Well it is called Today magazine, and I can not find the article now..
East Texas Today magazine
Whose Child is This?
by Michael L. Hargraves
Halloween is the time when make-believe monsters, ghosts and goblins fill every child's imagination. But on Halloween night 22 years ago a real monster lurked in Walker county and turned one young girl's last night on earth into a hideous nightmare. Tortured, sexually brutalized and then strangled, her grisly death shocked even hardened detectives. She has never been identified and the crime is a riddle that haunts investigators to this day.
Long-haul truck driver James Rhoades of Friendswood was making a run up the north-bound lane of Interstate 45 on the first of November back in 1980, and enjoying the scenery. The gray concrete canyons of Houston were behind him and the vantage point of the semi's high seat gave him a clear view as he rolled along. The sharp overnight temperatures had snapped the sweet gums and red oaks into scarlet torches and the elms, hickories and sycamores formed shimmering patterns of raw gold. Blurred together by an early morning breeze, they glowed against the dark pines of the Sam Houston National Forest like the muted flames of a campfire at dusk. A half mile south of the FM 1696 exit near Huntsville, Rhoades was startled to see what looked like the nude body of a young woman lying face down in the grass off the shoulder of the road. The pale feminine form was starkly visible against the deep green of the mowed vegetation. It might have been a mannequin; perhaps only part of a macabre Halloween hoax left over from the night before. Huntsville is the home of Sam Houston University and practical jokes by high-spirited college students during the holidays were common, but Rhoades decided to check and make sure. It was no prank, however, but the beginning of a two decades long search for answers.
The crime Rhoades reported shocked even the veteran investigators of the Walker County Sheriff's Office. The victim, an attractive young teenage girl, had been savagely beaten and sexually assaulted before being murdered by slow strangulation. There were bruises all over her face and body; her right eye was swollen shut and her lips were puffy and distended from the blows she had received. There was a human bite mark on her back, up near her right shoulder. Her throat was purple under the pantyhose the killer had used to choke her with and her tongue protruded from her mouth. A thin gold chain hung from her slender neck with a smoky stone attached and her toenails had been painted a delicate pink. A pair of high-heeled sandals had been thrown beside the body. An autopsy later showed that, prior to her death, she had been raped vaginally and anally with a large blunt instrument and her panties and part of her pantyhose had then been forced into her vagina, perhaps in an effort to stop bleeding when the body was moved to the dump site. The medical examiner, Dr. Aurelio Espinola determined the young victim had only been dead for six hours before she was found. The victim's teeth had been well cared for and the general condition of the body and her overall health and nutrition indicated she had probably come from a middle class home. There were no distinguishing marks or any identification with the body to help the investigators. It is interesting to note that male sexual predators who bite their victims usually attack the genital area, the thighs and the breasts. Does the bite mark on the back and the use of a blunt instrument in the rape indicate a female assailant? Male sexual predators often take a trophy, like a piece of jewelry, but the victim?s jewelry was left on the corpse. Does this further indicate a lesbian attack?
When the murder became known through media accounts, several people came forward and said they?d seen a teenager matching her description the day before her body was found. Bobby Roach, who managed the South End Gulf 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 had been wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater with big pockets that hung below her waist, and she was carrying high-heeled sandals in her hand. To the best f 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. A waitress working at the Hitchin? Post truck stop out on Interstate 45 said the girl came into the restaurant the same evening and again, asked for directions to the Ellis Unit, saying she "had a friend there." A map was drawn for her and she departed. She never reached the Ellis Unit and she was never seen alive again.
Twenty-two years later the original investigators still vividly remember this case. I spoke with several of them recently and they all remembered the victim's youthful innocence and the brutality of her murder. Detective Judy James is the current investigator and is keeping the case alive. The victim was approximately 14 years old with hazel eyes and medium brown hair cut in wing fashion. She was just over 5 feet and weighed 100-108 lbs. Someone, somewhere knows who this child is. Please call Detective Judy James at 936-435-2400 if you have any information about this crime.
