The Basin's Unsolved: Just a Normal Girl

"Back in the '80s, there wasn't a lot of things for young people in Odessa to do," Rogers said. "So one of the things that young people did — myself included — was you would go out to the bars."

The bar to be at in the '80s was Graham Central Station.

"It was packed from one end of the parking lot, all the way to Grandview, all the way to 8th Street, was just there was thousands of people," former bouncer at Graham Central Station Charles Hostetter said. 

"And it's just where you gathered. I mean, a lot of people went in there and all you did was dance," Rogers said. "That's where you went to meet up with your friends and dance and meet new people and that sort of thing. And you would go from, like I said, there was a whole strip of bars in that area that were, that were nice, real clean, very good establishments, and that's just where people went back then."

Carmen Croan was no exception.

"And that's what she had done that night," Rogers said. "She'd gone over there and met up with her friends and was hanging out there waiting on her boyfriend to show up. At some point, she went out into the parking lot and there were people that saw her go into the parking lot. And then that's the last that anybody knows of her."

"The next day, an oilfield worker or landowner had been driving around checking his land and found her body out on an oil lease," Rogers said.

"Her body was nude, she lay on her back spread eagle," Monnie Weddel, former investigator, said. "And her clothes from what I remember were fairly neatly folded beside her body."

"What they did to her was very, very horrific," Hostetter said.

"I can remember when it happened that it shocked me, that it would happen to her because she was that, I mean, it was just a shock because she was just a sweet, nice girl," Rogers said. "I can still remember sitting in orchestra. She just smiled a lot."

A smile her family... would never see again.

"Dad called me," Marc said. "He goes 'something's happened to Carmen.' I think it was, and it was a little hard to take, you know — the shock. 'Is this real? Did this really happen?' You know, why this happened to her, why was it happening to us?"

But most importantly, the family wanted to know who was responsible for murdering Carmen.

The police wanted to know too, and they had one of their best men on the job: David Saunders.

"He was just an investigating genius," Hostetter said.

"David was a very thorough investigator," Billy Clark, a former officer, said. "He was one heck of an investigator."

"You can tell that David's whole heart was in this," Rogers said. "I mean, he did everything he possibly could to figure out who this was. And you know, you'll find if you talk to homicide investigators, you'll find that every one of them have those cases that are the ones that they lose sleep over. It's the ones that they think about, it's constantly on their mind, whether it's a solved case or an unsolved case, it imprints on their brain and on their heart. And I think this is David's case."

David's case was a particularly difficult one... David himself called it "Not an everyday murder."

The only evidence they had was bloodstained clothes found several miles from the crime scene and some bite marks on Carmen's body.

They didn't know the motive, they didn't even have a murder weapon yet. Based on the body, they figured it was probably a fixed blade knife with at least an eight-inch blade, but they couldn't know for sure.

And after a while, the painfully complex "Not everyday murder"... went silent.

And silence causes all sorts of rumors... most rooted in fiction.

In a case like this one, everyone's a suspect.

Especially if you worked at the last place the victim was seen.

"Well 1981 I was actually working at Graham Central Station, a nightclub here in Odessa where she was abducted," former employee Charles Hostetter said.

And some people thought they already knew who the killer was: Charles Hostetter.

"The media released that I was arrested and confessed to her murder," Hostetter said. "So you know, people coming to my house and talking to me about being arrested."

If you're from Odessa, the name Charles Hostetter might ring a bell.

"Charlie was kind of a celebrity around here because of his boxing," Clark said.

"I was also a professional fighter," Hostetter said. "I fought all over the world. I fought at Wembley Arena, fought at the Royal Albert Hall, Medieval Castle, Caesar's Palace. [I] fought people like George Foreman and Tommy Morrison, Andrew Golota, Marvis Frazier."

But before he became a notable fighter, Charlie was already well known to one group: law enforcement.

"So we had a lot of street fights, and I was arrested numerous times for street fighting," Hostetter said. "So the police did not like me in the beginning. That's the beginning of the story."

So how is he relevant to this story?

"Because I was falsely accused of a terrible, terrible, horrific murder of this little girl back in 1981."

That girl... was Carmen Croan.

According to Charlie, every cop in the city of Odessa had it out for him, but even they couldn't deny that Hostetter was not involved in this murder.

As one of their own was working undercover — in the same club — the night of the murder.

"The night that it took place there was a man working there," Hostetter said. He was put in there by the Sheriff of Odessa to investigate things that was going on in Odessa. The night that Carmen was murdered, I was out at the parking lot emptying the trash. A beer bottle cut a hole in my thumb and I had to go to the emergency room."

Guess who took Charlie to the emergency room?

The undercover cop.

"Same night Carmen was murdered," Hostetter said. "Same night. I was never interviewed, never. Because apparently they knew I was with this undercover sheriff at the emergency room."

"To my knowledge, me or David either one ever thought Charlie did this," Clark said. "I mean, of course we looked into him, but there’s also 100 other people we looked into."

"I felt kind of sorry for the way he was treated because he was one of the ones that was harassed," Marc said. "Even though he was a bouncer at the club that night."

Knowing he was innocent, Charles counterpunched the radio stations that ran the story.

"And we sued the radio stations, and we can have a deposition, the whole nine yards, and we settled it out of court," Hostetter said.

Fortunately for Hostetter, this didn't affect his boxing career, and three years later... he even fought George Foreman himself.

Despite his innocence — even today — Charles says people still think he committed this murder.

"I just thought this was a bad rumor," Hostetter said.

A bad rumor... that has lasted four decades.

"40 years, we're still talking about it," Hostetter said.

They're also still talking about a man who, to police, actually has reason to be questioned.

After months of silence in the case, a new suspect emerges: and his name... is Murray Galloway. 

It wasn't Carmen's murder that put Galloway on the police's radar... but an entirely different crime altogether.

"There's a guy named Steve Compton, lived on the west side of Odessa," Hostetter said. "One day, Murray Galloway shows up at his door, he's house sitting for his sister and her husband. [...] he just bulldogged in the house. Took him in a car, they went to Andrews."

After the abduction, Galloway stopped at a service station, and his victim saw his opportunity to escape.

"And this guy was able to grab a door handle and roll out, get out of the zip tie — his legs and hands were tied," Hostetter said. "He rolls on the ground and starts hollering, the attendants, people come over, they get Murray Galloway, and then they called the police."

At the abduction crime scene, police found a long, fixed blade, similar to the knife investigators thought killed Carmen Croan.

"The way we got onto Murray is that he had a bunch of knives," Clark said.

And according to sources, Galloway frequented the spot Carmen was kidnapped from.

"And he always seemed to show up at the bars there a lot, from what I understand, from people who worked at the bar, that he was there a lot," Marc said.

"We went back and got pictures, and a camera of people dancing," Clark said. "Murray's in there! He claimed he was never in that bar, but he was in there... we could see him."

This put Murray right on the suspect list. 

A couple of weeks later, Carmen's hair particles were discovered on the bloodstained clothes found a week after her death.

And investigators thought these clothes belonged to Galloway.

After a four-month-long investigation, Murray Galloway was indicted for her murder. 

And to many, it seemed like police had found their killer.

Galloway was called volatile, unpredictable, loud, arrogant, among other things by psychiatrists.

The scariest of all was that he was "capable of homicidal potential."

"He was one strange person," Clark said. "I mean, this guy was flat scary."

But Galloway didn't work alone. Galloway also had a traveling partner, and his name was Lonnie Lee Crago.

"There was a guy named Lonnie Lee Crago," Hostetter said. "One day he would be this personality, and the next day be another personality. So they assumed he had schizophrenia."

"If you ever met a true schizophrenic, he was," Clark said. "He started telling us all this — he would repeat Bible quotes, scripture, word for word, intelligent guy. And then the next minute, he'd go back to this other guy. When he went back to the other one, he couldn't even write his name."

So Lonnie Crago was brought in as a witness and was questioned by deputies.

"I mean, Lonnie knew too much not to have been there," Clark said. "Of course, he was scared to death of Murray."

"Lonnie Lee Crago was the only witness against Murray Galloway," Hostetter said.

"He rolled over and said that they kidnapped her at Graham's," Clark said. "And they took her out there, and that Murray — who he called Eli — Murray is the one who cut her up. He started telling us about where they were and where they went, they went back up to Albuquerque. We had Murray in jail for kidnapping a guy. We put Lonnie right next to him, and I heard him tell Murray 'Eli, they got us this time.' Murray said 'Shut up! We were in Albuquerque!' 'Oh yeah, we were in Albuquerque.' Next time I talked to him, he wasn't even there, he was in Albuquerque."

"But putting all of this together, it would lead a normal person to believe that Murray Galloway was involved in this," Clark said. "We were ready to go further with capital murder. We put together what I thought was pretty substantial."

They thought they had enough to convict Carmen's killer for good... that is, until fate had other plans.

And for a while, it was going well... until the star witness... was gone.

"I know that Crago had some testimony that needed to be heard," Rogers said. "And once he died, they were not able to do that."

But before the case could move forward, Crago died in an oilfield accident.

"He sat down next to a pumpjack and laid his head over on the concrete or slab the pumpjack was on and... crushed his skull," Clark said. "The only thing he had in his pocket was David Saunders's card with the name 'Eli' written on the back, [which stood for] Murray, who he called Eli."

Some think it was an accident... some think it was suicide.

"And I don't know if it was because he thought he was going to prison or that Eli told him to," Clark said.

At first, this didn't seem like a problem for prosecutors. They still felt their case would go through, even without the only witness against Galloway.

The prosecution still had the bite marks on Carmen's body - which they claimed matched Galloway.

"And they had some bite marks on Carmen that were a huge part of the case," Rogers said.

And the prosecution brought in their expert... who backed up their theory.

"Our resident orthodontist said it was a positive match for the bite mark on Carmen," Clark said. "Well naturally, his side of the attorney was gonna say no, that’s not a bite mark."

But the defense had an expert too, Dr. Richard Souviron, notable for his testimony in the Ted Bundy case. 

In that case, Dr. Souviron helped prove that bite marks on a victim were, in fact, those of the famous serial killer. 

But in Carmen's case, he wasn't so sure.

"He came in for the defense to say it was not Murray Galloway's bite marks," Hostetter said.

In fact, Souviron wasn't certain if there were bite marks at all, and deemed the state's prime piece of evidence as "worthless."

Due to conflicting opinions, the case was at a crossroads. 

Even Galloway's attorney, who at first thought Galloway was guilty, was now completely convinced Galloway didn't do it.

And without the testimony of Lonnie Lee Crago, the prosecution was out of options, and the murder charges against Galloway were dismissed.

"So Murray Galloway is released," Hostetter said. "He was released in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has stuff pending there, and I think he went to the penitentiary for years."

"It was pretty bad that he was never convicted even though all of the evidence pointed at him," Marc said.

Leaving the investigators to start from square one, even though in their mind, they felt it was definitely Murray Galloway.

"I believe they think they had the right person," Rogers said. "That's why they took him to court and tried to get that all taken care of there, and it kind of fell apart on them. From that point on, investigators basically had to start over, you know, and I'm only guessing that in their minds, you know, they believe they had the right person. And so it was a matter of gathering up more information — with Crago dead, now they had to go back in, and I just believe that... I believe that they believed that Galloway is the one that did it."

Despite their belief, the investigation had to start all over... devastating David Saunders.

"David, and me too for that matter, always have been convinced that Murray Galloway did this," Clark said.

"And David Saunders had no doubt," Hostetter said. "No doubt who did this to that little girl."

"Cops have a tendency to get tunnel vision," Clark said. "I think just because you have tunnel vision doesn’t mean you’re wrong."

"That case took its toll on David," Weddel, a friend of Saunders, said. "And I think that's the reason he could never let it go, and it affected his health and caused him to drink too much."

Saunders died in 2009... not knowing for sure if he was right.

"This was David's case," Rogers said. "This was the one that — that if he had any regrets over not being able to find out who did it — this would be his case."

But his legacy lives on. Even today, people are still trying to find answers in Carmen's case.

Galloway also died in the 2000s, so even if evidence did point toward him, it would be difficult to charge him.

"I will always believe it was Murray Galloway," Clark said. "There’s no doubt in my mind. There never was."

"The people that did this to Carmen need to be brought to justice, even if he's dead," Hostetter said. "I believe 100% it was Murray Galloway and Lonnie Crago."

But not everyone is convinced.

"I always thought it was done by the same man that killed Janet Gregson," Weddel, the main investigator in the Gregston case, said. 

"He rambled on and on and about Janet, and every once in a while, he would kind of allude to Carmen as well," Weddel said. "And it's my thinking and he probably got too mixed up when he was talking. And for that reason, I thought that he was probably good for both of the murders."

"One of the unique things about reopening cases and putting another set of eyes on them is getting to hear the new investigators that are researching and reading through there," Rogers said. "And some of those guys have a doubt. I mean, they have some doubt as to whether or not it really was Galloway. These new investigators that are looking at it are able to use some different tools and maybe come up with something different. So, you know, I wasn't part of this back in the day when they arrested Galloway and they went through all of that. I believe that we've got some new resources that might point in a different direction."

Even though it is cold... there's still hope this case will be solved.

"I've talked to several people that said it's still a solvable case," Rogers said. "[...] and that with some of the new resources that are out there that it's possible that they'll be able to go a different route. Whether that points to Galloway, and says for sure that it was Galloway, and puts an end to that, and we know that for, you know, for a fact at that point, then I mean that may be the conclusion. It could turn out to be someone else, and if it does, then that person needs to, you know, be brought to trial and get some justice for Carmen and for her family."

And the Croan family — who have been living this for more than 40 years — could use that justice.

David Saunders called this a murder like no other... now it's a cold case like no other.

Solving this case would be an incredible feat, whether it proves to be Murray Galloway or someone else.

And if it does get solved, it'll show that any cold case can get solved.

If you have any information about this case, contact Odessa Crime Stoppers on their website or 432-333-TIPS.