GUILTY TX - Megan Holden, 19, Tyler, 20 Jan 2005

[chicoliving]

I heard on Fox that he was a marine, got out in May 2004 and had served in Iraq.....it happened so quick and that has shaken me to the core.

 

[concernedperson]

I heard on Fox that he was a marine, got out in May 2004 and had served in Iraq.....it happened so quick and that has shaken me to the core.

Hey, sweetheart, it has shaken all of us. He was released on an undisclosed disiplinary action. He was also arrested in October of 2004 for cocaine possession, that is the photo that keeps showing up. A punk for sure.

I just keep thinking of Megan's mom trying to get to Tyler PD and her car flips over and she refuses to go to the hospital as she wants to know about Megan. Cut and bruised she is on her way....only to receive the worst news possible. It is absolutely heartwrenching!

 

[amandab]

Does anyone know how to post pictures on their replies, b/c the guy in the TX registry looks a LOT like Johnny Williams, enough so to make me think he may be this guys father....

Ok, Lanie has been so kind as to educate me in the ways of posting pictures here; hope I do it right. I got the pic of Johnny Williams from FoxNews, the other picture is from the Texas sex offender database. The resemblance is uncanny, in my opinion. Perhaps the older Williams is his father?

Abductor

Williams DOB 1944

Thanks Lanie - you rock!
-Amanda

 

[Gabby]

A friend of mine who lives in Chandler Texas, Granddaughter was friends with Megan's sister... this has shaken them up very badly... If he only wanted her vehicle, why did he have to kill her?

Here is the copy of the email I rec'd from her this afternoon:


I don't know how much you heard about the girl from Chandler that was
abducted on Wed. night when she got off work at Wal-Mart (abducted on
Wal-Mart--the one on this side of Tyler, near John Tyler HS--on the loop)
parking lot as she got to her pickup--guy shoved her in the truck and took
off with her). Anyway, they found her body this morning just off the
highway in a ditch near Stanton, TX.

The guy (who is from Tyler) went on and this morning went to a hospital in
Arizona because he had a gunshot wound. He'd tried to hold up some folks
at an RV park and got shot.

Other details are sketchy--but everyone over here is so upset about it. I
didn't know Megan, but her sister, Chrissa was a friend of Briana's--they
went to school together from 4th grade on.

So--please keep this family in your prayers.

 

[Gabby]

Briana came over last night and she had a little bit more details about Megan's abduction. She also told us that Megan had been on her softball team (not sure if it was the Summer League play or if it was JV softball in highschool). Megan was 2 years younger than Chrissa, her sister who was in Briana's grade--about 1 1/2 years younger than Briana.

Yesterday, after the guy had been apprehended in Arizona, the police called Megan's mom (who lives in Henderson now--a little suburb of Tyler on the other side of Tyler from Chandler--Megan was living in Chandler with Chrissa--they are FROM Chandler, the mom had just moved to Henderson after a divorce). Anyway--the mom was on her way to Tyler to the police station, and had a wreck--totaled her car--flipped it 3 times. She doesn't have major injuries, but was badly cut and bruised, but ABSOLUTELY refused to go to hospital. Her only objective was to get to that police station.

Here's another chilling part of the story. Yesterday morning, about 4:30, Chrissa's phone rang one time, but when she answered it, no one was there. She has caller ID and that showed that it was Megan's cellphone number. Chrissa immediately tried to call back, but the cellphone was dead. Chrissa will always wonder if Megan was trying to call asking for help, and that was why the guy shot her.

Sounds like the guy is a complete nut case--was sent home from Iraq!!! They interviewed his mom on TV last night and she looks like a really nice, not trashy at all, black lady. She said that she didn't know what happened to her son in the service, but that after he was sent home, he was never, ever the same.


So very, very sad!!!

 

[monkalup]

I totally agree with you monkalup !!! It's time for customers and employees alike to step up and tell Walmart (as well as other retailers) they'd better give better service and safty in the parking lot or we'll boycott them ! Their PR isn't all that great at the moment anyway. They'd respond. LET'S DO IT !!! We could save somebody's life.

I'm all for it! Employees and customers should be protected at least as well as their merchandise is. Walmart doesn't hesitate to ask young single women to work late, so we needn't heistate to ask them to provide protection. However, as a cautionary tale...
Jean Marie Stewart was abducted from a parked car in a parking lot, less than ten feet from the front door of a convenience store. Also in a very nice neighborhood. Never sit in a parked car waiting for someone, or if you must, make sure all doors are locked. Parking lots may well be the most dangerous place to be even though we may think of it as safe becasue of all the people/cameras around. The proximity of other cars makes them particularly dangerous.

 

[Love_Mama]

What a horrible and tragic ending. Read it in this morning's paper.
I think all these big stores show have guards in their parking lots.
I would no more go shopping at nite without a big strong guy with me and never, even during the day park in an underground lot.

I think this is worth a letter to the editor in my newspaper.........which I will write today. Hope you guys will do the same.

xxxxxxxxxxxoooooooo
mama

 

[englishleigh]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3002701

She was located in a ditch - the suspect was put into custody after reporting to a hospital for treatment of a gun shot wound supposedly recieved when he tried to hold up an individual for money -

I'm so glad that this would-be victim in AZ shot this guy...it might have taken far longer to locate and apprehend him had he not. Prayers for Megan's family. I read the part Gabby posted about Megan's cell phone calling and showing up on Chrissa's Caller ID at 4:30 am....I have heard so many accounts of a loved one dying and the relative gets an eerie heads-up like that or in some way has a last connection to the person at the moment of their death, without realizing what it means at the time. It's almost as if Megan was saying goodbye to her sister. I am so very sorry this happened, it's just beyond tragic.

 

[nancy]

This is just awful. I'm sending my prayers to her family.

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

Originally posted by amandab: Ok, Lanie has been so kind as to educate me in the ways of posting pictures here; hope I do it right. I got the pic of Johnny Williams from FoxNews, the other picture is from the Texas sex offender database. The resemblance is uncanny, in my opinion. Perhaps the older Williams is his father?

Abductor

Williams DOB 1944

There is an uncanny resemblance ... odd to say the least.

Philadelphia news said today that Johnny Williams' mother had told her that he had to kill 3 people, including a child. Maybe this is why they are looking at him in connection with other missing people. If I'm remembering correctly, his mother said that he told her this while he was still in Iraq. If only she would have told someone or tried to get him help before this happened.

How absolutely pathetic that this guy not only approached other women in the lot but that security approached him, bought his story about waiting for a ride, and never checked up on him after that. You know, all the security and video surveillance in the world doesn't do a shred of good if we only look at it AFTER an incident!!! That's why parking lots are so dangerous. Everyone knows the cameras are there but everyone also knows that no one is watching them. Then when you see video surveillance on the news when they're looking for a suspect, it seems that nine times out of ten, the video is either so far away or so fuzzy & distorted that you can't see what the perpetrator looks like. Why even have the security if one of your own employees can be kidnapped from your own parking lot with no one noticing anything? Walmart ought to be ashamed of themselves.

 

[englishleigh]

I smell a huge lawsuit against Wal-Mart over this one, and I wouldn't blame the family one bit.

 

[txsvicki]

I totally agree with you monkalup !!! It's time for customers and employees alike to step up and tell Walmart (as well as other retailers) they'd better give better service and safty in the parking lot or we'll boycott them ! Their PR isn't all that great at the moment anyway. They'd respond. LET'S DO IT !!! We could save somebody's life.

I don't think it would do any good. Walmart has so many stores and makes billions. The store where I live is always packed to the gills with idiot shoppers and employees screaming over the intercom. Some of the clerks and stockers look like and act like ex cons. I once reported a theft to a moronic security manning the front door. Some lady was in the very lane out front that wasn't covered by the video camera. She was loading huge boxes of laundry detergent into a beat up old car. Throwing them in and looking at the front door every few seconds. It was obviously an employee theft because the truck was visible over to the side of the building and the stockers were all going out to break. I knew what they looked like due to nearly being literally run over by them several times in the store as they ran down aisles with their pallets. He did nothing so I went home and called the manager. Just last month I saw that same goofy guard still working there. They don't care about the safety of shoppers, so I know they could care less about this poor girl or they would have been monitoring the parking lot or providing safety in the first place.

 

[Gabby]

I heard from my friend in Chandler, Megan's funeral will more than likely be towards the end of the week. The Autopsy is being performed now. Please continue to keep this family in your prayers

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

I agree that a lot of idiots seem to work in many retail positions but I don't think that Walmart couldn't care less about this girl. They are trying to protect their butts right now but probably don't have good security because they either believed the protection was adequate or didn't think anything like this would ever happen. I think that boycotting the store is an awesome idea. With a solid organizational effort behind it, even if all Walmart cares about is their bottom line, they would have no choice but to do something about it or eventually go out of business. The power of consumers is limitless ... the reason they have so many stores & make billions is because of people like us shopping there. Corporations like this seem so big & powerful that we can't touch them but remember that WE created them. I think everyone should consider looking into this idea further. Nothing can bring back this girl that should never have been vulnerable in that parking lot in the first place, (if Walmart had provided the kind of security that they should have), but we should keep her in our minds & hearts as the reason that we DEMAND that the issue of security be addressed. Megan deserves that.

 

[WasBlind]

I smell a huge lawsuit against Wal-Mart over this one, and I wouldn't blame the family one bit.

By The Associated Press
(02/23/05 - MARSHALL, TX) — The parents of a Wal-Mart clerk abducted from a store and killed after her shift have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the retailer.

Channel 13 Houston

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

KVIA.com - Suspect in clerk killing arraigned on capital murder charge

A Tyler man accused of abducting and killing a Wal-Mart clerk after her shift ended has been arraigned today on a capital murder charge.Twenty-four-year-old Johnny Lee Williams Junior pleaded innocent.

Jury selection begins June 23rd in Tyler...

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

Tyler Morning Telegraph

... Megan LeAnn Holden, a clerk at the store who had just started attending classes at Tyler Junior College, was allegedly kidnapped on Jan. 19, sexually assaulted, strangled and shot to death before her body was discarded in a West Texas ditch.

The indictment charges him with exhibiting a deadly weapon - a firearm or his hands and arms, allegedly used to strangle her...

Members of the victim's family were in court on Friday, as well as Williams' father. More deputies were on hand than usual for security measures during the brief hearing.

The trial is set for July 25...

Judge Kent issued a restrictive and protective order even before Williams was indicted, limiting the information that those involved in the case can disseminate to the public.

 

[Sheromom]

Shortly after this suit was filed, Wal-Mart started making us park even further away from the entrance.

 

[lisag]

Shortly after this suit was filed, Wal-Mart started making us park even further away from the entrance.

Do you mean as an employee ?? So, your saying they are not taking this law suit seriosuly at all ?? Thats terrible.

 

[Sheromom]

Do you mean as an employee ?? So, your saying they are not taking this law suit seriosuly at all ?? Thats terrible.

The norm.