Real Names: Heidi Villarreal Fye, Laura Lynn Miller, two other victims unidentified
Nicknames: Jane and Janet Doe
Location: Calder Field, League City, Texas
Date: October 10, 1983 to September 8, 1991
Case[]
Details: Since 1983, at least four young women have been brutally murdered, their bodies dumped in the same field in Texas. On October 10, 1983, twenty-three-year-old cocktail waitress Heidi Fye mysteriously vanished while walking from the home of her parents to a convenience store. On April 4, 1984, a woman walking her dog discovered Heidi's remains in Calder Field near League City, Texas. The medical examiner determined that she had broken ribs and had been beaten with a club; she is believed to have died from blunt force trauma to the head.
On February 2, 1986, four boys riding bikes smelled a foul odor and located the skeletal remains of an unidentified female and called the police. She was dubbed "Jane Doe" and it was determined that she had died six weeks to six months before being found. She was shot in the back, possibly from a .22 caliber weapon. She was described as twenty-five-years-old, 5'5 to 5'8, 140 to 160 pounds, and had reddish brown hair with a distinct gap in her teeth. She was located in Calder Field just fifty yards from where Heidi was found.
While police were searching for more clues in the case, they came upon another body just twenty yards away from the Jane Doe. The other body was identified as sixteen-year-old Laura Miller, who had vanished on September 1, 1984. Surprisingly, she had vanished from the same convenience store where Heidi had vanished from a year earlier.
Five years after the second and third bodies were found, a fourth body was located. On September 8, 1991, the body of "Janet Doe", an unidentified woman, was discovered in Calder Field, just one hundred yards from where the other victims were located. The young woman had died one-to-four months before she was found, was about thirty-one-years-old, was 5' to 5'3", 100 to 130 pounds, had long brown hair, low quality dentures, and was beaten with a club and possibly strangled with a cord.
Although many investigators believe that the cases are connected, there are some differences between them. While Fye and Janet Doe were beaten to death, Miller and Jane Doe were shot to death. However, there are obviously more similarities than differences; Fye and Miller were last seen at the same store, all four bodies were found within less than one hundred yards of each other, and the bodies were arranged in the same way. Eventually, a fifth body was located at the site. However, the murders remain unsolved.
Suspects: Robert Abel, the owner of Calder Field, was considered a suspect, along with an employee of his, Mark Stallings. Stallings reportedly confessed to killing "Janet Doe". However, nobody has ever been charged.
Extra Notes: The case has appeared on the show Haunting Evidence. It has also been linked to Edward Bell, who was featured on Unsolved Mysteries.
Donna (left) and Audrey
Results: Unresolved. In March 2014, Clyde Edwin Hedrick, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 1984 beating death of Ellen Rae Beason. Hedrick has since been linked to the murders of Fye, Miller and the three unidentified women. Prosecutors had planned to present evidence of Hedrick linking him to the murders of Fye and Miller, but the link was never made. Miller's father had long suspected Hedrick murdered his daughter.
Another possible suspect in the case is Edward Bell, who was convicted of murdering Marine Larry Dickens in 1979. He had been on the run for several years before he was caught in 1992 thanks to Unsolved Mysteries. After his conviction, he confessed to murdering eleven young women in Texas. As a result, it has been suspected that he was responsible for killing the Calder Field victims. However, his connection has not been confirmed; he died in prison in 2019.
In April 2019, the two "Jane Doe" victims were finally identified thanks to genetic genealogy. "Jane Doe", the victim found in 1986 was identified as thirty-year-old Audrey Cook who vanished from Houston in December 1985. Her parents had tried to search for her but were unsuccessful. "Janet Doe", the victim found in 1991, was identified as thirty-four-year-old Donna Prudhomme who vanished from Nassau Bay in July 1991.
Links:
- Texas Killing Fields on Wikipedia
- Calder Field Serial Murders on the FBI website
- Is Robert Abel getting away with murder? - October 1999
- The real-life mystery of Texas' killing fields - July 8, 2012
- Confessed killer details murder of Texas Killing Fields victim - February 16, 2016
- What Are The Texas Killing Fields? This Mystery Will Keep You Up At Night - September 23, 2016
- Texas man may have solved daughter's 1984 murder - June 13, 2018
- Renderings show faces of 2 homicide victims both found on road in League City - Decenber 10, 2018
- League City police determine identities of 2 women found in 'Texas Killing Fields' - April 11, 2019
- Texas authorities identify 2 victims in decades-old 'Killing Fields' murders using genetic genealogy April 16, 2019
- Texas 'killing field' bodies identified, a new clue in long unsolved case - April 17, 2019
- Police launch new statewide billboard campaign to find murderer in "Killing Fields" case - May 14, 2019
- Heide Marie Villarreal (Fye), Laura Lynn Miller, and Ellen Rae Beason on Find a Grave