Criminology - The Murder of Carla Walker

Episode Date: October 11, 2020

In February 1974, 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted in front of her boyfriend from a bowling alley parking lot and found dead in a ditch four days later. Her brutal rape and murder shocked her Texas community, and cast a cloud of suspicion on her boyfriend. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the murder of Carla Walker. The case went unsolved for many years, but, in September 2020, police got a break. They arrested a suspect named Glen McCurley after DNA linked him to Carla's murder. Many questions remain including whether this man may be responsible for other similar murders in TX. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology  An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast.

Diabolical. Vengeance. Betrayal. Bad hair. Leaning. Hi, everyone. This is Kimberly. And this is Katie. And we have a weekly podcast called A Date With Date Line, a recap of Dateline episodes.

We talk about important issues like grainy surveillance footage, cell phone towers, Andrea Canning's white jeans, and Mankees-Hankies. We delve into the details of any victim who's ever loved life or lit up a room. So find us on Twitter. Instagram, Facebook, and iTunes to make a date with Dateline. And remember, don't watch alone. A Date with Dateline is a podcast hosted by two professional amateur true crime TV experts with no formal training but evidence lockers filled with snark and uninformed opinions. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics.

Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 130 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. How about you? Doing well. Doing well. Trying to figure out the weather changes. You know, it's 30 degrees and then it's 80 degrees.

We're kind of in that spot right now. Yeah, and I think this week we turn the clocks back, right? Oh, maybe. Yeah, I never know. My wife always tells me, hey, you know what? Let's turn the clocks back. Yeah, that's when I get thrown off. That's when all the bets are off. Well, as with everything.

We'll roll with it. it. We'll make it through. We've got a number of Patreon shoutouts to do. So let's give those. We had Allison Farn, Catherine Belbin, Allison Zintair, Yadi Cisneros, Lena Steins, Michelle Hadgerio, Patricia Brooks, Catherine Olson, and Astrid Nyer. So that's a lot of great support. We really appreciate it. Yeah, that support goes a long way. And each week when you read off those names that really just blows me away. If there's anyone out there that's thinking about supporting criminology, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. Don't forget about Stitcher Premium. We still get asked questions about our older episodes. You can find them all on

Stitcher Premium and they have a free 30-day trial so there's nothing to lose. All right, Morph, let's jump into this case. And this is one that really grabbed me. This is an old older unsolved case, but recently, and very recently, there has been some movement. And it's really more than movement, but we'll get into that. In February 1974, 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted in front of her boyfriend from a bowling alley parking lot and found dead in a ditch four days later. Her brutal rape and murder shocked her Texas community and cast a cloud of suspicion on her boyfriend. Her case stumped investigators. And it wasn't until this year,

September 2020, that police finally arrested a suspect in the 46-year-old case after DNA linked him to Carla's murder. So there are a number of questions that remain to be answered in this case. Number one, is this suspect Carla's murderer? And will the jury file? find him guilty, and might this man be responsible for other similar murders in Texas? Carla Jan Walker was born on January 31st, 1957, to Layton and Charlene Walker. She was one of seven children. Her father was a retired lieutenant colonel who was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas for 18 years. Carl was a junior at Fort Worth's Western Hills High School. She was a popular and well-behaved young woman who always

seemed to be smiling. Carla's young life revolved around school and school activities. She received good grades, played tennis, took journalism classes, and was a member of the school's spirit club. She had intended to go to summer school so she could graduate a semester early. She had plans to attend Tarrant County Junior College and then transferred to Texas Tech in Lubbock. Carla Walker had a lot going for her. On top of everything that she was doing at school, she also had a boyfriend named Rodney McCoy who was a senior at Western Hills High School. Rodney was 18 years old and a quarterback on the school's football team. The two had been dating for about a year.

Rodney spent a significant amount of time at the Walker family home. Once a week on Friday nights, Carla and Rodney would go out on a date night or they would hang out with friends. their young relationship seemed as if it was right out of a romantic movie. On the night of Friday, February 15, 1974, Rodney and Carla, along with about 50 other students, went to a beer bust near Fort Worth's Lake Benbrook. I think some people would call this a kegger. At the party, another guy started bothering Rodney and tried to pick up Carla. While the two boys didn't get into a fight over it, the ordeal upset Rodney.

but he was fine the next day and had something to look forward to later that night, the high school Valentine's Day dance. The next day on Saturday, February 16th, Carla and Rodney went out to eat at a West Fort Worth seafood restaurant with another couple before going to the school's Valentine's Day dance. Carla wore a full-length blue formal gown and had a great time at the dance. As she and Rodney were leaving, she thanked one of her teachers and said she had a lovely time and that she would see her on Monday.

After the dance, the pair went for a drive with another couple. After the drive, Rodney dropped the other couple at their car and then drove to Brunswick Ridgley Bowl at 3,600 U.S. Highway 377 so Carla could use the restroom. They were only at the bowling alley a short time before heading back to Rodney's car. Rodney and Carla were sitting in the car, talking and kissing. when without warning, the passenger side door, Carla's door swung open, a man was yelling at Rodney, saying that he was going to kill him. The man fired a gun into the car. The shot grazed Rodney's head. When the door opened, Carla had been leaning against it and she nearly fell out of the car.

But Rodney quickly grabbed her, temporarily keeping her inside. All of this happened in the blink of As Rodney pulled Carla back inside the car, he reached over and hit the gunman in the face. Some news reports say that a second gunshot was fired during the scuffle, this time brushing Rodney in the face. The gunman then reached over Carla and started hitting Rodney in the face with his fist. Rodney grabbed his head in pain, and when he did, the man yanked Carla from the car, screaming. Rodney tried to get out of the passenger side, but the man stuck the gun back in the car and Rodney ducked. The man fired into the car again. Rodney thought he had been struck in the head and he scrambled to get out of the car. He heard the man say to Carla, I'm going to take you with me,

sweetie. The man said something else, but Rodney couldn't hear over Carla's screams. The last words Carla spoke were, I'll leave with you. Just don't shoot him. Following the scuffle, Rodney was briefly unconscious and when he woke up, although his vision was blurred, he saw the man's car with its parking lights on. The vehicle appeared to be parked facing the street in the parking lot exit lane. But for some reason, and maybe it was due to his injuries, his confusion, Ronnie didn't chase after the man in the car. He managed to get back into his car and drove to Carlos' parents' house at 3809 Williams Road to inform them of what had just happened. When he got to their house, he hit the curve and drove up into their yard.

In shock and hurting, Rodney ran into the home yelling, they've got her. They're going to hurt her real bad. Carla's father jumped into his car and drove to the bowling alley, but there was no sign of Carla. The bowling alley was closed, but he pounded on the bowling alley door anyway. hoping to find someone there, but no one came to the door. Charlene Walker called the police and also requested an ambulance for Rodney. Carla's older sister, Cindy, who was 19, rode in the ambulance with Rodney to Peter Smith

Hospital, and Charlene followed in the car. Rodney was treated for scout wounds on the front and back of his head and a cut under his right eye. He was released shortly after. Rodney told police that the gun the kidnapper had fired sounded. like a pellet gun. Investigators later determined that Rodney had not been shot at all. He had only been pistol whipped. They didn't find any bullets or pellets in the bowling alley parking lot. The sound he had mistaken for gunshots being fired was the clicking of the gun when the kidnapper attempted to shoot him. Rodney described the abductor as white in his early 20s about 5-11 and

180 pounds. He spoke with an accent that suggested he was from the southwest and wore a light brown cowboy hat that had fallen off when he first opened the car door. The man was also wearing a shiny green sleeveless vest. The man's hair was short and fell behind his ears. Some investigators initially doubted Rodney's account of what had happened, but even so there was no question. Carla was missing. The search for Carla Walker began. Authorities interviewed the family, friends, students, and teachers at the high school. A teacher who was a chaperone at the Valentine's Day dance said there were no problems with any of the students who were there.

Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Investigators interviewed the students at the Friday night party when the young man was trying to pick Carla up. But the students said that while Rodney was upset about it, a fight never broke out between the two of boys. A 29-year-old male witness at the bowling alley at the time of the abduction came forward and told detectives that the kidnapper was driving a light beige color four-door car, a 1970 or 1971, possibly a Chevrolet. He said he noticed the car sitting in the exit lane in the center of the bowling alley parking lot as he left the establishment about 138. He said, he noticed, he noticed, a.m. The car's parking lights were on. The witnesses' statement corroborated Rodney's account

and description of the kidnapper's car. On Tuesday, February 19th, two days into the investigation, detectives had their first suspect in Carla's abduction. The suspect was an unnamed 25-year-old man who was in the bowling alley around the time that the kidnapper took Carla. Officers J.B. Weaver and L.B. Barksdale interviewed people at the bowling alley who said the young man that night had a pellet gun, and they believe that based on his character, he was fully capable of committing the crime. The man was a suspected drug pusher who had recently cut his hair short, owned Western-style clothes, including several cowboy hats, and fit the general description of Carl's abductor. but he took and passed a polygraph test, and police later ruled him out as a suspect. Despite this suspect not being their man, law enforcement officials stayed busy and searched for other leads in the case. They also launched a physical search for Carlo Walker, seven police

from the Benbrook Police Department combed areas on horses along the Trinity River for any sign of Carla Walker. A Fort Worth police helicopter was also used in the search, but failed to produce any signs of the teenager. Many local citizens volunteered to search as well. The FBI got involved and offered their assistance in the search. While Carla's family waited any news in her case, they allowed Rodney McCoy to move in with him so they could all wait together for Carla to be found. On February 18th, Rodney took a polygraph test. It seemed as if police still doubted certain aspects of his statements, despite an eyewitness already corroborating much of what Rodney told police.

Desperate for answers, Benbrook Mayor Wayne Wilson started a reward fund with $100 of his own money. Administered by Benbrook State Bank, that fund soon grew to a few thousand dollars after a number of residents pitched in. Students at Western Hills High School, where Carla attended, raised $700 and reward money for information related to her kidnapping. School officials created the Carla Walker Memorial Scholarship, and in its first few days, had raised several hundred dollars. People wanted to help any way they could to find Carla Walker. The police hadn't been able to establish a motive in the kidnapping.

They briefly thought somebody might have kidnapped. Carla for ransom money, but her family didn't have that kind of cash, and they were never contacted by anyone asking for a ransom to be paid. Police continued questioning anyone who had a connection to Carla or the case, and some police still continued to have lingering concerns about Rodney's account of the attack. On Wednesday, February 20th, 1974, two Fort Worth police officers SP Noonkeester and D.R. Thompson were assigned to search culverts and pastures around Lake Benbrook. At around 6.30 p.m., they found Carlo Walker's body in a culvert beneath Holiday Park Drive, roughly a mile east of U.S. 377. Immediately, 20 Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and Benbrook police units,

plus the city police helicopter descended onto the crime scene and quickly cordoned it off. Six girls from Western Hills High School arrived on the scene shortly after the discovery. They had left a school assembly at 2.30 p.m. to search the area around the lake. The girls were held back from the scene, but that didn't stop word from spreading that Carla had been found dead, news that would shock their community. The Fort Worth crime lab arrived unseen and combed the entire area inch by inch, searching for evidence. A strand of Carla's hair was found on a barbed wire fence next to the culvert. Police later determined that she had already been dead when the killer took her to the culvert.

Carla was still wearing her formal dress, but it had been cut or torn. Carla's body was taken to the city morgue at around 9.30 p.m., and her parents arrived shortly after. They first identified some jewelry that was found on the body and then viewed the body itself. When the walkers returned home, they told Rodney that the body who found was Carla's, and the heartbroken young man collapsed to the floor. The county medical examiner performed the autopsy that night. He determined Carla had been raped and strangled to death and injected with morphine. He estimated that she died on Monday, February 18th.

However, another county medical investigator said it appeared that Carla could have been killed on Wednesday, just hours before her body was found. Either way, it seemed as if Carla was killed well after her abduction. The ditch where she was found was cold and damp and made a more exact time of death determination very challenging. Carla Walker's abduction and murder caused shock and fear within the Fort Worth community. Most people expected her to be found alive, and when she wasn't, the shock and fear soon turned to sorrow and outrage. In early May, 1974, Fort Worth authorities questioned a possible suspect in Carla's murder. 25-year-old Tommy Ray Neeland, who was an auto mechanic turned carpet layer, had just been charged with the aggravated kidnapping of 16-year-old Danita Ann Cash of Arlington. The Nita was abducted in April 1974 near the Old Trinity River Bridge in the 2,300 block of Arlington Bedford Road.

She had driven to the bridge to pick up her two brothers, who were target shooting nearby. She stopped and honked her horn three times. A man approached her vehicle and asked if she needed help. She said no and asked the man if he had seen any boys target shooting, to which the man replied, no and then left. A little bit later, he returned with a sawed-off shotgun and forced Danita into his blue and white pickup truck. The man then put tape over her mouth and bound her wrists with wire. Danita pretended she was having trouble breathing, so her abductor reached over to take the tape off her mouth, taking one hand off the steering wheel. When he did this, he lost control of the

truck, sinking it into the mud. Danita begged the man to release her and showed him, the cross she was wearing around her neck. Somehow, her pleas worked. The man released her, but warned Danita not to call the police. The man later managed to free his truck and drove away leaving Danita all alone. Denita made it home, and despite her abductors' warning, her mother called the police. Based on Danita's description of the man and his truck and evidence found by police, They released a detailed description to the public shortly afterward.

The evidence included two-sided adhesive tape and sanding whisks. Several citizens called police with tips on possible suspects. One of those possible suspects was Tommy Neeland, who also drove a truck that matched the victim's description. And it turned out that Tommy was in the process of painting the truck at the time he was arrested. Danita identified Neeland as her kidnapper. On May 9, 1974, authorities announced that in addition to charges against Neeland and Danita's case, they were also charging him with two other murder charges.

These were connected with the slings of 17-year-old Mary Jane Handy and 15-year-old Robert Goldson, both from Oklahoma City. Mary Jane and Robert were hitchhiking south from their homes in Oklahoma City. That's when Neelan pulled over and offered them a ride. He then abducted the young couple. He raped and strangled Mary Jane and then slit Robert's throat. Their bodies were found near Texas Highway 360 and adjacent to the Greater Southwest International Airport on July 1st, 1972. But the more police put Neeland under the microscope, the more they found.

He was also charged in the murder of his neighbor, Nancy Mitchell of Kermit, Texas. She was abducted from her home on September 5th. 15th, 1970, while her husband Jean worked his second shift job and her children were asleep in their beds. Neeland took Nancy to another location where he raped and strangled her. Her body was later found on June 4th, 1971, on oil land off Texas Highway 302, about a mile east of where authorities had previously found her clothing. A dental chart comparison. establish that the body was Nancy's. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

Number one, which emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do but had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Neelan was placed in a police lineup where Rodney McCoy identified him as the man who beat him and kidnapped Carla. Neelan readily confessed to Nancy Mitchell's murder and the murder of the Oklahoma City couple,

but not to Carla Walker's murder. He strongly denied that he had killed Carla. His church pastor told authorities that Neelan was at an out-of-town church concert with six other people the night Carla was murdered. Another church member confirmed it. It seemed impossible that Neeland could be Carlos' killer. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy.

And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to who-done-it. where you're a go-to podcast for Mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy.

And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to who done it. were your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Interestingly, Carla's parents also did not believe Tommy Neeland killed their daughter. They were convinced her killer was known to her because the promise ring Rodney had given her was not on her finger. Other pieces of jewelry that she was wearing were found on her body.

But police told them the ring might have fallen. off during a struggle. Neeland took a polygraph test in relation to Carla's murder, but the results were inconclusive. In November 1974, Neelan was given two life terms for the murders of Mary Jane Handy and Robert Golson. He was later sentenced to prison for the murder of Nancy Mitchell. Neelan remained a suspect in Carla's murder for several months, but police had no evidence linking him to the the crime. And like we said, there were a number of people that were able to give him an alibi. Neeland was paroled in 1987, but arrested again a short while later after he violated his parole. He still lives in Texas. And as far as we can tell, he did not commit any more crimes after he was

later released. Morph, I just got to be honest with you, man, the thing that jumps out at me about that and, you know, I've seen this in some older cases. This guy killed and confessed to killing three people. He got a couple of life sentences. He got another sentence for Nancy Mitchell's murder. This was like, you know, 1974. By 1987, he's back on the street. How do you kill three people and serve 13 years?

And he almost killed a fourth. Had she not gotten away, she might have easily been a fourth. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. He abducted and attempted, let's say. You could make that argument. I just think it's shocking when you look back at different points in time at what sent, not what the sentences were because the sentences are very similar to what they are today.

I think what was very different was parole. I mean, you know, we, there are people in prison for, you know, X amount of marijuana that probably spend more time than Neeland did for three murders. That, that just blows me away. Yeah, especially because we're talking about Texas justice. That's, you know, they're one of the toughest when it comes to putting people away for those kinds of crimes.

So to see him get out that early is just really shocking. Well, and then you have to look at. that he violated his parole, but they let him out again. I think that's a little shocking as well. We didn't have all the details around the parole violation. And I don't know exactly when he got out the second time. But I think most people would find that a little incredulous, right? That, you know, you're getting all these life sentences, but I mean, you're not spending

hardly any time, 13 years. While a cold-blooded killer like Neeland seemed to have been eliminated in Carla's murder, police refused to fully eliminate Rodney as being responsible. Rodney took and passed two more polygraphs. He also underwent hypnosis and was able to give police more information on Carlos' abductor. Rodney said the man had short hair with a small wave on top. He may have been driving a green or greenish color intermediate-sized car with amber parking lights visible from the side. His version of events from that night did not change during hypnosis.

years after their daughter's murder, the walkers received several strange phone calls from a mystery caller. The calls sometimes came every week, sometimes every two weeks. The caller never spoke, but Charlene believed he or she was involved in her daughter's murder. If police were able to ID the caller, that person's identity has never been revealed. In 1977, a 32-year-old man from Paris, Texas confessed to killing Carla Walker. At the time, the man was sitting in a Tennessee jail for non-payment of child support. While he was there, he told the police that he had killed a woman at Lake Benbrook. He said that he was prone to blackout spells. However, the man's confession had many inconsistencies, things that didn't line up with Carla's murder, and the authorities

didn't believe he had killed her. He had most likely seen the information he shared with them in the news. That same year, another man named Jimmy Dean Sasser also confessed to Carla's murder and was charged and indicted for the crime. He was released several months later after telling detectives that he was depressed over the breakup of his marriage and had made a false confession. In the years following their daughter's brutal murder, Leighton and Charlene Walker continued moving forward. They kept Carla's portrait in the house and every morning Charlene would touch the picture, her son Jim later said it was her way of saying good morning. Layton Walker passed away from a massive heart attack on February 18, 1987, almost 13 years to the day after Carla had died. He was 68 years old.

In 1990, Fort Worth Police decided to restart the Carla Walker murder investigation. Rodney, who was by this time married with children, told the Fort War Star Telegram on the 16th anniversary of Carla's murder, that it took him until 1985 before he was ready to marry. He said he was afraid to get close to anyone again for fear of losing them. He had periodically suffered survivors' guilt, but it was finally coping better. As the years passed and DNA technology advanced, investigators hoped that DNA would help solve this case one day. In 2017, homicide detectives released a 45-year-old letter on social media and hoped it would lead to new information in the case.

They had found the letter in March of 2017. The letter was handwritten and indicated that the author might know something about Carla Walker's murder. Detective Lieutenant Oliver Ball, one of the original investigators, had died and never shared the letter with the public or Carla's family. The letter was mailed within days of her death. Part of the letter was redacted, but it read, in part, killed Carla Walker in Benbrook and ended with PS. It is hard to say, but it's true.

Police appealed for the author to come forward, but he or she never did. The author was not really considered a suspect, just a person who might have information that could lead police to the actual killer. In April 2020, the Oxygen Network covered Carla Walker's murder on the documentary show, The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes. Paul sat down with Rodney McCoy in an interview and came away believing that Rodney was innocent and that Carla's murder was a sexually motivated crime that looked predatory in nature. Paul Holes assisted Fort Worth investigators in processing their DNA evidence. By the time the show aired, DNA testing was fully underway, and in September 20,

20, 46 years after the murder of Carla Walker, police announced an arrest. DNA evidence recovered from Carla's clothing and her bra was sent to a private lab called Othrom in the Woodlands, Texas. According to Othram's website, it enables human identification from difficult evidence such as touch DNA, rootless hair, and decades old bones. Arthurum developed a full DNA profile of a possible suspect in Carla's murder, which narrowed the search to three brothers with the last name of McCurley. When police looked through their early reports, sure enough, McCurley was the name of a person of interest early on in the investigation. Glenn Samuel McCurley owned a 22 caliber Ruger gun that matched a magazine found at the 177. crime scene, something that police had held back. This was something that they never released to the

public. On March 8, 1975, burglary detective J.F. Terrell arrested McCroley for a series of burglaries. When Terrell and Detective Joe Britt drove up in front of McCrilly's house, he was standing in the yard. Terrell called him over to the car, and when McCurley got in, he said, I wondered when you were coming after me for Carla Walker. While he was only there to be in, he was only there to to arrest McCurley for burglaries, Terrell decided to question him at the station regarding Carla's murder. According to Terrell, McCurley began to cry, and Terrell urged him to clear his conscience. He started crying heavily at that point and said, well, I guess I might as well. McCurley told detectives that his wife had gone to West Texas to visit relatives and that

someone had stolen his 22 Ruger six weeks earlier around the time of the time. of the murder. He didn't report the gun stolen because he had been previously jailed for car theft. McCurley said on the day of Carla's murder, he had worked at his truck driving job until 4.30 p.m. And was off work the next day. But the interview was interrupted before Terrell got a full confession. Authorities had taken a search warrant to McCurley's home where they found a leaflet on Ruger's the type of gun Carlos Killer had carried, detectives discovered McCurley had pawned the gun at a pawn shop, but it was not enough evidence to hold him for murder. They did not pursue Glenn McCurley again until the DNA profile match was found in Jedmatch this year. On July 7, 2020, authorities

collected trash from a garbage bin in front of McCurley's home and sent items from the bin into a lab for analysis. On September 4th, investigators learned that one of the things found in the trash can match the male DNA profile found on Carlo Walker's clothing. On September 10th, investigators returned McCroley's home and spoke with him and his wife. He told the same story as he did in 1974. He denied killing anyone and said he did not know Carla Walker. Authorities asked him to provide a DNA sample, and he agreed and signed a consent for him. They took him. They took him to kill him. He took two swabs and sent them away for analysis. On September 16th, they were notified the swabs matched the DNA found on Carla's brawl. Police then obtained a warrant for capital murder.

On September 22nd, Glenn Samuel McCurley was arrested for the murder of Carla Walker and taken to the Tarrant County Jail on a capital murder charge. His bond was set at $100,000. Carla's brother, Jim Walker, joined police at a news conference and thanked the Fort Worth Police Department investigators for never giving up on his sister. Of McCurley's arrest, Jim said, the word that came across my brain was finally. After 46 years, five months and three days, we have a name, a face, and are working toward a complete resolution. This resolution that's been prayed for by many people for years now, I feel like God put the right to detectives on the case. One of those detectives is Detective Leah Wagner, who said the arrest was, quote, a mixture of emotions,

a bit of shock, excitement, a little bit of fear. It's one thing to work toward a goal, and it's another to achieve it. And this was a huge goal. It was a really big win for us and the Walker family. We're just ecstatic that we could find. finally come to a head after all this time. Jim Walker later told WFAA that he forgave Glenn McCrilly for killing his sister, saying we forgive him for what he's done. I really hope that one day when I'm in heaven, I want to see Glenn there too. Police have revealed that they looked into the possibility that four Fort Worth area murders in four different years, all occurring in the month of February, might be related. Thirty-eight-year-old,

Mildred May was found deceased on a grassy levy of the Trinity River near North Freeway on February 4th, 1967. Two boys on motorcycles made the discovery. Mildred was nude and she had been raped, beaten, and strangled. Mildred had been to the Matador Club on Camp Bowie the previous night and her disabled 1959 Pontiac sedan was later found at 4,500 West Freeway. 21-year-old Becky Martin disappeared on February 7, 1973 from Tarrant County Junior College South Campus, where she was enrolled in an evening class. She attended the course on February 7th. When she hadn't returned home, her husband David went looking for her and found her car on campus at 10 p.m. Muddy footprints were inside the vehicle.

note cards were found scattered in a puddle about 150 feet from the car. Her textbooks were in the back seat. The exterior of the car was also mud covered, and the tires were kicked with mud. David called the police. Becky almost didn't attend her class that night because her two-year-old daughter was sick. She left class early without turning in an assignment. Becky's body was found in a culvert near white settlement seven weeks later. The cause of death was never determined. On February 17th, 1974, Carla Walker was abducted and later found murdered. Three years later, 25-year-old June Ward was found dead on February 18, 1977. It was determined that June had been raped and strangled to death with her braw.

She had been hit numerous times in the head with a sharp-edged metal object, something like a hatchet or an axe. fingers on her right hand were broken and mangled. The May Ward and Martin murders are still insolved. We'll have to watch closely to see if any evidence comes to light that shows Glenn McCurley is responsible for other murders, including some of these. Unfortunately, several members of Carla's immediate family did not live long enough to see justice for Carla. As we mentioned earlier, her father passed away in 1987.

her sister Sharon Kay Walker died on December 17, 1996. She was only 45 years old. Charles Leighton Walker, Carla's oldest brother, died on November 27, 2002 at the age of 53. Charlene Walker, Carla's mother, died on September 11, 2015, at the age of 89. Another brother, Stephen Walker, preceded Charlene in death, but the year of his death is unclear. Carla's surviving siblings include Patsy Singletary, Cindy Stone, and Jim Walker. Hopefully all of Carla's surviving family will find some level of peace with the rest of the man that allegedly killed Carla. Carla Walker's abduction and murder was a shock to the Fort Worth community.

That kind of crime was something that just didn't happen there. But just as Fort Worth began to come to terms with the loss of Carla Walker, later that year in 19, 1774, residents would face another shocking crime when three young girls vanished during Christmas week. That infamous case would become known as the Fort Worth Three or the Fort Worth Trio. And we'll dive into that case in the next episode of criminology. So that's what we have on tap next week more. As we wrap up this case, it's really kind of hard to do that because the case is still ongoing. When you look at some of these very old unsolved murders, I mean, this, you know, Carla's murder went all the way back to 1974. And we're seeing more and more of these being solved by using some of the advancements in DNA.

You and I have talked about that in a number of episodes. I think people know, but the one thing I do definitely want to make clear is that this case is still ongoing. The arrest is great. It looks like the evidence is strong, the DNA evidence. But this case is technically still unsolved. Glenn McCurley has not gone to trial. He's not faced a jury of his peers. So that uncertainty is still there.

And it's something for us to keep track of, keep an eye on, all of that stuff. We continue to see in the news all the time these killers being. identified or alleged killers being identified through genealogy and DNA. Yet we don't see many of them going through an entire court process, going through a trial and being found guilty. Most of them are taking plea deals and they never make it to that point. So it's going to be interesting to see what McCroley decides to do. Yeah, it's a good point that you're making. You know, the evidence, the information might come out a little quicker than what we think. if he decides to go the route of the plea deal.

I will say the pandemic is is kind of throwing a lot of things off as far as schedules and trials and things like that as it is interrupting, you know, all of our lives. He may look at it like you suggested and say, they got me, right? They've got so much evidence. There's no way I'm getting out of this. There's no way that a jury is not going to.

to find me guilty. And I don't want to go through all that. I just hope that if that's the case, he's forced to give up, you know, all of the details. Yeah, it would definitely be nice for Carla's family to get some kind of finality as far as knowing. Yes, this is the person that did this and they're going to pay the price and they're not going to do this to anyone else. Yeah, I always think it's good. You know, anytime that you can solve one of these cold cases. The thing that really kind of infuriates me is that, you know, Carla lost her life at a very young age. This guy, Glenn McCurley, if he's ultimately found guilty, he lived his life. He lived a big part of his life free. And there's just something so

wrong about that on top of the fact that he took someone's life. The fact that he took someone's life, the fact that he didn't pay for it and basically got to live whatever version of of his life he led that it rubs me the wrong way but i am glad that they finally caught up to him it'll be interesting to see where this outcome winds up and if he is ultimately connected to any of those other crimes we mentioned that were very similar in the fort worth area around that time frame. And maybe that becomes a part of the plea. Who knows, right? We have no idea how it'll shake out. Thanks goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistance in this episode. As always, if you love the show and haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star

rating. Keep telling your friends about the podcast. That word of mouth goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. So more if that's it for the murder of Carla Walker. It's really not it. It's it for us. But again, there's more to kind of keep an eye on.

We've already told everyone what's coming out next week. So until then for Mike and Morf. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. Can too heard you loud and clear with their new ultra-moister collection, powered by batana oil and Jamaican black caster oil. This new lineup collection is clinically proven to deliver non-stop moisture for up to five days, five whole days.

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