‘Highway from hell’ serial killer hid deadly secret for two decades
The “Texas Killing Fields” fiend has finally been jailed for life over his horrific 1997 summer of slaughter
The notorious“Texas Killing Fields”is a remote 50-mile area of land where more than 30 bodies – mainly those of women and girls – have been found since the 1970s. And many more young women have disappeared without trace from the area off the Interstate 45 highway between Houston and Galveston.
Crime experts have long believed the desolate stretch of wasteland close to abandoned oil fields is a hunting ground for serial killers. With little chance of the victims’ screams being heard, and with nowhere for them to run, the killers have left police with a string of brutal cold cases.
During five months in 1997, a new predator stalked the area, leaving a trail of dead bodies and traumatised women behind him. However, the authorities hadn’t linked the cases, and didn’t – until they received a series of shocking confessions.
On the morning of 3 April, 1997, 12-year-old Laura Smither left her home in Friendswood, Texas, to go for a jog. She never returned. About
6,000 volunteers joined the hunt for the aspiring dancer. Her body was found 17 days later in a Pasadena pond several miles from her home.
A month later, on 17 May, Sandra Sapaugh, 19, was on her way to meet a friend. When she parked outside a store in Webster, Texas, she noticed a man in a white pickup truck. Setting off again, she realised she had a flat tyre. Behind her was the man in the truck, who offered to help. But he attacked Sandra, tied her up in his truck and drove off. Incredibly, she broke free and leapt from the moving vehicle on to Interstate 45, suffering severe injuries. However, she survived, and was able to give police a description of her kidnapper.
On 15 July, 20-year-old criminology student Kelli Cox and her classmates had just finished a tour of a prison in Denton. The mother-of-one called her boyfriend from a garage to say she’d locked her keys inside her car – and was never seen alive again.
Just 11 days later, a car belonging to 19-year-old newlywed Tiffany Johnston was found abandoned at a car wash in Bethany, Oklahoma. Her body was found the next day on a dirt road near Interstate 45. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Another victim of the Killing Fields.
On August 17, Jessica Cain, 17, from Tiki Island, Texas, had been to a restaurant with friends to celebrate her performance in a school musical. Her vehicle was later found abandoned on Interstate 45 and she was reported missing.
Although the authorities had failed to spot a connection between the five cases, they were about to get a major breakthrough.
Sandra, who had leapt from her attacker’s truck, picked out a face from a photo line-up – and under hypnosis was also able to reveal the number of his vehicle’s licence plate. The suspect was quickly identified as William Reece from Oklahoma.
DANGEROUS PREDATOR
Reece had already been jailed for attacking women and had been released only the previous year. Amid accusations of domestic violence, he’d kidnapped the teenage daughter of a sheriff’s deputy in 1986. The 19-year-old had been driving to a gym when she suffered car trouble. Reece tricked her into his truck by promising to drive her to a phone box. Instead, he tied her up and raped her, before taking her to a motel where she escaped.
He was arrested and charged, but released on bail. He then raped another woman and was arrested again.
Reece was sentenced to 25 years, but because of procedural errors, this was reduced and he was paroled in 1996 after 10 years behind bars. He then moved to Houston, Texas, and his crime spree began.
In 1998, Reece was sentenced to 60 years in prison after being found guilty of kidnapping Sandra Sapaugh. Investigators recognised Reece as a predator and attempted to link him to other attacks in the area. It was clear he was an extremely dangerous man. What else was he capable of? In the early 2000s, Reece was legally required to give samples of his DNA for inclusion in CODIS – the FBI’s DNA database – which came up with a positive result. The system matched Reece to a cold case, that of Tiffany Johnston, who’d gone missing from a car wash – the same one that Reece frequently used.
He was charged with her murder in 2015. Shockingly, it appears that
‘Your soul is forever burdened by these crimes’
Reece knew his victim’s mother.
He admitted killing Tiffany, claiming he’d done so after they’d got into an altercation when he accidentally sprayed water on her. He’d dragged her into his truck where he raped her and hit her over the head with a horseshoe before strangling her to death.
Then, Reece started cooperating and made a series of disturbing admissions. He confessed to having killed three other women in Houston during the summer of 1997, bringing his total to four.
He admitted killing Laura Smither. Initially he claimed he’d accidentally knocked her down in bad weather, but later said he’d strangled her.
He also revealed that he’d killed Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain, whose bodies hadn’t been found at that point. He agreed to lead police officers to the women’s graves and, after careful excavation, their skeletal remains were discovered in separate fields.
Although this was a breakthrough for the law, it was devastating for the victims’ families.
FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
According to his confessions, it seems Reece often approached women as a “good Samaritan” offering assistance.
Some people have suggested the killer confessed to his
crimes in a bid to avoid being given the death penalty, while others believe that he simply wanted to boast about them. Without doubt, Reece was a coldhearted serial killer, but was he connected to other deaths? He denies this, although police investigations continue.
After experiencing delays caused by the pandemic, Reece, now 62, was finally convicted of the murders of Tiffany Johnson, Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain. In 2021, under Oklahoma law, he was sentenced to death for killing Tiffany Johnston. This June, in Texas, he was given life sentences for the murders of Laura, Kelli and Jessica.
“Your soul shall forever be burdened by these heinous crimes you committed,” the judge told him.
Finally, after more than two decades, grieving families have justice.
Laura’s mother, Gay, said,“25 years is an awfully long time to be waiting for justice. And there were a number of years where we truly didn’t think we’d ever see this day.”
Reece will never be freed, although it is unclear where he’ll serve his time. His killing spree lasted just five months, during which many lives were destroyed. But he’s only one of the many predators who have turned Interstate 45 into the highway from hell.