Bad Boy From Rosebud (73 page)

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #General, #Law, #True Crime, #Murder, #test

BOOK: Bad Boy From Rosebud

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Page 272

fied, and immediately called for an investigation into reports that McDuff had gotten out as a result of hiring a parole consultant. "Former board members acting on behalf of prisoners for a fee, I think, raises serious questions. It raises questions of improper influence at the very least." The Governor was also angered at how McDuff had been released by the parole board staff (when Bettie Wells made an administrative decision to reinstate McDuff's parole after being returned to prison for making a terroristic threat) rather than by the board itself. In addition to the Governor, Senator Ted Lyon, the Chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, announced that he would conduct hearings on McDuff-related allegations.
²⁶

Within a year, Governor Richards accepted a suggestion by Bill Johnston to create a special team to track down fugitives charged with violent crimes. Through an executive order, she formed the Governor's Fugitive Squad. "I want these law enforcement professionals to do whatever it takes to make sure that any Kenneth McDuff or any potential Kenneth McDuff is brought in before he can hurt innocent people." Immediately, the team targeted 300 parolees who had committed violent crimes since being paroled.
²⁷

By Sunday, April 26, the first wave of searches for Colleen had concluded. Bell County and Austin Police Department officers had combed vast areas around the abandoned road Worley identified as the murder site, and in fields near the S&S Trailer Park. On that day, over 200 people marched to the Texas Capitol. They mourned the lives of loved ones taken as a result of violent crimes. The idea was to "walk a mile in a victim's shoes." Lori was one of the 200. She and her two half-sisters planted three trees in an Austin park in memory of their sister.
²⁸

As the marchers began to go home from the Capitol, a fisherman named Jeffery Heard put his boat into a water-filled gravel pit near Bois d'Arc Road near the small Dallas County community of Combine. His uncle, Henry "Red" Heard, leased the gravel pits from the Forge Gravel Company for fishing. The remote pits are not accessible to the general public, but occasionally unauthorized fishermen need to be run off the property. About three hours after he started fishing, and approximately

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100 yards from where he put in his boat, Jeffery noticed something strange floating in the pit. He did not recognize it at first, so he got closer. To his horror, he saw that it was a body. Immediately, Jeffery loaded his boat and headed for his uncle's store on the corner of Bilingsday and Bois d'Arc Roads. A cousin phoned the police. By dusk the Dallas County Sheriff's Office had a crew on the scene.
²⁹

Melissa had been there since McDuff killed her on March 1. She was floating in about four feet of water, about five feet from the shore and about one and a half miles from where her car had been discovered. Her body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Time, water and small animals had ravaged her. Had she not been found on April 26, or soon afterwards, she might not have been found at all. Her hands had been tied behind her back by shoestrings, and a jacket had been pulled down over her arms as if to immobilize them. Her ankles had been tied together at one time; remnants of black shoestrings were found around each ankle. A purple shirt had been pulled over her face, and is likely what held her head together. Deputy Tim Parker believed that she may have been weighted down for a while. Her bra was still in place, but there was no clothing from her waist down. Nearby, someone saw a black, high-top tennis shoe floating in the water. The size 6 shoe had no laces.
³⁰

The officers set up floodlights to illuminate the area. By 8:40
P.M.
a Dallas County Medical Examiner field agent named Charles Gaylor arrived to retrieve the body. Gaylor had to sink a body bag beneath Melissa and lift her up from behind in order to take her out of the pit.
³¹

There was some initial doubt as to whether it was Melissa Northrup. She had been found wearing a shirt that was different from the one she was last seen wearing. But the next day the Dallas County Medical Examiner made a positive identification. He could not determine the immediate cause of death. Had there been injuries, they would have been hard or even impossible to see. There were no fractures in the bones of her neck, but in people her age that was common. Tissues and internal organs in her pelvic area were missing. She had been in the water far too long and ravaged far too much by the elements to determine an exact cause of death. Drowning could not be ruled out. Like Valencia Joshua, though, the manner of death was clearly homicidal violence.
³²

Brenda Solomon could never accept that Melissa was dead until she had been found.
³³At least Melissa was no longer a missing person, and her case clearly involved more than just kidnapping. There was no doubt

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about whether or not she had run away Whoever took her from the Quik Pak killed her. Her family was able to bury her at Waco Memorial Cemetery along Interstate 35, only a couple of miles from the Quik Pak #8.

Image not available.

Aerial view of the southeast Dallas County gravel pits. X's show the location of Melissa
Northrup's car on James Road, and the spot where her body was found by a fisherman.
Courtesy Travis County District Attorney's Office.

Page 275

Image not available.

Rough sketches of the gravel pits where Melissa Northrup was found. (Not to scale.)
Courtesy McLennan County District Attorney's Office.

Page 276

Image not available.

Location of the discovery of Melissa Northrup's body in southeast Dallas County.
Courtesy McLennan County Sheriff's Office.

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1 Tim candidly told me that he was more upset two days later with the details of Hank's statement than when he took it from Hank. For years, the sadness and horror of child abuse cases had hardened Tim. It bothers him that he did not get outraged or upset at the time of the statement. Tim Steglich; BCSO Files:
Supplement Report,
by Tim Steglich, dated March 3, 1992;
State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff,
SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 25, pgs. 29596.

2 Don Martin; J. W. Thompson; APD Files:
Incident Reports,
by Donald O. Martin, April 27, 1992, and J. W. Thompson, May 6, 1992. In my interview with him, Don indicated that he thought about calling J. W. instead of Sonya because he and J. W. had just been to Waco to work on the case.

3 Ibid.; Tim Steglich; BCSO Files:
Supplement Report,
by Tim Steglich, dated March 3, 1992.

4 Don Martin; J. W. Thompson; APD Files:
Incident Reports,
by Donald O. Martin, April 27, 1992, and J. W. Thompson, May 6, 1992 and January 14, 1993;
State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff,
SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 26, pgs. 12930, and 182;
Austin American-Statesman,
April 9 and June 11, 1992.

5 Don Martin; Charles Meyer; Tim Steglich; Bill Johnston; J. W. Thompson; APD Files:
Incident Report,
by Donald O. Martin, January 14, 1993, and J. W.

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Thompson, January 14, 1993;
State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff,
SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 25, pg. 126 and Volume 26, pgs. 132 and 170.

6 Charles Meyer; Tim Steglich; Bill Johnston;' Mike McNamara; Parnell McNamara; J. W. Thompson; APD Files:
Incident Report,
by J. W. Thompson, May 6, 1992; BCSO Files:
Supplement Report,
by Tim Steglich, dated March 3, 1992.

7 BCSO Files:
Supplement Report,
by Tim Steglich, dated March 3, 1992 and
Permission to Search,
April 21, 1992; APD Files:
Incident Report,
by Donald O. Martin, April 27, 1992.

8 BCSO Files:
Supplement Report,
by Tim Steglich, dated March 3, 1992; APD Files:
Incident Report,
by Donald O. Martin, April 27, 1992.

9 BCSO Files:
Supplement Report,
by Tim Steglich, dated March 3, 1992.

10 Ibid.

11 APD Files:
Incident Report,
by J. W. Thompson, May 6, 1992; Alan Sanderson, interviewed by the author on June 18, 1998; APD Files:
Interview of Alva Hank Worley,
May 13, 1992; State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff, SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 25, pgs. 53 and 176.

12 Tim Steglich.

13 J. W. Thompson.

14 Charles Meyer.

15 Tim Steglich.

16 Don Martin; Chuck Meyer; J. W. Thompson; APD Files:
Incident Report,
by Donald O. Martin, April 27, 1992 and J. W. Thompson, May 6, 1992.

17 Ibid.; Buddy Meyer and David Counts, interviewed by the author on June 18, 1998.