For two decades, an unidentified serial killer terrorized young couples throughout small towns in Florence, Italy. However, it wasn’t until 1982 — 14 years after the first murder — that police realized a string of seemingly random unsolved double-homicides were connected, per Biography.
That turning point was when director and co-creator Stefano Sollima decided to begin his four-part limited series for Netflix.
“We decided to tell the story from the beginning, when investigators started connecting the dots and realized this might be the act of a serial killer,” he told TIME in October 2025. “We wanted to tell the story of the Monster without taking a position. Instead of focusing on the investigation, we kept it in the background and decided to focus on the individual suspects who, in each episode or case, were considered by the investigators to be the culprits.”
The culprits in question were a group of Sardinian men known collectively as the “Sardinia trail.” The theory began after bullets from the 1982 murders of Paolo Mainardi and Antonella Migliorini matched those from the 1968 killings of Barbara Locci and Antonio Lo Bianco.
At the time, Locci’s husband, Stefano Mele, was incarcerated for her murder. But because the killings continued while he was imprisoned, police believed the real Il Mostro (Italian for “the monster”) was still on the loose.
Multiple men were suspected and even convicted in some of the 16 murders linked to the serial killer. But as Sollima noted to TIME, no perpetrator has been sentenced for all eight double homicides, and the initial suspects sent police in circles while the bodies kept piling up.
Here’s everything to know about what The Monster of Florence got right and which elements of the real case were fictionalized.
Warning: The Monster of Florence spoilers ahead!
Did police not discover a serial killer until after Migliorini and Mainardi’s murders?
Emanuela Scarpa/Netflix
‘The Monster of Florence’.
Yes, Italian police did not investigate the possibility of a serial killer until Migliorini and Mainardi’s murders in June 1982. Like the other eight couples who were killed, they were found shot and stabbed in their cars.
At the scene of the crime, investigators found Winchester “series H” bullets, which were used with a .22-caliber Beretta pistol, per TIME. They later received an anonymous tip that led them to link the gun to the 1968 murders of Locci and Lo Bianco, according to The Guardian.
That discovery led police to connect those two cases to three other double-homicides from the past decade: Pasquale Gentilcore and Stefania Pettini, Giovanni Foggi and Carmela De Nuccio and Stefano Baldi and Susanna Cambi. Though police linked the .22 Beretta to all eight crime scenes, it was never found, per The Hollywood Reporter Roma.
Were Lo Bianco and Locci Il Mostro’s first victims?
Emanuela Scarpa/Netflix
‘The Monster of Florence’.
Yes, Lo Bianco and Locci — found fatally shot inside a parked car in August 1968 — are widely believed to be the first victims of Il Mostro. At the time of the killing, Locci’s 6-year-old son was asleep in the backseat of the car. He survived the attack and reportedly ran to get help.
However, not everyone considers Locci and Lo Bianco to be victims of Il Mostro. Michele Giuttari, a former lead investigator for the case, told The Guardian in October 2025 that the “Sardinia Trail” was a red herring and that the ballistics connection between the 1968 and 1974 murders had not been proven.
Was Mele convicted of Lo Bianco and Locci’s murders?
Emanuela Scarpa/Netflix
‘The Monster of Florence’.
In the real-life case, Locci’s husband was convicted of the double homicide in 1970 and sentenced to 45 years in prison, per Biography and Forbes. Mele had initially confessed to killing his wife and Lo Bianco, with whom she had been having an affair, according to TIME. However, he later retracted his statement and shifted the blame onto several Sardinian men who allegedly had romantic ties to Locci.
One of those men was Francesco Vinci, whom Locci also allegedly had an affair with. He was arrested along with his brother, Salvatore Vinci, Mele’s brother, Giovanni Mele, and Mele’s brother-in-law, Piero Mucciarini.
Mele was freed when police linked Locci and Lo Bianco’s murders to other killings that had happened when he was incarcerated. The same happened to all the Sardinian suspects, who were officially cleared in 1989.
Did Salvatore Vinci kill his first wife?
Emanuela Scarpa/Netflix
‘The Monster of Florence’.
When police focused on Salvatore Vinci as a suspect, it came to light that his late wife had died in the 1960s under suspicious circumstances in Sardinia, according to The Guardian and TIME. Police believed he was romantically involved not only with Locci but also with Mele.
In 1985, he was tried and acquitted for the murder of his first wife. After that, he disappeared. The last Il Mostro murder — when French couple Nadine Mauriot and Jean Michel Kraveichvili were shot while on a camping holiday — happened that same year.
A photographer who was on “The Dating Game” became one of the nation’s deadliest serial killers — eight years after “48 Hours”‘ first report, new victims emerge. Correspondent Peter Van Sant investigates.
The bound bodies of four women are found along a desolate stretch of beach. Disturbing new details about the architect police say is a serial killer. “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
September’s in full swing, which brings us ever closer to the spooky season! THP’s book team have had a solid mix of paranormal and Gothic fantasies this month. All with some romance included, of course. But before we introduce our next book review, we want to set the scene.
It’s 19th-century Manhattan and London. There’s a killer on the loose. And his hunter? A vengeful, newly awakened Medusa. With multiple perspectives and a thrilling timeline, Julie Berry’s If Looks Could Kill is an incredible and unique read.
We thoroughly enjoyed Julie Berry’s new novel, and we’re hoping you’re interested in reading it, too. Here are three signs to know if If Looks Could Kill is a good fit for your TBR!
Image Source: Simon & Schuster
Book Overview: If Looks Could Kill
Content warnings: serial murder, death, violence, gore, bodies, sex trafficking, mentions of rape and sexual assault, alcohol use, forced captivity, guns, weapons, serious injury (Please read at your discretion!)
Summary:It’s autumn 1888, and Jack the Ripper is on the run. As London police close in, he flees England for New York City seeking new victims. But a primal force of female vengeance has had enough. With serpents for hair and a fearsome gaze, an awakened Medusa is hunting for one thing: Jack.
And other dangers lurk in Manhattan’s Bowery. Salvation Army volunteers Tabitha and Pearl discover that a girl they once helped has been forced to work in a local brothel. Tabitha’s an upstate city girl with a wry humor and a thirst for adventure, while farmgirl Pearl takes everything with stone-cold seriousness. Their brittle partnership is tested as they team up with an aspiring girl reporter and a handsome Irish bartender to mount a rescue effort, only to find their fates entwine with Medusa’s and Jack’s.
You’re A True Crime Fan
If you love true crime documentaries and podcasts, then we’ll take that as a sign that you’ll enjoy If Looks Could Kill. The infamous story of serial killer Jack the Ripper continues to be prominent in today’s media. (Do we dare say he was the blueprint?) And in this thriller, he meets his match against Medusa. We love how this story pits these two historical figures together into one timeline. It couldn’t be clearer that the author did her due diligence in creating the lore and thoroughly researching each facet of it.
You Love Feminist Revenge Tales
We recognize the ancient myth of Medusa as a story of female rage, revenge, and empowerment. In If Looks Could Kill, there isn’t only one Medusa. Any woman with a dark past or traumatic experience dealing with men can develop the powers to turn them into stone. As long as the men are capable of feeling enough guilt and shame for their heinous acts against women. The Medusa’s are ruthless, and rightfully so. But they’re also fiercely loyal and protective of their sisters, turning their rage into something lethal.
You Enjoy A Romance Subplot
Amid the dark and heavy themes within If Looks Could Kill, we get a taste of romance between Tabitha, a Salvation Army volunteer, and Mike, a handsome Irish bartender. Their sweet courtship had us grinning ear to ear, especially seeing Tabitha meet Mike’s family. The two of them get into plenty of sticky situations dealing with thugs from a local brothel to the police to Medusa. But their romance gave us some relief in between Jack and Pearl’s perspectives. They absolutely deserved their happy ending.
With a deadly matchup between the infamous Jack the Ripper and a newly awakened Medusa, If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry is a historical thriller that instantly reels you in!
If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry comes out September 16th, and you can order a copy of it here!
What do you think of Julie Berry’s new book, If Looks Could Kill? Did you love the true crime and ancient mythology mashup? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
Nearly five decades ago, the “Son of Sam” terrorized New York City. In a 2017 prison interview, convicted serial killer David Berkowitz tells CBS News what led him to shoot. “CBS Evening News” co-anchor Maurice DuBois reports.
Investigators are locked in a 30-year game of cat and mouse with a child serial killer to find the body of 12-year-old Sara. “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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LONG ISLAND, New York (WABC) — Even though there has been an arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, investigators are still trying to solve cold case murders.
Monday, we expect to see a new sketch of one of the Gilgo Beach victims, an Asian male whose remains were recovered along ocean parkway in April 2011.
There is a sketch that was previously released in the investigation.
The goal is to learn more about the victim, including his identity, and ask for the public’s help.
Authorities are not expected to announce any new charges against Rex Heuermann, the architect and father who has pleaded not guilty to killing six women.
Investigators found 10 other bodies in the search for missing sex worker Shannan Gilbert on a stretch of beach along Long Island’s South Shore.
He was first charged with the deaths of women known as the “Gilgo Four” — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Amber Costello — whose bodies were found covered in burlap in December 2010, according to court records.
Earlier this year, investigators charged Heuermann with the murders of two more women — the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor, whose remains were found on Gilgo Beach and in Manorville, and the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla, whose remains were found in North Sea, Long Island, in 1993.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to their murders.
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Newly discovered DNA could shed light on one of Italy’s most famous cold cases, finally revealing the “Monster of Florence” serial killer who murdered young couples in the 1970s and 80s.
More than half a century since the first shocking murders sowed terror in Tuscany, doubt over the murderer or murderers continues to cloud the case, even though three different men have been convicted and sent to prison over the years for some of the 14 or more murders.
But some are still unaccounted for and many questions remain.
Now, a new scientific finding has given hope to some of the victims’ families, even while experts advise caution.
A prominent Italian doctor practicing oncology and hematology in the United States, Lorenzo Iovino, recently studied earlier analyses of DNA samples from a .22 caliber Winchester bullet found in 2015 in a cushion belonging to Nadine Mauriot and Jean-Michel Kraveichvili, a French couple shot dead in their camping tent in 1985.
Stock pictures of Jean Michel Kravcichili and Nadine Mauriot, two french tourists found murdered in 1985 in San Casciano Val di Pesa, near Florence.
BRUNELLESCO TORRINI via AP
That same DNA was taken from similar bullets found after the September 1983 murder of two German university students, Horst Wilhelm Meyer and Jens-Uwe Rusch, who investigators believed were probably mistaken for a couple — and the murder of Italians Pia Rontini and Claudio Stefanacci in July 1984.
The DNA could prove to be “very important,” Daniele Piccione, a lawyer who chaired a parliamentary inquiry commission into an unsolved aspect of the case that ended in 2022, told AFP.
Murder weapon never found
The “monster” or “monsters” of Florence terrorized the capital of Tuscany and its countryside between 1974 and 1985 by murdering 14 people, including six couples, most of whom were shot in their cars during or immediately following sexual intercourse.
Italy was then going through a bloody period of political violence dubbed the “Years of Lead,” in which the Red Brigades and armed groups of the extreme right, together with mafia violence, caused thousands of deaths.
The murder weapon in the cold case — a Beretta semi-automatic pistol — has never been found. Often, the assassin stabbed his victims after death, committing atrocious sexual mutilations on the corpses of the young women.
A man covers with a tent the lifeless body Nadine Mauriot, of France, killed along with her boyfriend Jean Michel Kravcicvili in San Casciano Val di Pesa, Italy, in this Sept. 9, 1985 file photo.
AP Photo/Torrini
The sprawling case was hindered by competition between two investigating authorities — the regular police and the carabinieri force — as well as between prosecutors and judges.
Investigators followed multiple leads, from a Sardinian vendetta to the Italian secret services, from a sect to a conspiracy of notables.
Finally, a poor farmer portrayed as violent and sex-obsessed by prosecutors, Pietro Pacciani — already convicted of homicide in 1951 and imprisoned in 1987 for raping his two daughters — was sentenced to life in 1994.
Pacciani, who called himself “innocent as Christ on the cross”, was acquitted on appeal two years later, but he was awaiting retrial when he died in 1998 of a heart attack at the age of 73.
Two of Pacciani’s alleged accomplices, Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, were also found guilty and sent behind bars. Both have since died.
In 2007, an FBI profile of the serial killer said the murderer acted alone, according to NBC News.
“She could have fought with the assassin”
Lawyers for the civil parties in the case are now asking for the DNA identified by Iovino to be compared.
But with whose?
Vieri Adriani, a lawyer for the families of the French victims, wants the body of Italian victim Stefania Pettini, murdered in September 1974 with her boyfriend Pasquale Gentilcore, to be exhumed.
“We know, according to the medical examiner’s report, that she could have fought with the assassin, and it’s not impossible to imagine that there remained biological traces, under her fingernails, for example,” he told La Repubblica daily this week, confirming his comments to AFP.
Under the same logic, DNA could also be taken from Gentilcore’s clothing.
According to Iovino, the new DNA does not match that of the victims nor with anyone convicted over the decades.
For Roberto Taddeo, a former lawyer and author of a compendium on “the Monster of Florence”, the new DNA could be due to contamination by investigators, technicians or forensic scientists who worked on the case.
Taddeo recommended “the greatest caution,” warning against falling into judicial “revisionism.”
Stock pictures of Pia Rontini and Claudio Stefanacci, both shot to death in the seventh such double murder in the Florence area since 1968.
AP Photo
“Pacciani did not die innocent in the eyes of Italian law, he died before his new trial,” he told AFP.
A first murder sometimes attributed to the elusive killer or killers dates back to 1968, when a woman and her lover were murdered during their clandestine lovemaking in a car.
The deceived husband was convicted. Years later, investigators discovered that the murder weapon was the famous Beretta from the “Monster of Florence” killings.
Did the weapon change hands? Did an innocent man pay for the guilty one?
The early double homicide remains one of the many mysteries of the case.
Filmmakers and authors cover infamous case
The infamous case is the basis of a Netflix drama called “Il Mostro,” which is based on court testimony, legal documents and reporters’ investigations.
“Telling the truth, and only that, is the only way to bring justice to the victims,” director Stefano Sollima told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year.
In 2021, Deadline reported that Antonio Banderas had been cast to play Italian crime reporter Mario Spezi in a series called “The Monster of Florence,” based on the book by Spezi and American novelist Douglas Preston. In the book, the authors uncovered a series of alleged mistakes made by police during their investigation of the murders.
Spezi was arrested in 2006 by authorities in a probe that also entangled Preston, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors accused the journalist of slander and of sidetracking their investigation into the “Monster of Florence” murders.
The bound bodies of four women are found along a desolate stretch of beach. Disturbing new details about the architect police say is a serial killer. “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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A photographer who was on “The Dating Game” became one of the nation’s deadliest serial killers. Eight years after “48 Hours”‘ first report, new victims emerge. Correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.
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“Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz, who set New York City on edge with late-night shootings in the 1970s, was denied parole after his twelfth board appearance.
Berkowitz, 70, was rejected after a Board of Parole prison interview on May 14, according to information listed on a state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision web site. Officials with the corrections agency would not provide additional information on Tuesday.
Berkowitz terrorized the city with a series of shootings that killed six people and wounded seven beginning in July 1976. The shooter targeted young women and couples sitting in cars. The papers called him the “.44 Caliber Killer.” In taunting notes to police and a journalist, he called himself “Son of Sam” and said he received demonic messages to kill.
Berkowitz was arrested Aug. 10, 1977, a little more than a year after the first victim, Donna Lauria, was shot and killed in the Bronx.
Police officers escort accused serial killer David Berkowitz (left), known as the Son of Sam, into the 84th precinct station, New York, New York, on Aug. 10, 1977
Getty
The New York Police Department formed a 200-person task force to find the killer. The case was finally cracked after a witness reported a strange man on the street near the final shooting. Police checked traffic tickets that had been issued in the area and traced them to Berkowitz’s car and home in nearby Yonkers.
Berkowitz was sentenced in 1978 to the maximum prison term of 25 years to life for each of the six slayings. He first became eligible for parole in 2002.
He is being held at Shawangunk Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison about 60 miles north of New York City.
In a 2017 interview with CBS News, Berkowitz sais he was “started to get into a lot of satanic stuff” during the time he carried out the killings. He has since expressed remorse and said he is a born-again Christian.
“I’ve apologized many times and I just always sort of let them know that I’m very sorry for what happened and, eh, I wish I could go back and change things,” Berkowitz said in 2017. “And I hope these people are getting along in life as best as possible. I never forget where I came from, and what my situation was like some four decades ago. People that were hurt, people that are still in pain, suffering the loss because of my criminal actions. And I never forget that. Sometimes that weighs very heavy on me.”
Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical team members repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection.Creech, 73, has been in prison half a century, convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more. He was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed.Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., was wheeled into the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m.Three medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV, Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt told a news conference afterward. In some cases, they couldn’t access the vein, and in others they could but had concerns about vein quality. They attempted sites in his arms, legs, hands and feet. At one point, a medical team member left to gather more supplies.The warden announced he was halting the execution at 10:58 a.m.The corrections department said its death warrant for Creech would expire, and that it was considering next steps. While other medical procedures might allow for the execution, the state is mindful of the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Tewalt said.Creech’s attorneys immediately filed a new motion for a stay in U.S. District Court, saying “the badly botched execution attempt” proves the department’s “inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution.” The court granted the stay after Idaho confirmed it would not try again to execute him before the death warrant expired; the state will have to obtain another warrant if it wants to carry out the execution.“This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution,” the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said in a written statement. “This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates.”Six Idaho officials, including Attorney General Raul Labrador, and four news media representatives, including an Associated Press reporter, were on hand to witness the attempt — which was to be Idaho’s first execution in 12 years.The execution team was made up entirely of volunteers, the corrections department said. Those tasked with inserting the IVs and administering the lethal drug had medical training, but their identities were kept secret. They wore white balaclava-style face coverings and navy scrub caps to conceal their faces.With each attempt to insert an IV, the medical team cleaned the skin with alcohol, injected a numbing solution, cleaned the skin again and then attempted to place the IV catheter. Each attempt took several minutes, with medical team members palpating the skin and trying to position the needles.Creech frequently looked toward his family members and representatives, who were sitting in a separate witness room. His arms were strapped to the table, but he often extended his fingers toward them.He appeared to mouth “I love you” to someone in the room on occasion.After the execution was halted, the warden approached Creech and whispered to him for several minutes, giving his arm a squeeze.A few hours afterward, Labrador released a statement saying that “justice had been delayed again.”“Our duty is to seek justice for the many victims and their families who experienced the brutality and senselessness of his actions,” the attorney general wrote.Creech’s attorneys filed a flurry of late appeals hoping to forestall his execution. They included claims that his clemency hearing was unfair, that it was unconstitutional to kill him because he was sentenced by a judge rather than a jury — and that the state had not provided enough information about how it obtained the lethal drug, pentobarbital, or how it was to be administered.But the courts found no grounds for leniency. Creech’s last chance — a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — was denied a few hours before the scheduled execution Wednesday.On Tuesday night, Creech spent time with his wife and ate a last meal including fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and ice cream.A group of about 15 protesters gathered outside the prison Wednesday, at one point singing “Amazing Grace.”An Ohio native, Creech has spent most of his life behind bars in Idaho. He was acquitted of a killing in Tucson, Arizona, in 1973 — authorities nevertheless believe he did it, as he used the victim’s credit card to travel to Oregon. He was later convicted of a 1974 killing in Oregon and one in California, where he traveled after earning a weekend pass from a psychiatric hospital.Later that year, Creech was arrested in Idaho after killing John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold, two house painters who had picked him and his girlfriend up while they were hitchhiking.He was serving a life sentence for those murders in 1981 when he beat Jensen to death. Jensen was disabled and serving time for car theft.Jensen’s family members described him during Creech’s clemency hearing last month as a gentle soul who loved hunting and being outdoors. Jensen’s daughter was 4 years old when he died, and she spoke about how painful it was to grow up without a father.Creech’s supporters say he is a deeply changed man. Several years ago he married the mother of a correctional officer, and former prison staffers said he was known for writing poetry and expressing gratitude for their work.During his clemency hearing, Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Longhorst did not dispute that Creech can be charming. But she said he is nevertheless a psychopath — lacking remorse and empathy.Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed a law authorizing execution by firing squad when lethal injection is not available. Prison officials have not yet written a standard operating policy for the use of firing squad, nor have they constructed a facility where a firing squad execution could occur. Both would have to happen before the state could attempt to use the new law, which would likely trigger several legal challenges.Other states have also had trouble carrying out lethal injections.Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months to conduct an internal review after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in November 2022 — the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.Smith in January became the first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas. He shook and convulsed for several minutes on the death chamber gurney during the execution. Idaho does not allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia.In 2014, Oklahoma officials tried to halt a lethal injection when the prisoner, Clayton Lockett, began writhing after being declared unconscious. He died after 43 minutes; a review found his IV line came loose.
(Video: KBOI, IDOC – IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION, CNN via CNN Newsource) —
Idaho halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech on Wednesday after medical team members repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection.
Creech, 73, has been in prison half a century, convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more. He was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed.
Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., was wheeled into the execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution on a gurney at 10 a.m.
Three medical team members tried eight times to establish an IV, Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt told a news conference afterward. In some cases, they couldn’t access the vein, and in others they could but had concerns about vein quality. They attempted sites in his arms, legs, hands and feet. At one point, a medical team member left to gather more supplies.
The warden announced he was halting the execution at 10:58 a.m.
The corrections department said its death warrant for Creech would expire, and that it was considering next steps. While other medical procedures might allow for the execution, the state is mindful of the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Tewalt said.
Idaho Department of Correction via AP
FILE – This image provided by the Idaho Department of Correction shows Thomas Eugene Creech on Jan. 9, 2009. Idaho on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech, one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the U.S., after a medical team repeatedly failed to find a vein where they could establish an intravenous line to carry out the lethal injection. (Idaho Department of Correction via AP, File)
Creech’s attorneys immediately filed a new motion for a stay in U.S. District Court, saying “the badly botched execution attempt” proves the department’s “inability to carry out a humane and constitutional execution.” The court granted the stay after Idaho confirmed it would not try again to execute him before the death warrant expired; the state will have to obtain another warrant if it wants to carry out the execution.
“This is what happens when unknown individuals with unknown training are assigned to carry out an execution,” the Federal Defender Services of Idaho said in a written statement. “This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates.”
Six Idaho officials, including Attorney General Raul Labrador, and four news media representatives, including an Associated Press reporter, were on hand to witness the attempt — which was to be Idaho’s first execution in 12 years.
The execution team was made up entirely of volunteers, the corrections department said. Those tasked with inserting the IVs and administering the lethal drug had medical training, but their identities were kept secret. They wore white balaclava-style face coverings and navy scrub caps to conceal their faces.
With each attempt to insert an IV, the medical team cleaned the skin with alcohol, injected a numbing solution, cleaned the skin again and then attempted to place the IV catheter. Each attempt took several minutes, with medical team members palpating the skin and trying to position the needles.
Creech frequently looked toward his family members and representatives, who were sitting in a separate witness room. His arms were strapped to the table, but he often extended his fingers toward them.
He appeared to mouth “I love you” to someone in the room on occasion.
After the execution was halted, the warden approached Creech and whispered to him for several minutes, giving his arm a squeeze.
A few hours afterward, Labrador released a statement saying that “justice had been delayed again.”
“Our duty is to seek justice for the many victims and their families who experienced the brutality and senselessness of his actions,” the attorney general wrote.
Creech’s attorneys filed a flurry of late appeals hoping to forestall his execution. They included claims that his clemency hearing was unfair, that it was unconstitutional to kill him because he was sentenced by a judge rather than a jury — and that the state had not provided enough information about how it obtained the lethal drug, pentobarbital, or how it was to be administered.
But the courts found no grounds for leniency. Creech’s last chance — a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court — was denied a few hours before the scheduled execution Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, Creech spent time with his wife and ate a last meal including fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and ice cream.
A group of about 15 protesters gathered outside the prison Wednesday, at one point singing “Amazing Grace.”
An Ohio native, Creech has spent most of his life behind bars in Idaho. He was acquitted of a killing in Tucson, Arizona, in 1973 — authorities nevertheless believe he did it, as he used the victim’s credit card to travel to Oregon. He was later convicted of a 1974 killing in Oregon and one in California, where he traveled after earning a weekend pass from a psychiatric hospital.
Later that year, Creech was arrested in Idaho after killing John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold, two house painters who had picked him and his girlfriend up while they were hitchhiking.
He was serving a life sentence for those murders in 1981 when he beat Jensen to death. Jensen was disabled and serving time for car theft.
Jensen’s family members described him during Creech’s clemency hearing last month as a gentle soul who loved hunting and being outdoors. Jensen’s daughter was 4 years old when he died, and she spoke about how painful it was to grow up without a father.
Creech’s supporters say he is a deeply changed man. Several years ago he married the mother of a correctional officer, and former prison staffers said he was known for writing poetry and expressing gratitude for their work.
During his clemency hearing, Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jill Longhorst did not dispute that Creech can be charming. But she said he is nevertheless a psychopath — lacking remorse and empathy.
Last year, Idaho lawmakers passed a law authorizing execution by firing squad when lethal injection is not available. Prison officials have not yet written a standard operating policy for the use of firing squad, nor have they constructed a facility where a firing squad execution could occur. Both would have to happen before the state could attempt to use the new law, which would likely trigger several legal challenges.
Other states have also had trouble carrying out lethal injections.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for several months to conduct an internal review after officials called off the lethal injection of Kenneth Eugene Smith in November 2022 — the third time since 2018 Alabama had been unable to conduct executions due to problems with IV lines.
Smith in January became the first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas. He shook and convulsed for several minutes on the death chamber gurney during the execution. Idaho does not allow execution by nitrogen hypoxia.
In 2014, Oklahoma officials tried to halt a lethal injection when the prisoner, Clayton Lockett, began writhing after being declared unconscious. He died after 43 minutes; a review found his IV line came loose.
Police chiefs from several law enforcement agencies in the Valley spent Wednesday explaining how aspiring serial killer Raad Almansoori was caught following two stabbing incidents over the weekend, including an attack on a young woman at a McDonald’s.
Police said Almansoori, 26, planned to continue his rampage at Scottsdale Fashion Square, where Scottsdale police officers located and arrested him in a parking deck at the mall.
Surprise police Chief Benny Piña said during a press conference that Almansoori confessed to a stabbing on Sunday in Surprise as well as another stabbing on Saturday in Phoenix. In both cases, the victims survived.
According to Piña, Almansoori also confessed to the high-profile murder of a woman in a New York City hotel on Feb. 8.
“During his interview, Almansoori told us that he had intended to find and harm more individuals in our community,” Piña said. The arrest “without a doubt” stopped Almansoori from continuing his “path of destruction,” Piña added.
Police said Almansoori stabbed an 18-year-old woman multiple times in the women’s restroom of a McDonald’s at 15525 W. Greenway Road in Surprise. He then fled to a residential area where he allegedly stole a vehicle. Surprise police collaborated with other agencies to locate Almansoori by tracing the location of the vehicle’s license plate, Piña said.
Scottsdale police Chief Jeff Walther explained that the license plate number was fed into a database of photos from automated license plate readers in Scottsdale. Police tracked the stolen vehicle to Scottsdale Fashion Square, where they found Almansoori in a parking garage.
“I think Chief Piña hit that nail on the head when he talked about that this gentleman was going to continue this string of violence, but he was going to do so there at Scottsdale Fashion Square,” Walther said.
Walther added that his officers found Almansoori “backed into a spot, we believe, looking for another victim.” Police arrested Almansoori at gunpoint.
Almansoori has been charged with armed robbery, attempted murder, aggravated assault and theft. Court records state that he is “a danger to other persons or the community” and is being held without bail.
‘He has full intent on killing others’
Court records for the two stabbings offered details of Almansoori’s random acts of extreme violence.
The incident on Saturday in Phoenix occurred near a Starbucks at 19th and Glendale avenues, according to a probable cause statement on file with the Maricopa County Superior Court.
The female victim was a shift supervisor at the coffee shop. She took a 10-minute break and was sitting in her parked vehicle when Almansoori allegedly opened the front driver’s side door and pointed a gun at her face.
Almansoori told the victim that he was “going to kill and shoot her.” He lowered the handgun, took out a knife and began stabbing her. The victim “sustained stab wounds/lacerations to her left neck, temple, ear and left hand.” Her attacker then walked away. Surveillance cameras captured the incident. The victim was later treated at a local hospital.
After his arrest, Almansoori told Surprise detectives that he stabbed the woman to keep her from screaming. He said he was planning on taking her car and raping her.
Almansoori said he was “looking for someone who was attractive” and alone and that he was “trying to kill and have sex with her.”
The probable cause statement for the Sunday attack in Surprise said that surveillance footage from McDonald’s showed Almansoori eating within eyesight of the women’s bathroom. The victim, an employee of the restaurant, went into the bathroom, and Almansoori followed her.
The woman had locked herself inside a stall when Almansoori allegedly began “pounding on the stall door,” according to court documents. When she didn’t open the door, Almansoori crawled under it to get into the stall. He allegedly pointed a gun at the woman, she screamed, and he stabbed her at least three times in the neck. The woman was transported to a local hospital and underwent surgery.
Police said they confiscated a BB gun and a knife from Almansoori after he was arrested. Almansoori said he would have shot the woman “if it was a real gun.” He didn’t know the victim, but he “selected her because he was attracted to her.”
The probable cause statement also has this chilling line: “Subject stating he has full intent on killing others again to include specific plans to kill his family.”
In an interview with the New York Daily News, Almansoori’s 30-year-old half sister said he had been violent toward his family. The half sister, who was not identified, lives in Phoenix.
Almansoori had called her recently to tell her he’d flown from New York to Phoenix — news that made her fear for her family’s safety.
“I was scared last week when he told me he was back in Phoenix,” she told the Daily News. “The fact that he left New York so quickly made me think he did something out there, too.”
If the New York City Police Department is correct, her instincts were spot on.
Almansoori is a suspect in the murder earlier this month of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38, in a room at the SoHo 54 Hotel in Lower Manhattan.
Hotel workers discovered Oleas-Arancibia’s body on Feb. 8. Several news outlets have reported that Oleas-Arancibia was bludgeoned to death with an iron. The NYPD released an image of a male suspect leaving the hotel wearing the pink leggings that Oleas-Arancibia had on before she was killed.
The suspect reportedly left a pair of bloody pants behind. The New York Times reported that New York police identified the man in the photo as Almansoori. The NYPD told the media outlet that authorities plan to extradite Almansoori from Arizona and charge him with Oleas-Arancibia’s murder.
A war of words erupted between Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell over the prosecution of Raad Almansoori.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images and Serena O’Sullivan
Rachel Mitchell starts social media feud with Manhattan DA
That extradition? Not so fast, according to Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.
Mitchell, who spoke at the press event on Wednesday, said her office won’t allow the extradition of Almansoori to New York. She took a long-range swipe at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, I think it’s safer to keep (Almansoori) here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals either in our state or county or anywhere in the United States,” Mitchell said.
That decision set off a social media feud between Mitchell, a Republican running for re-election this year, and Bragg, a Democrat known for his civil rights work and for prosecuting Donald Trump.
Bragg shot back at Mitchell, saying it was “deeply disturbing that DA Mitchell is playing political games in a murder investigation.”
Mitchell returned fire: “It’s great to see the @ManhattanDA finally take interest in violent crime. My job is to focus on the victims I was elected to protect.”
“Right now we are trying to figure out what exactly happened during the shooting, the information we have is kind of conflicting,” Las Vegas Metro Police Department spokesperson Jason Johansson said at a news conference.
The police did not disclose additional information about why they were only searching for one suspect.
A police commander initially said two were killed, but Johansson later said at a briefing that one man in his 50s was pronounced dead and another was in critical condition, while three others were in stable condition.
Police said all five victims were homeless. The attacks occurred a little after 5:30 p.m. local time in an “unhoused encampment” at the intersection of Sandhill Road and Charleston Boulevard near U.S. Highway 95 in East Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department confirmed to CBS News. Police said the shooting occurred in an “unhoused encampment.”
Medical teams transported the five men to the UMC Trauma Center, where one victim was pronounced dead.
The shootings came on the same day Los Angeles officials announced they believed a serial killer was responsible for the killings of three homeless men in the city.
CBS Los Angeles reported that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Friday activated its winter shelter program in an attempt to provide additional safety for unhoused individuals in response to the three separate fatal shootings.
Reporting contributed by Faris Tanyos
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Notorious serial killer—one who was never caught—the Zodiac Killer committed a string of murders that began in the late 1960s. According to CNN, he chose his victims randomly and had no apparent motive for the murders. Other sources claim that the killer also sent taunting letters to the police and claimed to have murdered at least 37 people.
The Zodiac Killer reportedly cornered and killed couples in secluded areas and used guns and knives on the unsuspecting victims. San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine was his last known confirmed victim and died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head in his cab in 1969. Although police reported that the letters kept coming until 1974, they believe that the slayings had stopped long before.
Authorities have even considered more than 2,500 people as suspects, however, the Zodiac Killer remains at large.
Who were the Zodiac Killer’s victims and what did the serial killer do to them?
According to the U.S. Sun, in his letters to the police, the Zodiac Killer claimed to have murdered 37 people during a five-year span. However, investigators have only linked the notorious killer to seven victims over the years. Out of these seven, he murdered five while the remaining two survived.
Oxygen reported that the killer fatally shot high school studentsDavid Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, who were out on a date on December 20, 1968. A motorist found their bodies on a gravel turnout on Lake Herman Road in Benicia – an isolated area known for being a Lover’s Lane.
The outlet reported that six months later, Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Ferrin, 22, became the victims of a similar assault. The attacker ambushed and shot the duo in an isolated area at Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo on July 4, 1969. Mageau survived the incident and later recounted the events from that tragic night to detectives.
Pacific Union College student Bryan Hartnell, 20, and his ex-girlfriend Cecelia Shepard, 22, were the next victims of the killer. The duo was on a picnic at Lake Berryessa when an armed individual approached them. The man then tied Hartnell and Shepard before stabbing the former eight times and Shepard 10 to 20 times. Hartnell survived to tell the tale of the deadly attack.
The final murder victim was 29-year-old yellow cab driver Paul Stine. He died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head on October 11, 1969. The incident occurred after the cabbie picked up a passenger from San Francisco and drove the individual to Presidio Heights. Detectives linked Stine’s murder to the other killings using a bloody patch of the victim’s shirt the suspected killer sent to the San Francisco Chronicle.
As per the U.S. Sun’s report, the notorious serial killer‘s other possible victims were 27-year-old Ray Davis and 18-ear-old Cheri Jo Bates. Davis reportedly also died of a gunshot wound to the back in his own cab. The killing was eerily similar to Stine’s murder. Meanwhile, Bates was beaten and stabbed several times with a short-bladed knife.
Reportedly, the individual behind these killings started referring to himself as the Zodiac Killer in his fourth letter. He addressed this letter, which was sent on August 7, 1969, to the police, writing, “This is the Zodiac speaking.”
CNN reported that there has been a long list of suspects over the past five decades. However, police have never successfully identified the real Zodiac Killer. To date, they have only been able to link Arthur Leigh Allen to the murders based on circumstantial evidence. However, Allen never faced any charges and also maintained his innocence in the crimes until his death in 1992.
The answer to the age-old question “Who was the Zodiac Killer?” remains unanswered as detectives continue to investigate the case.
In 1997 four families are shattered when their daughters go missing. As they grieve, one man claims to have answers. Can he be trusted? “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty reports on the final chapter of a case she started covering more than two decades ago.
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This story previously aired on Jan. 21, 2023. It was updated on Oct. 21.
More than two decades after “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty began reporting on the case of a missing 12-year-old girl from Friendswood, Texas, there is finally a conclusion to the case. What no one knew when Laura Smither first went missing in 1997 was that she had been the victim of a serial killer. William Reece would go on to murder three young women that same year before he was eventually identified by DNA.
LAURA SMITHER AND KELLI COX
Erin Moriarty: There was a very scary killer who was going up and down I-45 on his way, Texas, Oklahoma and back –
Josh Rogers: That is correct.
Erin Moriarty: — killing young women.
Josh Rogers: That is correct.
Interstate 45 runs through the swamps and derelict oil fields between Galveston and Houston. The highway marks a trail of unsolved murders that stretches back for decades. And Friendswood, Texas, Deputy Chief of Police Josh Rogers says 1997 was a particularly deadly year.
Gay Smither: We were living in such a false sense of security. … it was quite a shock to the system when we got educated.
Erin Moriarty: And you got educated the hard way?
Gay Smither: The worst way. Absolutely the worst way.
Laura Smither, 12, disappeared on April 3, 1997, while jogging near her home in Friendswood, Texas. “When there was absolutely no sign of her, we knew then that something terrible had happened,” said Laura’s mother Gay Smither.
Gay Smither
On April 3, 1997, Gay Smither’s 12-year-old daughter Laura — an aspiring ballerina — went out for a run and never returned. As days passed, thousands of volunteers on foot and on horseback combed the swamps and fields around their home in Friendswood. The U.S. Marines even flew in to help.
“48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty with Gay and Bob Smither in1997.
CBS News
I was also there in 1997 with the family — Gay, Bob and Laura’s younger brother, David.
Erin Moriarty (1997): Are you surprised by the outpouring of concern and sympathy?
Bob Smither: Oh, we’re uplifted by it. It’s the only thing getting us from one day to the next.
Erin Moriarty (looking at photos with the family in 1997): The beginning of the ballerina.
Bob Smither (1997): Exactly. Yeah, this was taken in the backyard of the house…
Gay Smither (1997): There is no doubt she’s coming home.
Gay Smither: I went into denial immediately. I — I would not accept any other scenario other than somebody had taken her and that if I prayed hard enough, she’d be released to come home to us. That’s how I coped.
Then came the devastating news 17 days later, when Laura’s decomposing body was found in a retention pond 12 miles from her home, by a father and son walking their dogs.
Father (1997): We thought it was a dead animal in the water or something like that… but my son Jason … says “no, animals don’t have socks.”
Gay Smither: I screamed into the phone. … That’s not Laura! That’s not Laura! That’s — I couldn’t accept it … And that was — I can still hear my screams in my nightmares.
Gay Smither: And then, of course, we had to tell David. And for some things, there are no words.
Erin Moriarty: How old was David at the time?
Gay Smither: Nine. … He not only lost his sister; in a way, he lost his parents … we were physically there, but we were emotionally absent … Part of us was gone. Part of us was ripped out.
After weeks in the water, Laura’s exact cause of death could not be determined. Investigators also couldn’t be sure if she had been sexual assaulted. In spite of the unknowns, a suspect emerged pretty quickly — a man named William Reece.
Gay Smither: It was the third day that Laura was missing that he was on the police radar.
Erin Moriarty: That quickly?
Gay Smither: Yes, the third day.
Erin Moriarty: And why?
Gay Smither: Because he was a sex offender.
William Reece, a convicted sex offender, was released from prison six months before Laura Smither’s murder.
14th Court of Appeals
Reece been released six months before Laura’s murder after spending 10 years in prison for two rapes in his native Oklahoma. He was now working in Friendswood.
Josh Rogers: He was … building a residential subdivision and was a bulldozer operator.
And on the day Laura went missing, because of rain, police learned, Reece was let off work at 9 a.m.
Josh Rogers: Which would have taken him right in the direct path of Laura Smither.
Investigators searched Reece’s truck and found fibers from replacement floor mats matched trace fibers on Laura’s socks.
Josh Rogers: These weren’t factory … floor mats. … These weren’t common fibers.
While police continued to investigate Laura’s case, Reece remained free and was traveling back and forth between Houston, where he worked, and Anadarko, Oklahoma, where his mother lived. Then in July 1997 in Denton, Texas — a university town along the stretch of interstate connecting them — 20-year-old Kelli Cox disappeared.
Jan Bynum: I used to describe it, it’s like Martians picked her up. She just vanished.
Kelli’s mother Jan Bynum says Kelli had gotten locked out of her car after a class trip to the Denton police station. She had gone to a nearby gas station parking lot to use a pay phone.
Jan Bynum: Very busy area, with police officers everywhere.
Kelli Cox, pictured with her daughter Alexis, disappeared on July 15, 1997 from Denton, Texas. “I had nightmares for years that she was being hurt or harmed every day,” Jan Bynum said of her daughter. “The pain does not go away.”
Jan Bynum
Jan knew something was wrong when Kelli failed to pick up her then-toddler, Alexis, from daycare that afternoon.
Jan Bynum: She would never have left her daughter. … she was only 19 when Alexis was born. But she took such responsibility … And she embraced being a mom. Oh my gosh, she embraced it. … And I know she absolutely adored this one over here (looks at Alexis).
In addition to raising Alexis, now 27 years old, Kelli was taking a full load of courses at UNT, the University of North Texas, in Denton.
Jan Bynum: She was maintaining straight A’s in college.
Alexis Bynum: All A’s on her finals a week after having me.
Jan Bynum: Yeah, a week after she had Alexis, she took her final exams and pulled all A’s on — I mean, she was very, very driven.
Alexis says she remembers little about her mother, except the anguish of her being gone.
Alexis Bynum: I remember looking for her.
Erin Moriarty: You do? Even though you were that little?
Alexis Bynum: I remember lookin’ all around the house.
Jan Bynum: She would look in closets … She would look under the bed and say, “Mommy, mommy.”
The days of searching turned into weeks, and then months. Jan was on local TV pleading for help finding her daughter.
JAN BYNUM (1997 news report): I don’t want it on the back burner. I want her face out there.
But unlike Laura Smither, Kelli was a young woman, not a child. And as the case dragged on, Jan says she didn’t feel that finding Kelli remained a priority for police. Jan still remembers a conversation she had with one member of the department three months after Kelli went missing.
KTVT
Jan Bynum: And he said, “You should just consider yourself lucky we’re even working on this case. Most police departments would have just turned her picture into the Missing Persons Clearinghouse and been done with it.” … that was heartbreaking.
Jan was certain that someone had abducted Kelli but was at a loss. Police had no body and no strong leads, and the case soon grew cold.
Jan Bynum: I don’t think … I ever completely not think when the phone would ring, that maybe it was something about Kelli.
Just 11 days after Kelli went missing, up in Oklahoma, and not far from William Reece’s hometown, another young woman was about to vanish.
TIFFANY JOHNSTON AND JESSICA CAIN
Kathy Dobry (looking at photos): She’ll always be my baby. … She’ll always be a granddaughter … and she’ll be a wife.
Tiffany Johnston was abducted in broad daylight … she just vanished,” Kathy Dobry said of her daughter’s July 26, 1997 abduction at a Bethany, Oklahoma, car wash.
Kathy Dobry
Kathy Dobry’s daughter Tiffany Johnston, 19 years old and newly married, was just starting to build her life. On July 26, 1997, she vanished from a Bethany, Oklahoma car wash, leaving her car behind.
Kathy Dobry: Her car mats were hanging on the car wash rack … her money, her paycheck, everything was in the car.
The next day, Tiffany’s partially clothed body was found in tall grass just off the interstate, 15 miles west of that car wash. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
Tiffany Johnston’s partially clothed body is discovered on July 27, 1997, a day after her disappearance in tall grass next to an unpaved rural road close to the interstate.
Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office
Kathy Dobry: She had rope burns around her wrist and … she had black and blue places on her face.
No one at the car wash reported seeing anything out of the ordinary.
Erin Moriarty: So, whoever took her had to be pretty calculating and thinking about the surroundings.
Kathy Dobry: Oh, yes. And Tiffany would fight.
A few days after Tiffany’s murder, Kathy says she got a phone call from a man she knew from her town of Anadarko: William Reece.
Kathy Dobry: He called to tell me he was sorry. … that he had heard Tiffany had gotten killed.
Erin Moriarty: And how did he sound when he called you?
Kathy Dobry: Sincere. … All he said was, “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter.”
Erin Moriarty: How did you first meet William Reece?
Kathy Dobry: I met him at the restaurant.
Kathy was a waitress in town and knew Reece’s mother. And when Reece was released from prison in 1996 and came home, Kathy had given him a ride to get a new driver’s license.
A few days after Tiffany Johnson’s murder, Kathy Dobry says she got a phone call from a man she knew from her town of Anadarko, Okla.: William Reece.
CBS News
Erin Moriarty: Did you know what he had spent time in prison for?
Kathy Dobry: No. They acted like it was no big deal.
Erin Moriarty: And would you have even guessed that he had been convicted of violent crimes toward women?
Kathy Dobry: Oh, heavens no.
It never occurred to Kathy that Reece could have had anything to do with Tiffany’s murder.
Kathy Dobry: I couldn’t see someone that I knew, that would kill Tiffany, because they knew how much she meant to me.
As for investigators, they found the killer’s DNA on Tiffany’s body, but they weren’t able to develop a profile.
Erin Moriarty: At some point, Kathy, did you give up thinking they’re just never going to find the person who killed my daughter?
Kathy Dobry: No. I never gave up because I made a promise to Tiffany when I buried her that I would not give up until we found who did it.
Erin Moriarty: Why was it so important to find who killed her?
Kathy Dobry: Because I didn’t want him killing someone else’s child.
Just three weeks after Tiffany’s murder, back in Le Marque, Texas, it happened again.
SUZY CAIN (1997 news report) If you have my daughter, I pray that you would return her. We want her back home. … We’re not gonna let her go.
Jessica Cain was about to graduate high school.
NEWS REPORT (1997): The 17-year-old was last seen leaving a Clear Lake-area restaurant.
Jessica Cain of Le Marque, Texas, was last seen on Aug. 17, 1997 leaving a restaurant. Her car was found abandoned along the shoulder of I-45.
On August 17, 1997, when she did not get home by her curfew, Jessica’s father, C.H. Cain, went out looking for her.
C.H. Cain (1997): I had been to all the places where I thought she might be. … And I was on my way home and it’s actually just three or four miles from the house, on the side of the road.
He spotted her truck on the shoulder of I-45. But Jessica was gone.
C.H. Cain (1997): And there was no sign of a struggle.
Once again, search parties combed the area for yet another missing girl.
NEWS REPORT (1997): More than a hundred volunteers searched on foot, along the marshes and through the brush … tracking dogs were called in to help …
Gay Smither: We were the most broken people at that point.
Gay and Bob Smither—still reeling from the loss of their daughter Laura just four months earlier—felt compelled to join the search.
Gay Smither: We didn’t hesitate. We went immediately.
NEWS REPORT (1997): The search for Jessica Cain widened today, across the salt grass and scrub that surrounds the marshes in this area …
The search for went on for weeks, but there was no sign of Jessica and no clue who had taken her.
Gay Smither: We wondered could it be the same person who took Laura from us. You know, we just didn’t know.
As Gay wondered about William Reece and his involvement, a story emerged about another case — where the victim survived.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): Everything happened so fast …
Back in May 1997—three months before Jessica Cain disappeared—19-year-old mother Sandra Sapaugh stopped at a convenience store off of I-45 in Webster, Texas, where she noticed a man staring at her from the parking lot.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): And his truck was out there parked … but I didn’t pay much attention.
When Sandra left and went to a Waffle House across the street, she saw the man again.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): He asked me if I needed help. … And I go, “help for what?” And he goes, “well, your tire’s flat.”
Sandra Sapaugh was abducted on May 16, 2007 in Webster, Texas. She said the stranger forced her into his white pickup truck and sexually assaulted her, then took off with her in his truck along I-45. Sapaugh jumped from the moving vehicle.
KHOU
But just moments later, the stranger was forcing her into his white pickup truck at knifepoint.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): He would just tell me to keep my mouth shut … I mean, I was terrified.
She says he sexually assaulted her in the truck and then they started speeding down the interstate.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): The only thing I was thinking, was, “he’s gonna kill me.” … I’d rather jump and kill myself than him doing that to me.
And that’s just what Sandra did. As the truck sped down I-45, she opened the door, jumped out and hit the pavement.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): And then I got up. … started running.
Gravely injured, Sandra managed to get help and reported the incident. Five months later—in October 1997 — during a meeting with Friendswood police, Webster investigators noticed that Sandra’s description of her abductor’s pickup sounded similar to the truck Friendswood police had searched in Laura Smither’s case, belonging to William Reece.
“When he walked out, I mean I knew it was him. … No doubt. It was him,” Sandra Sapaugh said of identifying William Reece in a police lineup.
Harris County District Clerk’s Office
On October 16, 1997, Reece was pulled in for a lineup.
Sandra Sapaugh (1997): When he walked out, I mean I knew it was him. … No doubt. It was him.
William Reece was immediately arrested and charged with kidnapping. He pleaded not guilty. He was finally behind bars, but not charged in any of the murdered girls.
SUSPICIONS SWIRL AROUND WILLIAM REECE
William Reece was defiant. He denied kidnapping Sandra Sapaugh and slashing her tire, but after his arrest, investigators were determined to tie him to Laura Smither’s murder, too.
REPORTER: You think you’re being unfairly treated Mr. Reece?
WILLIAM REECE: Yeah, I do. I didn’t do nothing.
Friendswood Deputy Chief Rogers says they thought they had found another link when they searched Reece’s apartment.
Josh Rogers: He … had a horse blanket that was multicolored. Most of those colors were also found … on one of Laura Smither’s socks. … So, the evidence was strong.
Even thought Investigators found fibers on Laura Smither’s socks that matched William Reece’s floor mats, the DA at the time did not feel that was enough evidence to charge Reece with Laura’s murder. ” I felt that the system had failed us and failed Laura,” said Gay Smither, with husband Bob.
CBS News
And they already had those other fibers on Laura’s socks that matched Reece’s floor mats. Still, the DA at the time did not feel that was enough evidence to charge Reece with Laura’s murder.
Erin Moriarty: And was that frustrating?
Gay Smither: Very. Very … I got very, very angry. I felt that the system had failed us and failed Laura.
But Friendswood detectives weren’t giving up. They pulled records to trace Reece’s movements during the previous summer and discovered that Reece might be connected to the other unsolved cases. There was a fuel charge from Denton on July 15 — the same place and date of Kelli Cox’s disappearance. It was the first time Kelli’s mother, Jan Bynum, had heard the name William Reece. He was now also on the radar of Denton police.
Jan Bynum: That, you know, caused them to want to check Kelli’s fingerprints against anything in his truck.
Erin Moriarty: Did they find anything — fingerprints, anything connected to Kelli?
Jan Bynum: No, they did not.
Friendswood detectives also found records showing Reece had used a pay phone in the town where Tiffany Johnston’s body was found — less than an hour after she disappeared. And the owner of the car wash, after seeing his picture says Reece was a frequent customer. With that, Reece joined a list of possible suspects.
Josh Rogers: Anyone … along that route, during that time period … He was looked at.
Investigators were also eyeing William Reece in Jessica Cain’s disappearance.
KHOU
Investigators were also now eyeing him in Jessica Cain’s disappearance and used bulldozers to look for evidence at the horse ranch where he had worked but came up empty-handed. And in April 1998, as suspicion swirled around William Reece in several jurisdictions, he went on trial for the kidnapping of Sandra Sapaugh.
Erin Moriarty: You went to the trial, why?
Gay Smither: I did … I had to be there for Laura. I had to be there for Laura.
Gay Smither: I got very angry with what I learned at that trial. … ‘Cause, of course, it puts everything in your head, what he had done to Laura.
Gay Smither says she was especially upset when she heard the testimony of Reece’s two rape victims from the 1980s. Remember, he had been released from prison for those attacks just six months before Laura was murdered.
Gay Smither: They came down and testified and I was mortified to hear what he had done to those two young women.
The jury didn’t take long.
Gay Smither: They went out and … minutes later, was a guilty verdict.
William Reece was convicted and sentenced to 60 years for kidnapping Sandra Sapaugh.
Josh Rogers: I think a lot of people felt like, you know, that was probably going to be the best that we were going to be able to do, is just to keep William Reece off the streets again.
But Laura Smither’s case remained officially unsolved… and the Smithers wanted Reece charged. Up in Oklahoma, Kathy Dobry continued to pressure investigators to solve Tiffany’s murder.
Kathy Dobry: At first, I’d call every week. … and it was always the same thing. They didn’t have anything.
It would take more than a decade before Kathy says her calls were finally answered.
Lynn Williams: All I knew was that I’ve got a victim whose car was at the car wash.
In 2012, retired police chief Lynn Williams had recently started working on cold cases at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations—or OSBI—and was assigned to Tiffany’s case.
Tiffany Johnston’s car, with the keys left in the ignition, at the Sunshine Car Wash in Bethany, Okla.
Ryan Stephenson
Lynn Williams: The car was abandoned. The keys were in the ignition. … the doors were unlocked. … No witnesses.
There was that DNA evidence from Tiffany’s body.
Erin Moriarty: So really … DNA was going to be your only hope.
Lynn Williams: That was … my frame of mind.
But the DNA had already been tested twice without success.
Wendy Duke: We were worried usually that there’s nothing left to test.
Wendy Duke is the supervising criminologist at the OSBI cold case unit. She found two samples from Tiffany’s body that had not been totally consumed in earlier testing and was able to develop a partial male profile from them.
Wendy Duke: It’s exciting, even if it is a partial profile.
Because it was a partial profile, Duke could only compare it to a profile from a known person, and the team slowly eliminated suspects from the file until they got to William Reece.
Erin Moriarty: And what was the result?
Wendy Duke: And … he could not be eliminated from that partial profile on the swab from Tiffany.
Tiffany Johnson and Kathy Dobry
Kathy Dobry
The DA in Oklahoma thought it was enough to charge Reece for Tiffany Johnston’s murder. And after all those years of waiting, Kathy finally had some news.
Kathy Dobry: And I said, “Oh, my God. Why Tiffany?” That was my main thing. Why Tiffany?
Oklahoma law enforcement also shared the news with Texas investigators — including the Texas Rangers, who wondered if William Reece might be willing to talk to them about their cases.
They went to visit Reece in prison, and, to their surprise, he agreed to talk further if they could take the death penalty off the table. The Smithers agreed, and so did Jan Bynum— as long as Reece helped police find Kelli.
Erin Moriarty: That’s a huge decision to make before you even know —
Jan Bynum: I know. … basically … I wanted answers. And I wanted to know what — whether my daughter was alive or dead.
WILLIAM REECE’S CONFESSIONS
Jan Bynum: When they would find a body anywhere and then they would confirm who it was, and it wasn’t Kelli. … And I’d go, “Oh, it’s not Kelli.” And then I go, “But it was somebody’s daughter.”
Almost 19 years after Kelli Cox’s disappearance, her mother Jan was finally close to knowing what had happened. In February 2016, William Reece was moved from prison to the Friendswood jail after agreeing to give investigators information about their three Texas cases. He hoped his cooperation might help him in Oklahoma, too.
Josh Rogers: He told us that he wasn’t going to play games if we weren’t going to play games.
William Reece leads investigators to where he said Kelli Cox’s remains were located.
KTVT
Investigators took Reece out to a remote field south of Friendswood where he said Kelli Cox’s remains were located. Reece hadn’t yet told them if he was responsible for her death.
Erin Moriarty: He doesn’t give any confession.
Josh Rogers: No.
Erin Moriarty: But it’s clear that he’s got some involvement.
Josh Rogers: Correct.
Police spent long days and nights with Reece in the jail and out in the field looking for Kelli’s remains, and, during that time, Reece started telling investigators about his encounter with Kelli Cox in Denton.
He claimed they got into a fight in the gas station parking lot after he bumped into her, and she spilled her soda on him.
William Reese talks to Texas Rangers James Holland.
Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office
WILLIAM REECE: I started cussing her, I think I pushed her. That’s when she hit me with the Coke.
WILLIAM REECE: And then I slapped her. And then it was over.
RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: She was fighting back.
WILLIAM REECE: Yes.
RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: OK. And what happens next?
WILLIAM REECE: And then I grab her around the throat, and I choke her.
William Reece confessed to the murder of Kelli Cox.
Jan Bynum
Reece had just confessed to murdering Kelli Cox, but investigators weren’t sure if his story was true. They hadn’t found any sign of Kelli in that field. But as they kept looking, this was not the only major revelation to emerge.
WILLIAM REECE: I remember going to work … at a construction job site. It was a rainy morning.
Soon Reece was telling investigators what he said happened to Laura Smither on that rainy morning in Friendswood.
WILLIAM REECE: I hear something slam against my mirror … And it scared me, so I stopped. … I got out … and then — that’s when I looked in the ditch and I seen Laura Smithers laying in the ditch. … and she wasn’t breathing.
Reece claimed that Laura had died instantly after he’d hit her with his truck by accident. But he later changed that story, claiming Laura had survived, but when he tried to stop her from crying, he accidentally broke her neck.
Mary Ellen O’Toole: Psychopaths are incredibly callous individuals. … They are without guilt. And they are without remorse.
Mary Ellen O’Toole is a retired FBI profiler. “48 Hours” asked her to review the case records and Reece’s videotaped statements to try to understand his psychology.
Mary Ellen O’Toole: I’ve not assessed him, not met him … but looking at his cases, looking at his behavior … I would say in my opinion that he manifests traits of psychopathy.
WILLIAM REECE (police interview): Ya’ll wanted the truth so I’m telling you the truth.
And once police got him talking, Reece didn’t seem to want to stop. O’Toole says that Reece was probably enjoying the attention and the break from his routine.
WILLIAM REECE (police interview): I’m doing this of my own free will.
Mary Ellen O’Toole: What’s the worst thing that you can do to someone that has a tendency to love exciting, challenging, stimulating things? You put him in an environment like prison where they got bored. … These detectives recognized that. So, when you offer them the opportunity to come out … and assist law enforcement, they’re gonna jump at that.
After a week of fruitlessly searching for Kelli Cox, Reece offered to help them find another victim —Jessica Cain — whom he said he had buried in a different field closer to Friendswood. And while Reece didn’t have an agreement with the DA in that case, he started telling that story, too — claiming he had an argument with Jessica outside the restaurant where she was last seen and that she followed him down I-45 for 30 miles.
WILLIAM REECE: I don’t know why, I just pulled over. She pulled up behind me and started yelling. … I went off on her again.
RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: Okay. And then you end up choking her out then?
WILLIAM REECE: Yes, sir.
RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: On I-45?
WILLIAM REECE: On I-45.
But even as Reece admitted murdering Jessica, he did not admit to raping her or Kelli or Laura.
Erin Moriarty: Do you believe that most likely every one of his victims was raped?
Mary Ellen O’Toole: I do. I believe that they were. Because I believe that that was really the intent of the crime.
Erin Moriarty: If that’s his motivation, sexual motivation, why doesn’t he admit that? Is that typical?
Mary Ellen O’Toole: In some cases, I would say that’s typical. Because in their eyes, that makes them look pretty pathetic … that you have to attack someone, strangle someone, beat someone up in order to be sexually gratified.
RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: Go ahead with the next one, Bill.
WILLIAM REECE: That’s the one in Oklahoma City.
RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: OK.
Finally, even though he could again be facing the death penalty, investigators were able to get Reece to talk about the last case they thought he was linked to from 1997: Tiffany Johnston, whom Reece said he encountered at that car wash in Oklahoma.
WILLIAM REECE: I was spraying it, cleaning out from underneath my truck … that’s when that girl yelled, “Hey!” I sprayed her. I go, “Sorry.” I thought she said something, I said. I started cussing at her. And, uh, me and her got into it.
He knew police had his DNA and admitted having sexual contact with Tiffany, after forcing her in his horse trailer.
WILLIAM REECE: We was fighting, and I unsnapped her overalls. I don’t know why.
Once again, Reece made a point to blame his victim for the violence that followed.
WILLIAM REECE: She hit me in the back of the head with a horseshoe. … It pissed me off and I started squeezing around the throat.
Four victims and four confessions — but with no sign of Kelli Cox or Jessica Cain, not everyone believed Reece was telling the truth.
Josh Rogers: There was, you know, some folks thinking that maybe the information was not accurate and that he was playing us.
JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES
Josh Rogers: As we dug and we continued to not locate anything, there certainly wasn’t as many investigators helping at the end of it as they were at the beginning of it.
In March 2016, after 25 days of digging and with William Reece’s guidance, there was finally some news: they found Jessica Cain’s remains.
Erin Moriarty: What was that day like?
Josh Rogers: Very emotional … we were sad, but also, we were joyful as well to have located the remains.
Jessica’s parents asked for privacy as they processed the news and buried their daughter. For investigators, finding Jessica corroborated William Reece’s stories and reenergized the search for Kelli Cox. After another two weeks of painstaking work, they found her.
Asked how she wants people to remember Kelli Cox, Cox’s daughter Alexis Bynum, pictured with her grandmother Jan, said, “Just the way she was. … She was a beautiful young woman who had a lot going for her.”
CBS News
Alexis Bynum: I had nightmares for the first time — where she had to wake me up, screaming. That never — never had nightmares like that before.
Jan Bynum: Yeah. I mean, her nightmares were being down in a hole.
Alexis Bynum: It was just — (emotional).
After Kelli and Jessica were found, Oklahoma County prosecutors Jimmy Harmon and Ryan Stephenson had William Reece transported back to their state to face a capital murder trial for Tiffany Johnston.
Jimmy Harmon: We typically only seek the death penalty on the worst of the worst murderers and Mr. Reece certainly fit that bill.
Reece pleaded not guilty — even though prosecutors had the DNA evidence and his chilling words from his taped confession.
WILLIAM REECE (to Ranger Holland): That’s when I grabbed her around the throat and her.
When the trial began in May 2021, Reece’s defense fought to keep that video out. But the judge decided the jury would watch it and all the statements where Reece admitted killing Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain. All relevant, says Stephenson, for showing that Reece had a pattern.
Ryan Stephenson: All of that being in such a short time period … we wanted to be able to show the jury that this guy wasn’t stopping, he — he was stopped.
Sandra Sapaugh and two women who say Reece sexually assaulted them in 1997 all testified at the trial. Prosecutors say this testimony was crucial to correcting the self-serving stories Reece told on those tapes.
Ryan Stephenson: You … never quite get the full story out of William Reece. He always tells it in a way that makes him look best.
Prosecutors think the true story is Reece would set traps for his victims.
Jimmy Harmon: He would sometimes create the situation, in the case of Sandra Sapaugh, by slashing her tire … and … presented himself as the Good Samaritan. And … he would then attack them.
After a nine-day trial, jurors in Oklahoma found William Reece guilty of murdering Tiffany Johnston in May 2021. He was sentenced to death.
KWTV
After nine days in that Oklahoma courtroom, the case went to the jury. It took them less than two hours to decide, finding William Reece guilty of murdering Tiffany Johnston. Reece was sentenced to death.
Kathy Dobry: I’ll never forgive him for killing Tiffany and … he should die.
But instead of being sent right to death row, Reece first made one final trip back down the interstate to Texas, where he agreed to plead guilty to murdering Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain.
Erin Moriarty: It took almost 25 years, but you finally got justice for Laura, didn’t you?
Gay Smither: Yeah. And for Jessica and Kelli. And that was very important to Bob and I.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, Reece received three life sentences in the Texas cases. Gay Smither made a statement at one of those hearings.
Gay Smither: I spoke about Laura and how we had an empty seat at our table for the rest of our lives … And then I told him that I — I forgave him for what he did.
Erin Moriarty: You forgive him for ruining your lives? You –
Gay Smither: Yeah.
Erin Moriarty: — lost Laura who — who had her whole life ahead of her.
Gay Smither: Forgiveness does not mean I condone what he did, nor does it mean I will ever forget what he did. Forgiveness was for me … to not live in a — in a cage of rage. That’s what forgiveness is.
With Laura’s case now resolved, Gay and Bob could devote more time with their son David, now 34, and his children. Gay also travels the country training law enforcement on handling missing persons cases.
GAY SMITHER (speaking at a training class): I’m here to tell you what happened with the prayer that you will be inspired by Laura’s story to never give up.
Kelli Cox’s family created a statue in her honor on the campus of the University of North Texas, in Denton, where Kelli had once been a student.
CBS News
The Bynums wanted a way to share their memories of Kelli and created a statue in her honor on the UNT campus, where Kelli had once been a student. Hoping to remind people to be aware of their surroundings.
Jan Bynum: You’ve got to live. But you can do that in a smart way and be safe.
Jan says that like every family touched by William Reece, she is having to learn how live with grief.
Jan Bynum: I cry every day. … And I used to say to people, if you don’t want to see me cry, then you can walk away because I am going to cry.
Erin Moriarty: How do you want people to remember your mother?
Alexis Bynum: Just the way she was. … She was a ball of fun … She was a beautiful young woman who had a lot going for her. She was driven. And she was doin’ it for me.
William Reece is still in a Texas prison.
Produced by Sarah Prior and Richard Fetzer. Shaheen Tokhi is the associate producer and Dylan Gordon is the associate producer, archives. Nancy Bautista is the broadcast associate. Ken Blum, Gary Winter and George Baluzy are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Dave Schaller told them that before his roommate Amber Costello went missing, he saw a man that looked like an “ogre,” and had a Chevy Avalanche. Over a decade later, his description helped lead investigators to Rex Heuermann.
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