On Wednesday morning, a crowd of people wearing yellow T-shirts branded with "Texas EquuSearch" filed into the Galveston County Courthouse. At the front of the group was Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller, whose body was found in the "Texas Killing Fields" area during the 1980s.
The group was there to hear Galveston County District Attorney Kenneth Cusick announce that 61-year-old James Elmore from Bacliff is facing criminal charges for his alleged connection with two murders that are part of a decades-old case.
The indictments are part of a renewed effort to hold accountable those responsible for the notoriously unsolved deaths of around 30 women, whose bodies were found in an area referred to as the Texas Killing Fields — near the intersection of Calder Road and Ervin Street in League City, which is located between Houston and Galveston. Between 1984 and 1991 in particular, four women’s bodies were found and identified as Heidi Fye-Villareal, Audrey Cook, Donna Prudhomme and Laura Miller.
The indictments against Elmore come just over a week after a prime suspect in the murders, Clyde Hedrick, died in a Houston hospital before the case was brought to a grand jury. Cusick alleged that Hedrick took his own life by removing his breathing tube.
Hedrick died March 21 while on supervised parole after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2014 for the 1984 death of Ellen Beason in League City, another young woman who went missing
around the same time as Fye-Villareal and Miller. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but released on parole in 2021.
Hedrick was not charged with crimes in connection to any of the other deaths.
Cusick said the investigation doesn't stop at Elmore or the death of Hedrick. The district attorney said the investigation into the Texas Killing Fields case is ongoing and that more charges could come.
"This is not over with. Just because Mr. Hedrick is dead, Mr. Elmore has been charged, and he's facing his charges, there are other active leads in the case," Cusick said.
Since 2000, Tim Miller has worked tirelessly withTexas EquuSearch, which he foundedtohelp recover and return lost and missing loved ones to their families. He also claimed the investigation into the Texas Killing Fields case wasn't over and that he expects they will recover more bodies.
Just because there was an arrest and everything today, don't think that Tim Miller is going to walk away from EquuSearch and quit helping families. No, I think we're just getting started again," he said Wednesday.
Fye-Villareal's niece, Nina Jager, also spoke after a news conference Wednesday.
"It's sad that Clyde didn't get to pay for what he did, on one hand,” Jager said. “On the other hand, I'm glad that he no longer breathes the same air that we do here on Earth and that he's met his maker.”
Tim Miller said over the last four years, he met with Elmore a minimum of 30 times, alleging that Elmore gave him information about the deaths.
"I was as strong as I could be in front of him, but I had to pull over and just sob and cry with the information I got," he said. "[Elmore] reached out to me for what reason, I don't know."
Cusick said Tim Miller approached him last December to get fresh eyes on the case.
A defense attorney for Elmore was not listed in online court records as of late Wednesday afternoon.
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