William Reece case: Investigators use psychology to help extract confessions from a suspected serial killer

This story beforehand aired on Jan. 21, 2023. It was up to date on Oct. 21.

Greater than 20 years after “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty started reporting on the case of a lacking 12-year-old woman from Friendswood, Texas, there’s lastly a conclusion to the case. What nobody knew when Laura Smither first went lacking in 1997 was that she had been the sufferer of a serial killer. William Reece would go on to homicide three younger ladies that very same 12 months earlier than he was ultimately recognized by DNA.

LAURA SMITHER AND KELLI COX

Erin Moriarty: There was a really scary killer who was going up and down I-45 on his means, Texas, Oklahoma and again –

Josh Rogers: That’s right.

Erin Moriarty: — killing younger ladies.

Josh Rogers: That’s right.

Interstate 45 runs by the swamps and derelict oil fields between Galveston and Houston. The freeway marks a path of unsolved murders that stretches again for many years. And Friendswood, Texas, Deputy Chief of Police Josh Rogers says 1997 was a very lethal 12 months.

Homosexual Smither: We had been dwelling in such a false sense of safety. … it was fairly a shock to the system after we obtained educated.

Erin Moriarty: And you bought educated the onerous means?

Homosexual Smither: The worst means. Completely the worst means.

On April 3, 1997, Homosexual Smither’s 12-year-old daughter Laura — an aspiring ballerina — went out for a run and by no means returned. As days handed, 1000’s of volunteers on foot and on horseback combed the swamps and fields round their dwelling in Friendswood. The U.S. Marines even flew in to assist.

I used to be additionally there in 1997 with the household — Homosexual, Bob and Laura’s youthful brother, David.

Erin Moriarty (1997): Are you stunned by the outpouring of concern and sympathy?

Bob Smither: Oh, we’re uplifted by it. It is the one factor getting us from in the future to the subsequent.

Erin Moriarty (taking a look at pictures with the household in 1997): The start of the ballerina.

Bob Smither (1997): Precisely. Yeah, this was taken within the yard of the home…

Homosexual Smither (1997): There isn’t a doubt she’s coming dwelling.

Homosexual Smither: I went into denial instantly. I — I might not settle for every other state of affairs apart from any individual had taken her and that if I prayed onerous sufficient, she’d be launched to come back dwelling to us. That is how I coped.

Then got here the devastating information 17 days later, when Laura’s decomposing physique was present in a retention pond 12 miles from her dwelling, by a father and son strolling their canines.

Father (1997): We thought it was a lifeless animal within the water or one thing like that… however my son Jason … says “no, animals do not have socks.”

Homosexual Smither: I screamed into the cellphone. … That is not Laura! That is not Laura! That is — I could not settle for it … And that was — I can nonetheless hear my screams in my nightmares.

Homosexual Smither: After which, after all, we needed to inform David. And for some issues, there are not any phrases.

Erin Moriarty: How outdated was David on the time?

Homosexual Smither: 9. … He not solely misplaced his sister; in a means, he misplaced his mother and father … we had been bodily there, however we had been emotionally absent … A part of us was gone. A part of us was ripped out.

After weeks within the water, Laura’s precise explanation for dying couldn’t be decided. Investigators additionally could not make certain if she had been sexual assaulted. Despite the unknowns, a suspect emerged fairly shortly — a person named William Reece.

Homosexual Smither:  It was the third day that Laura was lacking that he was on the police radar.

Erin Moriarty: That shortly?

Homosexual Smither: Sure, the third day.

Erin Moriarty: And why?

Homosexual Smither: As a result of he was a intercourse offender.

Reece been launched six months earlier than Laura’s homicide after spending 10 years in jail for 2 rapes in his native Oklahoma. He was now working in Friendswood.

Josh Rogers: He was … constructing a residential subdivision and was a bulldozer operator.

And on the day Laura went lacking, due to rain, police realized, Reece was let off work at 9 a.m.

Josh Rogers: Which might have taken him proper within the direct path of Laura Smither.

Investigators searched Reece’s truck and located fibers from alternative ground mats matched hint fibers on Laura’s socks.

Josh Rogers: These weren’t manufacturing unit … ground mats. … These weren’t widespread fibers.

Whereas police continued to analyze Laura’s case, Reece remained free and was touring forwards and backwards between Houston, the place he labored, and Anadarko, Oklahoma, the place his mom lived. Then in July 1997 in Denton, Texas — a college city alongside the stretch of interstate connecting them — 20-year-old Kelli Cox disappeared.

Jan Bynum: I used to explain it, it is like Martians picked her up. She simply vanished.

Kelli’s mom Jan Bynum says Kelli had gotten locked out of her automotive after a category journey to the Denton police station. She had gone to a close-by fuel station parking zone to make use of a pay cellphone.

Jan Bynum: Very busy space, with law enforcement officials all over the place.

Jan knew one thing was incorrect when Kelli failed to select up her then-toddler, Alexis, from daycare that afternoon.

Jan Bynum: She would by no means have left her daughter. … she was solely 19 when Alexis was born. However she took such accountability … And he or she embraced being a mother. Oh my gosh, she embraced it. … And I do know she completely adored this one over right here (appears at Alexis).

Along with elevating Alexis, now 27 years outdated, Kelli was taking a full load of programs at UNT, the College of North Texas, in Denton.

Jan Bynum: She was sustaining straight A’s in school.

Alexis Bynum: All A’s on her finals per week after having me.

Jan Bynum: Yeah, per week after she had Alexis, she took her remaining exams and pulled all A’s on — I imply, she was very, very pushed.

Alexis says she remembers little about her mom, besides the anguish of her being gone.

Alexis Bynum: I keep in mind on the lookout for her.

Erin Moriarty: You do? Regardless that you had been that little?

Alexis Bynum: I keep in mind lookin’ throughout the home.

Jan Bynum: She would look in closets …  She would look below the mattress and say, “Mommy, mommy.”

The times of looking out changed into weeks, after which months. Jan was on native TV pleading for assist discovering her daughter.

JAN BYNUM (1997 information report): I do not need it on the again burner. I need her face on the market.

However in contrast to Laura Smither, Kelli was a younger lady, not a toddler. And because the case dragged on, Jan says she did not really feel that discovering Kelli remained a precedence for police. Jan nonetheless remembers a dialog she had with one member of the division three months after Kelli went lacking.

Jan Bynum: And he mentioned, “You need to simply take into account your self fortunate we’re even engaged on this case. Most police departments would have simply turned her image into the Lacking Individuals Clearinghouse and been completed with it.” … that was heartbreaking.

Jan was sure that somebody had kidnapped Kelli however was at a loss. Police had no physique and no robust leads, and the case quickly grew chilly.

Jan Bynum: I do not suppose … I ever fully not suppose when the cellphone would ring, that possibly it was one thing about Kelli.

Simply 11 days after Kelli went lacking, up in Oklahoma, and never removed from William Reece’s hometown, one other younger lady was about to fade.

TIFFANY JOHNSTON AND JESSICA CAIN

Kathy Dobry (taking a look at pictures): She’ll all the time be my child. … She’ll all the time be a granddaughter … and he or she’ll be a spouse.

Kathy Dobry’s daughter Tiffany Johnston, 19 years outdated and newly married, was simply beginning to construct her life. On July 26, 1997, she vanished from a Bethany, Oklahoma automotive wash, leaving her automotive behind.

Kathy Dobry: Her automotive mats had been hanging on the automotive wash rack … her cash, her paycheck, every little thing was within the automotive.

The following day, Tiffany’s partially clothed physique was present in tall grass simply off the interstate, 15 miles west of that automotive wash. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.

Kathy Dobry: She had rope burns round her wrist and … she had black and blue locations on her face.

Nobody on the automotive wash reported seeing something out of the strange.

Erin Moriarty: So, whoever took her needed to be fairly calculating and interested by the environment.

Kathy Dobry: Oh, sure. And Tiffany would battle.

Just a few days after Tiffany’s homicide, Kathy says she obtained a cellphone name from a person she knew from her city of Anadarko: William Reece.

Kathy Dobry: He known as to inform me he was sorry. … that he had heard Tiffany had gotten killed.

Erin Moriarty: And the way did he sound when he known as you?

Kathy Dobry: Honest. … All he mentioned was, “I am sorry to listen to about your daughter.”

Erin Moriarty: How did you first meet William Reece?

Kathy Dobry: I met him on the restaurant.

Kathy was a waitress on the town and knew Reece’s mom. And when Reece was launched from jail in 1996 and got here dwelling, Kathy had given him a journey to get a brand new driver’s license.

Erin Moriarty: Do you know what he had hung out in jail for?

Kathy Dobry: No. They acted prefer it was no large deal.

Erin Moriarty: And would you’ve gotten even guessed that he had been convicted of violent crimes towards ladies?

Kathy Dobry: Oh, heavens no.

It by no means occurred to Kathy that Reece may have had something to do with Tiffany’s homicide.

Kathy Dobry: I could not see somebody that I knew, that will kill Tiffany, as a result of they knew how a lot she meant to me.

As for investigators, they discovered the killer’s DNA on Tiffany’s physique, however they weren’t capable of develop a profile.

Erin Moriarty: In some unspecified time in the future, Kathy, did you hand over considering they’re simply by no means going to search out the one who killed my daughter?

Kathy Dobry: No. I by no means gave up as a result of I made a promise to Tiffany once I buried her that I might not hand over till we discovered who did it.

Erin Moriarty: Why was it so vital to search out who killed her?

Kathy Dobry: As a result of I did not need him killing another person’s little one.

Simply three weeks after Tiffany’s homicide, again in Le Marque, Texas, it occurred once more.

SUZY CAIN (1997 information report) When you have my daughter, I pray that you’d return her. We would like her again dwelling. … We’re not gonna let her go.

Jessica Cain was about to graduate highschool.

NEWS REPORT (1997): The 17-year-old was final seen leaving a Clear Lake-area restaurant.

On August 17, 1997, when she didn’t get dwelling by her curfew, Jessica’s father, C.H. Cain, went out on the lookout for her.

C.H. Cain (1997): I had been to all of the locations the place I believed she may be. … And I used to be on my means dwelling and it is really simply three or 4 miles from the home, on the facet of the street.

He noticed her truck on the shoulder of I-45. However Jessica was gone.

C.H. Cain (1997): And there was no signal of a battle.

As soon as once more, search events combed the realm for one more lacking woman.

NEWS REPORT (1997): Greater than 100 volunteers searched on foot, alongside the marshes and thru the comb … monitoring canines had been known as in to assist …

Homosexual Smither: We had been probably the most damaged individuals at that time.

Homosexual and Bob Smither—nonetheless reeling from the lack of their daughter Laura simply 4 months earlier—felt compelled to hitch the search.

Homosexual Smither: We did not hesitate. We went instantly.

NEWS REPORT (1997): The seek for Jessica Cain widened in the present day, throughout the salt grass and scrub that surrounds the marshes on this space …

The seek for went on for weeks, however there was no signal of Jessica and no clue who had taken her.

Homosexual Smither: We puzzled may it’s the identical one who took Laura from us. , we simply did not know.

As Homosexual puzzled about William Reece and his involvement, a narrative emerged about one other case — the place the sufferer survived.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): All the pieces occurred so quick …

Again in Might 1997—three months earlier than Jessica Cain disappeared—19-year-old mom Sandra Sapaugh stopped at a comfort retailer off of I-45 in Webster, Texas, the place she seen a person watching her from the parking zone.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): And his truck was on the market parked … however I did not pay a lot consideration.

When Sandra left and went to a Waffle Home throughout the road, she noticed the person once more.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): He requested me if I wanted assist. … And I am going, “assist for what?” And he goes, “effectively, your tire’s flat.”

However simply moments later, the stranger was forcing her into his white pickup truck at knifepoint.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): He would simply inform me to maintain my mouth shut … I imply, I used to be terrified.

She says he sexually assaulted her within the truck after which they began dashing down the interstate.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): The one factor I used to be considering, was, “he is gonna kill me.” … I might reasonably bounce and kill myself than him doing that to me.

And that is simply what Sandra did.  Because the truck sped down I-45, she opened the door, jumped out and hit the pavement.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): After which I obtained up. … began operating.

Gravely injured, Sandra managed to get assist and reported the incident. 5 months later—in October 1997 — throughout a gathering with Friendswood police, Webster investigators seen that Sandra’s description of her abductor’s pickup sounded just like the truck Friendswood police had searched in Laura Smither’s case, belonging to William Reece.

On October 16, 1997, Reece was pulled in for a lineup.

Sandra Sapaugh (1997): When he walked out, I imply I knew it was him. … Little doubt. It was him.

William Reece was instantly arrested and charged with kidnapping. He pleaded not responsible. He was lastly behind bars, however not charged in any of the murdered women.

SUSPICIONS SWIRL AROUND WILLIAM REECE

William Reece was defiant. He denied kidnapping Sandra Sapaugh and slashing her tire, however after his arrest, investigators had been decided to tie him to Laura Smither’s homicide, too.

REPORTER: You suppose you are being unfairly handled Mr. Reece?

WILLIAM REECE: Yeah, I do. I did not do nothing.

Friendswood Deputy Chief Rogers says they thought they’d discovered one other hyperlink after they searched Reece’s condominium.

Josh Rogers: He … had a horse blanket that was multicolored. Most of these colours had been additionally discovered … on certainly one of Laura Smither’s socks. … So, the proof was robust.

They usually already had these different fibers on Laura’s socks that matched Reece’s ground mats. Nonetheless, the DA on the time didn’t really feel that was sufficient proof to cost Reece with Laura’s homicide.

Erin Moriarty: And was that irritating?

Homosexual Smither: Very. Very … I obtained very, very offended. I felt that the system had failed us and failed Laura.

However Friendswood detectives weren’t giving up. They pulled data to hint Reece’s actions throughout the earlier summer time and found that Reece may be linked to the opposite unsolved instances. There was a gas cost from Denton on July 15 — the identical place and date of Kelli Cox’s disappearance. It was the primary time Kelli’s mom, Jan Bynum, had heard the title William Reece. He was now additionally on the radar of Denton police.

Jan Bynum: That, you understand, precipitated them to wish to test Kelli’s fingerprints in opposition to something in his truck.

Erin Moriarty: Did they discover something — fingerprints, something linked to Kelli?

Jan Bynum: No, they didn’t.

Friendswood detectives additionally discovered data exhibiting Reece had used a pay cellphone within the city the place Tiffany Johnston’s physique was discovered — lower than an hour after she disappeared. And the proprietor of the automotive wash, after seeing his image says Reece was a frequent buyer. With that, Reece joined an inventory of doable suspects.

Josh Rogers: Anybody … alongside that route, throughout that point interval … He was checked out.

Investigators had been additionally now eyeing him in Jessica Cain’s disappearance and used bulldozers to search for proof on the horse ranch the place he had labored however got here up empty-handed. And in April 1998, as suspicion swirled round William Reece in a number of jurisdictions, he went on trial for the kidnapping of Sandra Sapaugh.

Erin Moriarty: You went to the trial, why?

Homosexual Smither: I did … I needed to be there for Laura. I needed to be there for Laura.

Homosexual Smither: I obtained very offended with what I realized at that trial. … ‘Trigger, after all, it places every little thing in your head, what he had completed to Laura.

Homosexual Smither says she was particularly upset when she heard the testimony of Reece’s two rape victims from the Nineteen Eighties. Keep in mind, he had been launched from jail for these assaults simply six months earlier than Laura was murdered.

Homosexual Smither: They got here down and testified and I used to be mortified to listen to what he had completed to these two younger ladies.

The jury did not take lengthy.

Homosexual Smither: They went out and … minutes later, was a responsible verdict.

William Reece was convicted and sentenced to 60 years for kidnapping Sandra Sapaugh.

Josh Rogers: I feel lots of people felt like, you understand, that was in all probability going to be the perfect that we had been going to have the ability to do, is simply to maintain William Reece off the streets once more.

However Laura Smither’s case remained formally unsolved… and the Smithers wished Reece charged. Up in Oklahoma, Kathy Dobry continued to stress investigators to resolve Tiffany’s homicide.

Kathy Dobry: At first, I might name each week. … and it was all the time the identical factor. They did not have something.

It could take greater than a decade earlier than Kathy says her calls had been lastly answered.

Lynn Williams: All I knew was that I’ve obtained a sufferer whose automotive was on the automotive wash.

In 2012, retired police chief Lynn Williams had just lately began engaged on chilly instances on the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations—or OSBI—and was assigned to Tiffany’s case.

Lynn Williams: The automotive was deserted.  The keys had been within the ignition.  … the doorways had been unlocked. … No witnesses.

There was that DNA proof from Tiffany’s physique.

Erin Moriarty: So actually … DNA was going to be your solely hope.

Lynn Williams: That was … my state of mind.

However the DNA had already been examined twice with out success.

Wendy Duke: We had been frightened normally that there is nothing left to check.

Wendy Duke is the supervising criminologist on the OSBI chilly case unit. She discovered two samples from Tiffany’s physique that had not been completely consumed in earlier testing and was capable of develop a partial male profile from them.

Wendy Duke: It is thrilling, even when it’s a partial profile.

As a result of it was a partial profile, Duke may solely examine it to a profile from a recognized particular person, and the crew slowly eradicated suspects from the file till they obtained to William Reece.

Erin Moriarty: And what was the outcome?

Wendy Duke: And … he couldn’t be eradicated from that partial profile on the swab from Tiffany.

The DA in Oklahoma thought it was sufficient to cost Reece for Tiffany Johnston’s homicide. And in any case these years of ready, Kathy lastly had some information.

Kathy Dobry: And I mentioned, “Oh, my God. Why Tiffany?” That was my fundamental factor. Why Tiffany?

Oklahoma legislation enforcement additionally shared the information with Texas investigators — together with the Texas Rangers, who puzzled if William Reece may be keen to speak to them about their instances.

They went to go to Reece in jail, and, to their shock, he agreed to speak additional if they might take the dying penalty off the desk. The Smithers agreed, and so did Jan Bynum— so long as Reece helped police discover Kelli.

Erin Moriarty: That is an enormous choice to make earlier than you even know —

Jan Bynum: I do know. … mainly … I wished solutions. And I wished to know what — whether or not my daughter was alive or lifeless.

WILLIAM REECE’S CONFESSIONS

Jan Bynum: After they would discover a physique anyplace after which they’d verify who it was, and it wasn’t Kelli. … And I might go, “Oh, it isn’t Kelli.” After which I am going, “But it surely was any individual’s daughter.”

Virtually 19 years after Kelli Cox’s disappearance, her mom Jan was lastly near understanding what had occurred. In February 2016, William Reece was moved from jail to the Friendswood jail after agreeing to offer investigators details about their three Texas instances. He hoped his cooperation may assist him in Oklahoma, too.

Josh Rogers: He advised us that he wasn’t going to play video games if we weren’t going to play video games.

Investigators took Reece out to a distant subject south of Friendswood the place he mentioned Kelli Cox’s stays had been positioned. Reece hadn’t but advised them if he was chargeable for her dying.

Erin Moriarty: He does not give any confession.

Josh Rogers: No.

Erin Moriarty: But it surely’s clear that he is obtained some involvement.

Josh Rogers: Right.

Police spent lengthy days and nights with Reece within the jail and out within the subject on the lookout for Kelli’s stays, and, throughout that point, Reece began telling investigators about his encounter with Kelli Cox in Denton.

He claimed they obtained right into a battle within the fuel station parking zone after he ran into her, and he or she spilled her soda on him.

WILLIAM REECE: I began cussing her, I feel I pushed her. That is when she hit me with the Coke.

WILLIAM REECE: After which I slapped her. After which it was over.

RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: She was preventing again.

WILLIAM REECE: Sure.

RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: OK. And what occurs subsequent?

WILLIAM REECE: After which I seize her across the throat, and I choke her.

Reece had simply confessed to murdering Kelli Cox, however investigators weren’t certain if his story was true. They hadn’t discovered any signal of Kelli in that subject. However as they stored wanting, this was not the one main revelation to emerge.

WILLIAM REECE: I keep in mind going to work … at a development job web site. It was a wet morning.

Quickly Reece was telling investigators what he mentioned occurred to Laura Smither on that wet morning in Friendswood.

WILLIAM REECE: I hear one thing slam in opposition to my mirror … And it scared me, so I ended. … I obtained out … after which — that is once I seemed within the ditch and I seen Laura Smithers laying within the ditch. … and he or she wasn’t respiratory.

Reece claimed that Laura had died immediately after he’d hit her along with his truck accidentally.  However he later modified that story, claiming Laura had survived, however when he tried to cease her from crying, he by chance broke her neck.

Mary Ellen O’Toole: Psychopaths are extremely callous people. … They’re with out guilt. And they’re with out regret.

Mary Ellen O’Toole is a retired FBI profiler. “48 Hours” requested her to assessment the case data and Reece’s videotaped statements to attempt to perceive his psychology.

Mary Ellen O’Toole: I’ve not assessed him, not met him … however taking a look at his instances, taking a look at his conduct … I might say in my view that he manifests traits of psychopathy.

WILLIAM REECE (police interview): Ya’ll wished the reality so I am telling you the reality.

And as soon as police obtained him speaking, Reece did not appear to wish to cease. O’Toole says that Reece was in all probability having fun with the eye and the break from his routine.

WILLIAM REECE (police interview): I am doing this of my very own free will.

Mary Ellen O’Toole: What is the worst factor that you are able to do to somebody that tends to like thrilling, difficult, stimulating issues? You set him in an surroundings like jail the place they obtained bored. … These detectives acknowledged that. So, whenever you supply them the chance to come back out … and help legislation enforcement, they’re gonna bounce at that.

After per week of fruitlessly looking for Kelli Cox, Reece supplied to assist them discover one other sufferer —Jessica Cain — whom he mentioned he had buried in a distinct subject nearer to Friendswood. And whereas Reece did not have an settlement with the DA in that case, he began telling that story, too — claiming he had an argument with Jessica exterior the restaurant the place she was final seen and that she adopted him down I-45 for 30 miles.

WILLIAM REECE: I do not know why, I simply pulled over. She pulled up behind me and began yelling. … I went off on her once more.

RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: Okay. After which you find yourself choking her out then?

WILLIAM REECE: Sure, sir.

RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: On I-45?

WILLIAM REECE: On I-45.

However at the same time as Reece admitted murdering Jessica, he didn’t admit to raping her or Kelli or Laura.

Erin Moriarty: Do you consider that most probably each certainly one of his victims was raped?

Mary Ellen O’Toole: I do. I consider that they had been. As a result of I consider that that was actually the intent of the crime.

Erin Moriarty: If that is his motivation, sexual motivation, why does not he admit that? Is that typical?

Mary Ellen O’Toole: In some instances, I might say that is typical. As a result of of their eyes, that makes them look fairly pathetic … that it’s a must to assault somebody, strangle somebody, beat somebody up with the intention to be sexually gratified.

RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: Go forward with the subsequent one, Invoice.

WILLIAM REECE: That is the one in Oklahoma Metropolis.

RANGER JAMES HOLLAND: OK.

Lastly, though he may once more be dealing with the dying penalty, investigators had been capable of get Reece to speak in regards to the final case they thought he was linked to from 1997: Tiffany Johnston, whom Reece mentioned he encountered at that automotive wash in Oklahoma.

WILLIAM REECE: I used to be spraying it, cleansing out from beneath my truck … that is when that woman yelled, “Hey!” I sprayed her. I am going, “Sorry.” I believed she mentioned one thing, I mentioned.  I began cussing at her. And, uh, me and her obtained into it.

He knew police had his DNA and admitted having sexual contact with Tiffany, after forcing her in his horse trailer.

WILLIAM REECE: We was preventing, and I unsnapped her overalls. I do not know why.

As soon as once more, Reece made a degree guilty his sufferer for the violence that adopted.

WILLIAM REECE: She hit me behind the pinnacle with a horseshoe. … It pissed me off and I began squeezing across the throat.

4 victims and 4 confessions — however with no signal of Kelli Cox or Jessica Cain, not everybody believed Reece was telling the reality.

Josh Rogers: There was, you understand, some people considering that possibly the data was not correct and that he was taking part in us.

JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS’ FAMILIES

Josh Rogers: As we dug and we continued to not find something, there actually wasn’t as many investigators serving to on the finish of it as they had been initially of it.

In March 2016, after 25 days of digging and with William Reece’s steering, there was lastly some information: they discovered Jessica Cain’s stays.

Erin Moriarty: What was that day like?

Josh Rogers: Very emotional … we had been unhappy, but in addition, we had been joyful as effectively to have positioned the stays.

Jessica’s mother and father requested for privateness as they processed the information and buried their daughter. For investigators, discovering Jessica corroborated William Reece’s tales and reenergized the seek for Kelli Cox. After one other two weeks of painstaking work, they discovered her.

Alexis Bynum: I had nightmares for the primary time — the place she needed to wake me up, screaming. That by no means — by no means had nightmares like that earlier than.

Jan Bynum: Yeah. I imply, her nightmares had been being down in a gap.

Alexis Bynum: It was simply — (emotional).

After Kelli and Jessica had been discovered, Oklahoma County prosecutors Jimmy Harmon and Ryan Stephenson had William Reece transported again to their state to face a capital homicide trial for Tiffany Johnston.

Jimmy Harmon: We sometimes solely search the dying penalty on the worst of the worst murderers and Mr. Reece actually match that invoice.

Reece pleaded not responsible — though prosecutors had the DNA proof and his chilling phrases from his taped confession.

WILLIAM REECE (to Ranger Holland): That is once I grabbed her across the throat and her.

When the trial started in Might 2021, Reece’s protection fought to maintain that video out. However the choose determined the jury would watch it and all of the statements the place Reece admitted killing Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain. All related, says Stephenson, for exhibiting that Reece had a sample. 

Ryan Stephenson: All of that being in such a short while interval … we wished to have the ability to present the jury that this man wasn’t stopping, he — he was stopped.

Sandra Sapaugh and two ladies who say Reece sexually assaulted them in 1997 all testified on the trial. Prosecutors say this testimony was essential to correcting the self-serving tales Reece advised on these tapes.

Ryan Stephenson: You … by no means fairly get the total story out of William Reece. He all the time tells it in a means that makes him look greatest.

Prosecutors suppose the true story is Reece would set traps for his victims.

Jimmy Harmon: He would generally create the scenario, within the case of Sandra Sapaugh, by slashing her tire … and … offered himself because the Good Samaritan. And … he would then assault them.

After 9 days in that Oklahoma courtroom, the case went to the jury. It took them lower than two hours to determine, discovering William Reece responsible of murdering Tiffany Johnston. Reece was sentenced to dying.

Kathy Dobry: I will by no means forgive him for killing Tiffany and … he ought to die.

However as an alternative of being despatched proper to dying row, Reece first made one remaining journey again down the interstate to Texas, the place he agreed to plead responsible to murdering Laura Smither, Kelli Cox and Jessica Cain.

Erin Moriarty: It took virtually 25 years, however you lastly obtained justice for Laura, did not you?

Homosexual Smither: Yeah. And for Jessica and Kelli. And that was crucial to Bob and I.

In change for his responsible pleas, Reece acquired three life sentences within the Texas instances. Homosexual Smither made a press release at a kind of hearings.

Homosexual Smither: I spoke about Laura and the way we had an empty seat at our desk for the remainder of our lives … After which I advised him that I — I forgave him for what he did.

Erin Moriarty: You forgive him for ruining your lives? You –

Homosexual Smither: Yeah.

Erin Moriarty: — misplaced Laura who — who had her entire life forward of her.

Homosexual Smither: Forgiveness doesn’t imply I condone what he did, nor does it imply I’ll ever overlook what he did. Forgiveness was for me … to not stay in a — in a cage of rage. That is what forgiveness is.

With Laura’s case now resolved, Homosexual and Bob may commit extra time with their son David, now 34, and his kids. Homosexual additionally travels the nation coaching legislation enforcement on dealing with lacking individuals instances.

GAY SMITHER (talking at a coaching class): I am right here to inform you what occurred with the prayer that you may be impressed by Laura’s story to by no means hand over.

The Bynums wished a method to share their recollections of Kelli and created a statue in her honor on the UNT campus, the place Kelli had as soon as been a pupil. Hoping to remind individuals to pay attention to their environment.

Jan Bynum: You have to stay. However you are able to do that in a wise means and be secure.

Jan says that like each household touched by William Reece, she is having to learn the way stay with grief.

Jan Bynum: I cry on daily basis. … And I used to say to individuals, when you do not wish to see me cry, then you’ll be able to stroll away as a result of I’m going to cry.

Erin Moriarty: How would you like individuals to recollect your mom?

Alexis Bynum:   Simply the best way she was. … She was a ball of enjoyable … She was an attractive younger lady who had rather a lot going for her. She was pushed. And he or she was doin’ it for me.

William Reece continues to be in a Texas jail.

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Produced by Sarah Prior and Richard Fetzer. Shaheen Tokhi is the affiliate producer and Dylan Gordon is the affiliate producer, archives. Nancy Bautista is the published affiliate. Ken Blum, Gary Winter and George Baluzy are the editors.  Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.