HOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a man allegedly connected to some of the deaths linked to the “Texas Killing Fields,” an area near Houston where the bodies of dozens of women were found beginning in the 1970s, saying they have solved a piece of a tragic mystery that has inspired books, movies and a Netflix documentary.
A stretch of land along Interstate 45 southeast of Houston was dubbed the “Texas Killing Fields" after the bodies of more than 30 women were found there. Investigators believe multiple perpetrators may be responsible for the deaths of mainly girls and young women.
A Galveston grand jury has indicted 61-year-old James Dolphs Elmore Jr. for his alleged role in the deaths of 16-year-old Laura Miller and 30-year-old Audrey Cook, whose bodies were found in the infamous area in 1986, Galveston County District Attorney Kenneth Cusick said Wednesday.
Court and jail records did not list an attorney who could speak on behalf of Elmore, who was arrested Tuesday and is being held without bond in the Galveston County Jail.
Miller and Cook were two of four young women whose bodies were found between 1984 and 1991 in a rural field off a desolate dirt road in League City, located about 28 miles (45 kilometers) southeast of Houston. The other two women were 25-year-old Heidi Fye-Villareal and 34-year-old Donna Prudhomme.
Cusick said after being appointed as district attorney in October that he would to take a harder look at these cases.
“Due to the concerted efforts of the law enforcement agencies in this county, this 40-year cycle of violence by these defendants against women, we’re trying to make headway on it, and I think we made significant headway yesterday in getting a charge against Mr. Elmore and having him arrested," he said.
Elmore has been charged with manslaughter and felony tampering with evidence in the death of Miller and with tampering with evidence in Cook’s killing.
Cusick said prosecutors had also presented evidence to a grand jury seeking indictments against Clyde Hedrick, who authorities allege was the person responsible for the deaths of the four women and had been Elmore's longtime friend.
But the 72-year-old Hedrick died by suicide last month before the grand jury came back with a decision in his case, Cusick said.
Hedrick was convicted of manslaughter in 2014 in the death of Ellen Beason, a young woman whose body was found in 1985 after going missing the previous years. He was released in 2022 and was still on parole at the time of his death, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Relatives of the victims on Wednesday said they were relieved an arrest had been made but expressed frustration it had taken so long.
“I think with everything that they had in the past, it’s inexcusable that Clyde Hedrick had the opportunity to die without never been indicted, convicted," said Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller. After his daughter's death, Miller founded Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit that helps look for missing people.
Miller said that in the last four years, he had met 30 times with Elmore who had shared information but he declined to elaborate on what Elmore told him because he didn't want to jeopardize the case against him.
Nina Jager, Fye-Villareal’s niece, celebrated Elmore's indictment but said it was also “bittersweet” because her grandfather had investigated the case and long believed Hedrick was responsible but his efforts were ignored by authorities.
“Maybe today is a result of all the work that he put in, all the searching the fields, going and talking to people and doing his own investigation because he just didn’t feel supported,” she said.
Cusick said he's committed to continue working on these cases and that there are active leads that can be pursued "to bring to justice some people who may have escaped justice thus far,” he said.
Most of the deaths associated with the “Texas Killing Fields” remain unsolved.
In 2022, William Reece, an Oklahoma death row inmate, pleaded guilty to three murders in Texas, including those of 12-year-old Laura Smither and 17-year-old Jessica Cain in Galveston County, and 20-year-old Kelli Cox, who was from Denton in North Texas but whose body was found hundreds of miles away in Brazoria County, located next to Galveston County. He received life sentences for all three murders.
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This photo provided by the Galveston County Sheriff's Office shows James Dolphs Elmore Jr. (Galveston County Sheriff's Office via AP)
The death of a nearly blind refugee from Myanmar who was found on a Buffalo street in February — five days after Border Patrol agents left him at a doughnut shop — has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Wednesday.
The Erie County Medical Examiner's Office didn't reach any conclusions about responsibility for Nurul Amin Shah Alam's death, which the agency said was caused by complications of a perforated duodenal ulcer, precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. Ruling a death a homicide means it resulted from another person's actions — or inaction — but doesn't necessarily mean that a crime was committed.
“This should not have happened,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a Democrat, said at a news conference Wednesday. Asked whether the Border Patrol was responsible for his death, he declined to comment and said any such determination would be up to law enforcement agencies.
State Attorney General Letitia James and Erie County District Attorney Mike Keane, both Democrats, noted Wednesday that their offices have been reviewing the case. Keane said in a statement that his office had requested Shah Alam's full autopsy report but “it would be inappropriate” to comment further.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection pointed Wednesday to its previous statement that Shah Alam “showed no signs of distress, mobility issues, or disabilities requiring special assistance” when agents dropped him off Feb. 19 at a Tim Hortons restaurant.
“This death had NOTHING to do” with Border Patrol, its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in a Feb. 27 social media post, decrying news coverage of the case as an effort “to demonize our law enforcement.”
Immigrant advocates called Wednesday for justice for Shah Alam, a member of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority. The group has faced discrimination and oppression in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Shah Alam sought safety in the U.S. and “instead, he was left to die in the street,” New York Immigration Coalition President Murad Awawdeh said, calling for a criminal investigation into the Border Patrol agents’ conduct: “Every single person who was involved must be held responsible.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul similarly called for accountability for everyone involved and said her aides spoke to the district attorney Wednesday afternoon. Hochul, a Democrat and Buffalo native, lambasted “the cruelty and inhumanity” of depositing a man who could barely see, or speak English, outside a then-closed restaurant.
Customs and Border Protection has said the restaurant was chosen as “a warm, safe location” near Shah Alam’s last known address.
Many details about the man's health and final days aren't publicly known, as his autopsy report is confidential under New York law.
But Erie County Health Commissioner Gale Burstein told reporters that Shah Alam developed what is commonly known as a stress ulcer, brought on in his case by dehydration and exposure to the cold. The ulcer breached his intestinal wall, creating what is generally a very painful medical emergency that needs rapid treatment, she said.
Shah Alam, 56, left Myanmar many years ago for Malaysia, where he worked in construction. He came to the U.S. as a refugee with his wife and two of his children in December 2024, according to advocates for the family.
Imran Fazal, who knows the family and founded a group called the Rohingya Empowerment Community, said Shah Alam's death left people grieving and fearful.
“This tragedy was entirely preventable, and it reflects a serious failure in the systems meant to protect vulnerable people," Fazal said Wednesday.
Shah Alam spent about a year in the Erie County jail on felony assault and other charges after a 2025 struggle with police who encountered him carrying what appeared to be curtain rods. Police said he bit two officers; advocates for his family said that he hadn't understood officers’ commands to drop the items.
He eventually pleaded guilty to two lesser, misdemeanor charges and was released from jail Feb. 19. Border Patrol then briefly detained him before determining that he wasn't eligible for deportation. His family, which had been awaiting his release from jail, wasn't informed of it.
Surveillance video, obtained by the Investigative Post, showed Shah Alam treading carefully through the Tim Hortons' empty parking lot in his county-issued jail booties, pulling his hood up against the cold and walking off into the night.
Shah Alam’s lawyer ultimately reported him missing to Buffalo police on Feb. 22.
On Feb. 24, he was found dead near the downtown sports arena where the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres play. It was unclear how he got there from the Tim Hortons, several miles away, and Burstein said Wednesday that it was impossible to determine exactly when he died.
FILE - This image from body camera video provided by the Buffalo Police Department shows Nurul Amin Shah Alam, center, led by Buffalo Police officers, Feb. 15, 2025, in Buffalo, N.Y. (Buffalo Police Department via AP, File)
