Investigating the Brutal Calder Road Murders and the Texas Killing Fields
Starting in the early 1970s, a number of remote fields near Highway I-45 between Houston and Galveston became a dumping grounds for numerous killers.
Background
Houston, Texas, is the fourth largest city in the United States. Today, the greater Houston metropolitan area has over 7.5 million residents. Not far south of Houston are the beaches of Galveston Island, a popular tourist destination. Between Houston and Galveston are several smaller cities and communities. The area is known for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, located just south of Houston.
However, a drive through the Houston and Galveston area will quickly reveal another prominent industry. Texas is the largest oil-producing state in the nation, and refineries can be seen dotted all around southeast Texas.
Between Houston and Galveston sits League City, home to several refineries and oil fields. As oil reserves become depleted, rigs are moved, and old drilling fields are left abandoned.
Located approximately 20 miles south of Houston, just off the I-45 interstate, lies the League City Oil Field. From the 1970s through the late 90s, this area was quite remote. Being located just off a major highway that runs all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, these wooded areas became an ideal location to conceal evidence of heinous crimes.
For more than two decades, over 30 bodies of young women and girls were found in this area, creating the horrific legacy of the Texas Killing Fields.
First Bodies Discovered
On July 1st, 1971, 14-year-old Brenda Kaye Jones was walking near highway I-45 to visit her aunt in the hospital In Galveston. There is no indication that Brenda ever arrived at the hospital.
The following day, Brenda’s body was discovered floating in Galveston Bay, not far from the highway. Presumably, Brenda had been picked up by someone traveling along the interstate, murdered, and dumped in the Bay.
Then, on November 15th, Debbie Catherine Ackerman and Maria Talbot Johnson, two fifteen-year-olds, were trying to hitchhike a ride to Houston from Galveston. The girls were seen outside an ice cream parlor.
An eyewitness statement revealed that an adult male in a white van had picked up the two girls and agreed to take them to Houston. Two days later, on November 17th, the bodies of both girls were found in Turner’s Bayou, approximately halfway between Houston and Galveston. The girls had been tied up and stripped of most of their clothing.
A few days later, on November 23rd, the skeletal remains of a young woman were found near Addicks Reservoir. She was identified as nineteen-year-old Gloria Ann Gonzales, who hadn’t been seen since October 28th.
Gloria was last seen walking near her Houston apartment before she seemingly vanished. Her body had decomposed quickly thanks to the bayou-like environment.
These three discoveries were just the beginning of a tragic series of young women and girls that would be found dead in the area, spanning the next twenty-five-plus years.
Colette Anise Wilson, aged thirteen, had vanished on June 17th, 1971, just a few weeks before Brenda Kaye Jones’ body was discovered. Her band director had dropped her off at the bus stop in Alvin, Texas, and that was the last anyone heard or saw of her.
Five months later, on November 26th, 1971, Colette’s body was discovered near the Addicks Reservoir, near the same location where Gloria Gonzales’ body had been discovered.
The Texas Killing Fields
On January 3rd, 1972, two young boys were fishing in Clear Lake, located off I-45 adjacent to League City. They spotted what they believed to be a ball floating in the water. Upon closer inspection, the boys came to the gruesome realization that it was actually a human skull.
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