"Killing Field" in League City, Texas- Calder Rd Cold Cases

picture.php
Disclaimer: Since the original link is included in the quote, I do not feel the need to replicate JeannieC's work.​


Unless they say that the car turned around and ran over her again to cause her death or to make sure she was dead.
I am beginning to believe this was nothing more than a hit and run.
Which in fact we do know it was a hit and run. For she was hit and the driver was never apprehended.

And depending if her injuries were more Consistent with those of someone being hit by a vehicle.
And not being Consistent with injuries sustained by falling out of or being pushed out of a moving vehicle causing death.

Which could explain them turning around and going back to see if she was alive or any indications of being alive.

If they could tell those were truck tires.
She may had been waiting for someone to pick her up where she was.
Perhaps in a truck without a camper on the bed as they used to call it.
Perhaps she got in the back in the bed and while in motion either fail or was push out of the back of the bed.

I wonder if they ever checked her friends to see if any of them owned a camper less bed truck.
But once again. Depends on the autopsy and her injuries to know one way or the other.
 
(If you know of a picture, please message me)

Suzanne Bowers – 12 years old. May 21, 1977 disappeared from Galveston - Medical Examiner said Bower's dental chart matched that of a skeleton found Sunday 03/25/1979 in a field near Avenue P1/2 in Alta Loma. The Galveston girl disappeared May 21, 1977 while walking from her grandmother's home in the 4000 block of Avenue S1/2 to her own residence in the 3100 block of Avenue P. Authorities Tuesday said the cause of death is still unknown. "She had a skull fracture. The cause of death has not been determined.

It was about 10:30 a.m. May 21, 1977 when the seventh grade Lovenberg School student left her grandmother's house, Mrs. Bowers recalls. "She was going home first to get her bathing suit. She wanted to go to the beach. Suzanne walked that same route many times. She never did reach home," said Mrs. Bowers. "The case has been turned over to them because it originated in Galveston. There are no suspects. There appeared to be gunshot holes in her skull."
Photo of Suzanne Bowers
SUZANNEBOWERS.jpg
 
LINDAFAYESUTHERLIN.jpg


Linda Faye Sutherlin, 21, was a Houston area key punch operator and former bartender. On 11/07/1971 her body was found in a Pearland ditch along County Road 89 about one mile south of FM 518 in Brazoria County. She had been raped, shot, kicked and beaten. A pair of panty hose was tied around her neck. Her roommate had reported her missing on 11/05/1971. Police originally suspected a boyfriend who was known to be violent. In the end, her killers turned out to be a known criminal, 24 year-old Harry Andrew Lanham, and an accomplice, 24 year-old ex-convict Anthony Knoppa.

A witness who knew Linda by sight told LE he had seen her the morning of 11/04/1971 standing by her car parked along the road near the bar where she had stopped after work talking to a wrecker driver. Another witness, after reading the newspaper report of Linda's murder told LE he had seen a wrecker parked near the bridge where Linda's body was found. Two years earlier, a young woman had entered a Houston police station to report a rape by a wrecker driver. She gave his name to a detective and said he was a big man. Before the detective finished writing the report, however, she changed her mind and left. That same detective worked Linda's case. He recalled the earlier incident but could not remember the wrecker driver's name until a week or so later when it came to him out of the blue.

Harry Lanham owned a red wrecker. When questioned, he implicated Knoppa, who was tracked down in Conroe. The two eventually confessed to the rape and brutal murder of Linda Fay Sutherlin. Both men were convicted and sentenced to 25 and 50 years respectively. Lanham died in while awaiting appeal in 1973. At the time, he was a suspect in the murders of eight others, including Adele Crabtree to which he and Knoppa had also confessed.


http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...gYrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IJgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1661,2226148

http://thepolicenews.net/html/tpnmay09.pdf



HENRYLANHAMANDTONYKNOPPA.jpg


Henry Lanham and Anthony Knoppa from the Reading Eagle, February 4, 1973
 
ADELEGYPSYCRABTREE.jpg


Adele "Gypsy" Crabtree was a pretty 16 year-old runaway from Ohio. A free spirited flower child, she worked off and on as a gas jockey, cocktail waitress and go-go dancer in Houston. She was last seen alive on November 2, 1971 near her apartment when she got into a two-tone Mercury and drove away with the male driver. Her body was found on 11/03/1971 near some woods NW of Conroe n Montgomery County. Her body was riddled with two loads of buckshot and one load of birdshot from a 12 gauge shotgun. Knoppa first confessed to the murder. Lanham knew Gypsy, and they had picked her up the night before in the Mercury. Knoppa told LE she'd had consensual sex with both men. After driving around for awhile, Knoppa told her he wanted "more loving". Lanham parked the car, and the three got out. As Crabtree and Knoppa headed for the woods, Knoppa stepped aside, and Lanham shot her. Knoppa said he had seen women killed in Vietnam, but "never like that". Lanham allegedly told him to stick around and he see many more. Thirty hours later, they murdered Linda Sutherlin. The two also confessed to the murder of another woman, Pamela Huebner, but her body was never found.

Lanham and Knoppa were never charged with Crabtree's murder. Instead, James Whittley, another Houston wrecker driver was charged after he failed a polygraph examination. Police at the time did not consider him a suspect in any of the five or six other recent murders of young women.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CpkFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QzMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4529,24440&
dq=turner+bayou+harris+county+texas&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...gYrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IJgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1661,2226148
 
LINDAFAYESUTHERLIN.jpg


Linda Faye Sutherlin, 21, was a Houston area key punch operator and former bartender. On 11/07/1971 her body was found in a Pearland ditch along County Road 89 about one mile south of FM 518 in Brazoria County. She had been raped, shot, kicked and beaten. A pair of panty hose was tied around her neck. Her roommate had reported her missing on 11/05/1971. Police originally suspected a boyfriend who was known to be violent. In the end, her killers turned out to be a known criminal, 24 year-old Harry Andrew Lanham, and an accomplice, 24 year-old ex-convict Anthony Knoppa.

A witness who knew Linda by sight told LE he had seen her the morning of 11/04/1971 standing by her car parked along the road near the bar where she had stopped after work talking to a wrecker driver. Another witness, after reading the newspaper report of Linda's murder told LE he had seen a wrecker parked near the bridge where Linda's body was found. Two years earlier, a young woman had entered a Houston police station to report a rape by a wrecker driver. She gave his name to a detective and said he was a big man. Before the detective finished writing the report, however, she changed her mind and left. That same detective worked Linda's case. He recalled the earlier incident but could not remember the wrecker driver's name until a week or so later when it came to him out of the blue.

Harry Lanham owned a red wrecker. When questioned, he implicated Knoppa, who was tracked down in Conroe. The two eventually confessed to the rape and brutal murder of Linda Fay Sutherlin. Both men were convicted and sentenced to 25 and 50 years respectively. Lanham died in while awaiting appeal in 1973. At the time, he was a suspect in the murders of eight others, including Adele Crabtree to which he and Knoppa had also confessed.


http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...gYrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IJgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1661,2226148

http://thepolicenews.net/html/tpnmay09.pdf



HENRYLANHAMANDTONYKNOPPA.jpg


Henry Lanham and Anthony Knoppa from the Reading Eagle, February 4, 1973

BBM

Bessie, you're good! CAN WE ALL SAY "TOW TRUCK"! Very interesting information. Panty hose and tow truck!
 
I don't think we have the Walker County Jane Doe listed in this thread yet. She has a thread in the Missing Unidentifed Forum. I think she should be included in this discussion, too, because of the timing, location and nature of her death. Her body was found in Walker County off of I-45 near Huntsville, about 37 miles north of Conroe. She was 14-16 years old.

This is quoted from the opening post of Walker County Jane Doe's Unidentifed thread:

Case Details:
Walker County Jane Doe was found lying face down and nude by a truck driver on November 1, 1980 near the Sam Houston National Forest in Walker County Texas. This is about a half mile south of the FM 1696 exit near Huntsville.

The victim, an attractive young teenage girl, had been savagely beaten and sexually assaulted before dying by slow strangulation. Her face and body were covered with bruises from the beating and there was a human bite mark on her back near her right shoulder. The autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted with a blunt instrument.

When the murder was reported, several people came forward and said they'd seen a teenager matching her description the day before her body was found. One witness, the manager of a gas station which no longer exists, positively identified the victim as a girl who had been at the station around 6:30 p.m. Halloween night asking for directions to the Ellis prison unit. She was wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater with big pockets that hung below her waist, and carrying high-heeled sandals in her hand. To the best of his recollection, she had been let out of a 1973 or 74 blue Chevrolet, possibly a Caprice, with a lighter colored top, which was being driven by a white male. She looked disheveled like she had been traveling and perhaps sleeping in her clothes. She left the station, walking north on Sam Houston avenue.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80600&page=7

Warning: The Unidentifed thread contains post mortem photos of Walker County Jane Doe.
 
I don't think we have the Walker County Jane Doe listed in this thread yet. She has a thread in the Missing Unidentifed Forum. I think she should be included in this discussion, too, because of the timing, location and nature of her death. Her body was found in Walker County off of I-45 near Huntsville, about 37 miles north of Conroe. She was 14-16 years old.

This is quoted from the opening post of Walker County Jane Doe's Unidentifed thread:

Case Details:
Walker County Jane Doe was found lying face down and nude by a truck driver on November 1, 1980 near the Sam Houston National Forest in Walker County Texas. This is about a half mile south of the FM 1696 exit near Huntsville.

The victim, an attractive young teenage girl, had been savagely beaten and sexually assaulted before dying by slow strangulation. Her face and body were covered with bruises from the beating and there was a human bite mark on her back near her right shoulder. The autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted with a blunt instrument.

When the murder was reported, several people came forward and said they'd seen a teenager matching her description the day before her body was found. One witness, the manager of a gas station which no longer exists, positively identified the victim as a girl who had been at the station around 6:30 p.m. Halloween night asking for directions to the Ellis prison unit. She was wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater with big pockets that hung below her waist, and carrying high-heeled sandals in her hand. To the best of his recollection, she had been let out of a 1973 or 74 blue Chevrolet, possibly a Caprice, with a lighter colored top, which was being driven by a white male. She looked disheveled like she had been traveling and perhaps sleeping in her clothes. She left the station, walking north on Sam Houston avenue.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80600&page=7

Warning: The Unidentifed thread contains post mortem photos of Walker County Jane Doe.

Interesting. Thanks for posting this. I've been looking for victims who had human bite marks and strangled with panties. This one has the bite mark. Don't know what she was strangled with but biting is very unusual...........

There was a SK who's MO included biting and strangling with panties. This has been seen in one other KF victim. I'm sure there are more that we haven't found yet.
 
I don't mean to be all over the place but this unsolved case got to me last year
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/h...ul-texts-hours-before-her-killing-1705582.php
It sounds like a guy that may have done this before and probably would do it again.
I think it would be so helpful if we could get sub threads so we could put the posts in order by the different decades ?

So sad! I've been thinking we could probably use sub-threads too. Easier than wadding through all this. Maybe one for the "likely Suspects" or something like that. Another for UID's.

We need to ask Bessie what she thinks.
 
I don't mean to be all over the place but this unsolved case got to me last year
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/h...ul-texts-hours-before-her-killing-1705582.php
It sounds like a guy that may have done this before and probably would do it again.
I think it would be so helpful if we could get sub threads so we could put the posts in order by the different decades ?


Raquel Antoinette Mundy 24 Years old

mundy4.jpg
The first text message, sent around 5 a.m., stated, "Tell my girls I love them. I love you, Mom."

Bolton said a second text message, sent from Mundy's phone around 7:45 a.m., stated, "Mom I think this Mex might hurt."
 
Houston Police: 3 strangulations not related

Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - 4:27am
Women were killed in downtown sites

Houston---Police on Monday said they do not believe a serial killer is responsible for the strangulations of three women killed in or near downtown Houston in the past four months despite similarities in the cases

Raquel Antoinette Mundy, 24, Reita Lafaye Long, 52, and Carol Elaine Flood, 62, were each strangled and left in or near downtown since June. DNA has been recovered, but test results are pending, Lopez said.

http://www.ketknbc.com/linked/houston-police-3-strangulations-not-related
 
I don't mean to be all over the place but this unsolved case got to me last year
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/h...ul-texts-hours-before-her-killing-1705582.php
It sounds like a guy that may have done this before and probably would do it again.
I think it would be so helpful if we could get sub threads so we could put the posts in order by the different decades ?
I cried when I read about this case the other night. Poor girl was stranded near the bus station for hours after dropping off her mom and kids. She called relatives for help, but by the time one of them was able to get there, witnesses had seen her get in a truck with a man at about 3 am. :(

I agree with you guys that the information should be organized into separate threads. I'll find out if that can be done. In the meantime, keep posting. We can copy them later. I have quite a few to add, myself.
 
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...at-mauled-by-man-who-offered-help-1573524.php
Luckily this girl knew how to fight.I wonder if they ever found this guy and what other cases he may be responsible for?

She was one lucky girl! I had to point out one thing in this article:
BBM

The teen, Aurora (at her request, the Chronicle is not releasing her last name), said she was driving to her husband's workplace about 4 p.m. Tuesday when she realized her Chevrolet Cavalier had a flat tire.

She pulled to the shoulder of the southbound Loop near Northwest Mall and waited for help. Without a jack or a cell phone, there was little more she could do.

Within minutes, a black Chevrolet Silverado pickup, with the words "Super Tow" on the side, pulled up to Aurora's car. The driver, who said his name was Bo, offered to repair the flat, but said he didn't have his tools with him.
Aurora said she became suspicious when he asked if she wanted him to tow her car back to his shop.
 
I cried when I read about this case the other night. Poor girl was stranded near the bus station for hours after dropping off her mom and kids. She called relatives for help, but by the time one of them was able to get there, witnesses had seen her get in a truck with a man at about 3 am. :(

I agree with you guys that the information should be organized into separate threads. I'll find out if that can be done. In the meantime, keep posting. We can copy them later. I have quite a few to add, myself.

Thanks, Bessie. It will be very helpful to everyone. We're growing!:woohoo:
 
Oh, no, another tow truck! When I think of all the times I broke down tooling around in my old car when I was young and too foolish to know better I get chills up my spine. I was the same age as many of the young women from the 70's, and several times I had to rely on the assistance of truck drivers when my car broke down. I even got in a rig with one when my car broke down on the bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin ten miles from an exit! I look at these cases and think why them? Why not me? It breaks my heart. :(
 
I have choosen to post missing and murdered from MONTGOMERY COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE Cold Case Squad – Homicide because I believe some of these cases are related to the killing fields. Some bodies have been recovered and some have not.

Serial Killers move around. One killing in Montgomery County probably killed in other counties surrounding Houston and Fort Worth. I believe there were several moving around in this area of Texas.

Some serial killers move the bodies to other areas so it is highly likely we could find someone missing from one county and remains located in another.

All of these cases are relevant to murders at the time. imo

I have not listed all the missing and murdered from Montgomery County. Please go out and take a look. Very frightening!

http://www.woodlandsonline.com/dbs/sheriff/files/File/COLDCASE.pdf

This case is so vast and there are so many persons involved.
I need to drop an anchor in this sea of madness to create a starting point. And perhaps others can choose a starting point for themselves and work outward over time. We may just connect somewhere along the way, and can look for familiarities to specific crimes.

I am going to stay with you
JeannieC in Montgomery County.
As we investigate and expand outward over time, I will be able to return to my starting point of Montgomery County if things start to become extremely confusing or overwhelming. And then start again.
 

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