The first was discovered in April 1984, after a dog owned by a couple living several hundred yards away carried home a human skull and dropped it at the feet of their three-year-old daughter. One day a group of teenage boys, hoping to prove their courage when they spotted him cruising through town in his pickup, rolled down their car windows and shouted, Hey, Killer! Over the years, he has become such a focus of fear and hostility that in 1997, nearly two hundred people fanned out over his land without his permission, looking for the body of a pretty college student who had disappeared from a Bennigans restaurant not far from League City and who to this day has never been found. We get to hear the side of their families and how they coped with the trauma. All we know is that there was a terrible scream the night she disappeared, says her mother, Kathy Richerson. He said the photographs had been taken by a private investigator hired by his attorney. . Nows Your Chance. Because the affidavit about Abel had been filed in open court, it was available for the public to peruse. I wouldnt know how to kill.. And there were other occasions when I felt as if Abel talked a little too much about the allegations against him. }); He had no conscience.. Apocalypse Sow: Can Anything Stop the Feral Hog Invasion? eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Somethings down there, Miller shouted as people came running with their flashlights. Miller was the man who hadleft the threatening messages on Abels answering machine. Although Edward Bell has always been associated with the Texas Killing Fields murders, he was not featured in Netflix's series on the case. Content Warning: Article contains topics of self-harm, domestic violence, and animal cruelty hitType: 'event', It's the kind of place where you'd be hard-pressed to find activity beyond oil rigs and the. Abel denied that they had a physical encounter. Was I the one being paranoid? eventAction: 'render' The police tried hard to incriminate Abel with his home being searched for evidence and him being interviewed by the detectives on the case multiple times only for it all to go in vain. Mark Young, a highly respected FBI criminal profiler from the agencys Houston office, has talked with Abel, and a profiler from the behavioral sciences unit at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, has analyzed his relationships with women. Although he refused to take a police-administered polygraph test about the killing fields murdershe said he didnt trust the League City Police Department as long as Bittner was on the payrollhe did take two lie detector tests conducted by private examiners, who say he passed. The series tells the story of unsolved murders of four women whose corpses were found in a patch of land called The Texas Killing Fields in League City, Texas. The docu-series has three episodes. For a moment, the only sound was the wind lightly rustling the trees and the low growl of diesel trucks changing gears out on I-45. Robert Abel was one of the alleged prime suspects in the abduction and murder of Tim Miller's daughter along with the 3 other victims found on Calder Rd back in the 80s. A former scientist and engineer for NASA, Robert Abel owned the land where the Calder Road Killings happened. He told me he never mistreated animalsIts ridiculous to think that you can run a horseback-riding business with horses that are scared of human beingsand that he didnt carry a gun. Whenever livestock died on his pastureland, she added, he left them out in the open so their rotting corpses could be ravaged by coyotes and other scavengers. if(document.querySelector("#adunit")){ With Netflix's 'Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields' living up to its title in every way imaginable, we get a complete insight into the dark, twisted, sordid side of human nature many times over. Abel allegedly. Between 1984 and 1991, the remains of four young women were found on the same patch of land near Calder Road in League City. Abel told Grant that if he had been in charge in 1991 when the fourth body was found, he would have searched a nearby pond because the killer might have thrown something in there. I suddenly understood why these coastal communities were linked by fear. At Christmas wed go back to his old family ranch outside of Bellville, and hed put together a scene from a Hallmark cardwed go out and cut down a Christmas tree.. Since the early 1970s, 33 bodies of murder victims have been found along the I-45 area. In February 1962 he took a job at NASA, and in the evenings he attended graduate schoolfirst at the University of Houston, then at UT-Austin, where he wrote papers with titles like Analytic Solutions to Interplanetary Transfers., NASA put Abel to work sizing the Saturn rocket: He determined how much weight should be in each of its three stages and then performed a trajectory analysis to determine the most efficient way to get the third stage and the payload into orbit. Robert Abel, a retired NASA engineer, has been linked to the disappearance and deaths of several young women in Texas since the 1990s. Leave them blank to get signed up. The building pictured in the back belonged to Robert Abel. As long as Pat Bittner and these other police departments have that FBI profile, theyre going to do anything they can to make me fit it.. Based on that information, Abel fit the bill, though nonspecific FBI profiling was all Bittner had to go on. Content Warning: Article contains topics of self-harm, domestic violence, and animal cruelty Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, the third entry in Netflix's Crime Scene series, suggests many possible suspects responsible for the murders of the killing field victims. During this week in true crime history, Suzanne Rene Richerson was reported missing after she disappeared while working at a Galveston resort in October of 1988. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, the newest season in Netflix's true crime docuseries, has received its first trailer. With such a high-profile case, Texas law enforcement was desperate to find. Abel spoke to the media about how this has affected him. "And there's no doubt they would have kept going up"he pauses,. What has been dubbed the "Texas Killing Fields" is a 25-acre patch of land approximately one mile from I-45 in League City, a mid-size city located in Galveston County between Houston and Galveston. One time she wrote about sports. Others push their daughters out of sight so that he cant get a look at them. That Seems to Be Changing. Abel, however, remained wary: He told me he still worried that Miller would drink too much one night and try to kill him. Once you hear certain allegations about someone youve known for a long, long time, how do you get them out of your mind? Gottlieb asks. He thus slowly realized that very few believed in his claims of innocence, especially as locals began avoiding him in public places as well. Once again, without eyewitnesses and only scant physical evidence, the police were stuck. When I went to visit him at his horse stables, he was certainly odd, but what became clear to me was that there was no evidence he had committed murder. Mom, I love you, reads a note on the nightstand in Krystal Jean Bakers bedroom in Texas City. Robert Abel was a retired aerospace engineer who had leased the property and finally bought a portion, 3001 Calder Drive for his horse stable. The retired NASA aerospace engineer owned land . Whats more, he has never been arrested for any crime, nor is there any known record of a criminal complaint filed against him. By Bell was identified as a potential suspect as early as the 1970s after the League City Police Department and FBI became aware of his activities in the area. Right here, shouted Tim Miller, a grim, wiry building contractor who was at the controls of a large backhoe. Audrey had disappeared from the Houston area around December 1985, whereas the Nassau Bay resident Donna had gone missing in July 1991. Or is he a victim of overzealous police work and outright hysteria? The actors in "Texas Killing Fields' hoped somehow, the film . However, everything changed once two young boys located Lauras body in the same stretch of land in 1986. When they met, Paula told Bittner she was afraid of what she described as her husbands fits of rage. Sometimes, she said, he would get so angry during their arguments that hed leave the house and not return for as long as a week. Where Is He Now. Investigators have flown over his land in helicopters and brought in cadaver dogs to look for bodies. At the time of her disappearanceshe had last been seen walking from her parents home to use the telephone at a convenience storethe League City police had conducted a cursory investigation, and they came across no clues as to where she might have gone or who might have wanted to abduct her. Bittner, meanwhile, insists that a pathological serial killer with no remorse could easily pass any lie detector test. Between the early 1970s and as recently as 2016, the bodies of 33 murder victims have been discovered in the area. He has been interviewed by detectives from neighboring towns. Lise: By the time Janet Doe's body was found in 1991, Robert Abel owned the land where the Killing Fields was. Another person who is interviewed is Tim Miller, whose daughters remains were found in the killing fields. }); The medical examiner said she was between 22 and 30 years old and perhaps had been shot to death by a .22-caliber weapon. (The rest of the photos were of family, friends, and various people hed shot as an amateur photographer. (Abel denies this ever happened.) Thats all I want to do., Abel is aware that the police and the FBI have studied every inch of his life. He was hit by a train while traveling on his golf cart. She had been reported missing by her family in . Around 25 miles south of Houston sits what has become known as the Texas Killing Fields, a 25-acre tract of land where the bodies of at least 30 murder victims, mostly girls and women between 12 and 25 years old, have been found since the 1970s. According to CBS News, the isolated nature of the spot makes it the perfect place for taking someone else's life . We are one of the worlds fastest growing He had helped create the modern Saturn rocket that got astronauts to the moon. According to one FBI report, an organized killer is in the bright-superior intelligence range and, therefore, potentially a skilled imposterin other words, hes able to fit into everyday society without drawing any suspicion. if(document.querySelector("#ads")){ In 1999, Texas Monthly reported that a police detective in a sworn affidavit painted Abel as a "serial sexual offender," who displays the violent behavior seen in serial killers. His name was Robert Abel, and he was so eager to assist the police the day the fourth body was found that he helped them clear brush in the area and let them use fourteen of his horses and his backhoe free of charge. The League City Police Department naturally wound up under increasing pressure to nab a culprit, and they came to believe they'd found one, courtesy of an FBI profile that matched a local: Robert. My life has been destroyed, my reputation ruined, Abel told me when I first met him earlier this year. . }) Do I really look like someone who would want to kill pretty young girls?. Yet he haunts people. And remember, he had a new trail-rides business going. The Texas Killing Fields in League City, Texas, is a plot of ground where the bodies of four unsolved murder victims of women were discovered. Abel shrugged, appearing neither anxious nor relieved. Once operated the Star Dust Trail Rides the address which was 3001 Calder in League city, right where the notorious "Killing Fields" victims where discovered. There are places in the world that are not evil due to any supernatural forces or demonic influences, but rather because And if I did kill her, I couldnt have carried her out of my house. It was as if he was giving me a scenario of how one of the murders had happened. Samyukhtha L KM, Published on : But Mr. Abel doesnt want to come down here any more to answer them. On the other hand, detectives continued to carry out their usual investigative procedure, which included a thorough search of his ranch, house, as well as vehicles. }); 'Sister Wives' star Kody Brown feels ex-wife Christine Brown's engagement to David Woolley is 'staged for TV' amid family drama, Jacob Stevens: Family shares heartbreaking photo of teen who died attempting viral TikTok challenge, 'I'd do the same again': Donna Delbono, who turned in killer teen son to cops, says she has 'no regrets'. His property was next to an. The League City police were so convinced he murdered those women and buried them, creating his own private graveyard, that they filed a court affidavit calling him a serial sexual offender who displayed the kind of rage and violent behavior often seen in serial killers. The police tell us that she is probably dead, murdered like the others. They were not Clyde Headrick, but 60-year-old Robert Abel - a former NASA engineer who owns a ranch near the oil fields. Eventually, around July 2005, 65-year-old Robert William Abel was driving a golf car when he suddenly stopped right on the nearby railway tracks, allowing the train to hit him. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. A slightly built sixty-year-old with thinning brown hair and a mustache, Abel walks stiffly because of a bad back, wears reading glasses, and takes pills for his high blood pressure. In League City some mothers backpedal when they see him in the grocery store. eventAction: 'view' Yet, they found nothing to directly connect him to the deaths and thus could not apprehend him. It is not clear to this day as to whether he had intended to die or if it was accidental. By 2009, the initiative had identified 600 victims and upwards of 275 suspects. And Robert Abel was part of the little band of very bright men who figured out how do it. Today, however, a police detective suggests in a sworn affidavit that Abel is a serial sexual offender who displays the kind of rage and violent behavior thats often seen in serial killers. Detectives from other agencies, frustrated with their own unsolved murders, began calling the police in League City to ask about Abel. The majority of victims were girls and young women, aged between 12 and 25 years old. The victim was never identified and became known as Jane Doe. There was no evidence, in fact, that he had committed any crime. The gold tooth turned out to be from Abels own mouth. Abel was a retired NASA engineer, who was linked to the disappearance and deaths of many young women. But Most people whose remains were found in the land were little girls or adult women, all between the ages 12 to 25. By all accounts, Stardust Trailrides was an immediate success, drawing people from all over the Houston area, including a few couples who came to have their wedding conducted on horseback. I was about to pull the trigger when I realized that it wouldnt have mattered, Miller told me. } The chilling discoveries have sparked fears that a serial killer or killers may be on the loose.. Four women were found dead between 1983-1991 and ex-Nasa engineer Robert Abel was among the . I told him about the clothes that Miller had dug up and that after a subsequent search no evidence of a body had been found. I didnt kill any of those girls. All suspicions are based on behavorial clues and psychological profiling by the FBI. . }); In Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, his ex-wife's daughter outlines Hedrick's predatory behaviour when she was . ga('ads.send', { As if thats not enough, a fourth (and final) nearly decomposed skeletal corpse was located by local residents in the same field on September 8, 1991, which also remained unidentified for decades. Sales hit $250,000 in 1991, he says. Netflix is now streaming a three-part docuseries on the murders, titledCrime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields. The Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre patch of land in the area along the Interstate highway 45 between Houston and Galveston. But what of the accusations by his ex-wives? Thats where we need to dig.. So now, lets find out more about him as well as his alleged involvement, shall we? What Is The Docu-Series 'Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields' About? One time she wrote about sports. He seems almost shyhe tends to put his hands in his front pockets when he speaksand has the soft Texas drawl of a small-town high school civics teacher. The Texas Killing Fields is a 25-acre patch of land in the area along the Interstate highway 45 between Houston and Galveston. hitType: 'event', In the sixties Abel was one of NASAs great young engineers, part of the team that was instrumental in designing the rocket that would put the Apollo astronauts into Earths orbit. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. Many people who live in the surrounding towns and bedroom communities wont come near the place. They often take you into their daughters bedroom, many of which still look exactly as they did when the girls were alive. Wikimedia Commons/formulanone. The Texas Killing Fields comprise a particular plain near I-45 off Calder Road in League City. 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