Cold Case Files - Dead West: Mystery in Cuero

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

When Pam Shelly, 31, is found in her Cuero, Texas bathroom with a fatal gunshot wound to the head, her death is initially ruled a suicide. Yet a tenacious investigator's instincts and his suspicion of foul play eventually cracks the case wide open.This Episode is sponsored by BetterHelpBetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/COLDCASE to get 10% off your first month.goPure: head to gopurebeauty.com and use code coldcase at checkout for 25% off!Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.Rosetta Stone: Cold Case Files listeners can get Rosetta Stone’s lifetime membership for 50% off when you go to RosettaStone.com/coldcaseSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, Cold Case listeners. I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files as well as the A&E Classic Podcasts, I Survived, American Justice, and City Confidential are all available ad-free on the new A&E Crime and Investigation Channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple Plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now on to the show. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised. My mom, she grew up on a farm. She was the real country girl. When I received the call, I did not know I would be facing the longest investigation of my career. What we heard was gunshots? Bam, bam. What's the ham's going on?

Her eyelids are purple, and her lips are purple, and blood is everywhere. I was speechless. I could not believe. believe what I was hearing. I was just a kid and I felt like nobody was listening to me. He said, if you want this bitch back, you will get her in a pine box. I wanted the truth shared with the rest of the world because I knew the truth. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. Carl Bowen is the sheriff of DeWitt County.

Quiro, Texas was my hometown. I grew up here, I went to school here. Quarrel is more of a small town community type of area. In the early days, it was known for its large turkey farms. There's primarily cattle today. Folks are very involved in the religious aspect here. There are church councils and the community comes out and all has a meal together. Any crime of violence like a homicide immediately draws attention from the entire community.

In the dry heat of October 2000, 12-year-old Kayla Suggs leaves Arkansas and heads to Texas with her mother, Pamela Shelley, and nine-year-old brother, Dustin. Pamela pulls up stakes with the family to start a new chapter in Quarthe. We all would ride horses all the time. I get to get on a horse and I could ride for as long as I wanted to. And that was fun to me. That was amazing. When she came to Texas, I truly feel like she thought it was going to all be different. She just didn't have the chance to make it different.

We were in the living and watching SpongeBob. And I just heard this horrific scream. It only took us a couple seconds to get from the living room to the living room to the bedroom. When I first see my mom, she's laying on the bathroom floor with her eyes closed and her eyelids are purple until I get on top of her and I straddle her and I try to do CPR but nothing was happening. Jody Zaveski is the former sheriff of DeWitt County. Our 911 operator received a call that there was a shooting out on Jackson Road in rural DeWitt County. The information we got from the caller was that it was attempted suicide. Shortly thereafter at

about 637, Yarktown EMS arrived on the scene and found a woman suffering from a gunshot wound in the head. While the children wait anxiously outside the trailer, inside Pamela's boyfriend Ronnie does his best to hold it together. They describe Ronnie as borderline hysterical and concerned about her well-being. She was still alive, conscious of breathing, so they began their rescue efforts. One of the EMTs had Ronnie actually moved the weapon away from

so they could continue to rescue efforts on it. They knew right away that they were going to need some additional help, so they made a call to have Pamela Medevac to San Antonio for additional attention. When I received the call, I am a single father assigned to the patrol division of the DeWitt County Sheriff's Office.

I didn't have anyone to take care of my son, who was 12 at the time. So I took him to the scene with me. As I'm pulling up the driveway, there's other police cars here, and I noticed that Kayla and Dustin are standing over here by this tree. They're surrounded by Ronnie's family. Kayla was 12 years old. My son was 12 years old at the time. It affected me on a personal level.

It became real person. My mom was born in Ashtown, Arkansas, to Carl and Jean Curley. She grew up on a farm. She milked cows, got eggs from chickens. She was the real country girl. Debbie Gibson is Pamela's best friend. I met Pam back in, 79. Pam was about nine. She had them big blue eyes. She always wanted to be up under the adults.

She grew up really fast. When Pamela is 14, she sets her eyes on 17-year-old Jesse Suggs. I can't really say what my mom and my dad liked in each other. My dad was the bad boy, and my mom was a good girl, and I guess that attracts. And, And she was head over heels, and so was he. Then they got married, I think, when she was like 16. Pam never would leave the house without makeup. Me and Pam used to love to go dance. She was country Western dancers.

She loved to boot scoot boogie. Pam was always a giddy-up cowboy, cowgirl. Before long, Pamela and Jessie begin running into trouble. Jessie didn't quite steer right of the line sometimes, and had some interaction with law enforcement over the years. So when I was born in March of 1988, my mom and my dad were already divorced. And then she met Gary, and they had Dustin.

She wanted her children to be dressed nice. When they went to school, she always had them dressed up in Country and Western. But Pamela and her ex, Jessie, are like. like moths to a flame, flying in and out of each other's lives year after year. It was a love and hate relationship, because it was definitely not a healthy relationship, but they loved like it was unreal. In 2000, during one of Jessie and Pamela's breakups, Pamela falls hard for Ronnie Hendrick. Months later, Pamela and the kids follow Ronnie west to Quaro.

She would never see Arkansas again. It's January 6th, 2001, two hours after finding Pamela. Pamela and Ronnie left in an ambulance to the hospital. But Ronnie's brothers were there. Ronnie's mother and stepfather were there. Ronnie's family tells authorities that there had been trouble recently. They said that Kayla was a difficult child, that Pamela was unable to.

to control her. Pamela had packed all of her belongings into a flatbed trailer and was going to go back to Arkansas. They had the idea that Pamela was very depressed and despondent about having to leave, Texas. Pam had a big heart.

She had highs. She had lows. She's gone down a couple dark roads. Nearly 500 miles away in Arkansas, Pamela's parents get the news about her grave injury. Finally, when my grandparents get called they took a personal flight from Arkansas up here and they

brought us to the hospital in San Antonio my grandma told me that um the bullet had shattered in her brain and so she was completely brain dead and there was nothing that we could do to to help her and they turned her ventilator off and then she just stopped. The EME examines everything, and at that point in time, law enforcement provided the information that this was a suicide.

So coupled with what he sees, the M.E put her cause of death as a suicide. I respectfully disagreed with the results. There were aspects of this case that were nagging at. me, things that just didn't seem right. In the master bathroom, there is a vanity there. And on this vanity is a broken hairbrush, some makeup,

and a revolver. Why put on makeup and then shoot yourself in the very place that you put to makeup? When we got her autopsy, it simply said suicide. I never believed that my mama didn't leave me here. She didn't leave us here. The medical examiner's office rules the manner of death as a suicide. There were still steps that needed to be completed.

One of those was the interview of Ronnie Hendrick. Like Pamela, 30-year-old Ronnie Joe Hendrick is new to Quiro. Ronnie's family was originally from Arkansas. So while they lived in the Quiro community, Ronnie's family is not well-known. but is familiar in certain aspects of the community. Pamela had met Ronnie Hendrick in Ashdown. Their relationship grew, and Pamela moved to DeWitt County, Texas, where Ronnie's family was living.

Pamela's closest neighbor was Ronnie's parents, who lived about a quarter of a mile from Pamela and Ronnie's residence. Quiro police speak with Ronnie again, 24 hours after Pamela's death. Ronnie stated that he was sitting out on the back porch when he heard a gunshot. He goes into the bathroom and finds Pamela lying on the floor, bleeding from the head. Ronnie says that he attempted to stop the bleeding, told Kayla to go to Ronnie's mother's house and call 911. He did not have any service at his house. He said that Pamela had actually been very depressed during this time.

Pamela was distraught because she was being forced to move back to Arkansas and that Pamela did not want to do that. Ronnie said that Pamela was suicidal and on antidepressants for mental disorder. We have a gunshot. that is consistent with suicide. But there were still things about the crime scene that were nagging at me. One of the first things I saw

was this trailer full of personal belongings. It didn't seem to make a lot of reasonable sense. Why would you kill yourself 15 minutes prior to leaving? I was concerned that this was a criminal act, that this was a homicide, but I was not the lead investigator of the case. So I felt very limited as far as how far I could pursue this case. Pamela's body is returned to Arkansas.

Days after losing her, Kayla and Dustin say goodbye to their mother. My mom's funeral was my first funeral ever went to. I had never been to a funeral, but all I remember is not one. wanting to look at my mom because I didn't want to tell her by. And my grandma making me, because she said, it's the last time you're going to see her. You have to look at her. And I just threw my flower. And I walked away.

Deputy Bowen's nagging feeling gets worse when police speak with Pamela's family and get a much different picture of the young mother. Pamela Shelley was described as a very loving mother. She may have had some rough roads that she had traveled at times, but she would always want to make sure that the kids had what they needed and she supported them. The statements that we had taken from family members,

it just, the two didn't seem to connect. We saw two different stories, and so we had to figure out which one was the right one. We often will use polygraph as a means of gaining another maybe small piece of evidence, and so it was thought that it would be a good idea we get Ronnie to submit to a polygraph examination. Ronnie agreed

to do a polygraph, so the deputy sets up the polygraph date. On the date that he was supposed to have the polygraph, Ronnie doesn't show. Fall is here, and it's the time of year, I always feel like hitting reset. The seasons change, the sweaters come out,

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And this year we're saying thank you therapists. because behind every one of the five million people that better help has supported on their mental health journey is a therapist who showed up, listened, and helped someone take that important step forward. For me, one of those steps came when my therapist reminded me that progress doesn't have to be dramatic to be meaningful, that even one small shift counts. That perspective stayed with me and it's something I carry into everyday life now. That's what therapy does. It creates moments of clarity, connection, and relief. And the right therapist makes all the difference. BetterHelp has over 30,000 licensed therapists and they use more than a decade of

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to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start the journey. Our listeners get tempers and off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash coldcase. That's betterh-elp.com slash cold case. I'd have to ask, why wouldn't Ronnie show up? If he's not involved in it anyway, he has no reason not to show up. Ronnie is Pamela's boyfriend. The deputy reaches out, makes contact with Ronnie again. Ronnie says, I'm sorry, I forgot.

They reset the polygraph date. That date comes. Ronnie doesn't show. He's not cooperating with the investigation any longer. And when that happens, that's a huge red flag for law enforcement. The deputy again tries to reach out to Ronnie to find out why he missed his second polygraph exam. What he learns is that Ronnie is no longer in Texas. I mean, it certainly made us think that he may be tied to this.

The person submitting to a polygraph does not have to take it. It is not something that you can get a warrant and force them to do. The medical examiners rules the cause of death as a suicide. The investigator of the case felt that he would close the case out as a suicide. There just wasn't anything else for the investigating deputy to do. With Ronnie gone, leads dry up, and the case goes cold. From the time my mom got killed in 2001, I never gave up like I would always call, you know, and ask questions. I just wanted the police to listen to me, but they just said she killed herself.

At the time, the police didn't really have a lot to go on, but it really felt like somebody killed Pam and got away with it. I continue to work on my caseload, continue solving crimes, but mind you, I put it per picture in a frame and sat it on my desk. I'm looking at it every day. It has never left my mind. In January of 2005, four years after Pamela's death, Deputy Bowen jumps at the chance to reignite the case when Jody Zaveski becomes the new sheriff. I met with the sheriff and relayed my concerns about, the Pamela Shelley case. I asked if I am able to catch up on my caseload, would I be able to reopen the Pamela Shelley case and give it a definitive look? That was first and foremost on his list.

He says, I want to look at it. And we talked about it and told him to run with it. I knew it was going to be a lot of work, obviously because the years had passed. It became important to go back and test the recollection of witnesses, potential suspects, and anyone that had any contact with Pamela at that time. During interviews, Ronnie's family pretty much had the same story that Pamela had actually been very depressed during this time. The social circle of Pamela in Cuero was, for the most part, non-existent. So it was going to take having to get to Ronnie, find out what really happened to Pamela.

With the case closed for so long, there's no trace of Ronnie Hendrick. Then, seven years after Pamela's death, the department gets a call that could get things started again. I'm sitting in my office. The chief walks in and says, Sheriff, you're not going to believe this. A person had been arrested for aggravated domestic violence, and I was shocked to learn that that person was Ronnie Hendrick. I finally have him here. It is time to get the polygraph. It's time to get the interview. It's time to close this case.

I can remember thinking, are you kidding me? So we've been, you know, looking for this guy, and he ends up back in our jail. It's now May 28, 2008, seven years after Pamela Shelley's death, Michael Shepard is the former district attorney for DeWitt County. As district attorney, you don't get involved in cases until law enforcement works them up and brings them to you. Carl Bowen came and filled me in with all the details. Ronnie Hendrick had been arrested for abusing a girlfriend. It really was an eye-opening moment because now we have somebody. who has been assaulted by Ronnie, another female. I contacted the jail and set up an interview

with Ronnie Hendrick for May 27. Ronnie agreed to the interview. He was advised of his legal right, and he voluntarily said that he wanted to give a statement in this case. You were on the backboard. Okay. I just, I heard, pow. He says he gets up.

He rushes immediately. to the bathroom, and there is Pamela on the floor with a gun. It was more of a fact-finding interview. I also had the intent to get that polygraph that he has missed twice now. He agrees to do it a polygraph, and I set it up for him to go. When Ronnie agreed to take the polygraph, I had already scheduled to go to Ashdown and conduct more interviews. And, of course, I want to visit with Pamela's children. I got a call from my job telling me that a detective was looking for me.

And I just remember, like, running to my grandma's apartment next door. And just an experience of, like, hope. And finally, and we're going to get somewhere and do something. It's just great. While I'm on my way to Arkansas, I'm wondering what's going on with Ronnie right now. And it was shortly after I had that thought that I got a phone call from my co-worker that took Ronnie to the polygraph. And she said, he failed it miserably.

Ronnie Hendrick smartened up and invoked his right to counsel and quit talking. Once Ronnie Hendrick failed the polygraph and lawyered up and would not make any further statements, Carl had to go. Carl had to go to work and find other evidence to slowly piece this big puzzle together. Okay, my name is Carl Bowen. I'm an investigator with the DeWitt County Sheriff's Office. Detective Bowen just asked me to give my side of the story, which was the first time somebody had ever truly just listened

to my whole side of the story. During Kayla's interview, I learned some very significant points. First point is that, is that Kayla didn't like Ronnie and Ronnie didn't like Kayla. He drank a lot. He, you know, was very rude. He did not like me. He was mean to me.

To me, this was a conflict because a person that was about to commit suicide is now not only leaving her children without family and without resource, but as leaving her children with someone who doesn't like them. Kayla goes on to reveal a violent attack that happened just two days before Pamela's death. Ronnie punched my mom. He took her by her hair and was banging her head up against his knee. He was hitting her. And then in the process, then she had a seizure.

But he told us we had to leave. We had no cell phone. We had no house phone. And he wouldn't give us the keys to the car either. either. Did Ronnie know that she had seizures? Yes. This was very significant evidence because it completely undermines the story that Ronnie Hendrick's family was telling, which is that Pamela wanted to stay and was happy with Ronnie, but you need evidence sufficient to persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Ronnie Hendrick knowingly and intentionally took the life of Pam Shelley.

I promised Kayla that I would never quit. I promised her that as long as I had something to work with, I would not quit. Ronnie is ultimately released on the 2008 assault charge. Deputy Bowen turns to advancements in technology since the time of Pamela's death. The use of DNA evidence, which is just a game-changing device in the prosecution of crimes, has improved since 2001. The importance of the touch DNA was to determine who had the gun. The identity of DNA on the firearm may very well hold the key to who fired the weapon.

So at the scene of the shooting, the first responders made the decision to ask Ronnie Hendrick to move the gun. Detective Bowen sends the gun found next to Pamela's body for DNA test. testing. Obviously, it should have had Ronnie's DNA on it because the medic is telling us we had Ronnie move the firearm. And if Pamela had shot herself, she obviously would have had left something on it. While he waits for the results, Detective Bowen and his team re-examine other facts of the case. Detective Bowen digs deeper into Pamela's alleged use of antidepressants. Carl spoke to the doctors of Pamela Shelley. She did. take antidepressants. However, these antidepressants were not for a mental health case.

They were for the prevention of seizures. This theory that she was suicidal. She had a history of suicide attempts was all debunked. It wasn't true. So why lie about that? I see Ronnie around town. He's walking free this whole time. And I just will not. let that rest. Carl Bowen contacts the Bayer County Medical Examiner's office with his new findings. So I'm relaying to the medical examiner, you didn't get the proper information from Ronnie's family. This is what really happened.

He looked at our evidence that we were able to give him, and it was enough to change his mind. June 5, 2012, the medical examiner changes the death certificate of Pamelaide. from manner of death as suicide to manner of death as undetermined. And in my mind, it now meant that murder was on the table. The results from the touch DNA test on the gun come in. They are not what anyone expects. The results were surprising. The surprise was that no one's DNA was on the gun.

And when I say no one, I mean... one, I mean neither Pamela Shelley, nor was it was Ronnie's DNA on the gun. And his DNA should have been there because it was his gun. There's no way he could have picked it up without transferring, at least touched DNA, if not leaving full fingerprints on any of the smooth side of it. So Chelsen investigated that somebody's wiped that down at one point in time. And the only reason anyone would have to wipe down a gun after a shooting and before law enforcement arrives is a guilty conscience.

I asked my sheriff if I could go make one final trip to Arkansas. Just one more time and just see if there was anybody at all that I missed that may help push this case over the top. It's now July 25, 2012, 11 and a half years after Pamela's death. I met with Shirley Sucks. This is Jesse's mother. Jesse is Pamela's ex-husband. And I remember asking her,

is there anything I'm missing? What am I missing here? And she goes, I don't think you missed anything. It's just a shame for those kids. And I thought she was talking about Kayla and Dustin. She goes, no, no, no, no. Jesse told me that he had talked to Pam and Pam was coming home.

They was going to get a house together and they was going to get their family put that together and they were going to straighten their lives up and be great. And you could have dropped a pen in the room. I could not believe what I was hearing. Pamela and Jesse. They were getting back together. Shirley, where exactly is Jesse now?

And she said, well, but he's in Texas in prison. Deputy Bowen immediately heads to Rusk, Texas, to talk with Jesse Suggs. Okay. Jackson, were y'all planning on getting an apartment or something? Yeah, we're going to have there. He said that he had been talking with Pamela at least once a week, but usually every day. That he goes, yeah, I talked to her on the day she died. He told Carl Bowen that the day that Pam Shelley was shot, he had spoken to her on the phone,

and she was excited about returning to Arkansas and returning to him. Jesse said Ronnie walked into the room and heard Pamela talking to him on the phone. Jesse said there was a brief struggle, and what Jesse would tell me would literally blow my mind. And he took the phone away from her and told me that he sent her back to me in a fine box. That's the only way I'd get her back. We're all great at taking care of the skin on our faces, but what about the neck and chest? They usually get ignored, even though they're often the first to show visible signs of aging. And now that falls here, with cooler air, cozy sweaters, and open collars,

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dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Told me, I sent her to you in a pine box. Click on the bono. The information that Jesse Suggs provided was literally the smoking, gun that was needed to resolve this case. I was speechless. I remember sitting there looking and going, well, Jesse,

this would have been some handy information 12 years ago. And Jesse said, well, no one ever asked me. As I'm hearing this statement from Jesse Suggs, now we have the circle closed on Ronnie Hendrick. We have a threat to kill her the day she died. and we have motive. Deputy Bowen arranges for Jesse to take a polygraph. Jesse goes in for the polygraph, and I wait outside.

It's almost like being in the waiting room, waiting for a baby to be born. About an hour later, the polygrapher comes out, said, that guy's telling truth. I was confident that we could prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt and that we could get a conviction from a D.W.E. County Jury. I had every confidence that we could do it. On October 3rd, 2012, I received an indictment charging Ronnie Hendrick with the murder of Pamela Shelley. I personally served the indictment on Ronnie Hendrick while he was incarcerated at the DeWitt County Jail. He just took the indictment, hung his head, and went back to his cell. Detective Bowen, I can't even explain my gratitude to that man.

He's an amazing human being. After the arrest, I was warned of how hard a trial is on everybody. But I was ready. I was ready. However, publicity of the story in this small town complicates Michael Shepard's case. In the course of this case being prepared to be presented to a jury, one branch of the media had made a television show about it. It was horrible timing because everybody in town watched it.

I was concerned that that publicity prior to the trial could have a result in Ronnie Hendricks never being held accountable for what he'd done. And that got me to thinking that this case might be best resolved by getting him to agree to go to the penitentiary. In a plea bargain with the prosecution, Ronnie Hendrick agrees to confess to the murder of Pamela Shelley. He is sentenced to 22 years in prison. When Ronick accepted his 22 years, I didn't think that was good enough.

But I don't think there's an amount of years that they could have given him that would have made me okay. The victims that will carry these scars forever are in the faces of her children. After her death, they faced unimaginable hardships. And for them to come out on the other side is a true testament as to the basic groundwork that Pamela Shelley and distilled upon them in a few short years that she had with her children. It's July 25, 2003, in Quiro, Texas, what would have been Pamela Shelley's 54th birthday. I really chose to do this today because, for one, it's my mom's birthday. She's done more birthdays there in heaven than she has here with us.

And that's sad. Here, I just wanted to come and be at the last place that she was at alive and just to tell her, Kate, spent my whole life trying to cover up pain and hide it. And it's just how to accept it and move forward from it. Happy birthday, Mama. We love you. This October, fear is free on Pluto TV. With horror movie collections from paranormal activity, The Ring.

You will die in, Seven days. Scream. And from dusk till dawn. This is my kind of place. And don't miss the man-made nightmares in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or the world ending chaos in 28 days later. Something in the blood. All the scares.

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