TX TX - Huntsville, 'Walker County Jane Doe', WhtFem 14-16, 91UFTX, Nov'80 #2 *NAME NOT RELEASED*

[MadMcGoo]

I wonder if they still have imprints or pictures of bite marks for both victims that are good enough quality they could compare if that has not already been done.

That would be nice! I know I'd love to see HLL's ORIGINAL bite mark impressions! I think, as much as he lied about his crimes, there are definitely still some unidentified victims that can be tied to him! Which is probably the case with just about every serial killer or murderer in general, but he's one that I'd bet money on!

 

[Jdart14]

Interesting that James David Autry was received by the Texas Prison System 10/10/80. Just a few weeks before WCJD would be in Huntsville for her visit.

https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/autryjames.html3

 

[Bit of hope]

Came across an interesting find while searching podcasts on Spotify.

A podcast called, "gone cold podcast - texas true crime" has an episode on WCJD. It doesn't share any new details about her or the case that we don't already know and it does go into quite a bit of detail about truck stop serial killers (which I do think is interesting and relevant to consider for this case given where she was last seen). Anyhoo. The podcast also explains a possible suspect by the name Robert Allan Autry. On June 22, 1984,Robert Allan Autry entered the home of 59 year old Zola May Fraiser (without force as he was familiar to her and her home and seen there on many occasions) in Huntsville. Zola lived alone and was depended on a wheelchair. Robert Allan Autry brutally beat her, sexually assaulted her, and strangled her death. The most INTERESTING part was Zola also was found with a deep bite mark (like WCJD). Robert Allan Autry spent the next 2 years in a mental health facility and ultimately hung himself.

Apparently, Robert Allan Autry and his brother, James David Autry had a history of being in and out of jail. The night of October 31/November 1, 1980 James (brother) was in prison right in Huntsville. Robert Allan Autry (the one that murdered Zola May Fraiser) was not....

This is all a dead-end lead given Robert Allan Autry is now dead but I do find the way Zola May Fraiser was murdered, especially being found with a bite mark to be very chilling and curious for this case.

Very interesting.....!!

 

[Bit of hope]

I always thought she wanted to visit somebody she knew in prisson...wanted to see a grave of somebody put to death before she had family ties with or even somebody who harmed her family ...and looked for links with people buried on the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery ages ago, but couldn't find a solid link, a hunch, no matching dates whatsoever....Maybe you have digged up something, detective 24-7. We also made a list of prisoners from that time, death row inmates....maybe we should look at that again....

Here is the grave of James David Autry.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial...alid=&datefilter=&orderby=&page=1#sr-25663718

The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the main prison cemetery of the U.S. state of Texas, located in Huntsville and operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The colloquial name for the cemetery is Peckerwood Hill. The name originates from "Peckerwood", an African-American insult towards poor white people,[1] because many of those buried at the cemetery were poor.[2]

 

[rosesfromangels]

I always thought she wanted to visit somebody she knew in prisson...wanted to see a grave of somebody put to death before she had family ties with or even somebody who harmed her family ...and looked for links with people buried on the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery ages ago, but couldn't find a solid link, a hunch, no matching dates whatsoever....Maybe you have digged up something, detective 24-7. We also made a list of prisoners from that time, death row inmates....maybe we should look at that again....

Here is the grave of James David Autry.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=&middlename=&lastname=Autry&birthyear=&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=Huntsville,+Walker+County,+Texas,+United+States+of+America&locationId=city_141026&memorialid=&datefilter=&orderby=&page=1#sr-25663718

The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the main prison cemetery of the U.S. state of Texas, located in Huntsville and operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The colloquial name for the cemetery is Peckerwood Hill. The name originates from "Peckerwood", an African-American insult towards poor white people,[1] because many of those buried at the cemetery were poor.[2]

Fascinating....good angle, and worthy of further exploration!

 

[Vern]

Yeah, it's possible. It did say James was in prison and on death row (he was executed in 1984) but it didn't say if he specifically was at the Ellis unit. Not sure if there were other death row units in Huntsville at the time.

The Wikipedia for James Autry says he is from Potter County Texas, which is up North. I was hoping to see he was from southern Texas where WCJD claimed she was from.

The murders he committed happened in Southern Texas though. He may have been from the north, but lived south?

Killer dies smiling

...
Autry, 29, convicted for the April 20, 1980, shooting death of Port Arthur, Texas, store clerk Shirley Drouet, 43, in a dispute over a six-pack of beer, was pronounced dead at 12:40 a.m. CST....

1980s Executions

Offender Information - Autry, James

As well, his dental impressions were taken on order from the Judge ... I wonder if they're still around?

Judge grants prosecution motions in Autry case

...
Prosecutor Wes Clayton's motion said dental impressions were requested for 'determining the identity of bite marks on the body.'
...

 

[Earthbound Misfit I]

I haven't read everything here so try not to penalize me too much but, has it been discussed that the person she was going to visit at the prison was possibly a warden or guard or cook or some other kind of employee? Do we know without a doubt that she made it to the prison and wasn't picked up by somebody along the way?

 

[Bit of hope]

I haven't read everything here so try not to penalize me too much but, has it been discussed that the person she was going to visit at the prison was possibly a warden or guard or cook or some other kind of employee? Do we know without a doubt that she made it to the prison and wasn't picked up by somebody along the way?

Hi, nothing to penalize you about. I know they questioned inmates and nobody knew her. I can't recall they questioned employees, but they probably did. We don't know if she made it to the Ellis Unit. We "know" from a few witnesses that she asked directions to the prison. Maybe she didn't want to go to the prison at all, but she wanted to go somewhere near the prison, the prison being a good indicator in what direction she had to go.

 

[Bit of hope]

Came across an interesting find while searching podcasts on Spotify.

A podcast called, "gone cold podcast - texas true crime" has an episode on WCJD. It doesn't share any new details about her or the case that we don't already know and it does go into quite a bit of detail about truck stop serial killers (which I do think is interesting and relevant to consider for this case given where she was last seen). Anyhoo. The podcast also explains a possible suspect by the name Robert Allan Autry. On June 22, 1984,Robert Allan Autry entered the home of 59 year old Zola May Fraiser (without force as he was familiar to her and her home and seen there on many occasions) in Huntsville. Zola lived alone and was depended on a wheelchair. Robert Allan Autry brutally beat her, sexually assaulted her, and strangled her death. The most INTERESTING part was Zola also was found with a deep bite mark (like WCJD). Robert Allan Autry spent the next 2 years in a mental health facility and ultimately hung himself.

Apparently, Robert Allan Autry and his brother, James David Autry had a history of being in and out of jail. The night of October 31/November 1, 1980 James (brother) was in prison right in Huntsville. Robert Allan Autry (the one that murdered Zola May Fraiser) was not....

This is all a dead-end lead given Robert Allan Autry is now dead but I do find the way Zola May Fraiser was murdered, especially being found with a bite mark to be very chilling and curious for this case.

Maybe Robert Allan was there during that time, wanted to visit his brother in jail....

 

[detective24-7]

I haven't read everything here so try not to penalize me too much but, has it been discussed that the person she was going to visit at the prison was possibly a warden or guard or cook or some other kind of employee? Do we know without a doubt that she made it to the prison and wasn't picked up by somebody along the way?

I believe it has been discussed to some degree or the theory at least as been entertained since anything is possible. I also have wondered if it was an employee she was going to visit and that's why she didn't seem too concerned if she would miss visiting hours if she was there to visit an inmate - as I would assume they had set visiting hours that wouldn't extend to the time of day she was still attempting to make it the prison. It was said she first arrived into Huntsville around 6:30pm and after that point it's assumed she was doing all her traveling on foot since eye witnesses mentioned to have seen her walking. I can't imagine if she arrived in Huntsville at 6:30pm and was doing all her traveling on foot she would make it to the prison in time to make visiting hours unless they either didn't have visiting hours or they had visiting hours run very late into the evening. Again, I'm speaking from a perspective of not knowing exactly sure if they had visiting hours and what times they were IF they did.

 

[Jdart14]

I haven't read everything here so try not to penalize me too much but, has it been discussed that the person she was going to visit at the prison was possibly a warden or guard or cook or some other kind of employee? Do we know without a doubt that she made it to the prison and wasn't picked up by somebody along the way?

As bit of hope said...we don't know if she ever made it to Ellis, the assumption based on timelines/witnesses/visiting hours is that she did not. If she was using the prison as a reference point it IS possible that she made it to her destination before meeting her fate. If I remember correctly her photo was shown to both prisoners and prison workers and both were questioned. The ones that were on duty at the time anyway.

There are a couple possibilities about how she traveled after leaving her "last seen" location The Hitchin' post. 1. She was already with someone and was a passenger when arriving and left again with the same person to reach her destination (possibly the same vehicle that brought her into Huntsville or someone who picked her up between the two sightings). 2. She was confronted by someone at the truck stop and decided to sleep in their car/rig until morning when visiting hours would be open. (possibly her killer) 3. She continued on foot and was picked up along the way by her killer 4. She continued to travel on foot and actually made it to her destination, whoever she was meeting up with ultimately was the one who commited this horrible crime.

There are so many variables in this case that it will make you crazy. And until we have some more concrete evidence pointing to a specific scenario we can continue to speculate!!

 

[BayouGypsy]

I brought up the possibility of the Autry connection way back on the first thread. My theory was , long story short,that she was with Autry just along for the ride to visit his brother, he asked her to get directions maybe. For whatever reason he killed her, told his brother the next day during visitation and brother kept quiet to keep his brother out of trouble. I could totally see her hanging out with the "bad boys". Especially if her home life was troubled.

 

[Jdart14]

I brought up the possibility of the Autry connection way back on the first thread. My theory was , long story short,that she was with Autry just along for the ride to visit his brother, he asked her to get directions maybe. For whatever reason he killed her, told his brother the next day during visitation and brother kept quiet to keep his brother out of trouble. I could totally see her hanging out with the "bad boys". Especially if her home life was troubled.

Its possible....Sounds like from what I've read that Robert had some pretty serious mental issues. Sure wish I could find out more on him. Guess I will continue to look around. Please share if you find more on him. Would be interesting to know if he had any vehicles registered to him..so that we could compare that to witness accounts on the car.

 

[BayouGypsy]

Jdart14, I was looking into this connection back in 2016. I had a notebook with notes from my searches. I got sidetracked and put it away. Going to dig for it as soon as I can. I know I had some bits and pieces of random info that could give us some clues.....I hope.

 

[Mockturtle22]

Botched or lost or tampered with over the 30 plus years. I don't feel like based on the information we do have that the investigation was handled/documented well. Once again "based on what we know". I don't believe that the report has ever been made public. Also I do believe that the practices used/demonstrated in the WCJD case are a reflection of the times as well. They probably felt that they had done a sufficient job with the tools/technology/resources available to them at the time. Would that be acceptable today? Probably not.

Sorry to hear about the case from your hometown. Where are you from?

I agree that posting, using names of others in unconfirmed situations is not a good practice. In this instance in my opinion we are ok. This case is going on 40 years and over those 40 years this particular person in the picture is really one of the most solid leads that have been brought forward as a possible link. whether or not the person in question is our girl the background and story behind both is pretty intriguing. Once you dig in I think you will agree. At this point we have no reported missing person documented that fit our girl, that's not to say she was never reported missing but current records do not reflect that she was. so we have to operate partly based on process of elimination. To do that, at times I guess you must use that kind of information.

That being said and this is all my opinion I understand that....I still as stated before feel like this case will not be solved without the help of DNA at this point. Unless there is a miracle and her information makes it into the hands of the right person who recognizes/remembers her and comes forward, and the chances of that are becoming less and less over time.

Hope you make progress on your hometown case and have some time to help look at this one as well. Everyone have a great week!! God Bless!!

I simply mean that random people who cannot be confirmed as missing or dead, it just ... doesn't help.

My research is coming along. I had to take a few days mental break, turned into like a week lol.

A lovely person from here actually sent me some news clippings and such that I was searching for and could not find. I'm basically just working on my write up to record now. I'm from Carol Stream, IL mainly. Grew up in a few different townships in IL outside the city. But Carol Stream is what I consider my hometown since the age range of 4th grade through 10th grade is a pretty heafty chunk of pivotal years; it was also the last of where we lived in IL all together before moving to Nevada. A lot has changed.

It made me sad, that I didn't know her story.

 

[Mockturtle22]

Came across an interesting find while searching podcasts on Spotify.

A podcast called, "gone cold podcast - texas true crime" has an episode on WCJD. It doesn't share any new details about her or the case that we don't already know and it does go into quite a bit of detail about truck stop serial killers (which I do think is interesting and relevant to consider for this case given where she was last seen). Anyhoo. The podcast also explains a possible suspect by the name Robert Allan Autry. On June 22, 1984,Robert Allan Autry entered the home of 59 year old Zola May Fraiser (without force as he was familiar to her and her home and seen there on many occasions) in Huntsville. Zola lived alone and was depended on a wheelchair. Robert Allan Autry brutally beat her, sexually assaulted her, and strangled her death. The most INTERESTING part was Zola also was found with a deep bite mark (like WCJD). Robert Allan Autry spent the next 2 years in a mental health facility and ultimately hung himself.

Apparently, Robert Allan Autry and his brother, James David Autry had a history of being in and out of jail. The night of October 31/November 1, 1980 James (brother) was in prison right in Huntsville. Robert Allan Autry (the one that murdered Zola May Fraiser) was not....

This is all a dead-end lead given Robert Allan Autry is now dead but I do find the way Zola May Fraiser was murdered, especially being found with a bite mark to be very chilling and curious for this case.

Biters are an odd thing to me.

Richard Macek was a biter... And he had all his teeth removed prior to his arrest so that nothing could be tied to him via dental impressions. If he hadn't been sentenced to over 400 years in 1980 to a Wisconsin asylum, he could have done this one too.

This whole thing is crazy.. Robert Autry is an intriguing character as well.

It's also flooring to me how many murderers are named Robert or Richard. WTF

 

[detective24-7]

I brought up the possibility of the Autry connection way back on the first thread. My theory was , long story short,that she was with Autry just along for the ride to visit his brother, he asked her to get directions maybe. For whatever reason he killed her, told his brother the next day during visitation and brother kept quiet to keep his brother out of trouble. I could totally see her hanging out with the "bad boys". Especially if her home life was troubled.

Interesting and that theory seems very plausible. One of the few theories that makes sense from each angle you look at it from.

 

[detective24-7]

Its possible....Sounds like from what I've read that Robert had some pretty serious mental issues. Sure wish I could find out more on him. Guess I will continue to look around. Please share if you find more on him. Would be interesting to know if he had any vehicles registered to him..so that we could compare that to witness accounts on the car.

My thoughts exactly. I was wondering if we could find any connection to that blue Chevy to one of the Autry brothers.

 

[Bit of hope]

We should consider the spelling of Robert Allan's could be different. In this article the spelling is Allen.

'Cowboy' Autry's brother charged

Autry, who lived nearby, was in the Potter County jail under $75,000 bond. His brother, 29, was executed in Huntsville, Texas, last March for the 1980 murder of a convenience store clerk.

 

[daisy6441]

@MadMcGoo sorry I have been away for a while and just saw your question today. I thought I might have bookmarked the obituary but it looks like I didn't. I did save the picture from it to my computer. I believe I googled his name and truck driver and the city he was from. I used the information there to look up birth records for his children and his death record but didn't find much more about him. That is how I found that he would have had a daughter about WCJD's age.

@Mockturtle22 My husband is named Robert. lol

Autry was from the area or spent time in the area WCJD claimed to be from. A while back I had gone through every record I could find and made a list of every prisoner I could find that was in the Ellis Unit at the time or is buried in the cemetery with a death date after October 1980. I was looking to see if I could find any one else with a connection to Corpus/Rockport/Aransas. I did come up with another prisoner who was about the same age as WCJD when he was arrested for murder in Aransas Pass and sent to Huntsville. I can't find much about the guy besides the fact that he was let out and ended up killing himself after murdering his girlfriend. The one comment I did find about the guy was that he was known to be wild and one man claimed to have been riding around with him and some other guys in a stolen car not long before the murder. I had wondered if WCJD had known him and gone to visit him. The man had a sister that would be about the same age so they could have been friends.
I was prompted to check the message board because I turned on a show on Amazon prime called The Serial Killers. Its an older show and one episode is about Henry Lee Lucas. Some thing they said struck me. They said that HLL and Toole would pick up men for Toole. But when HLL picked up a girl and killed her that Toole would often get mad and after Lucas was done Toole would beat or mutilate the body. But they also said Lucas tended to dump the bodies in a place they wouldn't be easily seen so he could be hours away with no ties to the place once it was discovered. That part doesn't fit as well since WCJD was found right off the highway as I am picturing it. The area is so different now but I don't think there were trees in that area. Of course, she wasn't seen until a truck driver passed a little later in the morning so maybe she wasn't as easily seen as I imagine. They said Lucas liked to pick up girls who were stranded or hitchhiking, girls who wouldn't be missed so quickly.