Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Decades after the murder of 167-year-old Lecia McGee went cold, advances in forensic testing gave investigators an opportunity to take another look at the evidence that remained. Testing on a cigarette butt recovered from Lecia’s car produced a male DNA profile. That profile eventually matched a Fort Worth man already serving a prison sentence for a violent attack; a man who, as a teenager, had been questioned in the initial investigation.The discovery led detectives into the man’s extensive history of violence. Years after Lecia’s murder, he deliberately struck a woman with his truck as she wa...

In the late 1970s, Fort Worth was a city in transition. Although it had always been sleepy compared to other major Texas cities, downtown had begun to lose much of its former glory, parts of the Stockyards were in decline, and violent crime remained an increasingly serious problem across the entire region. Against that backdrop, the murder of a seventeen-year-old high school student became one of the city’s most disturbing unsolved crimes in 1978.Lecia McGee was remembered as outgoing, kind, and well-liked, but also tough. She played sports, enjoyed spending time with friends, and took particular pride in...

In May 1997, twenty-year-old Gregory “Keith” Mann Jr. was beginning to build a life for himself in Wichita Falls, Texas. He had recently started working at a local car dealership and was preparing to move into an apartment with his fiancé.On Saturday, May 10, Keith worked a shift before spending the evening with friends. The group drove around Wichita Falls, stopped at a convenience store, and spent part of the night near Lake Wichita and Memorial Stadium. Before midnight, Keith told his friends that he needed to return home because he was supposed to meet someone.His frien...

Michael Roy Toney was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1985 bombing murders of Joe Blount, Angela Blount, and Michael Columbus. In the years after his conviction, however, previously undisclosed records and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case raised serious questions about the evidence used to convict him. The evidence suggested that a trip remembered by witnesses may have occurred, but not on the night of the bombing. Witness coercion and memory creation were also clearly documented.Toney’s appellate attorneys also uncovered records showing how the investigation against him developed. The original information implicating him came from fell...

Nearly twelve years after the Thanksgiving 1985 bombing at Hilltop Mobile Home Park, investigators received a tip that shifted their attention to Michael Roy Toney, a 31-year-old man with a lengthy criminal history. After a five-month investigation and grand jury proceedings, Toney was indicted for the bombing deaths of Joe Blount, his 15-year-old daughter Angela Blount, and his 18-year-old nephew Michael Columbus.Toney’s capital murder trial began in early May 1999 in Fort Worth. Susan and Robert Blount testified and nearly 80 pieces of physical evidence recovered from the destroyed trailer and the victims were presented. Prosecutors argued that the Bl...

Shortly after the 1985 bombing murders of Joe Blount, Angela Blount, and Michael Columbus, early suspicion fell on people connected to Hilltop Mobile Home Park, including drug dealers and Angela’s 15-year-old classmate. Despite rumors and circumstances that drew investigators to the teenager, the ATF ultimately eliminated him in the initial investigation.Months later, in 1986, an Azle businessman became a person of interest after an ATF operation. Although the circumstances that led to his arrest looked like a promising lead in the Blount Family bombing, agents but were also unable to connect him. Later that year, another potential lead em...

On Thanksgiving night in 1985, Joe and Susan Blount were spending the holiday with their children, teenagers Angela and Robert, at their home in the Hilltop Mobile Home Park outside Fort Worth. Joining them for dinner were Joe’s brother, Ray, and Ray’s teenage son, Michael Columbus.Later that evening, Ray left, Susan went to lie down, and Joe, Angela, Robert, and Michael drove to a nearby convenience store for ice cream and beer. While they were gone, someone knocked at the Blount’s door, but when Susan looked outside, she saw no one. When the others returned about...

In June 1974, seven-year-old Michael “Mickey” David Niles was asleep in his family’s Abilene home when an intruder entered. Mickey was stabbed once through the heart. His thirteen-year-old sister, Kelly, was stabbed eight times in the back but survived and managed to call for help. Their six-year-old brother Robbie slept through the attack.Police found no obvious signs of forced entry and no motive. Detectives recovered blood and a latent fingerprint from inside the house, but neither led them to the killer. Kelly provided a description of the man who assaulted her and took the life of her brothe...

On April 24, 1977, 59-year-old Juanita Carroll was found dead inside the bathroom of her home on Ballinger Street in Abilene, Texas. Natural gas was flowing from a bathroom heater, and Juanita was seated in a chair, fully clothed, with her legs bound, her hands secured behind her back, and a cloth gag across her mouth.From the beginning, the scene appeared to investigators to be a homicide. Justice of the Peace Silas Clark described what he saw as resembling an “execution,” while detectives searched Juanita’s home for fingerprints, fibers, hairs, and anything that might identify another person who had be...

Six years after the unsolved murder of Sharon Kay Watts, Abilene was shaken by another brutal killing with unsettling similarities.Geneva Lucille Jackson was a respected seventh-grade math teacher, Air Force widow, mother of three, and grandmother whose quiet life revolved around her students, church, and family. When she failed to appear for a routine beauty appointment just days before Christmas 1973, friends went to check on her and discovered a horrifying crime scene inside her Edgemont Drive home.Investigators found Geneva had been savagely beaten, stabbed, and ultimately drowned in her bathtub. The house showed no...

In the Summer of 1967, Abilene, Texas, was a growing West Central Texas city where most residents believed violent crime happened somewhere else. Families left their doors unlocked, Dyess Air Force Base brought thousands of military personnel through the community, and investigators still relied on witness interviews and physical evidence rather than modern forensic technology. That sense of security was shattered when 24-year-old department store employee Sharon Kay Watts was found murdered inside the bathroom of her apartment.After staying home from work because of an illness, Sharon was found dead on September 20, 1967, in a crime scene that immediately...

Just days after Roxanne Paltauf vanished from a Budget Inn near Interstate 35 and Rundberg Lane in Austin, her missing ID surfaced in the wallet of a violent offender arrested after an assault at a neighboring motel. Detectives soon discovered that this man and Roxanne’s boyfriend, Louis Walls, offered conflicting stories about how he came into possession of it.As Roxanne’s family continued searching Austin’s Rundberg neighborhood, they encountered Loretta Lynn Roberts, a woman who promised to help find Roxanne. Less than two weeks later, Roberts was found dead in a vacant lot south of downtown. Her mu...

In July 2006, eighteen-year-old Roxanne Paltauf vanished from a Budget Inn near Interstate 35 and Rundberg Lane in Austin, Texas. Just hours earlier, she had promised her mother she would be home the next morning.Roxanne was the oldest of five children and shared an immensely close relationship with her family. She was working toward her GED, holding multiple jobs, and planning for her future. But those closest to her worried about her volatile relationship. After she went missing, her boyfriend Louis Reginald Walls called and claimed the couple had argued and that she stormed out of their m...

In June of 1987, eighteen-year-old Michael Jefferson "Mike" Adams seemed to have everything going for him. A recent early graduate of Cooper High School, Mike had already enrolled at Texas Tech University to study architecture, worked full-time to save for college, and had purchased his own car through hard work and determination.On the night of June 8, after closing the grocery store where he worked, Mike drove to his family's home in Abilene. His stepsister watched from a window as he stepped out of his car and casually spoke with someone waiting in another vehicle parked along the street...

In Part Two of our series on the dark history of Wharton County, we examine three more haunting cases that continue to leave families searching for answers.The episode begins in Ganado, Texas, with the unsolved 1999 murder of beloved English teacher Jean Schoeneberg. A respected educator known for her high standards and daily morning walks, Jean was found brutally murdered along a quiet rural road near her home. Despite decades of investigation, DNA testing, and renewed leads, her killer has never been identified.Next, we explore the 2014 disappearance of Mitchelle Deborah Hicks, a 25-year-old mother of...

For more than 150 years, Wharton County, Texas, has been shaped by both prosperity and violence. In the first installment of this special series, we trace the county's darker history: from racial terror and vigilante justice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to two heartbreaking crimes in modern times that forever changed the community.In 1988, 24-year-old Juana Velasquez Moreno was brutally murdered while opening the Kwik Chek convenience store where she worked. For decades, her family believed the investigation had simply gone cold, only to later discover that a suspect had twice been indicted for her murder...

Nearly twenty years after Brandi Wells disappeared, the questions surrounding her case remain as haunting as ever.In part two, we examine the investigation that unfolded after Brandi's black Pontiac Grand Prix was found abandoned near Interstate 20. Detectives pursued leads, including a man whose phone number was discovered inside Brandi's car and the mysterious trail left by Brandi's actual cellphone after it passed through multiple hands. A critical mistake involving nightclub surveillance footage sent investigators down the wrong path for weeks before the real Brandi was finally identified entering and leaving Graham Central Station alone.As...

In August 2006, twenty-three-year-old Brandi Wells left her mother's home in Tyler, Texas, for what should have been an ordinary night out. Excited about returning to college and rebuilding her life after a difficult few years, Brandi drove to Longview's popular Graham Central Station nightclub for Ladies Night. She was seen socializing, dancing, and asking acquaintances for a few dollars for gas before leaving the club shortly after midnight.When Brandi failed to return home, her family initially hoped there was a simple explanation. But as hours turned into days, concern gave way to fear. Unknown to them, Brandi's...

On the morning of March 27, 1991, three-year-old Megan Elizabeth Garner was playing outside her family's apartment at the Casa Grande Apartments in Tyler, Texas. It was spring break, the weather was warm, and nothing about the day seemed unusual.That is, until Megan vanished.What began as a frantic search by family members quickly escalated into one of East Texas's most enduring missing child investigations. Law enforcement officers, firefighters, volunteers, tracking dogs, helicopters, and eventually the FBI searched tirelessly for answers. Despite extensive efforts, investigators found no physical evidence, no confirmed sightings, and no clear explanation for...

In December 1996, 32-year-old Sharon McLane was brutally murdered inside her Bedford, Texas apartment. Two years later, her friend John Earl Nolley was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. The case appeared closed.But questions never completely disappeared.Years after Nolley’s conviction, attorneys with the Innocence Project and Tarrant County’s Conviction Integrity Unit uncovered troubling problems with the original prosecution, including undisclosed evidence, unreliable jailhouse informant testimony, and forensic findings that cast doubt on the verdict.Early in the case, Paul Dennis Reid, a violent serial killer later convicted of s...