ol Tim will want to keep digging all night, one said with a grin as he popped open a beer. But right then, as I stood over this remote patch of earth, I felt a chill. But that doesnt mean we will stop looking for her. In her interview with Bittner, Cindy said that she decided to leave Abel during their honeymoon in Germany after they had a fight over sex. 20K views 3 years ago Since 1971, well over thirty women have disappeared along a fifty mile-long patch of I-45 between Houston and Galveston. This story is from Texas Monthlys archives. Interestingly, in 2013, a fellow League City resident named Clyde Hedrick was arrested for the unrelated murder of Ellen Beason, only for the ensuing legal proceedings to indicate he could be the Texas Fields Killer. Well, who knows what happened out here? he said. But Abel became furious and very defensive. It's owned by Robert Abel, a former NASA engineer who transformed part of the area into stables. Located near Galveston, the Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre stretch of land only a mile from Interstate 45. A photo of Heidi Fye in "Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields." } And none of them have been more interesting than a former NASA engineer, Robert Abel, who owned a small horseback-riding business outside the town of League City. With such a high-profile case, Texas law enforcement was desperate to find. The Texas Killing Fields, an abandoned oil field, encompasses a roughly 30-mile span between Houston and Galveston along the I-45. Although Tim later apologized for his behavior, it was already too late as Robert was consumed with fear of unwarranted retaliation. In 1994, Abel filed a lawsuit against League City Detective Pat Bittner for slander, but it was dismissed by a judge who argued that Abel had only been identified as a suspect. These were bodies found on land next to mine. As for the Chroniclestory, he said, I didnt know anything about serial killers. Law enforcement investigated Robert Abel, a known sex offender, but was not able to link him to the crimes. . All of the victims were young, all of them were attractive, and we think all of them were sexually assaulted before they died.. } I wondered if the police knew about this person I had read about, and I was going to send the article to them.. The former NASA scientist who also owns the fields, forcefully involved himself in solving the crimes which, for many people involved, only served to heighten the suspicion surrounding him. On November 12, 1993, with a search warrant in hand, Bittner and five other League City police officers showed up unannounced at Abels home and conducted a twelve-hour search. In fact, Bittner is a bright young man who grew up in Ohio, received a degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University, and moved to Texas to be a police officerhardly the stereotype of the tobacco-chewing small-town lawman. One afternoon in 1994, unable to contain his grief any longer, Miller called Abel and said that he planned to kidnap him, take him to Las Vegas, and bury him alive in a sand dune outside of the city. During one of our meetings, Abel loaned me a box of legal documents about the case and about himself. Leave them blank to get signed up. Robert Abel died in 2005, aged 65. Long story short, he's the prime suspect in the murder of four women found in an oil field next to property he owns. robert peters obituary; marion county police scanner frequencies; buffalo, missouri obituaries; mike mcdermott steve wilkos; k028613 cross reference; fedex express employee covid policy; . He remains unapologetic about his investigation and the statements he made about Abel in the search warrant, despite his admission during a deposition that the bulk of his knowledge came secondhand from [Abels] wives. In 1994 Abel filed a lawsuit against him for slander, but it was quickly dismissed by a judge who said that he had only been identified as a suspect. If a local law enforcement agency could identify a suspect that fit the parameters of that profile, a judge could rule that there was sufficient reason to search for more evidence. reporters on a platform technologically tailored to meet the needs of the modern reader. The Texas Killing Fields. In the occasion you've heard of the so-called Texas Killing Fields, there's a correct likelihood that you just occur to be from the Lone Star Dispute. His property was next to an. Miller, his eyes wild with excitement, put the backhoe into gear and started scooping up earth over a ten-square-foot area. In 1999, Texas Monthly reported that a police detective in a sworn affidavit painted Abel as a "serial sexual offender," who displays the violent behavior seen in serial killers. Several of Abel's ex-wives and partners had accused him of being aggressive, as well as beating animals, all of which Abel denied. As it turns out, Tim Miller might have found an old garbage dump.. Whenever any of them stopped in a certain place and alerted (that is, barked to signify that they smelled something), Miller would head over there and dig. He always denied having any implication in the affair, and no physical evidence was ever retrieved. Walter Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, ve Claude Raines. From 1971 to 2006, over 30 women were . Since he had owned the fields, Robert Abel came under suspicion, especially when he had . However, the man who has been in the minds of everyone who watched the show and read up on the case is Robert Abel. "Shy" NASA employee The modest and calm Abel was at NASA right after the university - he helped create the Saturn series of rockets that delivered Apollo teams to the moon. They vacuumed the carpet, looking for hairs of the victims; confiscated three .22-caliber weapons to see if any of them matched the bullet found next to one of the bodies; hauled away more than 6,200 slides and photographs; took a gold tooth found on a dresser to see if it came from the mouth of one of the women; and clipped a cord off a curtain to see if it matched a strangulation mark. He was on me like a duck on a June bug, said an FBI agent who was there. "My life has been destroyed; my reputation ruined I didn't kill any of those girls. One of Netflix's latest true-crime docuseries, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, tells the story of the unsolved murders of four Texas women that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s in League . He may sound innocent enough, but he has a dark side. Galveston County judge Lonnie Cox granted Miller's motion . MEAWW is an initialism for Media Entertainment Arts WorldWide. Abel took an energetic part in solving the crimes, which only made him more suspicious. His property was next to an abandoned oil field, known as the killing fields, where the remains of four young women had been found between 1984 and 1991. So who knows whats still down there?, I had to wonder: Was Abel slyly providing another subtle suggestion about that pond? It is not clear to this day as to whether he had intended to die or if it was accidental. Hedrick was released into an unknown halfway house from prison, just eight years into his 20-year sentence. I also understood why the parents of public school students in Friendswood had been given special kits to take their childrens fingerprints and keep locks of their hair in the horrifying event that their remains were one day found and needed to be identified. Teenage boys would drive past his stablesand shout out, killer. Its time to try to live out the rest of my life in peace, he says. He seems almost shyhe tends to put his hands in his front pockets when he speaksand has the soft Texas drawl of a small-town high school civics teacher. The police soon ascertained the incident as death by suicide, and even the general consensus believes that he chose death as he did not want to go on leading such a lonely life. There was nothing on his faceno fear, no emotion, nothing. You might have been trying to deceive them, to provide false leads, I said. eventAction: 'click_adunit' I wondered if she was on her knees, begging for her life. A former scientist and engineer for NASA, Robert Abel owned the land where the Calder Road Killings happened. In 2014, he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of 29-year-old Ellen Rae Simpson Beason. He was romantic. Two years ago, FBI statistics showed Texas leading the nation in unsolved serial highway homicides. Eventually, around July 2005, 65-year-old Robert William Abel was driving a golf car when he suddenly stopped right on the nearby railway tracks, allowing the train to hit him. 23:57 PST, Dec 6, 2022. In our conversations Abel always denied every allegation they had made against him. . Confessed killer details murder of Texas Killing Fields victim - February 16, 2016; What Are The Texas Killing Fields? It remains unclear if Abel had taken his own life. On the other hand, detectives continued to carry out their usual investigative procedure, which included a thorough search of his ranch, house, as well as vehicles. There have been few crimes more haunting in Texas than the killings of several young women who lived in towns located along the fifty-mile coastal stretch between Houston and Galveston. Tim Miller, the father of 16-year-old Laura who was found in the Texas Killing Fields, was at one point certain that Abel was his daughter's murderer. },false) eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), But before Abel died, Miller went to see him to ask for his forgiveness. According to Cindy, Abel said to her, If you ever deny me sex again, Ill kill you. Cindy also confirmed Paulas stories about a stash of nude photos and Abels anger with horses. When she went missing, the police suggested to her father that she had run away from home. His stepdaughter while out riding located another set of skeletal remains. The first was discovered in April 1984, after a dog owned by a couple living several hundred yards away carried home a human skull and dropped it at the feet of their three-year-old daughter. But there would be no peace. He wouldnt answer any more questions, left the building, and later went to the mayor and complained about me. A few days later Miller claims he showed up at Abels house, dragged him out in the yard, and held a gun to his head. Read more here about the series. Although he has a history of violence and worked for another suspect Robert Abel. Thats because while attempts to recover her remains as safely as possible were being made on February 2, 1986, local law enforcement came across a third body, which remained unidentified at the time. At the time of her disappearanceshe had last been seen walking from her parents home to use the telephone at a convenience storethe League City police had conducted a cursory investigation, and they came across no clues as to where she might have gone or who might have wanted to abduct her. ga('ads.send', { Meanwhile, Tim Miller grew convinced of Roberts hand in the homicides and searched the area himself, which is when they found some personal items belonging to the females, according to the Netflix original. For several weeks I tried to learn the truth about a brilliant but sometimes baffling man who, as one FBI agent told me, is not your average social encounter. During that time, I headed down to the killing fields to see if Tim Millerwho had become so frustrated with the polices inaction that he had launched his own investigationwas going to find more bodies, as he had predicted, or whether he was merely chasing ghosts. The first body discovered in Calder Road Field (aka The Texas Killing Field) was 25-year-old Heide Fye, whose skull was found by a dog. ' As such behavior from people he believed to be his friends was difficult to bear, he began living a lonely life and ultimately relocated. Then, mere months later, another local resident, Laura Miller, also disappeared from a nearby store. if(document.querySelector("#google_image_div")){ Notifications can be turned off anytime from browser settings. I tried to help the police solve a terrible crime, and now they think I was too helpful? Abel asked me, seemingly bewildered. Around 25 miles south of Houston sits what has become known as the Texas Killing Fields, a 25-acre tract of land where the bodies of at least 30 murder victims, mostly girls and women between 12 and 25 years old, have been found since the 1970s. What made Abel a suspect was that he owned the property right next to the land where the bodies were found. And Robert Abel was part of the little band of very bright men who figured out how do it. Today, however, a police detective suggests in a sworn affidavit that Abel is a serial sexual offender who displays the kind of rage and violent behavior thats often seen in serial killers. }); He said he was afraid for his lifeone father of a murdered girl even left aggressive messages on his answering machine, at least one of which threatened to kill him. Once you hear certain allegations about someone youve known for a long, long time, how do you get them out of your mind? Gottlieb asks. Heidi Fye, 23, vanished in 1983, and her remains were located in April 1984, and 16-year-old Laura Miller's body was found close by in 1986. Stallings was never charged in any of the I-45 Killings nor the Killings Fields murders despite any of his confessions. Apocalypse Sow: Can Anything Stop the Feral Hog Invasion? Laura had been a straight-A student in elementary school in League City, but after she began to have seizures at age twelve, she grew depressed, made a couple of halfhearted suicide attempts, and started hanging out with a crowd of teenagers who used drugs. All we know is that there was a terrible scream the night she disappeared, says her mother, Kathy Richerson. Yet, they found nothing to directly connect him to the deaths and thus could not apprehend him. Robert Abel died in 2005, aged 65. Moreover, an organized killer prefers working in what the FBI calls a comfort zone, an area very familiar to him where he receives little or no interference from outsiders. There is a stretch of I-45 South between Houston and Galveston where police have found the bodies of more than 30 young women and children since the 1970s. Have you met this man? He said the photographs had been taken by a private investigator hired by his attorney. The cross he had put up for Laura had been knocked down, and he believed Abel had done it just to spite him. However, detectives reportedly suspected Robert only because of his proximity to the crime scene and his alleged aggressive personality experts had determined he was a perfect fit for the profile of a serial killer. More than 30 bodies have been found in the area between 1971 to 2006 leading to its very unceremonious moniker. In League City, Texas, is where the notorious murder spree known as the "Killing Fields" has originated. Mark Young, a highly respected FBI criminal profiler from the agencys Houston office, has talked with Abel, and a profiler from the behavioral sciences unit at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, has analyzed his relationships with women. One afternoon on the phone, he said to me, I dont know if you know this, but I had torn rotator cuffs at the time some of those girls turned up dead. The Astrodomes Decline From Eighth Wonder to Eighth Blunder of the World, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, The Best Little Steakhouse in Texas Turns Forty, A Backsliding Joint Got New Owners and a Whole New Level of Barbecue, Miranda Lamberts Five Must-have Home Goods, A Fredericksburg Couple Forges a New Path With Their Cast-Iron Pans, Another, Quieter Comeback for Billy Gillispie. More than 30 victims have been found since the 1970s and the land is infamously known as the Texas Killing Fields.. One long-time suspect, Robert Abel, was fatally hit by a train in what may have been a suicide, despite being cleared by police and despite apologies from Mr Miller, for example, who'd thought him guilty for years. But Although Edward Bell has always been associated with the Texas Killing Fields murders, he was not featured in Netflix's series on the case. But nothing turned up, which Abel says should have been no surprise, because what the hell did they think they were going to find after all those years? What Is The Docu-Series 'Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields' About? Just because no hard evidence was found during the search of his home doesnt mean hes exonerated., Not everyone working on the case is convinced that Abel is guilty. Dozens dead and several serial killer suspects: The haunting reality of the Texas Killing Fields. All suspicions are based on behavorial clues and psychological profiling by the FBI. According to CBS News, the isolated nature of the spot makes it the perfect place for taking someone else's life . One was just a teenager. Texas Across the River; Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The; Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (2003) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The; Texas Killing Fields; Texas Rangers (2001) Texas - Doc Snyder hlt die Welt in Atem; Thale; Thank You For Smoking; Thank You For Your Service; That Man from Rio (L'homme de Rio) In Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, his ex-wife's daughter outlines Hedrick's predatory behaviour when she was . A fourth body was also found six years later in 1991 in the same area and was identified as Donna Gonsoulin Prudhomme in 2019. However, as the show portrays, the investigation soon led to Robert Abel, who was considered a suspect for a long time. },false) It's very likely that you're sitting down in front of the TV and are currently searching for something to watch on Netflix. }); His name was Robert Abel, and he was so eager to assist the police the day the fourth body was found that he helped them clear brush in the area and let them use fourteen of his horses and his backhoe free of charge. Sales hit $250,000 in 1991, he says. By all accounts, Stardust Trailrides was an immediate success, drawing people from all over the Houston area, including a few couples who came to have their wedding conducted on horseback. What Abel did not know was that a new investigation was about to begin at the killing fieldsone conducted by Tim Miller. What has been dubbed the "Texas Killing Fields" is a 25-acre patch of land approximately one mile from I-45 in League City, a mid-size city located in Galveston County between Houston and Galveston. Photo by The Signal reporter Agueda Jimenez In 1993, a search was conducted in Abel's home but no evidence was found connecting him to the murders. Again, Abel just shrugged. And, indeed, one former girlfriend did tell me that Paula had contacted her, asking that she, too, go to the police and talk about Abels behavior when she had dated him. As if thats not enough, a fourth (and final) nearly decomposed skeletal corpse was located by local residents in the same field on September 8, 1991, which also remained unidentified for decades. With the passing of the years, its harder to deny the probability that a serial killer has been at work since as far back as 1971, when seven young women were murdered over a four-county region in twelve months time. }); According to law enforcement officials, the killings began in the early seventies and lasted through the late nineties. 'Sister Wives' star Kody Brown feels ex-wife Christine Brown's engagement to David Woolley is 'staged for TV' amid family drama, Jacob Stevens: Family shares heartbreaking photo of teen who died attempting viral TikTok challenge, 'I'd do the same again': Donna Delbono, who turned in killer teen son to cops, says she has 'no regrets'. Without informing the League City police departmentThey think Im a little crazyMiller borrowed a tractor and a backhoe and persuaded the Greater Houston Search Dogs team to join him in his first dig. Then someone else saw a pair of womens pants with a drawstring waist, which was discolored and nearly shredded from decomposition. Robert Abel was a retired aerospace engineer who had leased the property and finally bought a portion, 3001 Calder Drive for his horse stable. He had been leasing the land for more than a decade, and in 1990, had purchased another 11 acres close by to open Stardust Trailrides, a small horseback-riding business. document.querySelector("#adunit").addEventListener('click',function(){ The 25-year-old cocktail waitress disappeared after she left her parents' home to hitch a ride to Houston to visit her boyfriend. Out came a discolored shirt and then some socks. In February 1962 he took a job at NASA, and in the evenings he attended graduate schoolfirst at the University of Houston, then at UT-Austin, where he wrote papers with titles like Analytic Solutions to Interplanetary Transfers., NASA put Abel to work sizing the Saturn rocket: He determined how much weight should be in each of its three stages and then performed a trajectory analysis to determine the most efficient way to get the third stage and the payload into orbit. The Texas Killing Fields in League City, Texas, is a plot of ground where the bodies of four unsolved murder victims of women were discovered. Im not saying Robert was the perfect man, the woman said. Family devastated as mom and unborn baby tragically die after 'unexpected' medical emergency, Was Beckett Rex edited out of 'American Idol' Season 21? We just want the chance to tell our daughter good-bye., It is impossible for an outsider to understand the shattered psyches of parents whose daughters will never grow older. And although two photos were of a semi-nude woman, she later told the police that she had willingly posed for Abel when they were dating. Tim Miller, whose sixteen-year-old daughter, Laura, was found dead in the killing fields, is so convinced of Abels guilt that he has left threatening messages on his answering machine, demanding that he confess. According to one FBI report, an organized killer is in the bright-superior intelligence range and, therefore, potentially a skilled imposterin other words, hes able to fit into everyday society without drawing any suspicion. The League City Police Department naturally wound up under increasing pressure to nab a culprit, and they came to believe they'd found one, courtesy of an FBI profile that matched a local: Robert. We had our rounds, our arguments and fights. But she left him 41 days into the marriageAbel never told anyone whyand the two quickly divorced. Then, in the summer of 1993, he got a break: He received a phone call from Abels wife, Paula, who told him they had separated the previous year. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. The four killings remain shrouded in mystery and ex-Nasa engineer Robert Abel was also among the suspects accused. But the fact was that he was one of the brightest people down there., In 1978, after 21 years of marriage, the Abels divorced. When investigations into Millers missing body were being made, another corpse was found, who wasnt identified until years later as Audrey Lee Cook, a mechanic who was last seen alive in 1985. According to sources: A new Netflix docuseries revisits the string of murders near League City. The father of murdered Laura was for a time convinced that Abel was guilty of killing her. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. They were mainly the bodies of girls or young women. It is known as the killing fields, and it is a lonely, spooky patch of land: In the stillness of the day you can hear the yips of small wild animals and the distant rumble of traffic along Interstate 45 about a mile away. The victims were found in what has become known as the Texas Killing Fields Credit: Netflix. After my story was published, Abel moved to some family property in another part of the state, trying to get a new start. Laura was only twelve years old when she jotted those words on a message board on the morning of April 3, 1997, a couple of hours before she went jogging through her neighborhood and disappeared.

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