- 2 days ago
After four women vanish, fear grips Texan communities, and desperate families seek answers; with a potential serial killer back in the spotlight, Texas Ranger Jim Holland launches a high-stakes interrogation that tests wills and aims for the truth.
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00:00:00the search for Jessica Cain widened today. Following further investigation at the crime
00:00:13scene, police reported another grim finding. In the late 90s, there were a number of unsolved
00:00:21murders up and down the Interstate 45 corridor. 19-year-old newlywed Tiffany Johnston's Dodge
00:00:29Neon found abandoned. Unsolved disappearances of young women. The 12-year-old who was homeschooled
00:00:36was last seen around 9 in the morning. The different girls that go missing sends the entire
00:00:43state of Texas into an uproar. 600 U.S. Marines joined the search. As more girls disappear,
00:00:53young women had to have been terrified going anywhere by themselves. A 19-year-old Webster
00:01:00woman was abducted along NASA Road 1 by a man driving a truck. Every time the phone rings,
00:01:06I think maybe I'm going to hear, Mom, come get me. We got a person of interest. This guy had been
00:01:12interviewed by multiple agencies over the years. Ultimately, he wasn't ever charged. Every lead had
00:01:17been exhausted with no one having a clue as to where these young women were. We were looking for help.
00:01:24We needed the best of the best to solve a case that we all wanted to solve. It takes a personality
00:01:37bigger than life to get to where you need to be. There wasn't going to be anybody that's going to be
00:01:43able to walk in there and get the job done except for one person. At the end of the day,
00:01:48the best chance to get him to talk was me.
00:02:13Friendswood was a quiet, sleepy, countrified town. It was voted one of the top 10 safest towns to live
00:02:25in America. We never used to lock our front door. We were just a normal American family, just living
00:02:35our lives. My husband, Bob, Laura, my daughter, 12 years old. Her nine-year-old brother, David, Laura was
00:02:44very involved with ballet. So there was lots of little ballet productions that she was in.
00:02:54That morning, we woke up around 7.30. David wanted pancakes for breakfast and Laura came through and
00:03:01said, Mom, I want to go on a run. I said, well, okay, but breakfast is in about 20 minutes,
00:03:09so be home for that. And she took off. 30 minutes later, the pancakes were on the table. She wasn't there.
00:03:19Bob immediately went out in his car and he went looking for her, came back and said,
00:03:25she's nowhere around. By then, gosh, I really began to panic.
00:03:35The Friendswood Police Department had received a call shortly after nine o'clock in the morning.
00:03:40Officers were dispatched out to the residence of the Smithers house where they start taking
00:03:45a missing person report. That little 12-year-old girl figuring out if they could possibly locate her.
00:03:51That first morning is just this blur of searching and looking and not finding.
00:03:58And then the terror that took hold, that we knew something was really radically wrong.
00:04:07We were making pancakes and he was going to be home for breakfast. She just wanted to make the
00:04:12touch. When she didn't return, her parents immediately began searching the neighborhood
00:04:16and making flyers with her picture. The outpouring of volunteers to come out
00:04:22was absolutely incredible. There are signs all over Friendswood. And at the search command post,
00:04:28officials have had no problem finding volunteers to help comb the miles and miles of brush near the
00:04:34place where Laura was last seen. That just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger from all types of
00:04:42organizations, including a group of several hundred Marines with helicopters, tanks.
00:04:54I told myself a story that somebody was holding Laura and that if I prayed hard enough,
00:05:01she'd come home to us. I just wouldn't accept any other scenario.
00:05:08We are going to find her. And we hold, we hold strong in our faith to that.
00:05:22The first indication that something is happening is a couple of Bethany officers driving by the Sunshine
00:05:38Car Wash and seeing a empty vehicle there. And a while later, come back, see that same vehicle,
00:05:48still no one around it. So officers go to look at this vehicle, see if they can't figure out who it belongs to.
00:05:57The Bethany police called and wanted to know if I knew a Tiffany Johnston. And I said, yes,
00:06:06that's my daughter. Well, we found her car unattended at the car wash. Do you know where she's at?
00:06:13And I go, no. That day I talked to Tiffany. She said, I'm going to get my car cleaned up and
00:06:23I'll talk to you later. And I said, okay, I love you. And she said, I love you.
00:06:28That was the last time I talked to her.
00:06:35There is nothing that is found in that vehicle that would give anyone an indication that something
00:06:39violent had happened there. No blood, no signs of struggle, nothing broken. Car looks like
00:06:47literally someone was in the middle of washing it and then just disappeared.
00:06:50I had a bad feeling. She would never leave her new car because she was so proud of it. Something
00:07:02wasn't, wasn't right.
00:07:10About 8.30, the detective showed up to tell us that they had found Tiffany's body.
00:07:16The families wanted to know what happened to their loved ones.
00:07:27At the park in the center of town, residents turn out for a candlelight vigil.
00:07:31And unfortunately that went on for years where they were unsolved cases.
00:07:36Some investigators with Oklahoma called me, said they had some DNA and they believed it was a
00:07:46match to William Reese. Somebody that had been investigated several times for kidnappings,
00:07:52for sexual assaults. When Oklahoma retested some of their evidence in the Tiffany Johnston case,
00:07:58they had William Reese looking good DNA wise. William Reese originally gets caught in the 80s after committing two sexual assaults.
00:08:10So you see him going to prison in 1986, then he gets out at the end of October of 1996.
00:08:18So when you're talking about the different girls that go missing between April and October of 1997,
00:08:34this is all in a half year span when William Reese was out of prison.
00:08:39I mean, I mean, I mean, it sounds bad because they got me set up like I'm a serial killer right now.
00:08:50I mean, I don't know how many times I had to keep telling people this. I did not do it.
00:08:57William Reese was a predator.
00:09:03Reese's hunting ground, honestly, I would say it, it was wherever the opportunity
00:09:10opened up to him. That's maybe the scariest part about William Reese.
00:09:16He is constantly looking for the scenario where he can isolate a young girl, where
00:09:22he can get her by herself. And at that point, it's too late.
00:09:28He truly thought that he was pretty smart. He thought he was untouchable.
00:09:32People like him is why we have to tell our kids,
00:09:35be careful because there are boogeymen and he is a true boogeyman.
00:09:42We got married in 1984.
00:09:44I got pregnant and we had a son. When you're 18 and 19, you're young and you're foolish and you
00:09:58don't think things through.
00:10:01Call me a coward. I didn't want to believe he did this stuff. He told me that none of that happened.
00:10:08He said it was a lie. He'd be so convincing that you're thinking, well, maybe I did see it wrong.
00:10:14You know, maybe I'm just seeing things.
00:10:19We know that he's a sex offender.
00:10:21The question was, was he a killer?
00:10:24So Reese had been a suspect in these cases over the course of the years.
00:10:29The problem was there was just never enough evidence to actually charge him with any of
00:10:38these crimes. You know, this guy had been interviewed by multiple agencies over the years.
00:10:43He's talked to the sheriff's department. He's talked to police departments. He's talked to the
00:10:46state police. I believe the FBI has even come in and talked to him over the years. Shut him down.
00:10:51We did feel that Tiffany's case was the best shot at getting William Reese. He'd been in prison all of
00:11:02this time since late 97, but that sentence was coming to a close. So we're at the point where
00:11:10it's time to do something or William Reese is going to get out of prison.
00:11:21This was going to come down to the interview, okay? It had to be the right guy to do the interview.
00:11:26And it had to be someone that was willing to take the risk, because if it didn't work out,
00:11:31you know, that person was going to be to blame.
00:11:33Enter Jim Holland,
00:11:34the Texas Ranger. Jimmy Holland is known for being able to get confessions. So I reached out to
00:11:45Jimmy and told him what I was working on. And he said, I sure would like to be the one
00:11:50to do the interview on William Reese. When I first met Jim Holland, my first reaction was,
00:11:58who the hell is this guy? He comes in with his cowboy hat, his white pressed shirt.
00:12:06Jimmy's one of the most arrogant people I know. And coming from a line of Rangers, that says a lot.
00:12:12I would describe Jim Holland as one of the most confident individuals I have ever met in my life.
00:12:19At the time, I looked at it with a little bit of skepticism.
00:12:23Jim, hey, I'm sure you are good at what you do. But frankly, I don't really have time for bravado.
00:12:40Bill? Bill? Yes, sir.
00:12:48Bill?
00:12:49Yes, sir.
00:12:50Bill?
00:12:51Bill?
00:12:53Bill?
00:12:54To get ready for the interview with William Reese, I spent months going through his background,
00:13:15watching interviews, reading courtroom testimony, studying forensic reports. Anything and everything
00:13:22I could think of that would give me some type of advantage once I got into the room with
00:13:26him. And you start seeing the personality of this predator, of this monster. You have
00:13:34all these missing women in this short timeframe before, and he goes to prison. And you have
00:13:39the suspect who fits the epitome of the profile of a serial killer.
00:13:44His prison sentence in Texas is coming to a close. And that was a scary concept.
00:13:50For the last 20 years, people had been trying to get Reese to talk. If this last attempt
00:13:58to get something to work failed, then I'm not sure where we would go after that.
00:14:06Jim Holland, the Texas Rangers, February 9th, 2016. Time is now 2.46pm.
00:14:15I was unsure what would happen when they started talking. William Reese knows the ropes.
00:14:20He knows the game. And he's won the game. Is he going to divulge anything to you? I mean,
00:14:27he's locked up. He don't have to tell you squat. But Jim, he has a way of doing some things
00:14:33that the average investigator. I don't care how much they train. They're not going to get it.
00:14:38Reed's got this cavalier air to him. Confidence, strut, assured of who he is.
00:14:58You know, I think listening to that was typical Jimmy Holland BS about how great he is, the special Ranger stuff. He wasn't even a Texas Ranger. He was a special,
00:15:03Texas Ranger. I don't know what that is.
00:15:05You know, I think listening to that was typical Jimmy Holland BS about how great he is, the special Ranger stuff. He wasn't even a Texas Ranger. He was a special Texas Ranger. I don't know what that is.
00:15:10You know, I think listening to that was typical Jimmy Holland BS about how great he is, the special Ranger stuff. He wasn't even a Texas Ranger. He was a special Texas Ranger. I don't know what that is.
00:15:31With somebody like William, he's interviewing you as much as Jimmy was interviewing him to figure out if he was worthy of his time.
00:15:39But all I do is not feel about it. I'm not doing a little stuff. I don't give anybody to our receptionist. I'm doing it. I'll do real stuff.
00:15:47The higher that I can lift myself up in importance and significance to them, the more likely they are to share information with me because they start seeing me closing in on their level of significance.
00:16:00One of the biggest mistakes that investigators make stepping in the room is ignoring the significance of rapport.
00:16:13So Ranger Jeter had gotten a DNA sample from Reese about a year before, and that was one of the reasons that he was there. And he comes into that room.
00:16:24Reese gravitates to making fun of Ranger Jeter. He starts kind of poking at him about him being a pretty boy Ranger. And I piggybacked that. I jumped on it.
00:16:43And Reese seemed to really like that. And one of the things that I know about him or his persona is that he really enjoys, you know, putting other people down and he sees himself as better than others.
00:17:02And, you know, Ranger Jeter played into it. And as soon as he saw that rapport was built, he found an exit.
00:17:21And he's trying to connect between me and him. And he's trying to earn the respect of William. Everything's about respect in prison.
00:17:28I'm a big proponent of options and choices. And today I have a very unique opportunity for you.
00:17:35If you want to open the book to your life right now, I have it right here. Chapter number one. You ready for it?
00:17:43Yeah.
00:17:46Why are you here today?
00:17:51Well, it's a good thing.
00:17:56It's a good thing.
00:18:05It's a good thing.
00:18:12Father and son were out with their dog in a kind of a remote area.
00:18:17And they smelt and then saw what they initially thought was going to be, you know, an animal.
00:18:24And it gets closer to the area and sees that it looks like, you know, a body.
00:18:30Pasadena police cordoned off an area along Preston Road after they got a call that a body had been found in a retention pond at the mouth of a metal culvert.
00:18:39Investigators say it appears to be a young white female 7 to 15 years old.
00:18:47Her body was partially submerged.
00:18:48She still had the rings that were located, had her initials on the rings, LK, S, and the only clothing that she had on her that was recovered were her two socks.
00:19:01It is the opinion of my department and its investigators and myself as its chief that the young woman found is Laura Kate Smither.
00:19:10And the police chief arrived at our house around noon to tell us that it was Laura.
00:19:22And that's one of my recurring nightmares is them telling us that.
00:19:30Our world ended then. Everything changed. Our life was full of laughter and joy and silliness.
00:19:45Normal family stuff. After that day, our world became silent.
00:19:53Laura was really the sweetest child. She was very creative, very imaginative. She loved playing make-believe when she was little.
00:20:07And then as she got older, going to school, she started going to dance class.
00:20:16She really loved the ballet. She had that reserved nature, but on stage she just lit up.
00:20:28There was no determination about how she died. None of those things could be determined because she was decomposed so bad.
00:20:37Early on, there were several witnesses that had seen Laura on the roadway, jogging towards Moore Road.
00:20:43When they were canvassed in the area and started backtracking on everything, they learned that William Reese was a construction worker doing bulldozer work in the area.
00:20:52And his criminal history showed that he just had been released from the state of Oklahoma for kidnapping.
00:20:58When Billy got out, I helped him get a vehicle. I helped him get a job. I was trying to help him get started. Still with the hope of maybe he's changed.
00:21:11William Reese was requested to come to the station for an interview.
00:21:15Have a seat.
00:21:21Billy was a fantastic liar. He could lie with passion. He could lie, I mean, and make you believe him. It's like, do you believe your lying eyes or do you believe me?
00:21:33I spent quite a bit of time studying the 1997 interview. And I'm specifically looking for tells or anything that would open the door and do his psyche and help me to understand him.
00:21:50Let's talk about, uh, April the 2nd, the day that Laura was missing.
00:21:59Okay.
00:22:01Yeah.
00:22:02It was raining at once. We got rained down.
00:22:05And he said, we still get two hours, you know, for show-up time.
00:22:10Reese says, and his boss tells him to go ahead and clean off his dozer blades and go home for the day.
00:22:15I was at work. Billy called that morning and said, I got rained out. And I said, oh, I said, what are you going to do? And he goes, well, I think I'm going to go home and wash some clothes and just kind of chill. I said, oh, okay. Didn't think anything of it.
00:22:33What time was it you left?
00:22:35Around nine. Somewhere around there.
00:22:38Okay.
00:22:40Where were you driving?
00:22:42Right forward.
00:22:43So Reese gets in his truck and he drives down to the Diamond Bee Ranch.
00:22:48He sees that his female friend is not there. And he says that he immediately turns around, drives back by his work site.
00:23:00And Reese always stood on this as, you know, if I, I'm waving to my boss as I'm driving by. If I had abducted a girl, where's she at in my vehicle?
00:23:09He had the ultimate alibi.
00:23:12Well, I probably saw him a couple of days later. He denied everything. And he denied it so believingly.
00:23:22Did you see a little girl jogging? Nope.
00:23:26Friendswood's police force was, was good. But they investigated bad checks, barking dogs. They weren't used to dealing with murderers, let alone someone like William Reese, the epitome of evil.
00:23:43As the interview develops, you can see Reese starting to take control.
00:23:50Wait a minute. Hold on. Let's put the bullshit.
00:23:52You see Reese suddenly explode. What we know about anger is that it generally takes a while to build up and then it takes a long time to dissipate.
00:24:05What you see from Reese is this anger out of nowhere, immediate explosion and then immediate dissipation. It's feigned. It's, it's, it's not real.
00:24:15I mean, you know, I'm, I'll try to help the best I can.
00:24:20To me, it tells that there's an underlying story. And that underlying story is more than likely going to lead you to a crime.
00:24:29Officer, we appreciate your cooperation.
00:24:31No problem, man. Who knows I am? I don't mind.
00:24:35Are you, uh, you gonna keep, keep your nose clean this time around?
00:24:39Oh, yeah.
00:24:41The belief was for 20 years, William Reese had gotten away with murder.
00:24:48I mean, we had a lot of stuff pointing the finger at him already, but we needed the Holy Grail. We needed a confession.
00:24:54And when I walk into a room, I'm not going anywhere until I get to the truth.
00:24:59Pasadena police cordoned off an area along Preston Road after they got a call that a body had been found in a retention pond.
00:25:1712-year-old Laura Smither, the child, abduction, murder, discarded like trash.
00:25:26It's the worst thing anyone could possibly imagine.
00:25:30We need to deliver justice for the Smithers family.
00:25:33After Laura Smither was found, William Reese was the number one suspect given his criminal history.
00:25:43The police searched, uh, Reese's house.
00:25:47I believe we have found some physical evidence that will be helpful, but I won't characterize it in any other fashion.
00:25:52There was a horse blanket that later showed fiber evidence from floor mats in his truck and also those same floor mat fibers and the horse blanket fibers were found on Laura Smithers' socks.
00:26:04The link between the fibers found on Laura's sock and in Reese's truck, it pointed in a direction that he could be linked to the case, and it was most definitely affirmative, but it was nowhere close to the amount of evidence that you could take to trial and win a conviction.
00:26:23I was mad because I could not believe that with all the circumstantial, with the fiber evidence, why would they not prosecute?
00:26:32Justice and fairness was very important to Laura.
00:26:36It just seemed so wrong that we didn't have justice for her.
00:26:42As Reese becomes a suspect and he's thrown out into the media, someone comes forward with this video of an interaction with Reese with young high school girls at the Busy Bee Cafe in Perilene.
00:26:55What we get is a glimpse of the real William Reese, the predator, and how he stalks his prey.
00:27:02The glimpse of Reese that we get from this video is, I think, who he sees in the mirror, a real ladies' man, a player.
00:27:11He was charming. He was very attentive. He was funny. He complimented you. The first date we went on, and I was 18 and a half, 19 or something like that.
00:27:26We go to Jack in a box, and he flirts with, he was flirting with the cashier and got our meal for free. And that should have been a sign right there.
00:27:35William Reese back in the day was what I would call an urban cowboy. You know, he wore a cowboy hat. He drove a pickup truck. He was bar hopping with country clubs.
00:27:47He was what a lot of ladies described as a good looking man, a good looking man, a charmer.
00:27:54The image of someone you could sit down and have a beer with, have no idea that there's this, that there's this shadow underneath.
00:28:00And I think it was a good looking man, a good looking man, a good looking man, a good looking man, a good looking man, a good looking man, a good looking man.
00:28:08The image of someone you could sit down and have a beer with, have no idea that there's this, that there's this shadow underneath.
00:28:17There was a couple of times that he tried to choke me. And I thought, well, I was kind of calling names and being hateful.
00:28:24And maybe that, maybe I deserved that, but no, nobody deserved that.
00:28:28I thought, well, I was kind of calling him.
00:28:33At the Busy Bee Cafe, he's outgoing, he has charisma, and he's hitting on these girls to the point that he actually gets one of them to sit in his lap.
00:28:45Reese starts out massaging this girl on the shoulders, and then ultimately he starts mock choking her.
00:28:52An indication of what his real desires were.
00:29:03A child.
00:29:04A child.
00:29:21So what I take from this video in stepping into the interview with Reese is I have his persona down a little bit, and I can actually use that to stroke his ego.
00:29:30I studied you, and you're extremely intelligent. You're outgoing, and you're glorious. You're a ladies man. You're good with the window. Good looking guy. Back in the day, you were a stud.
00:29:43Probably holding like a donkey or something like that, right?
00:29:49Jim is not always politically correct, but he can get to their level.
00:29:53Can I ask you a question?
00:29:55Yeah.
00:29:57That's the chance that you didn't kill Laura Smith, but that at some point in time, you gave this girl a ride.
00:30:06So I allow Reese to give himself an out, because I know that that's where he wants to go.
00:30:12There ain't no chance. I didn't give no girl no ride. I didn't see no girl down that road.
00:30:16Reese is, you know, adamant to the fact that he never saw Laura Smith, and he becomes very angry about that to the point that it actually looks like he's going to shut down the interview.
00:30:32In my mind, I know that if he walks out that door, he leaves that room, it's over.
00:30:38It's over.
00:30:39This is bullshit.
00:30:40Did you hear me say, Bill, you gave this the role of a ride?
00:30:43I don't feel like I'm trying to fend this one right now.
00:30:46I'm going to tell you what to happen if you want to hear me.
00:30:48Yeah, I will.
00:30:49Okay. Well, don't get mad at me, girl.
00:30:51I'm just a messenger.
00:30:54So part of the take from the 97 interview was, you know, Reese has feigned anger.
00:31:00That's a quick bullshit.
00:31:02And he uses that as a defense to shut down the investigators.
00:31:05And I knew that was going to come up.
00:31:08And basically what I did is throw it back at him.
00:31:11What did I say?
00:31:13I said, is there a chance that you gave her a ride?
00:31:15Huh?
00:31:16Does that accuse us to worry, or is that a question?
00:31:19It's a question.
00:31:20So you're driving down this room, and this room was moving down this room at the same time.
00:31:29Ain't nobody going to run away.
00:31:31Ain't nobody going to run away.
00:31:32Ain't nobody going to run away.
00:31:33It's time to run away.
00:31:35I think I lost it right there.
00:31:37Yeah, I said.
00:31:38When you're waving your hand at your boss.
00:31:44You have this room.
00:31:58I don't want to put you half of this girl into your car.
00:32:04Right?
00:32:04Well, that's what you think.
00:32:05You think it's dead in your head.
00:32:08Or something that's here.
00:32:10Right.
00:32:12Because the thing that we ain't going to be
00:32:13going to have the time to go in,
00:32:15and you're covering it, come right back down the road,
00:32:17and you have her right there.
00:32:19Cool.
00:32:22You just said that was significant.
00:32:24What?
00:32:26Have her laying there on the floor.
00:32:31Reese makes the statement that she was on the floorboard.
00:32:35And it hit me.
00:32:37He'd messed up.
00:32:51Almost 20 years ago, Laura Smither was abducted.
00:32:55I'm interviewing William Reese.
00:32:57The thought process is, let's figure out everything that's
00:32:59out there, and let's find other victims, and bring answers
00:33:03to the families.
00:33:05And I'm ready to deliver justice for Laura's mom.
00:33:09I'm probably about two and a half hours inside that interview.
00:33:12I get deep inside his head, and I'm sickened by the thought, possibility, of what he did.
00:33:22Sexual assault of a child.
00:33:24But the reality is, you can't show that, because if he sees it for a second, that you're judging
00:33:31him in a negative way, then you're not going anywhere.
00:33:35So you have to remove feelings.
00:33:39You know, after the fact, do I think about how much of a piece of shit this person is?
00:33:44Yeah, absolutely.
00:33:45But when you're sitting in the room with them, you can't let it in.
00:33:59As the interview moves on, Reese starts making missteps.
00:34:05He basically says that he had Laura down on his floorboard in his vehicle.
00:34:12And he turned around and he said that, you know, having someone on the floorboard was
00:34:15just a vigorous speech.
00:34:17This vigorous speech?
00:34:19Why don't you go ahead and run it?
00:34:24I'm without a child.
00:34:26You tell me.
00:34:28The important thing about this is there were starting to be cracks.
00:34:32He was starting to bury himself in the actual facts.
00:34:37And in the past, I think, the issues that the investigators had is they couldn't get him
00:34:40to open up enough that he could fall on his own words.
00:35:00And I make him eat his words, I guess, you know.
00:35:02I'm putting him into a corner.
00:35:04But, so I have these statements and I have this f*** up time frame.
00:35:09Now I have a reason why you're able to wait.
00:35:12It's plausible.
00:35:14So where do I go from here?
00:35:17What do I do?
00:35:18I'm not a district attorney, okay?
00:35:22I'm not a judge.
00:35:24I'm not a jury.
00:35:25I'm not a decision maker.
00:35:27But I think this is the issue.
00:35:29The transparency evidence and the fact that he did this is there.
00:35:34And they're going to prosecute more than me.
00:35:37And they're going to be a death penalty.
00:35:39So, I mean, the ultimate hammer at the end of the day for a normal person who's facing dire consequences could be the death penalty.
00:35:49And having that in your tool belt is essential.
00:35:52Is essential.
00:36:05Reese is a little bit different.
00:36:06He's not that normal person.
00:36:08And he's not someone that you're going to scare into a confession.
00:36:12Or he's not afraid to die.
00:36:14I think it's better to live a life here where you're assimilated and people don't screw with you.
00:36:21And you have some privileges.
00:36:23And it's a bearable life as opposed to sitting on death row for 10 years, you know?
00:36:30I turn around and I bend this not to, well, you're worried about the death penalty.
00:36:35It's how are you going to spend your last 10 years?
00:36:39Well, I think at the end of the day, the years you aren't going to realize it's going to be 10 years of death row by yourself using the cold as your sink is going to suck.
00:36:50And the food is going to suck.
00:36:52And you can't be around any other things.
00:36:55Are you going to have your one hour of, you know, sunlight a day?
00:36:58Or are you going to be in general population?
00:37:00And there's a big difference.
00:37:01And a guy like Reese, who's done 20 years, knows the difference.
00:37:05I'm trying to really build up that anxiety and let him know that there's a tight timeline.
00:37:13He becomes so uncomfortable that he stands up, walks to the other side of the room,
00:37:21and he gets in this Marlboro type cowboy pose with his one foot up against the wall and his arms crossed, and he's just quiet.
00:37:29He doesn't say anything.
00:37:31And I think at this point, he's just brain numb.
00:37:35I just got so deep inside of his head.
00:37:38He had so many thoughts going on.
00:37:40He's trying to figure out what to do.
00:37:43I know that he's on the ropes, and he's beat down, and this is the time to go for the throat.
00:37:59The most important thing in dealing with William Reese is steering him unbeknownst to him.
00:38:08This thing has to move at what he believes is his pace.
00:38:13The reality is I'm pulling the strings from behind, putting him in a direction.
00:38:19It's this game of mind chess.
00:38:21You've got to be not one move ahead, but you've got to be three or four moves ahead of where he's going to be.
00:38:27I want your help because I want your help in other cases, and I'm thinking you can help me in other cases.
00:38:41So I go with him on Norr Smither, and I press pause.
00:38:46I felt like I knew we were going, and so all I did is leave this stuff in his brain,
00:38:50and it's sitting there permeating, maturing, getting ready to grow.
00:38:56Now I can start piling on Tiffany Johnston.
00:39:01We can put Reese in the area, and we have a partial DNA hit.
00:39:05And the idea is to open the book on Tiffany Johnston because he wants to know what's there hanging over his head.
00:39:12It's the kid right there and put in the car wash to Hartley Snowy.
00:39:19I didn't get a letter.
00:39:21Can I miss Ashley?
00:39:22No.
00:39:23Do you know about Lushyness?
00:39:29William Reith was an acquaintance.
00:39:39His mom did my ironing for me when I was working.
00:39:44He was really polite.
00:39:46He didn't act crazy.
00:39:48He was just a normal, everyday person.
00:39:52Very harmless one, I thought, at the time.
00:39:5919-year-old newlywed Tiffany Johnston's Dodge Neon found abandoned.
00:40:08A day later, Johnston's naked body found in the Canadian County Field.
00:40:14Tiffany's lying face down.
00:40:17She is nude except for a swimsuit top.
00:40:22Her body is found about a mile or two off the highway.
00:40:28When her body is brought to the medical examiner's office, we see our first real signs of violence.
00:40:37Her neck has ligature marks consistent with a rope being placed around her neck.
00:40:46Her state of undress immediately makes them suspect that there's a sexual motivation behind this case.
00:40:54And as such, they go the steps so that DNA testing can be done.
00:41:01But they don't have leads.
00:41:04They don't have suspects at the time.
00:41:06And ultimately, the Tiffany Johnson homicide goes cold.
00:41:10It was just one of those things that you don't see how it could happen to you.
00:41:22Tiffany wasn't a street walker.
00:41:24She wasn't a hooker.
00:41:25She wasn't a dopey.
00:41:27She was just an all-around Oklahoma country girl.
00:41:34The tragedy of what happened to Tiffany Johnson, she hasn't done anything to anyone.
00:41:40She's an innocent young girl, a new wife.
00:41:43She has her entire life in front of her.
00:41:46And it's taken in a horrible, horrible fashion.
00:41:51I can't imagine what she went through.
00:41:54I can't imagine how her life ended, how she was left discarded like trash.
00:42:00And the reality is, is that's how Reese saw his victims.
00:42:03He didn't care.
00:42:04He died.
00:42:25DNA technology in 1997 wasn't what it was today.
00:42:33was today, and with the advances in DNA technology in mid-2010s, that DNA gets tested again.
00:42:42And all of a sudden, we have some numbers that are pointing at William Reese.
00:43:03You know, when I think about Jim and his style, and sometimes his brashness, the word maverick
00:43:20comes to my mind.
00:43:22He does things his way.
00:43:24Typically in interviews, you want to be the person who's probably talking the least in
00:43:27the room.
00:43:28That's not Jimmy.
00:43:30He's talking the most in the room.
00:43:33I run through everything on Johnston as far as I wanted to take it.
00:43:38Now he's spinning, and he doesn't know what else is out there.
00:43:42You step in the room with someone like William Reese wondering, what other murders could he
00:43:46have committed?
00:43:49This is the opportunity, you know, to go for the lawnmower, various women that have disappeared
00:43:53in that time frame.
00:43:54And really, the reality is, I don't have anything.
00:43:58And all I can do is watch Reese's reaction to the photos that are laid in front of him.
00:44:05Do you have a lot of Jessica Cain, but don't have a recovery?
00:44:08Yeah.
00:44:09Do you have a hit down that way?
00:44:11Oh, yeah.
00:44:12Several months after Laura Smithers' body was discovered, a 17-year-old female student
00:44:30named Jessica Cain disappeared.
00:44:33And she's never seen again.
00:44:36The last night Jessica was seen, Jessica had been at a local theater that specialized in
00:44:45student theater.
00:44:47The kids from that performance had gone to kind of an after party at a restaurant.
00:44:52And it was time for Jessica to go home at the end of that evening.
00:44:56And so she was seen getting into her truck and then heading south.
00:45:01Her truck was found later that evening, parked along the side of the interstate, going towards
00:45:07her home where she should have been.
00:45:08But there was no sign of Jessica.
00:45:10There was no sign that the truck had broken down, had a flat, nothing like that.
00:45:15No sign that it had been in an accident or any type of altercation.
00:45:19The fact that her purse was still there with the vehicle made people wonder what could have
00:45:24happened.
00:45:25Because if she had gone on her own volition, she certainly wouldn't have left her purse.
00:45:31Jessica Cain was just this, you know, poof.
00:45:34She was gone.
00:45:35And the frustrating thing is in 97, you know, I'm a highway patrol trooper working in Houston.
00:45:41I was working patrol that night.
00:45:43I mean, I was the guy working that roadway in the black and white.
00:45:50And I guess there's always a question, did I miss something or could I have seen something
00:45:53to alter the course of history to save that girl's life?
00:45:58And these questions stayed with me all these years.
00:46:05The search for Jessica Cain widened today.
00:46:08More than a hundred volunteers searched on foot along the marshes and through the brush.
00:46:13There was just this massive response from the community.
00:46:17Jessica was beloved among her friend group and she had a lot of friends.
00:46:22Does this sound at all like Jessica to not call or?
00:46:27No, that's why we know something is wrong.
00:46:31This is just not her.
00:46:33Somebody has her.
00:46:35The questions that must have gone through her family's mind, I can't imagine what that
00:46:40must have been like for them.
00:46:42What would you say to whoever you think has her?
00:46:48If you have my daughter and you're through with her, I pray that you would return her because
00:46:57she's still special to all of us and we want her back home.
00:47:03Jessica went missing on August the 17th of that year, so about four months after Laura,
00:47:10we thought, could it be Reese?
00:47:13We just had that feeling.
00:47:15It raised the stakes that not just one, this is a serial killer situation and are there more?
00:47:23The thing that made William Reese such a strong suspect was his connection to Laura Smithers'
00:47:29abduction and murder.
00:47:31The fact that Jessica had been abducted just a few months later and in the same area had
00:47:38him as a common suspect.
00:47:41Is Reese a suspect?
00:47:42I'm sure he was.
00:47:43It just never went anywhere.
00:47:52Before the interview goes down, all these agencies, they want to have a meeting.
00:47:56The FBI, various district attorney's offices are there.
00:48:00Pretty much anyone and everyone who's been involved in this, you know, we talked about
00:48:04Jessica Cain and the FBI was adamant that they had a suspect and really didn't want to
00:48:10raise questions about Jessica Cain.
00:48:12You know, I asked them how long had they had a suspect and the answer was, you know, some
00:48:17ridiculous amount of time.
00:48:19To me, if you can't make a case in that amount of time against someone, then she's probably
00:48:24the wrong person.
00:48:26That's my thought process.
00:48:29But it didn't make any sense because let's say they do have the right person.
00:48:33Who cares if we talk to William Reese about Jessica Cain?
00:48:37At the end of the day, the only way to corroborate it is to provide a body.
00:48:41Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.
00:48:45And that may apply very well to Ranger Holland.
00:48:51I put the 8x10 glossy of Jessica Cain on the table in front of Reese and I followed his eyes and I could not believe what he did.
00:49:03I put the 8x10 glossy of Jessica Cain on the table in front of Reese and I followed his eyes and I could not believe what he did.
00:49:16Jessica Cain, log of 17.1997.
00:49:22Jessica Cain, log of 17.1997.
00:49:23Jessica Cain, log of 17.1997.
00:49:25Jessica Cain.
00:49:25Did you?
00:49:30But in the second I laid the picture in front of him, he locked in.
00:49:46His eyes wouldn't come off of it.
00:49:50It was immediately apparent to me that not only did he abduct her, but he'd killed her.
00:49:56And there was no doubt in my mind about that.
00:49:59You know, there's a gray area in Reese's brain, and my take is that the gray will be filled
00:50:15in by his imagination.
00:50:17And I'm just planting the seeds, and I'm giving them time to grow, and I'm giving him time
00:50:22to fill in the blanks, and I'm watching the reaction.
00:50:26So this is kind of a fishing expedition on my part, and I'm tossing photographs out
00:50:30there just to judge Reese from his response.
00:50:34At this point in the interview, there's no doubt in my mind Reese is responsible for the
00:50:38murder of three women.
00:50:40The question is, is he responsible for a fourth?
00:50:44One of the cases that had been looked at for, you know, roughly 20 years is the disappearance
00:50:49of Kelly Cox.
00:50:50I'm going to show you a picture.
00:50:53So Kelly Cox is this bizarre story.
00:51:01Kelly Cox was a young woman who's a student at University of North Texas.
00:51:05A pretty young woman obviously had a very full life ahead of her.
00:51:11She wants to be a criminal justice major, and they go to tour the Denton Police Department.
00:51:19And then they all leave from there.
00:51:22Kelly Cox goes back to her car and can't find her keys.
00:51:26She actually asks to use Denton PD's phone.
00:51:32But because it's considered a long distance call, they say no.
00:51:38So she goes to the gas station across the street and calls her boyfriend from the payphone
00:51:44and makes arrangements to get help, and she's never heard from or seen again.
00:51:52I think one of the strangest things about Kelly Cox's disappearance is where it occurs.
00:51:58She had just finished a tour of the police department for her college class.
00:52:06And she's right across the street from the police department when she disappears.
00:52:11That's just weird shit.
00:52:22Kelly Cox left behind that mother constantly wondering if and when Kelly would come home.
00:52:29I left for work one morning and my daughter was there.
00:52:34That afternoon I get a phone call and she's not where she was supposed to be.
00:52:41And there was no idea, no clue as to what happened to her from 1997 until 2016.
00:52:49But we had call records.
00:52:51We also had gas receipts that placed William Reese in the area at the time of disappearance of Kelly Cox.
00:52:58Reese was making a lot of trips from Oklahoma all the way back down to the Houston area along the I-45 corridor.
00:53:05He was making a lot of trips to the Houston area along the way back down to the Houston area.
00:53:15Interestingly enough, on Kelly Cox, nothing.
00:53:20Absolutely no reaction.
00:53:22A blank no.
00:53:24There was nowhere to go.
00:53:26I mean I think at that point there's nothing else to ask him.
00:53:29So I go beyond that and I'm sharing my thoughts of my profile of Reese with him.
00:53:40You're not a serial killer girl.
00:53:43That's not you.
00:53:45It's about the sex.
00:53:48This is about a guy that has a crazy sex drive and he's a rapist, you know, and he's sexually assaulting women.
00:53:56And it's really a simple story.
00:53:58Because William Reese didn't want to stay in jail.
00:54:01He didn't like it.
00:54:02And he had a clear and simple choice to make.
00:54:05And the choice was he could stop sexually assaulting women or he could make sure that there was no one left to testify.
00:54:13And he chose the latter of the two.
00:54:16But you learn from your proper mistakes.
00:54:19And you learn that if you let him, that there's no one.
00:54:22That they're going to testify against you and you're going to go to prison.
00:54:25And you don't want me to go back to prison.
00:54:28But that's not that we never really understand that.
00:54:31And that's why everyone who looked at it was wrong.
00:54:34Because they don't know the .
00:54:37The entire experience was different watching Jim's interview.
00:54:44It's not a normal, routine interview.
00:54:49So, look, I'll do anything that I can to accomplish my goal.
00:54:58And my goal is just my family's culture to suffer kids.
00:55:04Because that's what I do.
00:55:05I'm very .
00:55:09You've asked me my opinion.
00:55:11I'm fooling myself.
00:55:12I'm the best at this effort.
00:55:16You all right?
00:55:18And that's why I get the phone calls.
00:55:21I'm still .
00:55:23I did a trip that no one else admittedly.
00:55:26That interview lasts roughly five hours.
00:55:30And it is safe to say, at the end of watching that interview, I hated Jim Holland.
00:55:35It is hours of him telling William Reese how awesome Jim Holland is.
00:55:42Frankly, I wanted to fight the guy.
00:55:44I just wanted to scream at the computer, let him talk some.
00:55:47Like, I'm here to hear what William Reese has to say.
00:55:50Shut up for a second.
00:55:51Let him do some talking.
00:55:53You know, I'll be honest with you.
00:55:56We don't solve this case.
00:56:00That is why she didn't text her body.
00:56:04So, what does that mean to this girl?
00:56:06You know how cute she is.
00:56:07She's a very attractive girl.
00:56:09All right?
00:56:11But she's got parents.
00:56:13And she's got the ball.
00:56:15She never goes anywhere.
00:56:17You got the phone.
00:56:18She's got the phone.
00:56:19You just get that to the cop.
00:56:20She's got the caller.
00:56:22She's got the caller.
00:56:23She's got the caller.
00:56:24She's got the mother that I've given her life.
00:56:27At the end of the day, more than likely you know where she is.
00:56:31You know?
00:56:32You know?
00:56:33You know?
00:56:34You know?
00:56:35You're going to miss him.
00:56:36As this interview is progressing, Reese becomes more and more silent.
00:56:42And it's almost like it's the blood in the water.
00:56:45At one point, the whole thing turns.
00:56:51And it suddenly makes sense.
00:56:54This is all a show.
00:56:56And I realize Jim is putting on a show.
00:56:59And William Reese is eating it up.
00:57:02And he steps back up towards table.
00:57:05It was like he got hit by a car or someone beat him over the head with a baseball bat.
00:57:09I mean, he's just stunned.
00:57:12Eyes spinning in his skull.
00:57:15And you can tell that, I mean, he's not on the same planet that I am at that time.
00:57:20And he takes four photographs and he arranges them in a collage.
00:57:39And he says these, these four.
00:57:54The pictures that William Reese gestured to was Laura Smither, Kelly Cox, Jessica Kane, and Tiffany Johnston.
00:58:04He says these, we'll talk about these four.
00:58:23I've been in the room with Reese for almost five hours.
00:58:27And he's done.
00:58:29When I left the interview, you know, it kind of sinks in for a second.
00:58:33I had the opportunity to give answers to two families.
00:58:38And to bring their girls home.
00:58:40I was excited in one part of my mind and the other part, thousands of pounds of weights, you know, fell on my shoulders.
00:58:49Because I was thinking, don't screw this up.
00:59:01You know, ultimately when I interview Reese six days later, what happens is you basically have six days of anxiety that's built up in Reese.
00:59:08I mean, it is apparent.
00:59:09I mean, this guy's ate up with it.
00:59:11He is ready to go.
00:59:13So you know that there's more than one thing that you want.
00:59:16Right.
00:59:17So you have lunch.
00:59:18You are all four, though.
00:59:21Is that what you're still talking about all four of those?
00:59:26Even if I do play all four, I'll tell you what happened.
00:59:30Okay.
00:59:31All right.
00:59:32Okay.
00:59:33Is there anything else out there?
00:59:34Is there any more?
00:59:35No.
00:59:36Okay.
00:59:37Most important thing to the families of two of them is recovering the remains when you do
00:59:42that.
00:59:43Okay.
00:59:45It's a pretty huge moment because it's the first time he admitted any type of culpability in
00:59:52any of the murders.
00:59:54And now not only is he admitting that he did it, but probably more importantly, that he's
01:00:00actually going to take us there.
01:00:03Okay.
01:00:04So long story short, I've visited with all the EA's.
01:00:06Oh, that's right.
01:00:07The guy listening to the EA is here right now.
01:00:12Ranger Holland went back up to that interview with Reese, armed with my willingness to waive
01:00:20the death penalty if he would give us truthful information and lead us to the whereabouts
01:00:25of Jessica.
01:00:27But everybody's got to agree to it.
01:00:29And, you know, the problem is, is we have letters from two district attorneys.
01:00:36But the district attorney in Oklahoma City and the Harris County district attorney wouldn't
01:00:41give us a letter of removing the death penalty.
01:00:44And I told him that the reality is, is you haven't given us anything.
01:00:49You haven't proven yourself up.
01:00:51And I told him I felt like if he proved himself up and he led us to at least one body, that the
01:01:14rest of the DA's would jump on board.
01:01:17And there was a good chance that they would give him assurances that they would remove the
01:01:22death penalty.
01:01:23Reese does not want to spend the rest of his life on death row.
01:01:27If you could run one, okay, then everything falls in place.
01:01:33Everybody signs off on every turn.
01:01:36I'll give you the other one.
01:01:37It's okay.
01:01:38Real.
01:01:40Don't bullshit you.
01:01:41I'm not going to bullshit you.
01:01:42I'm not going to bullshit you.
01:01:44Alright?
01:01:46I wouldn't do that.
01:01:51You alright?
01:01:52There you go.
01:01:53We'll leave you on the house now.
01:01:54Hearing that Reese is willing to cooperate and is actually willing to take us to where
01:02:00he buried one or both of the girls was just an unbelievable break in the case.
01:02:07When we left Huntsville, he said he's going to go point out a body.
01:02:12He tells us it's Kelly Cox from Denton.
01:02:15It's a several hour drive.
01:02:18And I'm thinking about, man, I hope this guy knows where this is because it's going to be difficult.
01:02:22Keep in mind this is over 20 years.
01:02:25That area outside of the city limits of Houston has completely changed.
01:02:32We keep driving further.
01:02:34It gets darker.
01:02:36It gets unpopulated.
01:02:38And we start pulling over well, well outside the city limits.
01:02:41And I'm like, man, there's, I mean, this is just a field.
01:02:47And we pull off in there.
01:02:49He stepped out and it was almost like a dog on the hunt.
01:02:53You know, it's like his nose hit the air and he started looking around and he's gone.
01:02:58He starts literally running off and he's shackled up and he's moving.
01:03:06And now I catch up to him and, you know, I'm like, what are you thinking?
01:03:10And he's not stopping.
01:03:11He's going and he goes, this is it.
01:03:13This is it.
01:03:14It's over here.
01:03:15It's so far back in the fields and isolated with trees.
01:03:22When we start digging for the bodies, we completely underestimated how difficult that was going to be.
01:03:28That led from flashlights and a couple of shovels in the middle of the night to an all-out operation.
01:03:35This is a massive undertaking with a lot of equipment and a lot of people being utilized.
01:03:42So we'd been digging, you know, for a while.
01:03:45And when we didn't find the first body, you know, Reese, his anxiety just went through the roof.
01:03:51And ultimately what he does is he turns around and he says, I want to give up the second girl.
01:03:56And the fact that the district attorney in Harris County hadn't put an offer on the table
01:03:59or guaranteed that the death penalty wouldn't be taken away, didn't faze him.
01:04:05He got in my car and Bill leads us to the second dig site.
01:04:12And that's how he gave up Jessica Cain.
01:04:17Reese led us to a tract of land in South Houston.
01:04:22It had a barn on it and some horses.
01:04:24The digging began in earnest probably the next day.
01:04:27We're digging for days.
01:04:29We've torn down barn.
01:04:31We've torn down fence lines.
01:04:34The digging continued further and further back on the property without any evidence of Jessica's remains.
01:04:42And every day that went by ended in frustration.
01:04:48We're digging for three weeks.
01:04:51Nothing.
01:04:53Jimmy's taking heat.
01:04:54They're pissed.
01:04:57The high command's mad.
01:04:58You're crazy.
01:04:59He's playing you.
01:05:00Put him back in prison.
01:05:01Be done.
01:05:03There were some people that began to voice some criticisms that y'all are being played.
01:05:07Y'all are being played big.
01:05:09Because in the end, we were all there based on the word of a psychopath.
01:05:15So we're not finding the bodies and anxiety on Reese's part is going through the roof every day.
01:05:22It's getting worse and worse and worse.
01:05:25But Reese is continually wanting to talk to me.
01:05:29I said, okay, Bill, but you got to talk to your attorney first.
01:05:32And so I put Bill on the phone with his attorney.
01:05:36And he's like, okay, yep, yep, yep.
01:05:39And Bill gets off the phone and he says, he told me not to talk to you anymore.
01:05:44I said, okay, well, that's fine.
01:05:47And he goes, him.
01:05:48I want to tell the story of all four girls.
01:06:02You good?
01:06:03Yeah, yeah.
01:06:05Jim Holloman, Texas Rangers.
01:06:08If you could state your full name.
01:06:11The Wayne Lewis race.
01:06:18Can you describe the first one to me, how it happens?
01:06:37I remember going to work at a construction job site.
01:06:49And I was going down towards Diamond V Ranch in my truck.
01:06:53And I noticed Trina's vehicle wasn't there.
01:06:57And I took off.
01:06:59Okay.
01:07:00And about that time I hear something slam against my mirror.
01:07:07Against the passenger side door.
01:07:09And it scared me so I stopped.
01:07:14Took it out of gear.
01:07:16And I got out and walked around and I noticed that my mirror was broke.
01:07:23And that's when I looked in the ditch and I seen Laura Smithers laying in the ditch.
01:07:27And she wasn't breathing so I picked her up, opened up my door of my truck and put her in the floorboard.
01:07:37And I took this red and black chicken throw blanket I had and I laid it on top of her.
01:07:45And went down the road.
01:07:47I remember waving at my boss.
01:07:50He waved back.
01:07:51I ended up out by this pond somewhere.
01:07:57And I put her in the water.
01:08:01That second interview is William Reese talking.
01:08:05As he lays out his story of what happened to these girls.
01:08:10Tell me what's the next incident that occurs.
01:08:12How's that been against drinking and eating or coming out and getting my shirt.
01:08:25And this girl comes up in between the jeep and this pickup that I was parked next to.
01:08:32She slams her door into my shirt and I yell at her.
01:08:35And me and her start arguing.
01:08:39Calling her stupid bitch, all kinds of .
01:08:45And I back up and I pull off.
01:08:48I'm just going down the road and I pour me a drink.
01:08:51I think she clashed her headlights but I'm not for sure.
01:08:54Anyway, I pulled over.
01:08:56On the side of the road.
01:08:58It's her.
01:09:00And he started arguing again.
01:09:01And I hit her and grabbed her around the throat.
01:09:03And I was choking her.
01:09:04Okay.
01:09:06And then I picked her up.
01:09:07Put her in my truck.
01:09:09And I drove out to the horse bagel bar.
01:09:15Sitting there drinking thinking what the hell am I doing.
01:09:18And I get the dozer.
01:09:21I dig.
01:09:23Not too far from the fence.
01:09:25And I go get her.
01:09:27I put her in it.
01:09:30Did you ever have sex with her?
01:09:32No.
01:09:33Never had sex with her.
01:09:34Okay.
01:09:36It's easier for a perpetrator to talk about murder as opposed to sexual assault.
01:09:42It's less personal to them.
01:09:45Maybe less embarrassing.
01:09:47And the reality is it's a place that I don't necessarily need him to go.
01:09:52It's murder.
01:09:54What about the next one?
01:09:56That'd be the one in Denton.
01:09:59Okay.
01:10:00Tell me about that one.
01:10:01You know, there's a little grocery store.
01:10:09Pull up on the side of it.
01:10:12I was holding up the door and I kind of got out too fast.
01:10:17I ran into this girl.
01:10:19The coke went all over me and her.
01:10:22And I started cussing.
01:10:25I think I pushed her.
01:10:28That's when she hit me with the coke.
01:10:32I slapped her.
01:10:34You're spiking back?
01:10:35Yes.
01:10:36Okay.
01:10:37What happened to that?
01:10:38I grabbed her around her throat.
01:10:40And I choked her.
01:10:44And then I put her in the throat.
01:10:46And I went out to where my other doger's at.
01:10:48And I'm sitting in it and it's dark.
01:10:49Mm-hmm.
01:10:51I sat there all night.
01:10:52I'm trying to figure out what the hell, man.
01:10:54You know, I just...
01:10:56Everything keeps going around her.
01:10:58I got her on the bulldozer.
01:10:59Dug me a hole.
01:11:00And I lay her in that hole.
01:11:02And I covered her up.
01:11:05Maurice never takes any bit of accountability for what occurred.
01:11:11You know, every one of his interactions with these girls are an accident.
01:11:17You know, something that they did.
01:11:18But he initiated this.
01:11:21Probably watching them.
01:11:23Maurice's psyche is, you know, he sees other people as being basically pawns that are put on earth for his pleasure.
01:11:33He doesn't have feelings for them.
01:11:37Go ahead with the next one.
01:11:39That's the one in Oklahoma City.
01:11:41What happened there?
01:11:49I was going down this road with a car wash.
01:11:51I pulled in there.
01:11:53I sprayed a thing with my truck on the muffler system.
01:11:57That's when that girl yelled, hey, I sprayed her.
01:12:00And, uh, me and her got into it.
01:12:04One thing led to another.
01:12:06I just grabbed over and I threw her in the truck.
01:12:10We'd rest around in there for a little bit.
01:12:13We was fighting.
01:12:14I unsnapped her overalls.
01:12:18I don't know why.
01:12:19I can't explain it.
01:12:20It just happened.
01:12:21Okay.
01:12:22And then maybe two minutes, I'd get off of her.
01:12:29And then when I stood up and I was putting up my pants, she hit me in the back of the head with a horseshoe.
01:12:36Pissed me off.
01:12:38That's when I grabbed her around the throat, choked her, and then I grabbed that lead rope, threw around her neck and pulled it real tight.
01:12:44The most surprising thing about William Reese's account of Tiffany Johnston is the callousness or the brevity with which he talks about her rape.
01:13:03Because it was nothing to him.
01:13:06The most horrible thing that had ever happened in her life.
01:13:08He was describing himself as if it's what he did last weekend.
01:13:14Okay.
01:13:15Do you have sex for two minutes, roughly?
01:13:19Or what do you say there?
01:13:21William Reese knew we had DNA from Tiffany Johnston, and he had to explain that.
01:13:31There's no just leaving that part out of the story because there's something left unaccounted.
01:13:38If there was any type of sexual assault with the other victims, we don't have evidence of that.
01:13:45He's never going to openly offer that.
01:13:49And that's all.
01:13:51So, Reese accepts responsibility for the death of all four girls.
01:13:56And the reality was, is the only way to corroborate everything that he was saying was to prove him up through finding these two victims.
01:14:04So we continued to dig, but we start realizing the impossibility of what we want to do.
01:14:15And every day that you get into it farther and farther, you know, you become more and more desolate and wondering if, you know, if you're going to succeed.
01:14:25You can't accomplish anything in life without the risk of failing.
01:14:31But I can tell you the families, the families would appreciate us making every effort, doing everything we possibly can to come up with a final resolution on these cases.
01:14:42This was now probably in the third week of digging. We were basically out of land to look at.
01:14:49I'm hearing from Jimmy Daly, usually in the afternoon. He would call and say, found anything? Nope. You better hurry up. Just keep in mind, I'm never wrong.
01:14:59The digging continued. Fell safe, saw the bucket being dumped, and saw something.
01:15:12And then everything stopped.
01:15:14So that emotion was incredible, because I thought that was the moment.
01:15:18We had two spotters. We had one that was in the hole while they were digging.
01:15:35That bucket would turn, switch over, it would empty.
01:15:40Second guy where they emptied, found human remains.
01:15:43When the first body was found, this was big.
01:15:48Jessica Cain was found first. I mean, the emotion was just, was indescribable.
01:15:55Josh called and he said that they had discovered what they believed to be human remains at the Houston dig site.
01:16:05You know, it felt good. Hearing Josh's voice on the phone and everything he'd been through, it felt really good.
01:16:11We re-energized and we immediately went back to Brazori County.
01:16:17Jim comes down after Jessica is located.
01:16:20And so we're all together at the Kelly Cox site.
01:16:23We locate this bracelet. Kelly had this bracelet on.
01:16:27We find the remains of Kelly Cox.
01:16:31At this point, you know, I'm not real for sure how I'm supposed to feel for the families.
01:16:36Do I want to be happy? Do I want to be sad?
01:16:40This means they're gone forever. Here's where they are.
01:16:45For the Texas cases for Laura, Jessica and Kelly, we didn't have a trial.
01:16:51Reese actually pled guilty in all three cases to the maximum sentence, life in prison.
01:16:57Reese had a full on trial in Oklahoma where everything was contested and challenged.
01:17:04Day four in the Oklahoma County Courthouse.
01:17:07Jurors learning how William Lewis Reese became the prime suspect for Tiffany Johnston's 1997 murder.
01:17:13This is a once in a career type of case.
01:17:19I needed to be there for Laura. That's the only way I can explain it.
01:17:23Somehow this was my way of walking with her to the end.
01:17:28And watching Jimmy's questioning of Reese, it was just so inspiring to know that somebody cared that much about their work.
01:17:42This was somebody who really had prepared for those questions, prepared for whichever way what was coming back was going to go.
01:17:51I was really blown away by what I I heard.
01:17:58And of course, I was emotionally a wreck from what I heard.
01:18:04The ability for the jury to watch and to see the exact same thing that we realized when we listened to those interviews.
01:18:14Watch as Jim Holland puts on this show. Watch as he puts up this image, almost making himself an idol.
01:18:27And to plug away at it for hours on end, almost tirelessly.
01:18:33And then to see that turn and to see it work. And then to hear these horrific stories come out about what a monster this man is.
01:18:47It was pivotal in the prosecution of William Reese.
01:18:51The jury ultimately finds William Reese guilty for the murder of Tiffany Johnson.
01:18:56Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice will not be delayed any longer in this case.
01:19:03I sentence you to death.
01:19:07Immediately after he's sentenced to death, Reese reaches out and he requests to speak to myself and Josh Rogers.
01:19:18First, it was he was upset with us and mad with us and kind of acted like a little little kid who'd had his feelings hurt.
01:19:26After talking to him for about, I don't know, maybe five or 10 minutes, I kind of called bull on it.
01:19:30He just rolled back into the normal bill and our normal relationship and exactly how things had been before the trial.
01:19:38For who this individual is, for the horrific acts that he's done, just for the horrific manner in which Tiffany Johnston was killed,
01:19:48absolutely believed that the death penalty was the just outcome for this case.
01:19:55I'm a firm believer in the death penalty.
01:19:59I don't know how you could forgive someone for killing your child.
01:20:03If they go to the electric chair in Oklahoma, I'd be more than glad to pull William Reese's electricity and give it to him.
01:20:13And I could shoot during the firing squad.
01:20:16William is an evil man. There's a special place in hell for him when his time comes. As a father of girls, he scares me.
01:20:27Do I feel like a victim of Billy? No, because I'm not a victim.
01:20:30I feel like my children are victims because they had nothing to do with this and they had to go through a living hell over all this.
01:20:38But I'm not a victim because I was a grown woman. I should have known better.
01:20:44It changed everything for our family. There's no such thing as closure.
01:20:53That's a made up media term that I wish would be shattered.
01:20:57You can get to resolution.
01:21:00But there's no closure on love.
01:21:05How did this case change me? I guess, you know, probably more than anything, it changed my family.
01:21:11Because I wouldn't let my daughter go anywhere alone and definitely wouldn't let her run anywhere unless I was watching.
01:21:19Without Jimmy, this would have never happened.
01:21:22Nobody else was going to stake their reputation.
01:21:25Nobody else was going to put their silver star on the line for William Reese.
01:21:30I promise you that. Jimmy did.
01:21:32If Ranger Holland had not been able to develop that kind of rapport with Reese and get Reese to talk,
01:21:40we would never, ever have found Jessica Kane or Kelly Cox.
01:21:47The ability to establish a rapport with psychopaths and serial killers is not something you find in just anybody.
01:21:54And I think many of us in law enforcement and I know many families are indebted to him for that.
01:22:02Could anyone else have gotten Reese to talk?
01:22:06I mean, it had been 20 years and a lot of people made runs at him.
01:22:10I don't know the answer to that, but I know what I brought in that room was things that Reese had never seen before.
01:22:19At the end of the day, what it took to ultimately get the four confessions and to recover the bodies, it was different.
01:22:27I don't know if anyone else would have brought in that type of difference.
01:22:30I can't think of a case that's crossed my desk that I don't think has a possibility of being solved.
01:22:39You have to believe in what you're doing and you have to be willing to put it all out there.
01:22:44And the job of a Ranger, I believe, is to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves.
01:22:50And no one needs to get away with murder.
01:23:00So thank you.
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