Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is the latest true-crime documentary series to land on Netflix, exploring the unsolved murders of four young women whose remains were found in and around the same location in Texas.
The 25-acre patch of land in League City along Interstate Highway 45, is known as The Texas Killing Fields. Since the 1970s, 30 bodies have been found in and around the area, leading to the haunting name. The majority of victims have been girls and young women, aged between 12 and 25 years old.
The Netflix documentary looks at Tim Miller's fight to find his daughter Laura Miller's killer, after her remains were discovered in 1986.
William Lewis Reece has been convicted of committing murders in the Texas Killing Fields area, but Tim Miller suspects that Clyde Hedrick took his daughter's life.
Who is Clyde Hedrick?
Clyde Hedrick is a 68-year-old American convicted criminal.
As heard in The Texas Killing Fields on Netflix, despite Hedrick's charming persona, he had quite the criminal rap sheet, including offenses against minors, strangers, former partners, and the state. Hedrick also has been charged with enticing a child, aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault, criminal trespassing, terroristic threat, attempted arson, theft, possession of marijuana and driving while intoxicated.
In 2014, he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of 29-year-old Ellen Rae Simpson Beason.
Beason's body was found in July 1984 on a dirt road in Galveston County, Texas. Her cause of death was initially ruled as "undermined."
As heard in Texas Killing Fields, Hedrick was the last person to be seen with Beason. He was questioned by police and said that the two of them had gone swimming in a pond near the side of the road.
He added that Beason had drowned. He planned to drive her to the hospital but feared that he would be suspected of murder and instead left her body behind, in the open.
In 1996, Hedrick was convicted of abusing a corpse and sentenced to a year in jail as there was not enough evidence to prove that Beason had been killed.
However, in 2014, her death was ruled as a homicide, and Hedrick was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
As heard in Texas Killing Fields on Netflix, Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller believes Hedrick is the man responsible for his daughter's murder.
Speaking in the documentary, Tim Miller recalls moments when his teenage daughter would say she was "scared" of Hedrick. He was the Miller family's neighbor but has denied any involvement in Laura Miller's death.
As recently as 2018, Hedrick wrote to U.K. newspaper The Guardian maintaining he did not kill anyone.
However, Kevin Petroff, Galveston County's assistant district attorney, tells filmmakers in The Texas Killing Fields that Hedrick made a jailhouse confession to raping and killing Laura Miller and murdering Heidi Fye.
Despite an alleged verbal confession, a conviction could not be secured without additional evidence.
On September 10, 1984, 16-year-old Laura Miller disappeared a short distance from her home in Texas.
Earlier that evening, she had asked her mother to drive her to a payphone so she could call her boyfriend. After their phone call, Laura Miller had intended to walk home but she never returned.
More than a year later, her body was found in the same patch of land near Calder Road in League City (known as The Texas Killing Fields) as 23-year-old Heidi Fye, who had vanished in 1983. Fye's remains were located in April 1984 and Laura Miller's in 1986.
Another two bodies would be found in the same area. They would be identified two decades later as Audrey Lee Cook and Donna Gonsoulin Prudhomme.
Where is Clyde Hedrick Now?
Unfortunately, very little is known about Clyde Hedrick's whereabouts today. He is a free man, believed to be living in a local halfway house in Houston after being released from prison, just eight years into his 20-year sentence. The authorities will not reveal his location.
Hedrick was released from Estelle Supermax Penitentiary in Huntsville on good behavior grounds in October 2021.
In July 2022, Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller, won a wrongful death lawsuit against Hedrick for $24 million in liability and damages that he filed in 2014.
As Oxygen reported, the judge granted the motion on default when Hedrick failed to appear, despite notice of the hearing.
Speaking afterwards, Tim Miller told the KPRC 2 News: "I filed the wrongful death suit to let Clyde Hedrick know that, 'Clyde, I'm still here, I am still here, and I'm not going to quit until the day I die.'
"I want to let Clyde know that, 'I know what you did to my daughter, and I'm not going to let you rest until we have you where you need to be for the rest of your life.'"
Miller added: "As time goes by and the more information I get and, the more information I am continuing to get, I have no doubt in my mind Clyde Hedrick is responsible for Laura's murder."
Despite being found civilly liable for Laura Miller's death, Hedrick has never been charged with her murder.
However, Jack Roady, Galveston County district attorney, told KPRC 2 in July that Hedrick "has not been ruled out as a suspect in these investigations."
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields is streaming on Netflix now.
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