Unseen - Revenge of the Cheerleaders: Taking Down the Texas Slayer | The Case of Retha Stratton | UNSEEN

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

“There’s a monster out there” It’s 1981 in the sleepy town of River Oaks, Texas, and someone is hunting cheerleaders. A 16-year-old teenager, Susan Brown, is brutally attacked in her own home. What she, the cops, and the rest of the town don’t know is that she’s just the first victim in a rampage that will change this Texas suburb forever.One by one, members of the Castleberry High School cheer squad are targeted, but things escalate when Rona Stratton’s sister is found dead in her bedroom. Rona decides to team up with her friend Lisa Ticknor, who also survived an attack, along with the other cheerleaders in the squad, to start a decades-long fight to take down the Cheerleader Slayer, and make sure he would never hurt anyone else. Credits: Directed, written & edited by Alexandre Gendron Research by Manon Lafosse Voiceover by William Akana Produced by Alexandra Salois & Salim Sader Sources: Discovery + - Warner Bros CBS News The portal to Texas History Channel 5 Action News KXAS-TV The Digital Library Channel 5 Action News British Pathé Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can send us to 25 years? Yes. You feel that was a fair punishment for Reese Strait? Actually, not. Chet you? Why not? It wasn't fair because I was guilty and it's a very bad crime. You think it should have been more? Yes, I did.

25 is a maniac. You have anything to say to Ritha's family? Yes. What's up? This is Aretha Stratton. Her parents filmed this footage of the teenager during their last family vacationed together. At the time, Ritha was the most popular girl at school and the best cheerleader on her squad. But on January 21st, 1982, things took a disturbing term when Ritha's

best friend made a grim discovery. There was blood everywhere, everywhere that you can see. In the weeks leading up to the crime, several other cheerleaders were attacked, but the police did nothing about it. The number of attacks depending on who's telling the story, some say seven, some eight, some nine, and police are trying to hide it. Police simply failed to acknowledge that there was a killer on the loose in River Oaks. Here's his lineup. It was all the cheerleaders on the left side. Cheerleader, cheerleader, cheerleader. The police weren't talking. At this rate, the brutal case of the cheerleader slayer could have remained a mystery, but Reitha squad mates wouldn't let go.

They had been attacked too, and they wanted justice. But what they ended up uncovering was more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. Police insist nothing has changed here in River Oaks. Nothing except fear has moved into the neighborhood. It's Friday night in River Oaks and the cheerleaders are getting ready for a big game at the neighboring high school of Boswell in Fort Worth. While Reitha Stratton, Lisa Tickner, and the rest of the squad were on their way there. 16-year-old Susan Brown was waiting for her friend Roxy, another cheerleader, to come and pick her up. I was a junior in the fall of 1980 and I was a cheerleader with Reitha Stratton.

I didn't have my driver's license at the time, so I needed a ride. My parents went out to some dinner with some friends. My friend Roxy was supposed to come and pick me up. Roxy was running late. As Susan eagerly waited at the door with her uniform on, the wall-mounted telephone in her kitchen rang. She could hear that someone was at the other end of the line, and after saying hello multiple times,

a male voice asked if her parents were there. As soon as she said no, the line immediately cut. But the phone rang again seconds later, suspecting another call from the strange man, Susan was relieved to hear it was her sister at the other end. However, after talking with her for a few minutes, she heard the front door of her house, creaking open. With a mere 7,000 inhabitants and barely any crime, nobody ever locked their doors in River Oaks. She told her to wait for a bit, pulled down the phone near the receiver, and walked toward the entryway. What she saw shocked the teenager to her core.

A tall, shirtless man in a red mask and unzipped jeans stood in the middle of the room. Susan immediately turned around and ran. When the man caught up with her, he ordered her to stop crying and forced himself onto her. Susan silently complied until the man heard faint noises coming from the telephone receiver. Susan's sister was still at the other end, realizing they weren't alone. He shoved Susan aside and ran away. The teenager stood up as fast as she could to try to catch a glimpse of her attacker, but all she could see in the darkness outside was his vehicle's headlights, far in the distance.

The police showed up shortly after that. They didn't take me to the hospital. They didn't do the rape kit. They didn't do all the things that you should do. And to this day, it's very frustrating for me. You know, that was my Friday night. And I would change my life forever. Two days later, on Monday,

Susan returned to school as if nothing had happened, totally oblivious to the fact that her entire squad felt like she had let them down by foregoing last Friday's game. We really were kind of upset still at Susan. We were kind of railing on, well, she should have found a ride, and I don't understand why she couldn't get here. Finally, our cheerleading sponsor kind of had to say, look, something bad has happened to her, and you need to knock it off.

Like, don't ask her about it either. Following their sponsor's request, Lisa and the girls kept their distance. Yet, it was the ensuing silence that hurt Susan the most. You know, rape was still, like, oh, what did you do to? who instigate that. I just, I didn't want anyone know. I know this sounds terrible.

It was very, I felt very shameful. She wanted to keep it quiet. So as far as how we handled it, we were more concerned on where we we were going to have our prom that year. Even the police quickly gave up on the case.

With no suspects and no evidence, they handed the responsibility of finding her attacker back to Susan. They explained that, since sexual violence was often perpetrated by someone the victim knew, she should keep an eye open and come back to them if she noticed anyone acting strangely around her. When I went back to cheering, I thought, well, maybe someone's watching me in the stands. I was doing my cheerleading, but in my brains, I was looking at everyone in the stands,

and then the other rape started. Even though none of the other cheerleaders truly knew what had happened to Susan, rumor started to spread when a 35-year-old junior coach and a 19-year-old former cheerleader were both attacked in similar circumstances later that year. Both received strange phone calls minutes before the break-ins, and both were assaulted by a tall man, wearing a red mask. At least three young Riveroaks women have been attacked and raped in recent months. This woman is a mother, a Pee-Wee League cheerleader advisor, and the victim of sexual

assault. In October, she was attacked in her home in River Oaks. He's taken with me part of my life. He can't replace. He can't give it back. He's got it and he'll keep it because I can't regain what he took for me. This woman has literally locked herself in. She is afraid to let her children walk to school. Yet she doesn't feel secure and fears she never will again. With the last two attacks, being only a month apart, the community should have been on edge. However, the police not to publicize the case. While life carried on as if nothing had happened, the senior cheerleaders, like Ritha and Lisa,

graduated from high school and moved on with their lives. On December 7, 1981, after a long shift at work, Lisa arrived home late, tired, and completely unaware of the danger she was in. It's just very much that teenage mentality that doesn't affect my world. That can happen to me. Before going to bed, she checked on her mother, who was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and was bedridden in the living room, unable to move or speak, Lisa wished her good night, headed to her room, and quickly fell asleep.

However, her rest was cut short when a tall man wearing a red mask opened her closed door, proceeded to pull back her sheets, and grabbed the 18-year-old by the throat. At that moment, although she was in extreme danger, Lisa had only one thing on her mind. Oh my God, where's my mother? I don't know if he's killed my mother and in a whispery voice said I won't hurt her if you do what I tell you to do. The masked man then raped Lisa

just meters away from her ailing mother. When he was done, he pushed her aside and headed out. The teenager quickly rolled over to follow him and, from the hallway, washed in shock as he carelessly removed his mask right in front of her mom. The fact that whoever had done that to me walked right past my mother with no fear that she was going to be able to communicate

who it was or follow him or challenge him. I asked my mom, are you okay? And she asked who is that? And I, at that moment, I knew I couldn't tell her what had happened. And so I just said, it was just a friend. It's okay. After making sure she was safe, Lisa broke down crying and called a friend for help. I do recall talking to Lisa after she was raped.

I was shocked and I was sad for her. I mean, that was my friend. And I didn't really think back on Susan. I just didn't put it together at that time. But it wasn't long before the connection became impossible to ignore. The very next day, Roxy's sister too was raped in her own home, making her the fifth victim. All of them somehow related to their cheerleading squad. As the masked man's attacks kept escalating, Lisa and Susan refused to see.

sit back and wait for the police to act. Instead, Lisa took matters into her own hands and went to question the sisters herself. As it turns out, the shirt sounded similar, the build sounded similar, the jeans. It sounded clearly like this was the same person. As the girls compared their attacks, something rather strange came up. Wesley Miller, Roxy's boyfriend, was in the room with them and as they tried to come up with someone with a similar build to the masked man, they landed on him as a comparison. And we had just said to the dad, well, he's built like Wesley and has arms like Wesley's. And he says, Wesley, come here.

And he said, let me see your arm. And he pulls his arm over here. He said, you mean it looks just like this? And we're like, yeah. And Wesley yanked his arm back and went upstairs without saying a word. Even Roxy, Wesley's own girlfriend, started to have doubts at this point. And she asked me, do you think Wesley could have done that? And both of us were like, no.

Before the girls could come together and investigate any further, another victim emerged. The masked man attacked a woman in broad daylight at a public laundromat and ran away when passers-by noticed. As fear grew with every new assault, the entire community eventually hijacked a crime prevention hearing, organized by the local police to confront them about their inaction and failure to warn the public. Many accused the police department of covering up almost a half dozen rapes over the past few months or lying to residents who inquired about them. This didn't just happen all the week, and not happened. We still were not nobody in rapes in the roads and that's my name was somebody

to tell them back. We're not approaching this logically, folks, we're approaching emotionally. I realize this is a hot subject and I really didn't even want to discuss it tonight. We didn't really come to hear a crime prevention program and come to hear the sore details were rape. Isn't that about the police chief told the audience they can't always fill the public in what's going on. However, that didn't seem to satisfy most of the residents who felt they were endangered because the police refused to acknowledge that there was and may still be a rapist

on the loose in River Oaks. For a short while, the entire community safeguarded itself. Sales of firearms increased and an unofficial curfew was put in place. But then, the attack stopped for weeks. As the tension decreased, so did the people's cautions. Around that time, Ritha moved in with her best friend since childhood, Amy Moody. We were cautious. We had started locking our door at night. We're kind of on guard a little bit. Ritha would go out of my parents' house. I do laundry there. That week, she had gone by the house. And as she was leaving, my dad told her, Ritha, be careful because that guy that attacked your friends is still out there. There's bad people out there. And she says, Daddy, he'll have to kill me first. He'll never rape me. He'll have to kill me first.

Thursday, January 21st, 1982, Amy got home from work in the evening and pulled into the driveway beside Reith's car, but something was wrong. The front door of their apartment was wide open. Unsure of what to make of it, she hesitated at the entrance, unable to see a thing in the dark apartment. I reached inside the door and turned a light on, and there was blood everywhere, all over the carpet, all over the walls, everywhere that you could see. Amy ran outside to ask her sister, who lived next door for help. She grabbed a baseball bat and they returned to the apartment together. While tiptoeing around the living room to avoid stepping in the blood,

Amy noticed something, a discernible trail past the doorway. The blood trail kind of led to Ritha's room. So we walked that direction and it's almost like he had tried to, shove her in the closet, but the door didn't catch. Her wrists were slit. The knife was still stuck in her chest. I remember thinking she can't be dead. I just have to get her help.

Amy immediately called the police and Reith's family. Before long, the entire premise was blocked off with police tape as neighbors and family members gathered on the sidewalk. But before heading out, Reith's father had another person to deliver the devastating news to. I didn't break down. I didn't start crying. Immediately, I wanted answers. You know, like, who did this? You know, is this the same person that raped the girls? The body of 18-year-old Rita Stratton was found Thursday. Her former cheerleader had been stabbed 38 times. The woman grew up in River Oaks, lived just inside the Fort Worth City line near her hometown. She was pretty feisty.

She didn't mind voicing her opinion or telling you what she thought, how she felt. That's probably largely what led to what happened. I think she fought. Ritha was a fighter. Dennis Timmons, the detective who took over the case after Ritha's murder, was an outsider from Fort Worth, unfamiliar with the masked man case that had burdened the town for the last year. He instead focused on the crime scene itself.

There was too much damage. under the body. Whoever killed Ritha went overboard. And the expression on their face, there was a look as if avenge me. I wasn't supposed to die this way. Help me. At the time, DNA profiling was still years away,

leaving the detective with little more than the scene, the body, and potential witnesses. Amy was barely able to speak after what she had experienced, so Timmins dismissed her and began interviewing the other people present at the scene instead. It wasn't long before the blame fell. on the usual suspect, Reith's boyfriend, Dale Kinson. We've all watched all the crime shows, who the first person you look at,

is the boyfriend or the husband. But with Dale Kinson being there, I definitely listed him as a possible suspect. He lived at home with his mom and dad. The only time that he was away from his mother and daddy was the time that he went to the cleaners, which was the time that the offense occurred, so that ruled him out. After being let go, Dale was joined by Rona, Ritha's sister. Together, they too started to question people in the neighborhood.

Multiple witnesses saw a red truck parked in front of Ritha and Amy's apartment around 5 p.m. Dale knew only one person who both fit the description of the attacker, given by the cheerleaders, and drove a red truck. The football team defensive back, Wesley Miller. Strangely enough, it wasn't the first time Ritha's big sister heard that name. A couple of weeks before Ritha's killed, she was telling me about all the rapes. asked Ritha, what's the deal? Who's doing this? And she says, well, the only thing I've heard was that he looked like Wesley Miller. And I'm like, who's Wesley Miller? First time I'd ever heard his name. I didn't know the veracity of that, so I had to check

that out. I knew I didn't have much time because we haven't murder on the loose. Wesley went to school with Rith and I. He was handsome. He was friendly. I never would have looked at him and said you did that to me. Timmons' investigation took a sharp turn after he zeroed in on Wesley. The day after the murder, he received a call from Roxy, the young man's girlfriend. It was her birthday the night before, and when Wesley arrived at her place, his jeans were soaked in blood, claiming it was from a football practice accident. Though Roxy was reluctant to believe Wesley could be involved, she was determined to see

justice for her sister, who had been raped by the masked man months earlier. Without hesitation, she handed the bloodied jeans over to Timmons. Now we know when Ritha got home from work. We know when Amy found her. We know when Wesley showed up at Roxy's house, three minutes down the road with bloody blue jeans. It all fit together like a puzzle. Today, 19-year-old Wesley Miller was charged with the Stratton murder. Miller was chosen best all-around senior at his high school last year, the same school

where Ritha Stratton cheered. Then I realized Wesley. met the description. Out of my rapist, he knew I was going to be home that night because Roxy was supposed to be met. At that point, it all fit for me. Everything started to piece together. But this was cheerleader, cheerleader, cheerleader.

You know, you start looking at the photo and you go, oh, wait, Susan's here and Lisa's there. And then there was Roxy. Of course, Roxy's sister was raped. Here's his lineup, and it was all the cheerleaders on the left side. Wesley denied having anything to do with the rapes, but the evidence spoke for itself. Not only did the blood found at the scene and on his jeans match, his fingerprints were the same as the ones collected where one of the rapes occurred.

The masked man the town had started calling the cheerleader Slayer had finally been identified. However, nobody could have expected that the upcoming battle to stop him would last well over two decades. As soon as he was in custody, Wesley confessed and pleaded guilty to Rethas' murder, with five rape charges, some involving minors, and a brutal murder to top it all. Everyone expected the trial to quickly lead to a life sentence without much debate or resistance, but things weren't that simple. Wesley got his hands on an excellent defense lawyer who came up with a plan,

convinced the jury that his young client had his whole life ahead of him, and that the murder was simply a youthful mistake. What ultimately worked in Wesley's favor, though, was his lawyer's ability to separate the rape charges from the murder itself, effectively weakening the case and guaranteeing him a reduced sentence. I couldn't even understand why when someone gave a confession that they did it, why were we doing all of this? I remember always asking the DA, when is he going to be charged with the rape cases? And during that process, the jury was not allowed to know that he was a suspect in other rapes.

Before the trial began, the life sentence was cut to 25 years, a number unthinkable for the victims and the prosecutor. And as it went on, the procedure devolved into a complete farce. Stripped the ability to mention anything beyond Aretha's murder, the prosecutor found himself backed into a corner, outplayed at every turn by Wesley's defense attorney, and Wesley benefited from a deeply ingrained Texan bias, leniency toward athletes. Football is big in Texas.

There's no getting around that. And sometimes football players seem to get the benefit of the doubt from the jury. We want to cut them a break. We want to give them a chance. It seems to matter that they are football players when it really shouldn't. We hear people say Wesley had potential. There are things that he could have done with his life. But people don't take the time to talk about the potential of rape.

On October 21st, 1982, the jury, unaware of all the rapes he had committed, still found Wesley Miller guilty, but only sentenced him to 25 years. Prosecutors say a look of anguish covered the juror's faces when they learned of Miller's past. He has been charged in other cases with two counts of rape. and he could be walking the streets on parole in eight years. For all of us that had been victims of him, it was almost a slap in the face. You want justice to prevail,

and 25 years was not, it was not justice for any of us. So then I thought, what happened to me, that'll add more to it. You know, that's where we'll get him because they're going to get him on all these other rapes. Lisa and the others fought to ensure Wesley was punished, yet only one rape charge resulted in a conviction. Even worse, his rape sentence would be served concurrently with the murder sentence, meaning it wouldn't add any time to his already existing prison term. In a shocking turn of events, Wesley Wayne Miller, convicted of the brutal murder of Ritha Stratton,

is already up for parole just two years after his trial. I don't want to look the person in the face that's Wesley's next victim and say, I didn't do everything that I possibly could. Despite their constant efforts to prevent his release, Wesley was granted parole after serving less than a third of his sentence. Though the survivors managed to ban him from several counties, he quickly reoffended after his release in Wichita Falls. Breaking news tonight, a Wichita Falls woman is recovering after a terrifying encounter

with a convicted murderer. Authorities say Laura Bernard was attacked outside her home, but managed to escape and lock herself inside. her husband pursued the suspect as he tried to flee. I told Laura to go get the keys to the car, and so I run and jump in the car, and we take off down the street. I said, I can't look at him. I don't want to look at him. I'm so scared. And he said, you just get the license plate.

From then on, Wesley cycled in and out of prison, either by reoffending or refusing sex offender rehabilitation. As his 25-year sentence neared its end in 2006, the Survivor's fight became a race against the clock. Lisa, Susan, and Rona wanted the state to recognize Wesley as a sexually violent predator. If they succeeded, he would be put under mandatory supervision for the rest of his life, effectively preventing him from harming another woman ever again. On October 23, 2006, it was finally time for the former cheerleaders to meet their attacker in court.

This is his deposition where he denied any knowledge of the rapes, before haphazardly attempting to gain sympathy by acknowledging the leniency he received and apologizing to In October of 1982, you were convicted of that murder, correct? Yes. Sent us to 25 years. Yes. You still have a fair function for the murder of Reese's right? Actually, no.

It wasn't fair because I was guilty and it's a very bad crime. You think it should have been more? Yes, I did. 25 is a maniac. You have anything to say to Rita's family? Yes. So that I apologize and asked for the forgiveness. Rona had sat across from Wesley countless times in court over the years,

and he never showed remorse or apologized to her family until prompted during his final testimony at the hearing. He's had 25 years to do that. He's never felt compelled to say that before. Before entering the courtroom to join Susan in the audience, 48 hours Aaron Moriarty asked the pair about their odds. Are you mentally and emotionally prepared for the possibility that, you know, you might not win this? We might not win it, but you know what? It was all said in court.

It was all wrapped up. And that's up to that jury to decide that. After Ritha was taken from them, Lisa, Susan, and Rona, vowed to do everything in their power to ensure her killer stayed behind bars. They didn't only want the world to know the true face of Wesley, but also pay tribute to Ritha's passing. I hope Ritha knows that the grave wasn't the end of her story, and we will keep her story alive.

And we will make sure Wesley Miller doesn't hurt other. people. Between their many legal battles, Lisa became the proud mom of three children. Rona sat on the governing board of the Texas Civil Commitment Office, and Susan became a forensic genealogist, solving multiple cold cases. During the final phase of the hearing, the three friends sat next to each other as the jury read out Wesley's judgment. You find the on the reason now that makes you know their coverage from a behavior that ever malice that makes you polite to engage in the Through sheer determination, the three friends forced the system into action, ensuring Wesley remained under civil commitment for life,

a hard-fought victory that proved justice can prevail, even against impossible odds. This moment, anything like you imagine? It's the relief. It's such validation. I mean, it says he really was there to sexually assault. and murder her. And she didn't ask for that. And I was raped.

And I did know it was him. And now he has to answer for that. This is as good as it gets.