Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - SERIAL KILLER WILLIAM REECE GETS AWAY WITH MURDERS, RAPES FOR 30 YEARS

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

Multiple murders are linked to one man thanks to a young survivor. Sandra Sapaugh,  kidnapped by William Reece, throws herself move a moving vehicle and is able to describe and identify her attacker. Reece was sentenced to prison after already serving 10 years for two previous rapes. Whiles in jail, Reece must conform to laws in his state that say his DNA must be uploaded to a database. That's when Reece is linked to another murder. In an effort to avoid the death penalty, Reece starts cooperating with police, offering to lead cops to the bodies of women missing for years. Ultimately four murders were confirmed at the hands of William Reece.  Joining Nancy Grace today: Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States"  Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA, AngelaArnoldMD.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet", Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan" Rob Arnold - Investigative Reporter, KPRC 2Houston, Click2Houston.com, Facebook.com/RobertArnoldKPRC, Twitter: @KPRC2Robert, Instagram: @KPRC2RobertArnold  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Seven women that we know of, murdered, raped, getting away by the skin of their teeth. Why has a one-man wrecking ball managed to walk free for so long? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. With so many crime victims, I hardly know where to start.

But I'm going to start with a gorgeous young girl, Kelly. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 4. In the summer of 1997, the disappearance of Kelly Cox was huge news here at University of North Texas and in Denton there were search parties that in the days and months that followed and we even reported on several developments over the last 17 years now that picture the new picture of what she would look like and fresh hope for her family who have always believed that she's still alive I believe she's out there somewhere, and we just need to bring her home. Not a day goes by that Jan Bynum doesn't think about her daughter Kelly

and where she might be. Is today the day she's going to come through the door? Is today the day she's going to call? Or is today the day I'm going to get answers? The fact that the family for so many years believes that their little girl, Kelly, is still alive is heartbreaking in itself. I've got an all-star panel, but first I'm going to go to Dr. Angela Arnold joining me, renowned psychiatrist out of Atlanta. Dr. Angie,

what is it about us humans that in the face of overwhelming evidence that our loved one is dead. We will not accept it. What is that? Nancy, I believe that it's hope because we all have to have hope inside of us for different things. And if we don't have hope, for example, one of the questions that we ask patients when they come in and if they're exhibiting signs of suicidal ideation and things like this, one of the top things that you look for is a feeling of hopelessness. So a feeling of hopelessness is a very difficult thing to treat. So as long as people have hope, that is a very positive thing for them to feel. I know that about hope, but I think it's a survival tactic.

I want to go to a special guest joining us, investigative reporter Rob Arnold out of KPRC2 Houston. Rob, you have been on this case through so much. When you see family members, against all odds, choosing to believe their daughter is, as you just heard the mom say, out there somewhere, still alive. I mean, what do you do in the face of a parent when you know the person is dead, but you hear the family insisting they're alive. Well, I think it's particularly cruel when a person disappears and their body is not found. One of the things, and it wasn't just Kellyanne Cox's family, it was also Jessica Kane's family as well, who never really knew what happened to their daughter. And it is particularly cruel. And I'll never forget Jessica's mom telling me something that every day you think, is she hungry? Is she cold? Is she tired? Those are the things that just plague parents when their child is not found. It is,

I think, it is a particularly cruel fate for parents who suffer something like this. I mean, of course, Rob Arnold, joining me, KPRC2 Houston, what child would just disappear willingly, voluntarily, and be gone for years and years, leaving behind their world, sometimes their own children, their mom and dad to wonder? Of course they wouldn't. Well, no. Kellyanne Cox was a young mother. She had just had a baby, a baby who for years kept looking for her mom. So that, so this isn't just what happened to one family. This happened to this child. In Jessica Kane's case, she was coming home from a restaurant with friends, her car parked on the side of I-45, her purse in the front seat. You know that she didn't just simply walk away.

Exactly. I mean, if she were going to run away, you know, you know, that drives me crazy, Rob Arnold, when a cop or detective says, oh, they just went to be with another man. Like, no, her car's on the side of the street with her pocketbook in it. Of course, I'm jumping ahead. I'm jumping from Kelly. We were just hearing her family and now we're talking about Jessica, but they're all interwoven. It's hard to talk about one of these murdered victims there. I'll just put it out there. And I hate saying that to family members when they're still clinging to hope, but it's the truth. They're so interwoven, it's hard to discuss one without the

other. Okay, back to Kelly. Back to Kelly and Rob Arnold joining me, KPRC. You're like drinking from the fire hydrant. You have all this knowledge. You're coming at me too fast, too much at once. Slow it down so I can understand what happened to all these women? Seven that we know of. Take a listen now to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. We're talking about Kelly Ann Cox. Is she the first murder victim chronologically? I don't even know. But I do know she is a murder victim.

So let's start with Kelly Ann Cox. Listen. Kelly Ann Cox was just 20 years old when she disappeared. She was a mom of a young daughter and a full-time student at the University of North Texas. That morning, Cox dropped her daughter off at the babysitter's and joined her criminal justice class for a tour of the Denton City Jail. Around noon after the tour, Cox heads back to her car, only to find her key won't work the door. So she

makes a phone call to her boyfriend from a payphone asking for help. When he arrives, the car is in the parking lot, but Kelly is nowhere to be found. By 5 30 that evening, Cox's family knew something was wrong. Kelly was supposed to pick up her daughter Alexis, but didn't. Now I want to go to Joe Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet, star of another hit series. This one is Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan on iHeart. Joe Scott, I already, I'm only on victim number two,

and I see a pattern. They're both connected to cars. You heard Rob Arnold state that Jessica's car was just there on the side of the street. I think he said the highway with her pocketbook in it. Okay, now I'm hearing about Kelly who has a new baby and she's in school. That's not easy. She goes to get back in her car after a criminal justice tour and whoa what about that what a coinkydink her key suddenly will not fit her car door it won't work anymore and then when the boyfriend and others get to the car the car is there but no kelly yeah and

that's something you have an individual that's perhaps stalking folks. And in this particular case, I'm really curious about this lock on the door, Nancy, from a forensic standpoint. Was there any evidence at all that something had been placed in there perhaps and broken off so that when you go to try to enable the key to work the lock, you can't even actually get the key in there. Or maybe, just maybe, you got something jammed in there and it's not allowing the teeth to fall in the correct position in order to operate it. And that would mean, I think, in some people's minds at least, is that there might be evidence that the thing had been fiddled with.

And if that is the case, the instrument or the item that was placed in there to disable it can be tied back to something. And I think, you know, when you're developing a case, you look at that because that's very specific for somebody to do that. It's very bold. What about it, Rob Arnold? What do we know about that? Because the car's working fine. She goes in for the tour. She comes, and suddenly her key won't work. I don't think it was ever 100% determined exactly what happened with Kellyanne's car, but I do know that the MO with a lot of these young ladies was their cars were tampered with, tires slash things of that nature, and then someone came along and offered them help, and they disappeared. Okay, you know, Rob Arnold, you didn't even have to put on the scary voice to sound scary when you just said that.

Someone comes along and offers help and then the women are never seen again. Let's follow up with Kelly Cox. Take a listen to our friends at Fox 4 Dallas. This was her daughter Kelly Cox 17 years ago, a student at UNT, mother to a 19-month-old baby girl named Alexis. She was last seen at this Conoco gas station on July 15, 1997. Over the years, that Conoco has been turned into a car wash. This is a picture of Kelly in 1997.

Now, take a look at this picture. It's a time progression photo of what Kelly would look like now at age 37. It was recently posted on the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Bynum hopes someone will see it and give her the answers she's been looking for. It's always that hope that, oh my gosh, maybe something happened and she ended up somewhere and someone's going to go, oh wow, I mean, I do know that young lady. Back in 1997, Cox had just finished touring the Denton Police Department with a class

when she realized she had locked her keys in her car. She called her boyfriend. When he arrived at that Conoco station, her car was there, but the young college student was gone. Just thinking about arriving at that car, and you're looking for Kelly, and you see the car, but no Kelly. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How has a one-man wrecking ball, as I described him earlier, allowed to continue to stalk the streets of innocent women? Obviously, with an M.O., a modus operandi, a method of operation.

I mean, Matthew Mangino joining me, a high-profile lawyer, former district attorney, author of The Executioner's Toll. Matthew, we've seen it before. People like the person that took Kelly, the person that took Jessica, and so many others, they're like a wolf. They may not even realize that they have an MO, a defined method of operation, but they

do. And his MO is to find a woman to either disable her car, as you're hearing Rob Arnold from KPRC to Houston, or to find someone with a disabled car already. I vote for disabling the car himself. That's what I think happened. Yeah, there's no question that there seems to be emerging, at least from these two murders, some MO in terms

of, you know, how this perpetrator, how this killer, this monster works, it should certainly have grabbed the attention of investigators and prosecutors, when you have two very similar, yeah, you know, disappearances of young people within relatively a month. And, and, and, you know, disappearances of young people within relatively a month. And, you know, a 17-year-old, a 20-year-old just disappear. So I would think, you know, there's immediately some connection made and already some people should be thinking, hey, there's some similarity here. Yeah, exactly. But did they have enough at that juncture? You're dead on, Matthew Mangino, yet again. Rob Arnold, KPRC2 Houston. We're talking about whether these

two cases are connected. We're talking about Kelly Cox, and we're also talking right now about Jessica Kane. Kelly around 20, Jessica, as I recall, around 17. Did they look similar? Were they physically similar? Because I will never forget, Rob, the first time I looked at all of Ted Bundy's victims, I'm like, what? Nearly all of them, long brunette hair, parted in the middle, white females, slight, even the same height, many of them.

What did these two women look like physically? They did. They did look similar to one another. They had brunette hair. Jessica's hair changed quite a bit, but several of the pictures, she had long brunette hair and some. It was parted down the middle, very similar to Kellyanne Cox. But yes, I mean, if you look at all these women, they definitely fit a tie, at least for him. You heard Rob Arnold, KPRC2 Houston, bring up the name Jessica Cain. Now, we've been talking about Kelly. Remember, she's the one that went on the tour connected to her criminal justice class. A young mom back in school, 20 years old. Now we've got teen girl Jessica Kane.

What happened to her? Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. 17-year-old Jessica Kane was celebrating. Her performance in her Catholic High School musical went great. A cast party took place at the local Binigan's restaurant. Kane drove her dad's truck to get there, but the white pickup was found parked on the shoulder of Interstate 45 in Galveston County. Kane's purse was locked inside. Kane was never seen again. Okay, back to you, Rob. Tell me about the disappearance of Jessica Kane and how close geographically was Jessica's disappearance as it relates to Kelly's disappearance, Kelly and Cox? Oh, they were hundreds of miles apart. I mean, trip from Houston to Dallas is about four hours. And Jessica disappeared about 45 minutes south of Houston

and Kellyanne disappeared about 20 minutes north of Dallas. So they were quite a ways apart. Okay, there's your answer right there. Joe Scott and Matthew and I were talking about shouldn't cops have put it together? No, they shouldn't have. Because when you've got two different jurisdictions like Houston and Dallas, they're not going to be looking at what the other's doing. They're looking at what they're doing, what's happening in their jurisdiction. So I can't say that they're wrong in any way by not connecting these two. What about the dates, the dates that they occurred? No, Jessica disappeared on August 17, 1997, and I believe, let's see, Kellyanne disappeared July 15, 1997.

So there was about a month in there. But still, because of the geography, I don't believe that cops would have connected it. Time-wise, the M.O., time, yes. M.O., yes. Physical appearance, yes. I believe both were in daylight hours. No, Jessica was at night. Jessica was at night.

But these were missing persons cases. These weren't murder cases. These were missing person cases. Because they had not yet been solved. Right. We are talking about, as it relates to right now, Kelly and Jessica. But there are so many more. And these are the ones we know of. Take a listen to our friends at KHOU.

The murders took place in 1997. My daughter went on a run this morning, and she's been gone a lot longer than I expected. And what's your name, please, sir? Bob Smith. That was the last morning Bob saw his 12-year-old daughter, Laura. Days later... The young woman found off Beltway 8 is Laura Kate Smith.

In August of 1997, Jessica Kane's family felt the same pain. They released this video... What are those muscles? Hoping it would help bring her home. They held prayer vigils on Tiki Island where the 17-year-old was from. So let me understand Rob Arnold and a lot of people would say Rob Arnold that these can't be connected because the other victims were 17 and 20 and now you've got a dead 12-year-old girl that the M.O., a killer, wouldn't stretch it that far. The age, ages of the victims, that is absolutely not true.

Remember at the end of Bundy, he was grabbing a very young girl who he attacked and murdered. He got sloppier and sloppier in his MO. He just basically grabbed her and killed her in the woods. She was much younger than the other victims. So at first blush, I would think that she may not be connected. Laura, tell me about the disappearance of Laura. Well, Laura was only a quarter mile from her own house. She had asked her parents, could she go for a jog? She was aspiring ballerina and was trying to stay in good physical shape. So she asked her parents, can I go for a quick jog before breakfast? She was a quarter mile from her house. Now, if you speak to Laura's mother, Gay Smith,

she believes that this was just a crime of opportunity that she that this person driving by just happened to see her on the street and probably mistook her for somebody being older than she was and at that time just like Jessica and just like Kelly it was like Laura had stepped into a hole in the universe just disappeared I mean think about that a quarter mile from your own house and you just vanish in it about three weeks before they found her. I want to find out how they found her, the condition of her body. Was she clothed, unclothed, in the woods? Was she in a shallow grave? It was a retention pond. Retention pond. She was in a retention pond. I want to talk about her actual kidnap. You said this was before breakfast, correct? Yes, ma'am. You know what's

interesting? Well, so many things, but one thing that's interesting about that, Rob Arnold, is you don't see a lot of kidnap, murder, and rape before breakfast. To Joe Scott Morgan, statistically, these things, these type of crimes happen either much later in the day, as they're getting around the time people are getting home from work or more typically at night or in the darkened hours like 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. But I would say the sweet spot for murders, if there is such a thing, would be after, say, 9 or 10 o'clock at night, but not first thing in the morning for Pete's sake. Yeah, that'd be very difficult uh i think you know when you begin to think about it you have the cover of darkness in order to facilitate you know what you're attempting to do with these murders to stay out of sight but

if you have somebody that falls into a pattern say for instance with targeting individuals that are near uh they are isolated. And I think that's a big part of that. Do you really see this as a crime of opportunity, Rob Arnold? I do. I do. I believe this individual was supposed to work a construction job that morning. It got rained out. And I think it was just bad luck. I still wonder if Laura would be alive had it not rained that day. But Rob, what we think we know is that this killer would target,

he would target a woman and a car and then wait. So, you know what, maybe you're right. Like I keep referring back to Ted Bundy. Why? Because he killed so many people that we can make a lot of comparisons. Maybe you're right. Like I keep referring back to Ted Bundy. Why? Because he killed so many people that we can make a lot of comparisons. But you're right. His MO changed and he went all the way from approaching women with a cast on to getting them into his vehicle where they lock on their door. Wouldn't work for them anyway,

all the way to breaking into the Chi Omega house at a Florida university. So the MOs can change. So you're right. What do you make of that, Dr. Angie Arnold? Nancy, what I make of that is these serial killers become emboldened. They haven't been caught. And so they keep pushing the envelope. These are not good people. These things excite them in several different ways. And so, of course, it becomes more and more exciting to them to push the envelope and do things differently than they've gotten away with before. Tell me about the discovery of her body, Rob Arnold. It was a father and son training their hunting dog out in the retention pond, and they're the ones who came across her body. What a shock.

Did any suspicion fall on them? No, no, not at all. Well, you know what? They're lucky because I want to tell you about two cases, which I'm sure you know of. You're the investigative reporter. Guys, you know what? They're lucky because I want to tell you about two cases, which I'm sure you know of. You're the investigative reporter. Guys, you can find Rob Arnold on Facebook. You can find him on Twitter at KPRC2Robert on Insta.

Same handle. Rob, I'll give you two examples. Do you remember when Kelly Anthony went missing? I mean, who doesn't. And then the worker, the state worker, municipal worker was out doing his job and he sees what turned out to be Kelly's body. And he called repeatedly and said, look, somebody needs to come look at this. And so when they did finally get out there, they realized it's Kelly and suspicion first went on him. He was nothing but a good Samaritan. And another case, Joe Scott and Dr. Angie, you and I have covered this one together. It's the case of Debbie Randall, a young girl.

I believe Debbie was 12, wasn't she, Jackie? Nine. Nine, thank you. When she went missing from the laundromat right across from her parents' home. And time passes. Volunteers are out looking for her. And a guy in a local fraternity that was part of the search crew finds her. And, of course, then he had to be cleared. He went, you know, under the fifth degree of investigation to make sure he wasn't part of it.

In this case, I'm glad to hear that wasn't true. So a father and son find her and her body is where? In a retention pond near a piece of road called Beltway 8. Can you give me the mode of death? No, not exactly. Not exactly the mode of death because her body had been in a state of decomposition when they found her. Exactly. Explain, Joe Scott.

I have to say that in this particular case, this young girl was found in the retention font following that, and she had not been down for a protracted period of time. And I'm talking about that from the perspective of forensics, Nancy. In her particular case, there was an opportunity, I think, to begin to develop evidence off of her remains, as opposed to, say, for instance, if you had remains that had been buried somewhere for a protracted period of time. So, Scott, were all the victims raped? I don't know. I know that in one particular case, it really stands out and is quite telling. There was a significant sample of semen that was found on or in the body. And just in my limited experience, and I've worked several series of serial killings over the course of my career,

you will have individuals that will kill and then masturbate over bodies. And that does, in fact, happen many times. Rob Arnold, you have told me that you don't want to discuss the details of the attack and murder on Laura Kate. She's 12 years old, thrown in a retention pond. That tells me you've had significant contact with her family. And I know in cases that I prosecuted, I would ask the family to leave before I put up the medical examiner

because I did not want them to know what I knew. I can still remember when I walked out of the courtroom at my fiance's murder trial, seeing his bloody shirt. I've never forgotten it. I don't want to see the autopsy report. I don't want to know anymore because it will torture me just like that tortures me. What I'm getting at, Rob, is could you just tell me about Laura Kate Smithers' family and what they have been through? Oh, I mean, they've been through absolute hell. Not only did they go through that period of desperately searching for their daughter in the sleepless nights, I'll never forget the images of Gay Smithers standing on the side of the road in Friendswood. That's the bedroom community south of Houston where they live,

holding up flyers, pictures of her daughter, you know, to anybody passing by, begging them, all the people that went out there searching day after day after day after day. I mean, it was gut-wrenching. And then when they do find out that she has been the victim of a murder, then they go through this agonizing process of waiting to see somebody charged with that crime. And in this case, we're talking it took decades before that happened, but they kept pushing and fighting. And one thing that did come from this was the Laura Recovery Center. And that was created out of this, which helps other families with missing children, much like your friend Tim Miller does with EquiSearch. So that came from

this, but they've never stopped fighting. It's dominated their lives, their entire lives fighting for justice for their daughter. Let me understand something. Did you say, Rob Arnold joining us from KPRC, that this 12-year-old girl, Laura Kate Smithers' parents, would stand outside with a sign begging for help. With a flyer, yes. I remember Gay Smithers distinctly, you know, holding up a flyer with her daughter's picture on it, cars going by just hoping somebody, somebody would know something, someone. You know, Dr. Angie Arnold, I just, can you even imagine standing outside waving,

trying to get anybody to help you? It's such a sign of desperation. It's so, it's gut-wrenching, Nancy. And, you know, I wonder what the people thought of her. I wonder if people even looked. I wonder if people even knew what she was doing. So in saying that, with that being said, she was doing this really for herself. There's such little chance of anyone responding to an act like that. Oh, the desperation the parents are going through.

Guys, now we have a tally. Rob Arnold, correct me if I'm wrong because you're the expert on this. We've got 17-year-old girl Jessica Lee Cain. You've got a new mom back to college. That's Kellyanne Cox, 20. And now we've got a 12-year-old girl that is found in a retention pond. As she is being found, more is happening in another case. Take a listen to our friends at KTRK. We are just off of the Gulf Freeway, about a mile or so from where Jessica Kane went missing in Lamarck, and this park bench has been

dedicated to Jessica. Today we made a visit onto the family home of Jessica King. They were not home today but in the past they've told us that they thought Jessica was kidnapped and taken to Mexico. Her mom came to me when they moved off of Tiki Island and she said um we moved our phone our home phone to our neighbor's house in case Jessica escapes and she calls home. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty sad. Pretty sad.

Okay. Rob Arnold was because we were talking about the desperation that 12-year-old Laura Kate Smithers' family was suffering. And now you hear what that family, Kelly's family, was going through. They had to move, but they were so afraid she would get free that they put their home phone in their next-door neighbor's home. I mean, Rob Arnold, the suffering these parents have been through. Well, that goes to what I had said earlier about why I think it's particularly cruel when a child disappears and is never found because there is never a moment that that parent does not stop wondering, is she hungry? Is she cold? Is she tired? Is she happy? Is she sad? It's a constant worry for decades, every single day without knowing. Guys, take a listen to our friend Phil Archer at KPRC.

You can see police have set up a command post about 100 yards into that pasture from us. They are not talking, commenting at all about what they're doing there, but a source close to the investigation confirms they are looking for Cox, who may have been the victim of a serial killer. If Kellyanne Cox is found, it will solve an 18-year-old mystery. Investigators are using backhoes and bulldozers to search for her in this lonely field near Highway 288 and FM 1462. Cox was 20 years old, an honors student at North Texas State in Denton,

and the mother of a baby girl when she disappeared in July 1997 after touring the Denton jail with her criminology class. But then we have a twist in the case. A twist in the case. An aggravated assault. But in that twist, do we get answers? Take a listen to our friends at KTRK. Webster Police Sergeant James Lovell responded to the abduction call almost 20 years ago. It just seemed very calculated at the time. Lovell says Reese had it all planned. Slashing one of Sandra Salpas' tires so she'd break down. Seconds later, a guy in a white

dually truck pulls up kind of behind her, almost blocking her in and says, do you have a flat tire? She says, yes. He says, you need some help changing it? She said, yes. Soon after he kidnapped her and headed down I-45. Sapa managed to free herself. She probably knew at that point, like if I don't jump out of this car, then I might not see tomorrow. Sapa managed to free herself. She probably knew at that point, like, if I don't jump out of this car, then I might not see tomorrow. Sapa was seriously injured from the jump. Eventually, she was able to give details about his truck and the case. This is her testifying in 1998. Lovell took the stand, too, and remembers looking at Reese in the courtroom.

He just kind of sat there and snickered. Reese was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To Rob Arnold, joining me, KPRC. Sandra lived. She managed to fight him off. But could you detail for everyone the M.O. that was used? She would have been his next murder victim. How did he get her in his vehicle?

Well, I believe he slashed her tires. And when she came out to her car and she sees she's got a flat tire, he comes in again, do you need some help? And gets out, grabs her, throws her into his truck. And the thing that's amazing about Sandra, this wasn't like they were just driving down the road. They were on Interstate 45 and she jumped out of his truck. And that's amazing about Sandra, this wasn't like they were just driving down the road. They were on Interstate 45, and she jumped out of his truck. And that's how she was able to save herself. And she never wavered in her identification of this person, ever. And that's why this person finally went to prison. I mean, you know, as I always say, Matthew Mangino, former prosecutor and author,

when you don't know a horse, look at his track record. Here, he's got this girl, Sandra, in his vehicle. Same M.O. disables the car, offers to help, and suddenly she's in his vehicle facing rape and death. Same thing. You want to tell me they're not connected? Well, what's interesting is that this arrest ultimately for abducting Sandra was investigated. There was a connection made. There was an arrest made. But the three other murders, you know, Laura, Jessica and Kelly were not immediately connected to this assailant. So even though you had missing persons in a short period of time, which had a similar M.O. to this situation. Yeah, you're right. They can't connect them just on the M.O.

To Rob Arnold, was Sandra abducted in late 1997? May of 97. You know, and the thing is, you keep kind of I mean, I know we haven't really gone over this chronologically, but Sandra was kidnapped in May of 97. And then Kellyanne disappeared in July of 97. You know, so this all didn't happen in chronological order. This kept happening. So now we have the case starting to unfold. And because Sandra lived, as you heard Rob stating, she never wavered in her identification of the perp.

That perp, William Reese. She never wavered, and she got him behind bars on aggravated assault, and then it all started to fit together. Listen to Robert Arnold, our friend from KPRC. Reese was serving a 60-year prison sentence for the 1997 kidnapping of Sandra Sapaw in Galveston County. Sapaw escaped and helped put him away. While in a Texas prison, Oklahoma investigators used new technology to link Reese's DNA to Johnston's body, along with a phone card used shortly before she disappeared. Charged with that crime, Reese started talking and hoping to cut a deal.

Reese admitted to his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Laura Smither, who disappeared from her Friendswood neighborhood in 1997. Her body was found a few weeks later. That same year, Jessica Kane disappeared near her Tiki Island home, and Kellyanne Cox disappeared from Denton. Okay, let's talk about Tiffany Johnson. Tiffany Johnson, 19 years old. Suddenly, her name is injected into this scenario. Tell me about Tiffany, Rob Arnold. Well, Tiffany Johnson was actually murdered in Oklahoma. So this wasn't even in Texas. It was Bethany, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City.

Typical deal. She was at a car wash. He saw her, grabbed her, killed her. And her body was found, I believe, the following day next to the interstate. Had she been raped? I believe so. Yes, ma'am.

The reason I'm asking is I want to know how all of these victims are ultimately pieced together. How did they finally figure out they're all connected? Well, you know, the interesting thing is Johnston, if you're going in order chronologically here, she was next to last. So he killed Tiffany after he had kidnapped and killed Kellyanne Cox, after he had kidnapped Sandra Sayfaw, and after he had kidnapped and killed Laura Smith. Then after he killed Johnston, that's when Jessica Cain disappeared as well. So he kept going. It really, if it had not been for Sandra Sabaw, IDing him and putting him in prison for 60 years, these killings would have continued.

She is a huge part of the reason as to why these killings stopped. Explain that, please. So because of the way the chronology went, Reese was not arrested until after Jessica Kane had disappeared, but he was arrested on the kidnapping of Sandra Sapaw. He was then put in jail, and then the trial happened in 1998. That's when he was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison. So that's why the killings suddenly stopped. Jessica Kane being the last young lady to disappear. Amazing. It is amazing. Go ahead, jump in.

It's mad. The thing that's amazing about it as well is that he wasn't connected to Tiffany Johnson, her death, until his DNA matched evidence from the crime scene. And that DNA was taken as a result of a state law that required everybody to, who was convicted of a felony to provide a DNA sample. Exactly. So really, you know, we, you know, these cases, although that we can see an MO from where

we're looking from our vantage point right now, these cases weren't solved until the DNA match and then his confessions. Yeah, they really were not solved until Sandra could identify him as her kidnapper. And then because you then had to, at the point where you had to submit DNA, that's what cracked the case wide open. Take a listen to our Cut 9 KPRC. Last month, he accompanied police to another dig site in southeast Houston. On March 19th, they found skeletal remains there that may or may not be those of 17-year-old Jessica Kane, the Tiki Island girl who disappeared the same year as Cox. The remains have yet to be identified.

Reese is cooperating with Texas Rangers and Denton police. Cox's mother says it's the first real break in the case since her daughter disappeared. My plea would be for him to tell whoever needs to be told so we can know what happened. Reese was charged with murder and kidnapping last year after DNA evidence linked him to a teenage Oklahoma girl who was killed in 1997. He's also a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of 12 year old Laura Smither of Friendswood who was killed the same year. And now they're searching for Kelly Cox the daughter she left behind is a woman now 20 years old the same age as her mother when she disappeared. Kelly did not just leave home and grow up somewhere far, far away.

She is dead at the hands of Reese. Take a listen to our friends at ABC. Accompanied by seven officers in four vehicles, confessed serial killer William Reese was brought back to the Friendswood City Jail from Oklahoma to face three murder charges. I sentence you to death. The transport comes six months after he was sentenced to death in Oklahoma for the 1997 murder of Tiffany Johnston. His return, the Friendswood police chief says, was always part of the plan. In accordance with

the interstate agreement of detainer, he was required to be returned to the state of Texas. And so there was enough time that passed with his appeal and whatnot to get started. And a judge signed the order on Friday. He'll have his own jail cell. And this will be Reese's second stay in the Friendswood City Jail. In 2016, after confessing to the 1997 kidnappings and murders of Laura Smither, Jessica Cain, and Kelly Cox. Reese spent five months here. He also struck a deal, leave investigators to the remains of Cain and Cox, which he did, and avoid the death penalty.

I mean, Rob Arnold, you know this case like the back of your hand. Joining us from KPRC, there was a time in court where he actually snickered at the victims, laughed. During the Oklahoma trial, he was still just a very defiant, mean, just nasty looks to the parents of victims, especially Kathy Dobry, that Tiffany Johnston mother. So he still was just a very defiant, mean human being at that point. A little different, though, when he came back to Galveston County and finally pled to Kellyanne Cox and Jessica Kane and Laura Kate Smithers-Marcus. When you say he was different, how? He seemed that. And this is my opinion of looking at him in the trial.

He did not seem to have lost that defiance. He seemed to maybe actually feel something. He couldn't look at Gay Smith when she was giving her statement. Rob, please get a hold of yourself. He's not feeling anything. Well, he wasn't defiant anymore like he was in Oklahoma. If he was feeling anything, it was about himself, not for anything. I mean, think about it. Laughing, snickering at what the victims went through in open court. What do you think it would be like as a young girl, a 12-year-old girl, caught in the car with him? What she went through. Last question, Rob Arnold.

I don't believe this is all his victims. I think there are more victims. I know there are others that believe that, and so does Laura's mother. Laura's mother believes that as well. What I can tell you is right now, there's nothing that's directly linking him to anything else. I know that there's a lot of other young ladies in these areas that disappeared under similar circumstances, but nothing directly linking him at this point that we know of. Is his DNA in the data bank being compared to their cases? His DNA has been uploaded to CODIS. I do know that. And

so far, we have not heard of any other hits at this time. Are there three other rape victims? Well, I know that there are two others. There were the two, you talk about the two in Oklahoma before he started the murders. How one guy has managed to murder, rape, and terrorize so many women is just beyond me. But we cannot give up seeking justice. If you know or think you know anything about a crime connected to this man, defendant William Reese, please call the tip line 310-477-6565. Nancy Grace Crumb Story signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.