TX Frank Duane Welch Unconnected victims ~1979-1994 TX, OK, WY, CO

[waunakeegan]

Frank Duane Welch is the man that assaulted and murdered 28-year-old Talley Cooper in her Norman, OK home on February 25, 1987. Talley was 12 weeks pregnant at the time. She also had an 8-month-old son who was in the next room sleeping when the murder happened. Frank Welch also went on to assault and murder a 32-year-old mother named Debra Stevens in her Tuttle, OK home in May 1987. He left her bound and nude body for her young daughter to find when she came home from school, just as he left Talley’s to be found by her husband, my father-in-law. On the morning of October 8, 1994, Welch tried to abduct a 32-year-old woman named Paige from a Walmart parking lot in Tulsa, OK that she worked at using a large knife. He attempted to force her back into her car, but she fought back and in the process, he cut her neck badly. The commotion caught the attention of others in the parking lot and Welch ran, fleeing in his stolen vehicle. A man that saw what happened followed Welch’s vehicle and helped police find and capture him. Luckily, Paige survived the attack. He was convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder for the 1994 incident, and a few years later in 1997 he would be connected through DNA to Talley and Debra’s murders. He was sentenced to death for Talley’s murder and was executed in 2007.

I have a very close family connection to Talley, so I have been aware and digging into this killer for a long time. I have known in my gut for many years that Welch has more victims out there that are not connected to him. It haunts me daily and drives me wild that there are families of his other victims out there suffering with their loved one’s case remaining unsolved, and they deserve to know that the man that did it is dead. Before Welch was executed, he said that he had killed 15 people and if they stayed his execution, he would have his lawyer release who these victims were. The execution stay didn’t happen, so the names were never released. He was a liar, so who knows if there are 15 murder victims, but I know for a fact he has more than just two.

Recently, I have been able to talk with the detective that solved Talley Cooper’s murder. He informed me that a short time after Welch was convicted on OK of Talley and Debra’s murders in 1998, he got a call from a law enforcement agency in Texas who told him that a partial fingerprint of Welch’s was matched to one found at the crime scene of a woman who had been raped and murdered. There was virtually no follow up done on this and the Texas case has never been publicly connected to Welch before (we don't even know the victim's name). Steve believes this was the Grayson County Texas Sheriff’s Office that called him, and I have been working with their office the past month to figure out who this victim was (no real progress to report yet). This case very well may be listed as still unsolved.

After reading the information below, please suggest any cases that you know of that you feel could be connected to him.

**Here is what you need to know:**
• 1979-1994 - His likely operational years were after he graduated High School in Bonham, Texas in 1979 to when he was apprehended for the attempted murder on October 8, 1994.
• He lived multiple places in OKLAHOMA and in Fannin, Grayson, and Smith County TEXAS. His hometown was Bonham, TX and he also lived or frequented Whitehouse, Royse City, and the Dallas, TX area (see timeline for more details). He was known to have visited WYOMING and COLORADO as well (confirmed to have fled to Wyoming shortly after the May 1987 Tuttle, OK murder).

1. Neighboring states should also be considered. We have reason to strongly believe he has at least one victim in Wyoming. He traveled these states a lot, especially TX and OK, and wasn’t afraid to kill outside of the town that he lived. He has known criminal convictions in multiple counties in OK and Grayson, Fannin, and Dallas Counties in Texas (see timeline for more details).

• **What his murders will likely look like: **

1. He would likely stick to ligature strangulation to kill his victims. He may also use a knife as well, especially if the victim fought back a lot.
2. Sexual assault, or signs that a rape was attempted, will very likely be present. The victim is likely to be fully or partially nude.
3. His victims will likely be bound, possibly like his known victims with hands bound behind their back and connected to the ligature around their neck, or show signs of previously being bound. There's a chance that there may be no binding, particularly of his earlier victims. In those cases there may be signs that they were beaten, bludgeoned, or stabbed to subdue them. Although he was athletic, he was only 5'8" tall and 170 lbs, so he wasn't the biggest guy ever and would have been careful to make sure his victims were physically controlled. His victims may also be gagged like his known victims were.
4. They will very likely be white women likely between the ages of 18-55, but he could also have younger or older victims. The women will probably be thinner or smaller not only because he may have preferred that, but for practical reasons of making sure he could easily overpower them because he was only 5'8" and 160-180 Lbs.
5. His victims may be murdered in their home like his known murders, but we’re also looking at women murdered outside of their home and their bodies dumped outdoors. His later 1994 Tulsa kidnapping/attempted murder may have given insight into how his MO had evolved since 1987.
6. There’s a possibility that he could have shot other victims or beat them. I feel that most likely strangulation is his desired method of killing (also the most common method of killing for sexually motivated serial killers) and part of his paraphiliac fantasy. There's a possibility he may also have stabbed his victims if they fought back.
7. Missing women should be looked at, but both of his known murder victims were somewhat posed for shock value, so I feel that he may have dumped bodies in places they would probably be found because he liked the thought of others finding them. If he became more aware of advancing forensic technology and the existence of DNA, there's always a chance that he may have decided to be more careful about leaving victims and evidence behind.
8. All three of his known victims were thin and attractive young white women. Debra had blonde to light brown hair, Talley had lighter red hair, and Paige had very blonde hair. His 2nd wife also had lighter colored hair. However, the other potential victims should not be narrowed into appearance categories that match his known victims (opportunity can be more important that preference sometimes). I do suspect that his preference was for thin women, and he perhaps preferred lighter colored hair.
9. My feeling is that he would not gravitate towards targeting sex workers, but this can't be ruled out.

• ** His MO for his known 1987 Oklahoma murders: **

1. He killed his victims using LIGATURE STRANGULATION
2. He bound Talley with her hands behind their back with a thin leather strap and tied a leather strap around her neck that connected to her hands. Detective Lucas is quoted as describing the way her bindings were knotted as “it's got a large slipknot almost on one hand that's pulled tight and then wrapped in, oh, half-inch cattle-like calf roping-type thing.”
3. Debra Stevens was bound with a small rope tied tightly around her neck and her hands were bound tightly behind her with the same small gauge rope found around her neck.
4. He gagged his victims. He duct taped Talley’s mouth and he stuffed tissue/toilet paper in Debra’s mouth to gag her.
5. He would rape his victims, and in Talley’s case, he raped her as she was dying and post mortem. The rape was both vaginal and anal.
6. In Talley's case only, he inserted a child's pylon toy in her vagina for her to be found with.
7. He left his nude victims lying face up, spread eagle, and bound with their hands behind their back. Talley was found in the living room and Debra was found on her bed.
8. Committed in the mid-morning/early afternoon hours.
9. No signs of robbery in either case. No signs of forced entry in either case. In Talley's case her dogs were put away in the garage, as was often done when a service man was there doing work. It is believed that Welch used his cable repair uniform to trick Talley into letting him into the house. Debra's dog was also found shut in another bedroom, so the same ruse may have been used for Debra, but Welch lived on the same block/area as her so she knew who he was.
10. There is no knowledge of Welch taking "trophies" from either murder scene, but I can speak for Talley's case that her husband is not the type of person who would notice small or even large things being missing, so there's certainly a chance Welch could have taken something without him noticing.

• **His MO for his later 1994 Tulsa, OK attempted murder/kidnapping:**

1. Early morning hours in a parking lot where the victim worked.
2. Used a large knife that he put to her throat and tried to force her back into her car.
3. As she screamed and fought back, he cut her throat and hand.

• Welch was heavily involved in rodeos and the rodeo scene. The knots he tied to bind both of his murder victims were described as the type of knot you use to tie a calf in the rodeo. The leather straps he used to bind Talley came from a “farmer’s bundle”, which are apparently leather remnants/extras sold at saddle and boot shops. He may have committed murders in areas where a county fair with a rodeo was being held, or an area that he was familiar with already because he had been there for the rodeo.
• Welch was a cable repairman and had likely used his uniform to trick Talley (possibly Debra too) into letting him inside to do cable repairs. He had been to Talley's home a few months before to install cable. He also did cable work in Texas. He was fired from his job at Norman Cablevision in Oklahoma in Jan 1987, shortly before Talley's murder in Feb 1987. Apparently he was fired for destroying work records.
• We are relatively confident that Welch’s DNA is in CODIS (but not 100% sure, more like 98%), and we believe his fingerprints are in AFIS, although this is not 100% confirmed. If there is an unsolved case that has offender DNA uploaded to CODIS that hasn't gotten a match yet, that case can be ruled out as connected to Welch. You wouldn't believe the amount of cold cases that have never had DNA tested or uploaded to CODIS though.
• He committed both Talley and Debra’s murder the day after he had to appear in court for criminal charges, so he may have done the same after some of his other criminal charges (see timeline for those dates - I am still working to gather all his criminal charges and the court dates for them).
• Welch was 5’ 8” tall and possibly around 180 pounds in 1998 (probably between 160-180 Lbs in his younger years). He had brown hair and brown eyes and was born in June of 1961. He was a big-time football player in high school, so he was athletic. He apparently suffered some type of injury that didn't allow him to play football anymore, but I'm not sure what that injury was.