GUILTY TX - Billy Joe Harris for rapes of elderly women in 6 counties, 2011

[A_News_Junkie]

Does anyone know what the retirement village, home to one of the victims, looks like and what features it offers? I haven't been able to find any information related to this village, so I can only compare it to the types of retirement residences in my (very rural) area. Based on what I know and see from pictures, it looks as though the local retirement places consist of one massive building, sort of like an apartment complex. These buildings are supposed to be very secure, with one of them providing an emergency call system in every room.

Is the retirement village similar to the retirement buildings in my area? What's the layout like? I have to imagine that there is a pretty good security system in place, whether it be security guards that patrol the area at night/well into the morning, cameras, or a security system - or all of the above. How would this guy be able to get in and get out without being seen? Did he cut the phone line/power in this case? I'm trying to imagine how cut lines would work if this village is similar to the retirement areas near my home and, if so, I don't understand how this could happen without other people and security noticing. Based on personal experience, many elderly people tend to start their day very early, so it seems odd that there were no witnesses.

Anyway, just trying to understand this particular case. If all of this has been asked before and questions were answered, I apologize.

Looks like one single building to me. http://www.thatrentalsite.com/Jennings-Retirement-Village-in-Luling.html
Grab the address and walk around in street view!
Or you might be able to just do it from my link: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=100 C...ent=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

 

[eachandevery]

Looks like one single building to me. http://www.thatrentalsite.com/Jennings-Retirement-Village-in-Luling.html
Grab the address and walk around in street view!
Or you might be able to just do it from my link: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=100 C...ent=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

Hey, thanks! I don't know why I never realized that the picture in one of the articles is actually of the retirement village; I thought it was just a street shot located in the area.

I don't have time to type out a proper post, right now, but I will be back. Based on what I've seen from the map, the area is a lot more rural than I had imagined; it's very similar to where I'm from, strangely enough.

 

[Missizzy]

As far as I can tell, this is a photo of the "retirement village". It's actually in the very first article posted here. I, also, didn't really scrutinize it until the last few days. It looks very much like "elder subsidized housing" throughout central Texas, IMO. I think the reporter just called it a "retirement village".

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583256,00.html

 

[txsvicki]

So, if I'm understanding correctly the last attack was at a Luling retirement village and was an attempted rape and the first attack in Yoakum was also at a retirement village with a second attack at another location where the lady moved? I'm just curious to know if all the attempted rapes were at retirement villages and involved extortion of money in exchange for not raping with promises to be back. Seems like a little different MO than the attacks in larger brick homes with deer heads taken.

 

[A_News_Junkie]

I don't think I have seen this posted, so .....

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...&sig=AHIEtbQpK8W-FRSvzJuy45cxUkJT6r_C4w&pli=1

 

[waltzingmatilda]

Thanks for the link ANJ. Great find! At least there is a bit of a description of the perp.
Young, thin, dark skinned man 5'6"-6' tall.

I wonder if the homes that were burglarized in advance were to case out the residences. I think this is the reason he has struck in homes that are similar in appearance, he knows the floor plan in advance.

I didn't realize the FBI was involved either. Good! I hope they find this sicko soon.

 

[waltzingmatilda]

As far as I can tell, this is a photo of the "retirement village". It's actually in the very first article posted here. I, also, didn't really scrutinize it until the last few days. It looks very much like "elder subsidized housing" throughout central Texas, IMO. I think the reporter just called it a "retirement village".

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583256,00.html

MissIzzy,
Is there any way for us to find out who owns the retirement communities? If one private company owns them all then we may have a connection. Or if it is government subsidized housing, the perp could be a traveling maintenance man. I have a neighbor who was a building 'super' for gov subsidized housing. He would many times be reassigned to other 'projects' within the county if needed.

OT.. the man in my dream that I mentioned looked like a maintenance type man. he wore a blue shirt with a patch (not a nametag)of some kind on the front pocket.

 

[DeepThinker]

That article from the Texas Rangers helps. Now I'm thinking, since these are retirement communities instead of just individual random homes, that narrows the list a bit. Here are my revised thoughts:

1. Traveling salesman (door-to-door, or perhaps something like Schwann's)

2. If the communities are owned by the same company, possibly security. If they patrol the area, the residents wouldn't necessarily know all of them. Especially if he worked overnight.

3. What about an indirect contact? Perhaps a caregiver for a friend or neighbor of the victims? He could observe them while tending to whoever he's assigned to.

4. What if he's something like a regional supervisor? Someone that goes along with, say, their salesperson to show them the route or do a performance review?

There are still so many possiblities....

I still don't understand the cutting of the phone lines a month ahead. That truly means he plots this out. He's not random. I can think of two things:

a. He wants to watch and see what type of response there is to the phone line being cut. Does family respond right away? How much help do these people need?

b. When he cuts the line...is there any way he can attach a tapping device so that when the line is restored, he can listen in on the phone calls and get his info that way?

I think most of this has already been mentioned, but something has to click somewhere. He's stalking another victim...I can feel it.

 

[waltzingmatilda]

Deep Thinker, Number 3 that you mentioned got me thinking about something. there is a company here that sends people to assist the elderly for light house keeping. overnight sitting, etc. I have a teacher friend who does the overnight sitting and has about three different clients that she travels to their homes. What if this perp is overnight sitting for someone else in the neighborhood and slips out in the dark of night and returns to their sitting job before the client awakens.

I think this could be a good possibility. LE should check out any home health care workers who sit with the victims neighbors. JMO

 

[Missizzy]

NJ--The press release from the Texas Rangers has been on their site since the day it was published back in Dec. 2009 but I think you are correct in that it wasn't linked here. Several news sources synopsized the release and I think most of the info got out there. You have to wonder, though, if this PR was posted, in its entirety, in places where women could access it--churches, community centers, doctor's offices, grocery stores.

I believe that knowledge is power and that the Rangers and the rest of the involved LE have not done ALL they could to educate possible victims.

IIRC, the FBI and the US Marshalls have been involved since sometime last summer. I'm assuming that the Texas LE asked for assistance as I don't know what would automatically trigger that involvement.

Because the released info is so scattered and fractured and often mis-reported, I don't know if there's any way to do an actual and firm timeline of places, dates, styles of houses, etc. You have to take a bit from here and a snippet from there....all the time realizing that you are depending on the veracity of the reporting. The officials have not done much to release a clear timeline. To my mind, they actually seem to be intentionally releasing confusing information. This is what irritates me and worries me for the elder ladies of Texas.

 

[Missizzy]

I have not gotten the impression all the rapes have occurred in "retirement villages" or subsidized housing. One thing I watch for is the background of where the reporters stand to do their reports. I have a feeling that they are choosing locations which closely resemble the types of neighborhoods where the rapist has struck. The one video I linked to last week gave, IMO, the most complete set of facts as well as an interview with the Yoakum Police Chief. Now I can't find it. Let me spend some time and I'll see if I can. I hadn't watched this video:

http://www.kbtx.com/local/headlines/83779102.html

as I thought it was the first one. That's what's going nutty in this case. They update articles with new facts without even changing the titles. Anyway, if you watch this one, it is clear that two of the victims in Yoakum went to the same church. Why didn't we know that before Feb. 7th when this was run? That's a FULL year from the first rape.

If we're so darned confused, imagine what the elder women in Texas are feeling.

 

[Missizzy]

Here we go. This is the video I posted last week, it's undated, as far as I can tell. It precedes the one I posted above but I notice that some shots seem similar. Different details are disclosed, however.

http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/small-texas-town-intensifies-search-for-serial-rapist/308887610

This is the video which seemed, last week, to have the most details. It also gives a great view of the town of Yoakum. If you watch both these videos, I think they portray quite well the "tone" of the neighborhoods. I noticed in the Feb. 7th video, that a church was shown. It looks to be St. Joseph's Catholic Church. That would make sense as I'd discovered that the Catholic Church was the only Yoakum church that I could find which had very early services/masses--at 6:30 am on weekdays.

If you will look at some of my posts from last Sunday, starting with #441, I tried to post every disparate detail available at the time. I guess we've got to do it again as they are "sneakily" adding little details without posting new articles.

Why do they do this? I wonder how they do it with print media. I would imagine that most of these ladies read the local papers. Are they making certain to get every one of these details to the people who need them?

 

[waltzingmatilda]

~ respectfully snipped from MissIzzy's post~

If we're so darned confused, imagine what the elder women in Texas are feeling.


Ditto MissIzzy!

I think you are on to something about the church connection. I'm thinking that the connection may be that he is turned on by 'taking' something from a widow who is living a chaste life. He may feel he is performing a 'service' for them in his sick mind.

Regarding the Home Health Care worker idea. If someone is sitting overnights for a neighbor of the victims, the he may be reciving inadvertant, secondary information from his client about these women's movements. For instance, an unsuspecting client could make a comment regarding a neighbor like........."Don't be alarmed if you hear a car door at 6 am because Ms. so and so leaves for early church services." My impression is the elderly/shut-ins know more about their neighbors and their activities than most. I say this because (even tho I am not yet 50) I have an autoimmune disease which causes me to housebound at times. During these times, I have plenty of time on my hands and am very aware of what's going on in the neighborhood. Mainly because I miss going outside. LOL!

Anyway, just another point to ponder, eh? MOO Too!

wm

 

[txsvicki]

I think it's all a bunch of confused mixed up facts that are being given to the public by different media. We'd know hardly anything if it wasn't for a neighbor, a friend, and a couple of victims themselves telling some things. We still don't even know if the women who were NOT raped gave the guy money or how many lived in a retirement community. How do they expect people to be on the outlook for or remember back the last year or more to recall suspicious people who may have crossed their paths. I expect this guy to be caught by a vigilant neighbor or lady with a gun and better aim this time.

 

[WholeLottaRosie]

I wonder if the rapist could work for the Diocese? If all the towns involved are in the same Diocese, maybe he is able to research them via his job. I was thinking of the church connection and then MissIzzy mentioned it regarding the ones in Yoakum, and then I got to thinking maybe the Diocese is the connection. Not that I am necessarily thinking a traveling priest, but, maybe some other employee, especially one that is involved with the diocese's elder services or something. Widow or grief services perhaps.

 

[A_News_Junkie]

I have a friend who is a fellow sleuther (not WS member....... yet, evil grin - I am trying!) and I got her hooked on this case too! So we were talking it out last night on the phone and decided what we found curious was the gaps in the time line. Now, the angle I want to go doesn't apparently lead to an obvious answer as to how he finds his victims but could be interesting for profiling him.

From the sporadic and often conflicting dates we have gathered it seems that he went AWOL from attacks in March, April, May and June. So my thought is what would cause someone to "not be available" for months on end. What about oil rig - offshore jobs? I am not from that area, but it looks like those jobs can be months at a time or 14 days on 14 days off or any variation of days depending on the company and location. So what if our perp takes jobs on an as needed basis. The several months gone - his big income, then we know he has gotten a decent amount of money from the victims - so if he is not offshore, in his down time he would have plenty of time to stalk and maybe even tap his victims phones to get to know them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another point we debated was how the perp goes unnoticed by LE or neighbors. What if he is parking in woods and walking to the location - IE hiding a car. Now, if we take this one step further - what if he is dressing as an old lady or old man so as to not raise suspicion?

:banghead::waitasec::waitasec::banghead:

 

[Missizzy]

NJ--I have to say that I've gotten the best brain storms in talking it over "fresh" with someone unconnected with WS. That's how I came up the idea of the garage and linked to the Idaho rapist story.

I've wondered about the timeline/schedule too. I think it might be somehow connected to a school or college schedule. It could be a job schedule but this guy isn't giving me the impression of being an oil field or off-shore worker. I lived in Texas for 14 years and spent my childhood summers there and that doesn't "feel" right for what we know. JMO

The idea of a diocese worker brought up by Rosie and your idea of possibly cross-dressing are very interesting to me, though. The man's been described as slender and has been noted as being totally naked in one attack. I haven't seen any description of his clothes, so it's certainly possible that he could sneak in under the radar in lady's clothes. I still wonder, though, why a neighbor wouldn't notice even another woman approaching a neighbor house at 4-5 am and unscrewing a lightbulb?

The idea of a diocese volunteer is a viable one. Although, once again, wouldn't a woman recognize someone she's spoken or met before? I think it's got to be someone who sees her up close but not someone who she's noticed--pharm tech, vet tech, newspaper buy, grocery stocker, impostor meter-reader. He's certainly sat and watched for days to get the schedule down so we know he also flies under the radar of neighbors and LE.

My guess is that it's getting mighty "hot" out there in the little Texas towns. I surely wouldn't want to be a newly hired newspaper delivery person who's slender with dark skin. Poor guy wouldn't make it out alive!!

 

[waltzingmatilda]

Now that is a different angle, A News Junkie! You really may be on to something about the perp wearing a disguise. This may explain why he has entered at least one home that we know of well, nekkid. IMO a woman's dress or housecoat would be easily slipped on quickly in a getaway. It would also not raise suspicion in a retirement communitity.

Good thinking too on the time line and oil rig worker idea. I don't know anything about oil rigs but it would make sense that there's more work in March = JUne due to weather conditions improving. It very well could be why he was dormant during this period.

 

[waltzingmatilda]

It is prolly just my imagination, but I am beginning to envision this perp as a creepy Norman Bates type character who has a 'mother complex'.

Could this thin, dark skinned young man be a multi racial child who was born out of wedlock and given up for adoption? Could he be acting out against the Catholic church as well as elderly women?

wm

 

[Missizzy]

WaltzingMatilda--I don't know if you've read the whole thread, but Yoakum is home to the Bluebonnet Youth Ranch. Many troubled or at-risk children have grown up at the Ranch. The kids grow up in a cottage style milieu with houseparents. They attend regular schools in Yoakum and are given assistance with college if they age out of the program.

I've thought from the beginning that this young dark-skinned man is comfortable in "white" neighborhoods (we're talking Central Texas here) and with elder white women. He's described as not speaking with an "accent". This tells me that most definitely this young man is in his element. I think it's not only a possibility but a probability.

I'm very intrigued by the cross-dressing but still wonder about the neighbors. This guy is very very slippery.