Since the early 1970s, over 30 murder victims have been discovered along Interstate 45 just south of Houston, Texas, with several bodies being discovered on a 25-acre patch of land along Calder Road that has been deemed the Texas Killing Field. The new Netflix docuseries Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields shines a light on the cases of the young women whose bodies were found in the field and the investigation that followed. Many of the murders went unsolved, and until 2019 two of the victims remained unidentified.

Although the documentary focuses specifically on the four bodies that were found in the Calder Road field, it also takes a brief look at the bodies discovered along the I-45 and the possible suspects in several of these cases. These murders baffled investigators due to the number of victims and their proximity to each other. This raised the question of a possible serial killer, or perhaps multiple killers. With an appalling lack of urgency from law enforcement to find the missing women, most of their bodies weren’t discovered until several months later when they were already significantly decomposed and little to no evidence remained to determine how they were killed and who could have been responsible.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Putting a Face to the Victims

     Netflix

The first body discovered in Calder Road Field (aka The Texas Killing Field) was 25-year-old Heide Fye, whose skull was found by a dog. She had been reported missing by her family in October 1983 and her body was not discovered until April 1984, 6 months after her disappearance. Heide had last been seen at a convenience store using a pay phone when she went missing and police dismissed her concerned family, telling them to give her some time, and that she would come back to them. This prompted her father Joe Villareal to conduct his own investigation to locate his daughter. When her body was discovered, the cause of death was ruled trauma due to several fractured ribs.

Two years later, a second skeleton was discovered in the field only yards away from the first by a couple of kids that had been riding dirt bikes through the area. This body went unidentified. The only evidence they were able to gather from her remains was a bullet lodged in her spine, which was deemed her cause of death. Sketches were drawn to approximate what she might have looked like so that they could identify her, but it wasn’t until 2019 that they found out who she was through genetic genealogy. This skeleton belonged to 30-year-old Audrey Cook, a mechanic who had come to Texas for work and had disappeared in 1985.

In 1986, while the police were searching the area for evidence to identify their Jane Doe, they made a gruesome discovery: a third body, about 100 yards away from the second victim. This skeleton belonged to 16-year-old Laura Miller. Her cause of death was unknown. She had disappeared in September 1984 after her mother dropped her off at the same convenience Heide disappeared from. When Laura didn’t return home her family panicked, believing their daughter had suffered a seizure while walking back home. After visiting hospitals in the area, they went to the police to report her missing and were told that their daughter had likely run away or was staying with friends.

Unfortunately, it didn’t end there. Five years later in 1991, a fourth body was discovered in the same field by a couple that was horseback riding through the area. Yet again, they were unable to identify the body, creating images and replicas of what she might have looked like in order to figure out who these remains belonged to. In 2019, she was finally identified as 34-year-old Donna Prudhomme, a mother of two that had reportedly left her abusive husband and disappeared in 1991.

The Suspects

The prime suspects for the Calder Road killings were Clyde Hendrick and Robert Abel. Clyde Henrick had lived in the same area as Heide Fye and Laura Miller and had previously been charged with abuse of a corpse. He had supposedly hidden the body of another woman Ellen Beason in 1984, but wasn’t charged with her murder until 2012. He served eight years in prison and then was released on a technicality. In the 1970s and 80s he had been working in construction in the same area where Heide and Laura’s bodies were found.

Robert Abel was suspected since he owned property near the Killing Fields. The former NASA scientist at the time owned riding stables and had been known to have difficult relationships with women, having been married and divorced three times, with one ex-wife reporting that he threatened to kill her. His ex-wives also reported his mistreatment of the horses, beating them and if one died he would leave their bodies in the field to rot.

Clyde Hendrick had also been known to be a violent and abusive man, as reported by his former stepdaughter Marla, who recalled how he had behaved towards her mother and herself, including making a hole in the wall to spy on her while she dressed. Her mother finally left him when he destroyed their home. Hendrick later confessed to a fellow inmate that he had murdered Ellen Beason, Heide Fye, and Laura Miller. But with no evidence to convict him, Hendrick couldn’t be charged with their murders.

The shocking lack of evidence in these cases left the families devastated and desperate for closure. Laura Miller’s father Tim, who is featured in the documentary, continued to investigate to find out who was responsible for the death of his daughter. He even founded an organization called Equusearch to help other families search for and locate missing family members and provide support for them during such a difficult time.