Memory of slain 12-year-old lingers with friends, family
Nineteen years ago this week, 12-year-old Laura Smither disappeared when she went for a run before breakfast. Seventeen days later, she was found dead, and authorities never have charged the man police believe responsible for her abduction and murder.
But this year, as the anniversary of her disappearance passed on Sunday, that man is leading authorities to the sites of crimes he committed decades ago.
William Lewis Reece, who has been in prison for a kidnapping since 1998 and is a suspect in as many as seven attacks on young women in Texas and Oklahoma, was moved to Galveston County custody in February as he answered questions about the 1997 disappearance of 17-year-old Jessica Cain. Authorities dug for weeks in a southeast Houston field until they found human remains. The body has not yet been identified.
The link between Smither and Reece is believed to have gone cold.
Before she went for her April 3, 1997, jog, Smither was home in Friendswood with her family as they made pancakes for breakfast.
When she failed to return home, her parents called police, and by that evening neighbors and friends had begun handing out flyers and searching nearby fields for Laura. The search continued until her body was found in a Pasadena retention pond.
“When she didn’t show up, every single person knew something had gone wrong,” said Erika Jensen, a childhood friend of Smither’s. “She wouldn’t have gone to a friend’s house without telling her parents. We all knew immediately something was very, very wrong.”
Jensen, now 32, remembers Laura as responsible and mature for her age, but also a normal and goofy 12-year-old.