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On the 16th of February, 1974, in Fort Worth, Texas,
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after attending a high school dance, 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted.
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The predator came out of the darkness, and he said,
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you're going with me, aren't you, sweetie?
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It was the last time Carla would be seen alive.
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When police found her body, they knew they were looking
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for a callous and merciless killer.
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She was beat from head to toe and strangled and raped.
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It was horrific.
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It was simply horrific.
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I had nightmares.
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It would take almost half a century before Carla's depraved
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attacker was revealed to be church-going family man Glenn McCurley.
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He is the kind of person that we tell our
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daughters about, makes us not go out alone at night.
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He is the evil predator of our nightmares.
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Glenn McCurley had finally been exposed as one of the
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world's most evil killers. It was a murder that went
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undetected for nearly 50 years. When 17-year-old schoolgirl Carla Walker
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was murdered in Fort Worth, Texas in February 1974, nobody
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knew the identity of her killer until decades later, cutting-edge
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DNA testing finally led investigators to 77-year-old Glenn McCurley.
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All of a sudden, We had, after 47 years, we
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had finally solved it.
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The brutal killer who'd escaped justice for so long had
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no place left to hide.
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Well, if y'all knew all that, why didn't you come
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get me back then or something?
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Because they didn't know, but we do.
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Carla's grieving family.
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Would learn that her murderer had been living in their
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midst all along.
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Of course, everybody immediately gets on their computers and does
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research on this guy. They discover he's a guy who
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lived blocks from Carla.
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Everybody on his street thought he was a great guy.
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But when he's looking at you, he's not looking at
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you as a friend. He's looking at you as a
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real possibility to come see you one night when you're
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asleep or by yourself.
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On the surface, Glenn McCurley was a church-going family man,
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but beneath the mask, he was a calculating predator. This
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killer's story begins in 1943. Glenn Samuel McCurley was born
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on January the 5th in Holmes County, Florida. His childhood
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was spent in West Texas.
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He was the eldest of three brothers.
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When he was a teenager, he was sent away from
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his family to the Westview Boys' Home in southwest Oklahoma.
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In 1961, weeks after McCurley's 18th birthday, he found himself
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on the wrong side of the law.
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He stole a car and led the highway patrol on
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a high-speed chase, and they finally caught him. Then he
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was convicted of car theft.
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He served 11 months in Huntsville Unit Prison before being
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granted parole.
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Not long after he gets out, in February 1963, he
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marries a girl called Judy. They had a son and
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another son a year.
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Or two later.
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At this point, Glenn McCurley is working as a truck driver.
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They've moved to West Fort Worth in Texas.
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The suburban neighborhood suited the couple. It was an ideal
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place to raise children.
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It was very family oriented, very church going, very laid
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back and trusting and what you would think of as
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an idyllic childhood. The neighborhoods were full of kids and
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we walked everywhere and had pretty much the run of
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the place. It really was a great place to grow up.
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It was definitely thought of as a place where you
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don't necessarily have to lock your car doors and Your
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kids are safe to run around the streets and go
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to parties and, you know, do what they do.
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Just over a mile away from the McCurleys was 17-year-old
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Carla Walker's family home.
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Her father was the strict military disciplinarian, but also the
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protector of the family. They were really, you know, kind
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of that typical all-American family.
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Jim Walker was the family's fifth and youngest child.
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I had a mom, Charlene. My dad was Layton. I
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had two older brothers, Charles and Steve, and two older sisters,
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Cindy and Carla.
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Had a good life.
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It was a good life. Carla was five years older
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than me, and she was just kind of entering the
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prime of her life.
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At Western Hills High School, Carla was a popular student.
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Carla was different. She didn't belong to really a clique
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sort of thing.
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She was one of those students who traveled easily among
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all the different sort of groups. And so that's what
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made her the all-American kind of girl and very approachable
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and sort of that girl-next-door sweetheart.
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She was 4'11, 95 pounds, blonde hair, piercing blue eyes,
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beautiful teeth and lips, just incredibly cute.
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She was dating the football player, Rodney McCoy, who was
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in my class. He was not your typical jock. He
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wasn't full of bravado. He was also very approachable and
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personable and got along with all kinds.
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Of different kids.
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Carla was on the cheer squad. Rodney was a quarterback.
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And from all accounts, they were kind of the it
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couple at the high school. And they were a very
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sweet couple to everybody. into each other.
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In the winter of 1974, Carla had just turned 17
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and had an exciting date on her calendar.
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It was a Saturday. Carla and Rodney were going to
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a high school Valentine's Day dance on February 16th. The
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dance went from 8 to 12. Carla got dressed here.
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The ladies were all fussing over Carla, getting her all
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fixed up and Carla was beaming, smiling, had her beautiful
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dress on.
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Carla was wearing a baby blue dress with lots of
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white ruffles.
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It was very cute and pretty and went with her
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strawberry blonde hair.
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I don't think any of us will ever forget that dress.
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Rodney pinned on the corsage and pictures were taken and
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Anson and my mom fussed over Carla and Dad and
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the guys talked a little bit to Rodney, said, y'all
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be safe, have fun. See you when you get home.
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And that's not exactly how it went that night.
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But I went to the Valentine's dance that year because
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I was yearbook editor. And I do remember seeing Carla
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and Rodney and just, you know, saying hi to them.
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It was kind of a typical high school dance, you know.
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After that, they rode around with some friends kind of
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going by the usual haunts, you know, the hangouts.
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There were two fast food restaurants right there farther on
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Camp Vuey, Highway 183.
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It was Mr.
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Quick's Hamburgers in one part, and they shared a parking
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lot with the Taco Bell. And so that's kind of
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where the high school students would congregate.
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They drove through the parking lot, got out, would talk
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with everybody. But unfortunately, the bathrooms had been shut down.
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They weren't working, so Carla needed to use the restrooms.
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and Rodney drove her a block and a half south
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of Camp Bowie to an all-night bowling alley.
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The couple visited the bowling alley twice during the evening.
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On the second occasion, just after midnight, they decided to
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remain in the parking lot. It was a decision that
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would change their lives forever.
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They began making out in the car and kind of
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leaning up against the passenger side door as they were
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using her purse as her pillow I believe and the
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door jerks.
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Open Carla started to fall and Rodney grabbed her back
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of her head and started to pull her back in
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but when he reached down to grab her he started
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seeing stars he didn't know what was happening and he.
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Attacks him viciously and he's very dazed and the man
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hits him again He was.
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Just stunned, had no idea what was going on. Rodney
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said he saw a hand come in and grab Carla
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and say to Carla, you're going with me, aren't you, sweetie?
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And Carla was pulled out of the car.
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Rodney's suffering head injuries, bleeding all over the place in
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his eyes, pretty bad. So Carla tells the man, I'll
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go with you, stop hitting him.
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Rodney had been beaten with a handgun. When the beating stopped,
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his attacker spoke directly to him.
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He was in the darkness looking in and all Rodney
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could see was the pistol coming in to his face.
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Rodney says, the guy points it right at my forehead
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and says, I'm going to kill you. The guy pulled
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the trigger and it just clicked.
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The evening which had started like a fairy tale had
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turned into a horror story, and the nightmare had only
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just begun. The night 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted from
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a parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas, her family was
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expecting her and her boyfriend to return home from a
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school dance.
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We waited for Carla and Rodney to come back to
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hear about all the fun details of the dance.
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In the parking lot of the bowling alley, Rodney regained consciousness.
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He knew he had to get help.
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He hightails it to the Walker home.
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I was standing over by the front door and I
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heard a car, tires hitting a curb head on going
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pretty quick. My parents and uncle did too.
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He's pretty frantic, saying they got her.
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Mr.
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Walker, they got her. His right side of his face
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was lit up and it was all bloody. Big, long cut,
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like somebody had taken a knife and slit his cheek
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open a couple inches.
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Every mother's nightmare, every parent's nightmare. Their daughter's been abducted
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at gunpoint. by an unknown man.
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I stepped back with my back toward the fireplace watching
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all the events take place up here. To see these
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people who were solid, solid people become panicked. When dad
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found out what had happened and where it had happened,
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he got his pistol. He was out this door to
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my left.
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At 2.01 a.m., the police were called. A search of
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the area surrounding the Brunswick Ridgely bowling alley was carried out.
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Detectives recovered Carla's purse.
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I found out about it on the news with Carla's picture.
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It was just shocking. And from that point on, I
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was riveted, all of us were, to where she was,
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what had happened to her.
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Carla's abduction... launches this gigantic search. And you got high
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school kids from her school searching. You have virtually every
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law enforcement officer in the area searching.
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Helicopters, dogs, all that stuff. They're searching alleys behind buildings,
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construction sites, pastures, rivers, gorges, tunnels.
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There was a magazine in the parking lot. Rodney told
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police the story of being hit on the head with
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a gun. Obviously, when he tried to shoot Rodney, the
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magazine had fallen out in the parking lot.
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The reason the pistol didn't go off, the perpetrator was
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hitting Rodney when Rodney fell out with Carla. He ejected
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his own clip, and there was a bullet in the chamber,
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but that gun could not be fired without the clip
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being inserted.
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Police had their first real piece of evidence The attacker
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had a Ruger 22 pistol, a recent model. What they
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didn't have was Carla or the name of the person
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who'd taken her.
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It was frightening to know that there was someone out
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there who could do something like that.
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Carla was abducted from a public place. She was abducted
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in front of a witness as well, and that's an
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incredibly reckless thing for the abductor to do, This is
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somebody who's particularly dangerous.
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There's a panic in this house, a spirit of fear.
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Law enforcement started constantly streaming through that front door for
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several days.
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On the Monday morning, her shell-shocked classmates at Western Hills
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High School struggled to make sense of what had happened
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to their friend.
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They were devastated. They were like shell-shocked. I don't know
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how they managed through school that day.
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There was a lot of speculation about it being classmates
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and even Rodney McCoy.
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Maybe he's got her captive somewhere, or maybe he drove
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her out of town.
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It was those kinds of speculations.
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98% of the time, it's somebody that knows their victim,
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and the victim knows the perpetrator.
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The school itself became a focus of inquiry. Detectives spoke
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to students about the night of the dance in a
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bid to locate anyone Carla may have interacted with.
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I went to the principal's office, and when I got there,
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there was a police officer and a detective and our principal.
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They explained to me that because of what had happened
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to Carla, they would like for me to look at
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all of the photo negatives from the Valentine's dance that
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00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:50.580
the yearbook photographer had taken.
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00:15:51.750 --> 00:15:53.330
And I didn't see anything.
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As the hours turned to days, local, state, and federal forces,
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00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:02.970
as well as family and friends, were all active in
253
00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:04.330
the hunt for Carla.
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00:16:05.710 --> 00:16:08.470
She just disappeared out of the parking lot. I met
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00:16:08.690 --> 00:16:15.149
FBI agents, Texas Rangers, Sheriff's Department, City of Fort Worth, Benbrook, detectives,
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00:16:15.169 --> 00:16:20.929
law enforcement officers. I do remember a palpable tension because
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00:16:21.340 --> 00:16:25.100
I think these seasoned law enforcement officers knew the longer
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00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:29.460
without results, the more likely negative outcome.
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00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:34.460
A lot of my classmates were part of those search
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00:16:34.500 --> 00:16:37.399
groups that were just going out and walking fields and
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00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:41.399
walking around Benbrook Lake, walking at different places where they
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00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:44.720
thought that they could find something, anything that would have
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00:16:44.740 --> 00:16:45.899
to do with Carla's case.
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00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:49.559
A team of officers were working a road that's now
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00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:53.059
called Pearl Ranch Road. There was cattle culverts you could
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00:16:53.100 --> 00:16:56.000
hardly see. One of the officers got out of the
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00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:58.419
car while the other officer was waiting, and he went
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00:16:58.460 --> 00:17:00.899
over and leaned over and looked under, and he said,
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00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:02.059
she's here.
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00:17:06.930 --> 00:17:11.509
She was found in a culvert, concrete culvert where cattle
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00:17:11.569 --> 00:17:15.349
crossed through under the road, and she's found deceased.
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00:17:24.089 --> 00:17:28.950
At 6.35 p.m. on the 20th of February, three days
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00:17:29.130 --> 00:17:33.519
after she was taken, Carla's body was found five miles
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00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:37.819
southwest of the Ridgely Bowling Alley. The case was now
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00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:40.039
a homicide investigation.
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I don't know if you've ever heard a guttorial scream
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00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:50.640
from a mom who just found her baby dead. It
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00:17:50.660 --> 00:17:52.579
was one of those kind of screams. It's hard to
279
00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:54.019
articulate the sound.
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00:17:55.500 --> 00:17:58.339
That night at the 10 o'clock news, there was actual
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00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:01.180
footage of them taking the body bag out of the
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00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:06.029
culvert near Benbrook Lake. I will never forget that feeling
283
00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:09.549
of seeing a body bag and knowing that there was
284
00:18:09.609 --> 00:18:12.109
someone I knew inside that body bag.
285
00:18:19.049 --> 00:18:23.549
That same evening at the All Saints Hospital morgue, Carla's
286
00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:29.490
body was autopsied. It revealed multiple injuries, evidence of sexual
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00:18:29.509 --> 00:18:31.430
assault and strangulation.
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00:18:32.869 --> 00:18:34.319
They found traces of morphine.
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00:18:34.970 --> 00:18:37.740
Yeah, the medical examiner did say that she had been
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00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:40.559
kept alive and hadn't been dead that long, but she
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00:18:40.579 --> 00:18:42.039
didn't die there in the culvert.
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00:18:42.059 --> 00:18:42.859
She had died before.
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00:18:44.019 --> 00:18:45.200
During that time.
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00:18:46.349 --> 00:18:50.990
She was probably going through the most horrendous experience, and
295
00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:56.339
the person who abducted her was clearly enjoying hurting her,
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00:18:56.859 --> 00:19:00.640
making her frightened, dominating her, or he would have killed
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00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:01.880
her straight away.
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00:19:03.940 --> 00:19:06.059
I know the parents were freaked out and beginning to
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00:19:06.099 --> 00:19:07.700
keep their kids in at weekend nights.
300
00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:12.839
From that day forward, we locked our car doors. To
301
00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:14.880
this day, when I get in the car, the door
302
00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:15.460
gets locked.
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00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:20.839
On February the 22nd, just two days after the discovery
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00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:24.380
of her body, Carla's funeral was held at the Western
305
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:29.430
Hills Church of Christ. It was attended by more than 1,200 mourners.
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00:19:30.630 --> 00:19:33.329
A thousand plus people were there. The procession line going
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00:19:33.369 --> 00:19:36.230
from the church, which was law enforcement, had it all
308
00:19:36.490 --> 00:19:39.789
wired up and was recording, taking pictures of everybody, thinking
309
00:19:39.829 --> 00:19:41.910
that perhaps the suspect would be there.
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00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:46.690
There's always the possibility of that in a crime like this,
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00:19:46.859 --> 00:19:50.880
that maybe the killer will turn up at the funeral
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00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:53.859
or will be standing around on the edges or will
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00:19:53.940 --> 00:19:57.079
be watching and the police will always want to be
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00:19:57.319 --> 00:19:58.039
mindful of that.
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00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.789
They had us all filed by the open casket and
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00:20:01.829 --> 00:20:04.210
that is probably one of the most traumatizing things I
317
00:20:04.250 --> 00:20:08.269
remember from that, especially at that age. The poor girl
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00:20:08.329 --> 00:20:13.130
had been beaten and strangled, and it was simply horrific.
319
00:20:13.190 --> 00:20:14.049
I had nightmares.
320
00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:22.470
The funeral yielded nothing on Carla's killer. The best lead
321
00:20:22.529 --> 00:20:26.410
investigators had was eyewitness Rodney McCoy.
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00:20:26.809 --> 00:20:31.029
Carla's boyfriend, Rodney, would be a prime suspect.
323
00:20:32.029 --> 00:20:33.009
When a woman....
324
00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:37.569
The first suspect will always be the intimate partner, the boyfriend.
325
00:20:38.910 --> 00:20:44.049
Rodney McCoy was interviewed, but the problem the authorities had
326
00:20:44.130 --> 00:20:47.410
was that because of his head injuries, he couldn't remember
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00:20:47.470 --> 00:20:50.410
very clearly what had happened to him on that fateful
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00:20:50.470 --> 00:20:54.470
night on the 16th of February, 1974. They sent him
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00:20:54.509 --> 00:20:57.819
to a hypnotherapist to see if they could dislodge his memories.
330
00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:00.859
I want you to tell me what you see. I've
331
00:21:00.900 --> 00:21:04.490
got a gun on my face. First thing I noticed
332
00:21:04.549 --> 00:21:09.890
is his short hair, kind of a skinny nose, some
333
00:21:09.930 --> 00:21:14.970
kind of greenish, sleeveless jacket, a cowboy hat.
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00:21:15.910 --> 00:21:18.410
He fell off. What color cowboy hat?
335
00:21:19.109 --> 00:21:20.069
It's real white.
336
00:21:21.490 --> 00:21:24.269
He said the guy was dressed like a cowboy. I
337
00:21:24.309 --> 00:21:27.049
do remember him saying he had a vest of some sort.
338
00:21:27.950 --> 00:21:32.289
Basing their investigation on the magazine cartridge left at the scene,
339
00:21:33.210 --> 00:21:37.349
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were enlisted to
340
00:21:37.410 --> 00:21:43.349
find Fort Worth-registered owners of Ruger pistols. With no gun database,
341
00:21:43.730 --> 00:21:47.180
it was a mammoth task, taking hundreds of man-hours.
342
00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:51.500
So they began a check of all the Ruger pistols,
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00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:53.980
which that magazine belonged to, in the area.
344
00:21:55.339 --> 00:22:00.000
Authorities come back with around 30 names. The police take
345
00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:04.089
their time and interview each one of the 30 people
346
00:22:04.730 --> 00:22:08.099
who owned a Ruger 22. One of the people they
347
00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:11.400
interview is Glenn McCurley, Jr., the truck driver.
348
00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:16.920
As with the other Ruger 22 owners, McCurley was brought
349
00:22:17.019 --> 00:22:18.240
in for questioning.
350
00:22:19.619 --> 00:22:23.019
He said that his gun was stolen. He said, I
351
00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:26.740
was fishing and I always took this gun for safety.
352
00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:29.259
had it wrapped up in a towel under the front
353
00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:31.900
seat of my truck, and I could hear a truck
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00:22:31.940 --> 00:22:34.099
spinning off and taking off, and so I went up
355
00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:35.900
there to check my truck, and lo and behold, my
356
00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:37.960
gun was gone. And he said that happened like before
357
00:22:38.029 --> 00:22:38.970
Carla was abducted.
358
00:22:39.529 --> 00:22:41.730
Police didn't have anything else on this guy. They gave
359
00:22:41.769 --> 00:22:44.670
him a polygraph test, and from what I understand.
360
00:22:44.710 --> 00:22:45.250
He passed.
361
00:22:47.109 --> 00:22:49.930
Very, very little evidence. We're in the days before DNA.
362
00:22:50.630 --> 00:22:54.369
There's no CCTV. There's no number plate recognition. It just
363
00:22:54.390 --> 00:22:54.869
goes cold.
364
00:22:55.980 --> 00:23:00.640
Despite the efforts of investigators, all leads had been exhausted.
365
00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:06.410
For over four decades, the stranger who abducted, raped, and
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00:23:06.529 --> 00:23:12.609
murdered Carla Walker remained a free man. Until invisible evidence
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00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:18.279
left behind at the crime scene finally led detectives to
368
00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:30.099
the killer's door. In the decades that followed the 1974
369
00:23:30.099 --> 00:23:35.190
rape and murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker, her family in
370
00:23:35.269 --> 00:23:37.910
Fort Worth refused to give up hope.
371
00:23:38.950 --> 00:23:42.150
Cindy, her sister, and Carla's mom spent a lot of
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00:23:42.170 --> 00:23:45.230
their time, a lot of their lives, keeping Carla's story alive.
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00:23:46.940 --> 00:23:53.359
I saw my mom from 74 until really 79. What
374
00:23:53.380 --> 00:23:56.059
I know now to be go through a chronic clinical
375
00:23:56.079 --> 00:23:59.579
disease depression. She still got up, she still washed clothes,
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00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:04.289
made dinner, tried to have happy Christmases, happy events, but
377
00:24:04.549 --> 00:24:07.470
she had changed. My dad was, to me, my hero
378
00:24:07.490 --> 00:24:08.890
because he carried my mom.
379
00:24:09.890 --> 00:24:14.130
The mystery of Carla Walker's unsolved murder was one which
380
00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:15.599
never went away.
381
00:24:16.690 --> 00:24:20.309
These cases never get absolutely shut down. They never say
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00:24:20.450 --> 00:24:25.049
case closed where they haven't arrested anybody. So it becomes
383
00:24:25.190 --> 00:24:26.730
what we refer to as a cold case.
384
00:24:26.730 --> 00:24:32.420
1974, 1978, 1985, every time a new lead came in,
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00:24:32.660 --> 00:24:35.380
they jumped on it and they investigated it thoroughly. It
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00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:37.460
was one of those cases that detectives worked their whole
387
00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:40.319
careers on. And so as the cases would go through
388
00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:41.740
and technology would change, it.
389
00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:42.539
Would come back up.
390
00:24:43.970 --> 00:24:46.410
Things kind of quieted down and then things would pop
391
00:24:46.609 --> 00:24:50.299
up if there was a suspect, but then they would
392
00:24:50.339 --> 00:24:53.339
say that he had been cleared or whatever. You would
393
00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:58.359
have conversations semi-regularly about, hey, there's this new technology, should
394
00:24:58.380 --> 00:25:01.109
we try it? Hey, we are thinking about sending this
395
00:25:01.140 --> 00:25:02.369
off for testing, what do you think?
396
00:25:04.009 --> 00:25:10.509
In 2016, Carla's story caught the attention of podcaster Vincent Strange.
397
00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:15.000
it would catapult the case back into the spotlight.
398
00:25:17.490 --> 00:25:20.789
I came upon Carla's story, just kind of internet search,
399
00:25:21.589 --> 00:25:26.509
and it grabbed me right away. There was one Facebook page.
400
00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:30.920
It was Justice for Carla, and there was just no
401
00:25:31.019 --> 00:25:34.180
activity on it. There was nothing happening. We need to
402
00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:36.440
get this out before the public, shine a.
403
00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:37.289
Light back on it.
404
00:25:38.420 --> 00:25:41.750
When Vincent called me out of the blue... at my
405
00:25:41.809 --> 00:25:44.970
job one day and just he introduced himself and he said,
406
00:25:45.349 --> 00:25:47.910
I was told that you were the high school yearbook
407
00:25:47.990 --> 00:25:50.369
editor and that you knew a lot of people and
408
00:25:50.390 --> 00:25:52.299
that you might be able to help me get it started.
409
00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:58.380
Carla's friends and family took part in the podcast. The
410
00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:02.960
renewed interest in her murder motivated her brother to give
411
00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:05.400
it one more shot with the police.
412
00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:14.660
Jim, who was only 12 when the killing took place,
413
00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.140
never forgot and kept in touch with the detectives throughout
414
00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:21.799
the ensuing years, badgering them to look into what might
415
00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:23.740
have happened, keeping on at them.
416
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:27.660
Fort Worth PD had reopened the case at Jim Walker's urging.
417
00:26:27.819 --> 00:26:30.539
He literally called up the cold case department and said,
418
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:33.019
all right, I hear there's a new detective and I
419
00:26:33.059 --> 00:26:33.480
need y'all.
420
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:34.279
To start looking at it again.
421
00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:38.400
Leah Wagner, cold case detective, received a call from Jim
422
00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:41.039
that was stern and pretty to the point.
423
00:26:41.539 --> 00:26:45.990
You've worked hard. Problem is, whoever killed my sister is
424
00:26:46.109 --> 00:26:51.730
either dead, dying, or getting extremely old right now. I
425
00:26:51.750 --> 00:26:54.289
think we need a new set of eyes on Carla's
426
00:26:54.329 --> 00:26:56.690
case because we're running out of daylight, and I would
427
00:26:56.730 --> 00:27:00.049
like to find this person, why he's got a pulse.
428
00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:03.960
The paperwork on the case was extensive, over 6,000 pages
429
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:04.559
of information.
430
00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:10.170
There were two banker boxes filled with handwritten notes of
431
00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:14.480
leads and investigation tips and investigations the police had begun
432
00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:17.519
on their own. They truly left no stone unturned.
433
00:27:18.180 --> 00:27:19.680
They were re-interviewing everyone.
434
00:27:19.859 --> 00:27:22.400
I know a lot of that focus was on Rodney still.
435
00:27:23.529 --> 00:27:27.910
I went through, I interviewed, interviewed, and, you know, one time,
436
00:27:28.130 --> 00:27:29.890
I think it picked me up at one of my
437
00:27:29.910 --> 00:27:30.769
best talks ever.
438
00:27:32.890 --> 00:27:34.750
Every time a new investigator would pick up the case
439
00:27:34.789 --> 00:27:36.130
and they would write out there who I want to
440
00:27:36.150 --> 00:27:38.150
talk to list, Rodney was always number one on the list.
441
00:27:38.430 --> 00:27:42.069
I think the ultimate list maybe had 38 people on it.
442
00:27:42.130 --> 00:27:43.589
Let's re-interview these people.
443
00:27:44.190 --> 00:27:48.460
The team were hopeful that DNA testing could help the investigation.
444
00:27:48.900 --> 00:27:53.319
The science did not exist in 1974, but perhaps now
445
00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:55.980
could help name the rapist and murderer.
446
00:27:57.859 --> 00:27:59.900
And so we went to go pull the evidence to
447
00:27:59.940 --> 00:28:01.990
see what we had. And when I tell you It
448
00:28:02.069 --> 00:28:05.589
is like an angel spoke to the crime scene officers
449
00:28:05.630 --> 00:28:09.000
in 1974. They did everything right. They preserved it in
450
00:28:09.059 --> 00:28:11.539
ways they didn't even know were going to be so important.
451
00:28:12.619 --> 00:28:15.660
DNA tests are expensive. There's no question of that.
452
00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:19.869
And to carry out the DNA tests that was necessary
453
00:28:20.470 --> 00:28:28.990
on Carla's clothing would have cost $ 20, 000.
454
00:28:25.019 --> 00:28:29.660
Vincent Strange's podcast about Carla's murder had gained a lot
455
00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:34.299
of exposure. One listener, a TV presenter, offered to put
456
00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:40.920
up the money to fund the DNA testing. In 2019,
457
00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:44.680
an unexpected call came in to the police department.
458
00:28:46.339 --> 00:28:50.420
They got a call from NBC Universal saying, we want
459
00:28:50.440 --> 00:28:53.140
to do a case in your cold case division today.
460
00:28:53.670 --> 00:28:56.250
The detectives were literally working on Carla Walker's case at
461
00:28:56.269 --> 00:29:01.109
the time. And so they paid for some testing. Whatever
462
00:29:01.170 --> 00:29:02.990
our DNA was going to come from, it was going
463
00:29:03.009 --> 00:29:07.710
to come from Carla's clothes. There was so much of
464
00:29:07.829 --> 00:29:13.079
Rodney's blood on her dress from his head injury. Finding
465
00:29:13.579 --> 00:29:16.099
DNA on the dress that was not Carla's and was
466
00:29:16.140 --> 00:29:20.440
not Rodney's was hard to do. There was definitely a
467
00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:24.109
male sample that didn't belong to Rodney, that was semen,
468
00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:29.750
was on Carla's bra strap. And so in 2020, they say,
469
00:29:29.930 --> 00:29:34.930
here we go. And we waited. We get the call
470
00:29:36.980 --> 00:29:42.279
that says there were no matches. and it was so disheartening.
471
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:47.900
Not one single hit is found not one well we're
472
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:51.640
back at square one except we aren't another DNA test
473
00:29:51.720 --> 00:29:54.170
is conducted by a different company.
474
00:29:55.970 --> 00:29:58.930
We had so many little DNA left to test.
475
00:29:58.970 --> 00:30:02.150
We had four nanograms, which is nothing. It's nothing. And
476
00:30:02.210 --> 00:30:04.119
we knew this was it. We had one shot to
477
00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:04.579
test it.
478
00:30:05.420 --> 00:30:09.079
They were able to take these, like maybe two cells.
479
00:30:09.099 --> 00:30:14.009
Starting in June of 2020, they started working Carla's case.
480
00:30:15.289 --> 00:30:19.109
When you get forensic genetic genealogy results, they don't tell
481
00:30:19.150 --> 00:30:21.650
you who a person is. You're going to have A
482
00:30:21.710 --> 00:30:24.309
list of someone who is in the database for having
483
00:30:24.369 --> 00:30:27.369
given their DNA to a commercial database. And what you
484
00:30:27.390 --> 00:30:30.650
get is, hey, we know this person here is a
485
00:30:30.809 --> 00:30:33.289
second degree, a third degrees away relative.
486
00:30:34.849 --> 00:30:40.359
On Independence Day weekend of 2020, the DNA tests finally
487
00:30:40.430 --> 00:30:42.579
revealed a familial match.
488
00:30:43.319 --> 00:30:45.420
We've got a family named McCurley. We think you should
489
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:48.779
look into McCurley. There were three boys. They lived kind
490
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:50.769
of in the Denton area. And before he can even
491
00:30:50.809 --> 00:30:54.650
finish talking, Detective Bennett, who knew the file backwards and forwards,
492
00:30:54.710 --> 00:30:57.089
which is an impossibility given the size of the file,
493
00:30:57.109 --> 00:31:00.650
but he did, he hops up and says, I know
494
00:31:01.029 --> 00:31:01.750
Glenn McCurley.
495
00:31:01.829 --> 00:31:02.910
He's on our list.
496
00:31:05.130 --> 00:31:09.099
And I think he had 84 suspects on that list.
497
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:11.799
I think McCurley was 18th on that list.
498
00:31:12.700 --> 00:31:17.099
The DNA analysis linked semen found on Carla's bra strap
499
00:31:17.539 --> 00:31:21.859
to the McCurley family. Next, they set out to demonstrate
500
00:31:22.539 --> 00:31:24.859
that it belonged to the man they interviewed in 1974
501
00:31:24.859 --> 00:31:27.740
about the Ruger. 22 pistol, the now 77-year-old Glenn McCurley.
502
00:31:40.059 --> 00:31:42.319
We did what's called a trash run, which means you
503
00:31:42.359 --> 00:31:44.640
wait until someone puts their trash out on the street,
504
00:31:44.900 --> 00:31:48.160
because then it is no longer private property. And in
505
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:49.960
the middle of the night, the police come and take
506
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:51.980
a trash bag, and they take it back to the lab,
507
00:31:52.059 --> 00:31:54.019
and you try to find things in the trash that
508
00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:55.900
you know are going to have DNA on it. In
509
00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:58.119
this particular case, it was a McDonald's straw.
510
00:31:58.900 --> 00:32:01.869
Law enforcement did all their due diligence, redoing the DNA
511
00:32:01.900 --> 00:32:04.329
profile to make sure the profile that came out of
512
00:32:04.349 --> 00:32:07.269
the trash grab was the same profile discovered on the
513
00:32:07.289 --> 00:32:09.490
inside of Carla's bra strap, which was a semen.
514
00:32:10.269 --> 00:32:13.769
To make sure the DNA evidence would be admissible in court,
515
00:32:14.089 --> 00:32:19.039
detectives needed to obtain an official DNA sample from Glenn McCurley.
516
00:32:19.420 --> 00:32:22.000
Police went to his home to speak to him again.
517
00:32:23.299 --> 00:32:25.930
In order for us to eliminate you, the quickest way
518
00:32:25.950 --> 00:32:27.509
to do that is to get your DNA.
519
00:32:27.730 --> 00:32:29.410
Is that something that you would be okay with?
520
00:32:30.460 --> 00:32:33.259
Glenn McCurley is an upright member of the community. He
521
00:32:33.299 --> 00:32:37.119
and his wife, Judy, are churchgoers. They're well-known in that
522
00:32:37.339 --> 00:32:40.799
suburb of Fort Worth. He hesitates for a moment and
523
00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:44.240
then agrees to have his cheek swabbed for DNA.
524
00:32:45.059 --> 00:32:46.839
And all it is is two big cotton swabs.
525
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:49.039
I promise they won't go up your nose. They're going
526
00:32:49.059 --> 00:32:50.779
to be the inside of your cheek.
527
00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:53.920
We had a search warrant ready to go, but he
528
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:57.160
ultimately consensually gave his DNA. We sent that back off
529
00:32:57.180 --> 00:32:59.859
to the lab, and they said, this matches the straw.
530
00:33:00.579 --> 00:33:04.140
which matches the bra, which matches the crime. And so
531
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:07.680
all of a sudden, we had, after 47 years, we
532
00:33:07.720 --> 00:33:08.519
had finally solved it.
533
00:33:14.710 --> 00:33:17.569
Glenn Samuel McCurley. It was the guy who killed my sister.
534
00:33:18.869 --> 00:33:21.589
At a press conference in Fort Worth, it was announced.
535
00:33:21.650 --> 00:33:22.529
His name was announced.
536
00:33:22.690 --> 00:33:24.609
It was a shock to everyone because this was a
537
00:33:24.630 --> 00:33:27.190
guy who lived blocks from Carla.
538
00:33:28.130 --> 00:33:31.559
He had sons that went to Western Hills. His wife, Judy,
539
00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:34.420
worked in the nursery at one of the churches that
540
00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:37.759
a lot of people went to. His family was known
541
00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:38.680
in the area.
542
00:33:39.730 --> 00:33:42.529
Since 1974 until the day he was arrested, he drove
543
00:33:42.609 --> 00:33:44.950
up and down Williams Road almost every day. Drove by
544
00:33:44.970 --> 00:33:46.849
the house. He knew exactly where we lived. I'm pretty
545
00:33:46.890 --> 00:33:48.569
sure he came by here when we had garage sales.
546
00:33:49.250 --> 00:33:51.349
He is a man who was able to commit this
547
00:33:51.509 --> 00:33:54.400
heinous crime and live amongst us like he's a normal person.
548
00:33:55.380 --> 00:33:56.799
There's nothing more terrifying than that.
549
00:33:57.789 --> 00:34:01.980
After so many years of torment, Carla Walker's loved ones
550
00:34:02.059 --> 00:34:06.140
were within touching distance of the truth about her brutal
551
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:12.239
rape and murder in February 1974. But Glenn McCurley wasn't
552
00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:16.269
going down without a fight, and at his upcoming trial,
553
00:34:16.769 --> 00:34:17.949
he was going to plead.
554
00:34:20.309 --> 00:34:21.150
not guilty.
555
00:34:27.630 --> 00:34:32.849
On September the 21st, 2020, the man who detectives had
556
00:34:32.949 --> 00:34:37.650
linked with the murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker was arrested.
557
00:34:38.969 --> 00:34:42.710
Glenn McCurley was taken to the police station to be
558
00:34:42.809 --> 00:34:48.809
interviewed about that fateful night of February the 16th, 1974.
559
00:34:56.719 --> 00:34:58.480
They went to his home and they arrested him and
560
00:34:58.500 --> 00:35:00.420
they took him to the police station and they interviewed him.
561
00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:05.139
I just, I don't know the girl. I've never seen her.
562
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:09.199
And I haven't, I haven't killed anybody.
563
00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:12.099
For the first hour, he starts saying he doesn't even
564
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:13.179
know who Carla Walker is.
565
00:35:14.139 --> 00:35:16.300
Well, I don't see how you could have anything on
566
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:19.449
me because I don't have, I don't know anything about it.
567
00:35:20.300 --> 00:35:24.460
During the three-hour interview, police work to get a confession
568
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:25.539
from McCurley.
569
00:35:26.639 --> 00:35:28.539
How are you going to make things right before you
570
00:35:28.579 --> 00:35:31.599
pass away if you don't admit to the things that
571
00:35:31.639 --> 00:35:32.300
you've done?
572
00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.929
No matter how many times I watch that video.
573
00:35:37.510 --> 00:35:40.610
This is just your opportunity to tell your side of
574
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:41.369
what happened.
575
00:35:43.090 --> 00:35:49.869
Every time I hold my breath. Where he pauses.
576
00:35:49.889 --> 00:35:55.469
And he gets real quiet and he puts his head down.
577
00:36:01.699 --> 00:36:07.750
I did do it, I guess. That's basically his confession there.
578
00:36:08.510 --> 00:36:08.989
They got him.
579
00:36:10.889 --> 00:36:14.340
He says, I strangled that little girl. Justice was going
580
00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:17.679
to be served that day. It's a pretty magical moment.
581
00:36:18.699 --> 00:36:22.460
McCurley said that he was saving Carla, that Rodney was
582
00:36:22.840 --> 00:36:23.559
assaulting her.
583
00:36:24.099 --> 00:36:26.349
And he kind of comes in and saves the day.
584
00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:31.400
She went with him willingly and they started having consensual relations.
585
00:36:33.460 --> 00:36:36.039
She started hugging me, thanking me.
586
00:36:37.539 --> 00:36:40.300
We know that's not what happened, but it does definitely
587
00:36:40.500 --> 00:36:42.579
put him there with her, which was the important part.
588
00:36:43.420 --> 00:36:48.159
After 46 years, McCurley had admitted to being responsible for
589
00:36:48.199 --> 00:36:53.099
the death of Carla Walker. Andy had another confession about
590
00:36:53.159 --> 00:36:57.210
the gun he'd claimed was stolen. He also tells them
591
00:36:57.369 --> 00:37:00.329
where he's hidden the gun, a Ruger 22.
592
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:02.250
He's wrapped in a towel and put it in the
593
00:37:02.309 --> 00:37:05.460
attic of his house. You might ask yourself, why on
594
00:37:05.539 --> 00:37:06.579
earth did he keep the gun?
595
00:37:07.380 --> 00:37:09.340
Was it a souvenir, a trophy?
596
00:37:10.539 --> 00:37:12.880
No one thought he kept the gun. We didn't even
597
00:37:12.900 --> 00:37:14.789
think to ask it because why would you?
598
00:37:15.590 --> 00:37:18.309
He could relive what he did to Carla.
599
00:37:18.829 --> 00:37:23.230
Through that gun, but they do like to relive their crimes,
600
00:37:23.909 --> 00:37:27.409
visit back those feelings that they felt when they were
601
00:37:27.429 --> 00:37:28.530
committing those crimes.
602
00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:30.340
And that gun was a link for him.
603
00:37:31.820 --> 00:37:34.019
So the police leave the interview and go back to
604
00:37:34.059 --> 00:37:38.739
his house and look, and sure enough, there's the gun.
605
00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:40.599
In 2020, court systems were taking a little bit of
606
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:44.019
a break due to COVID. Due to McCurley's age, we
607
00:37:44.059 --> 00:37:46.559
knew we needed to try it sooner rather than later.
608
00:37:47.750 --> 00:37:50.989
When we started going through pretrial hearings in May of 2021,
609
00:37:50.989 --> 00:37:53.630
I knew Justice was going to be served. I knew
610
00:37:53.730 --> 00:37:57.219
I personally would be able to make sure he would never,
611
00:37:57.480 --> 00:37:59.840
ever breathe the air of a free man.
612
00:38:01.059 --> 00:38:03.659
We knew, obviously, the biggest portion of this case that
613
00:38:03.739 --> 00:38:06.329
was going to be contested would be the new science,
614
00:38:06.389 --> 00:38:09.969
the forensic genetic genealogy. It actually had never been admitted
615
00:38:10.269 --> 00:38:11.989
in the United States at that point.
616
00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:18.199
In Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1, Carla's friends
617
00:38:18.300 --> 00:38:21.679
and family had their first glimpse of the man accused
618
00:38:21.739 --> 00:38:25.000
of her murder almost half a century ago.
619
00:38:25.019 --> 00:38:28.300
He was actually kind of an imposing figure. He was
620
00:38:28.340 --> 00:38:28.820
very tall.
621
00:38:29.230 --> 00:38:32.750
He definitely had kind of a gruff exterior the whole time.
622
00:38:33.949 --> 00:38:36.789
He also was in a wheelchair, even though I had
623
00:38:36.809 --> 00:38:38.750
seen him walk in and out of the courtroom on
624
00:38:38.769 --> 00:38:39.949
days when the cameras weren't there.
625
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:45.159
He just looked like a confused, angry old man. He
626
00:38:45.940 --> 00:38:49.559
had cancer. He wasn't expected to live long. I certainly
627
00:38:49.599 --> 00:38:50.860
had no sympathy for him.
628
00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:57.530
Inside the courtroom, Carla's friends and family sat on one side.
629
00:38:58.110 --> 00:39:01.329
On the other, those who'd come to support the defendant,
630
00:39:01.789 --> 00:39:02.710
Glenn McCurley.
631
00:39:03.769 --> 00:39:08.269
Watching his son was pretty brutal. His son was just devastated.
632
00:39:08.550 --> 00:39:10.909
It was unbelievable, the pain in his eyes and his face.
633
00:39:11.469 --> 00:39:13.969
McCurley's wife, on the other hand. They were blowing each
634
00:39:13.989 --> 00:39:16.219
other kisses and stuff like that during the trial. It
635
00:39:17.019 --> 00:39:17.880
was a bit strange.
636
00:39:19.420 --> 00:39:23.159
In the courthouse, under the glare of the national media,
637
00:39:23.539 --> 00:39:27.429
the prosecution worked hard to tell the story of what
638
00:39:27.469 --> 00:39:28.750
had happened to Carla.
639
00:39:29.469 --> 00:39:33.530
On the night that Carla was abducted McCurley's wife was
640
00:39:33.610 --> 00:39:38.400
away so he had complete freedom really to come and
641
00:39:38.500 --> 00:39:40.840
go from the house his.
642
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:42.880
Wife happened to be out of town he went out
643
00:39:42.900 --> 00:39:45.679
drinking and he certainly knew what he was looking for
644
00:39:45.760 --> 00:39:51.989
I think He didn't just stumble across Carla on accident.
645
00:39:52.269 --> 00:39:54.199
He was lying in wait for somebody.
646
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:57.860
How did he manage to confront his wife at church
647
00:39:57.920 --> 00:40:02.679
every Sunday morning, knowing that he'd quite premeditatedly taken this
648
00:40:02.980 --> 00:40:08.429
young girl's life? Without a moment's hesitation. And what's more,
649
00:40:08.510 --> 00:40:10.030
tortured her, dumped her, raped her.
650
00:40:10.190 --> 00:40:10.920
How do you do that? I.
651
00:40:13.300 --> 00:40:15.619
Saw the trial every day, even though I wasn't there
652
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:16.260
in person.
653
00:40:16.469 --> 00:40:20.969
And when Leah Wagner, the detective, pulled Carla's dress out
654
00:40:21.010 --> 00:40:24.849
of that evidence bag, it took my breath away. To
655
00:40:25.550 --> 00:40:29.349
see that dress again just put me right back to 1974.
656
00:40:29.329 --> 00:40:37.829
This wasn't a minimal crime by any stretch of the imagination.
657
00:40:37.909 --> 00:40:41.900
She was beat from head to toe and strangled and raped.
658
00:40:47.659 --> 00:40:50.800
At the start of the third day of Carla Walker's
659
00:40:50.860 --> 00:40:55.489
murder trial, Glenn McCurley, who for so long had denied
660
00:40:55.570 --> 00:40:59.630
his role in Carla's murder, spoke to his attorney.
661
00:41:02.489 --> 00:41:06.219
The medical examiner and Carla's brother, Jim, were going to testify.
662
00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:09.280
They were about to go through that in excruciating detail.
663
00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:12.159
And I think he just didn't want to sit through
664
00:41:12.199 --> 00:41:13.760
it and didn't want his family to hear it. And
665
00:41:13.880 --> 00:41:17.469
so he asked to plead guilty. The judge has him
666
00:41:17.489 --> 00:41:19.449
sit down and says, are you pleading guilty?
667
00:41:19.489 --> 00:41:25.050
And all of a sudden, the room got silent. That
668
00:41:25.090 --> 00:41:28.030
was pretty amazing. I don't think any of us expected that.
669
00:41:29.750 --> 00:41:32.929
I remember turning around and looking at the Walker family
670
00:41:33.050 --> 00:41:35.590
and just thinking, I can't believe I get to be
671
00:41:35.650 --> 00:41:36.510
here for this moment.
672
00:41:39.340 --> 00:41:45.030
On the morning of Tuesday, August the 21st, 2021... Almost
673
00:41:45.130 --> 00:41:51.599
half a century since Carla's murder, 78-year-old Glenn McCurley pleaded
674
00:41:51.699 --> 00:41:55.659
guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in
675
00:41:55.739 --> 00:41:58.929
prison without the possibility of parole.
676
00:42:00.670 --> 00:42:03.309
For Jim Walker, it provided.
677
00:42:02.829 --> 00:42:08.690
The opportunity that he'd waited nearly 50 years for, to
678
00:42:08.750 --> 00:42:12.039
look the man who killed his sister in the eye.
679
00:42:13.329 --> 00:42:15.849
Because I believe in God, I'm a Christian. So I
680
00:42:15.869 --> 00:42:17.269
told him, I said, I want you to know, I
681
00:42:17.329 --> 00:42:19.269
forgive you and I hope and pray to see you
682
00:42:19.329 --> 00:42:19.829
in heaven.
683
00:42:20.849 --> 00:42:23.340
Never in my career have I ever seen anything like that. Never,
684
00:42:23.389 --> 00:42:29.099
probably will again. So then I see Jim begin to
685
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:30.940
hug McCurley's son.
686
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:34.119
I told his son, you don't own the sins of
687
00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:36.860
your dad. It's not on you. You've been victimized as well.
688
00:42:38.670 --> 00:42:42.150
He was 12 when his sister died and he had
689
00:42:42.250 --> 00:42:46.550
the grace to walk over and hug that man's family and.
690
00:42:46.530 --> 00:42:47.510
Show them love.
691
00:42:48.449 --> 00:42:51.829
I was so happy for our community, for Carlos' friends.
692
00:42:51.849 --> 00:42:54.570
I was so happy for Rodney because he'd been under
693
00:42:54.610 --> 00:42:57.449
a cloud of suspicion for decades. I can't describe the
694
00:42:57.489 --> 00:42:59.289
peace other than I knew where it came from. I
695
00:42:59.309 --> 00:43:00.590
had peace, and I still have peace.
696
00:43:02.090 --> 00:43:06.739
Nine months after his conviction, in one final desperate act,
697
00:43:07.239 --> 00:43:12.280
Glenn McCurley appealed his conviction, but the killer was unsuccessful.
698
00:43:13.530 --> 00:43:17.550
I pushed for the death penalty, but because of his age,
699
00:43:18.289 --> 00:43:20.050
we figured he was going to die in prison anyway.
700
00:43:22.630 --> 00:43:27.199
The appeal process was finalized in May of 2023, and
701
00:43:27.619 --> 00:43:29.880
McCurley died in prison that summer.
702
00:43:32.099 --> 00:43:37.659
On the 14th of July, 2023, 80-year-old Glenn McCurley died
703
00:43:37.980 --> 00:43:42.690
in the Gibb-Lewis unit, Texas, taking his secrets to the grave.
704
00:43:43.369 --> 00:43:46.590
He never said why. He never really said how. The
705
00:43:46.610 --> 00:43:50.010
police who found her body said that she wasn't killed there.
706
00:43:50.090 --> 00:43:52.789
She was killed somewhere else and dumped there. There's still
707
00:43:52.809 --> 00:43:55.070
a lot of questions that we would have liked answered.
708
00:43:56.769 --> 00:44:00.789
For the family, justice for Carla, but also a legacy
709
00:44:00.949 --> 00:44:06.329
offering hope for other families that forensic genetic genealogy be
710
00:44:06.389 --> 00:44:08.840
available to help solve their cases.
711
00:44:09.949 --> 00:44:14.409
The Carla Walker Act will provide forensic genetic genealogy funds
712
00:44:14.530 --> 00:44:18.659
to focus in on code cases and get those code
713
00:44:18.699 --> 00:44:25.739
cases work hopefully resolved. Never give up. You're the voice
714
00:44:25.780 --> 00:44:27.800
for your loved one. We don't know why we go
715
00:44:27.820 --> 00:44:31.340
through these things, but remember, goodness is always there. There's
716
00:44:31.380 --> 00:44:34.530
good people there who want to walk through this difficult
717
00:44:34.550 --> 00:44:37.170
time with you, but don't give up. Have hope.
718
00:44:38.260 --> 00:44:41.539
He abducted, raped, and killed a young girl in the
719
00:44:41.639 --> 00:44:45.119
prime of her life. He spent a lifetime watching the
720
00:44:45.219 --> 00:44:49.570
carnage he'd caused and the ruined lives of those left behind.
721
00:44:50.340 --> 00:44:54.949
Because of this, Glenn Samuel McCurley's name will be remembered
722
00:44:55.389 --> 00:44:58.210
as one of the world's most evil killers.
1
00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:12.720
On the 16th of February, 1974, in Fort Worth, Texas,
2
00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:19.269
after attending a high school dance, 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted.
3
00:00:19.289 --> 00:00:23.550
The predator came out of the darkness, and he said,
4
00:00:23.589 --> 00:00:25.170
you're going with me, aren't you, sweetie?
5
00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:29.019
It was the last time Carla would be seen alive.
6
00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:33.179
When police found her body, they knew they were looking
7
00:00:33.259 --> 00:00:35.429
for a callous and merciless killer.
8
00:00:35.969 --> 00:00:40.109
She was beat from head to toe and strangled and raped.
9
00:00:42.189 --> 00:00:42.909
It was horrific.
10
00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:44.329
It was simply horrific.
11
00:00:44.429 --> 00:00:45.250
I had nightmares.
12
00:00:45.990 --> 00:00:50.200
It would take almost half a century before Carla's depraved
13
00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:55.140
attacker was revealed to be church-going family man Glenn McCurley.
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He is the kind of person that we tell our
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daughters about, makes us not go out alone at night.
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He is the evil predator of our nightmares.
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Glenn McCurley had finally been exposed as one of the
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world's most evil killers. It was a murder that went
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undetected for nearly 50 years. When 17-year-old schoolgirl Carla Walker
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was murdered in Fort Worth, Texas in February 1974, nobody
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knew the identity of her killer until decades later, cutting-edge
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DNA testing finally led investigators to 77-year-old Glenn McCurley.
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All of a sudden, We had, after 47 years, we
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had finally solved it.
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The brutal killer who'd escaped justice for so long had
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no place left to hide.
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Well, if y'all knew all that, why didn't you come
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get me back then or something?
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Because they didn't know, but we do.
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Carla's grieving family.
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Would learn that her murderer had been living in their
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midst all along.
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Of course, everybody immediately gets on their computers and does
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research on this guy. They discover he's a guy who
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lived blocks from Carla.
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Everybody on his street thought he was a great guy.
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But when he's looking at you, he's not looking at
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you as a friend. He's looking at you as a
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00:02:54.430 --> 00:02:57.229
real possibility to come see you one night when you're
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asleep or by yourself.
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On the surface, Glenn McCurley was a church-going family man,
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00:03:06.930 --> 00:03:11.949
but beneath the mask, he was a calculating predator. This
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00:03:12.069 --> 00:03:18.300
killer's story begins in 1943. Glenn Samuel McCurley was born
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00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:22.860
on January the 5th in Holmes County, Florida. His childhood
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00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:24.740
was spent in West Texas.
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He was the eldest of three brothers.
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When he was a teenager, he was sent away from
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00:03:32.490 --> 00:03:35.849
his family to the Westview Boys' Home in southwest Oklahoma.
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In 1961, weeks after McCurley's 18th birthday, he found himself
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00:03:43.430 --> 00:03:45.129
on the wrong side of the law.
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He stole a car and led the highway patrol on
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00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:51.000
a high-speed chase, and they finally caught him. Then he
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00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:52.879
was convicted of car theft.
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He served 11 months in Huntsville Unit Prison before being
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granted parole.
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Not long after he gets out, in February 1963, he
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marries a girl called Judy. They had a son and
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another son a year.
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00:04:10.949 --> 00:04:11.590
Or two later.
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At this point, Glenn McCurley is working as a truck driver.
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They've moved to West Fort Worth in Texas.
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The suburban neighborhood suited the couple. It was an ideal
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place to raise children.
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It was very family oriented, very church going, very laid
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back and trusting and what you would think of as
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an idyllic childhood. The neighborhoods were full of kids and
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we walked everywhere and had pretty much the run of
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the place. It really was a great place to grow up.
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It was definitely thought of as a place where you
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don't necessarily have to lock your car doors and Your
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kids are safe to run around the streets and go
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to parties and, you know, do what they do.
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Just over a mile away from the McCurleys was 17-year-old
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Carla Walker's family home.
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00:05:15.250 --> 00:05:19.009
Her father was the strict military disciplinarian, but also the
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protector of the family. They were really, you know, kind
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00:05:22.810 --> 00:05:24.829
of that typical all-American family.
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00:05:25.569 --> 00:05:29.160
Jim Walker was the family's fifth and youngest child.
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00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:34.209
I had a mom, Charlene. My dad was Layton. I
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had two older brothers, Charles and Steve, and two older sisters,
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Cindy and Carla.
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Had a good life.
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00:05:41.569 --> 00:05:46.449
It was a good life. Carla was five years older
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than me, and she was just kind of entering the
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prime of her life.
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00:05:55.300 --> 00:05:59.759
At Western Hills High School, Carla was a popular student.
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Carla was different. She didn't belong to really a clique
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sort of thing.
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00:06:05.050 --> 00:06:08.769
She was one of those students who traveled easily among
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00:06:08.949 --> 00:06:11.670
all the different sort of groups. And so that's what
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made her the all-American kind of girl and very approachable
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and sort of that girl-next-door sweetheart.
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She was 4'11, 95 pounds, blonde hair, piercing blue eyes,
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beautiful teeth and lips, just incredibly cute.
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She was dating the football player, Rodney McCoy, who was
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in my class. He was not your typical jock. He
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wasn't full of bravado. He was also very approachable and
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personable and got along with all kinds.
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Of different kids.
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Carla was on the cheer squad. Rodney was a quarterback.
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And from all accounts, they were kind of the it
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couple at the high school. And they were a very
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sweet couple to everybody. into each other.
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In the winter of 1974, Carla had just turned 17
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and had an exciting date on her calendar.
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It was a Saturday. Carla and Rodney were going to
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a high school Valentine's Day dance on February 16th. The
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dance went from 8 to 12. Carla got dressed here.
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The ladies were all fussing over Carla, getting her all
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fixed up and Carla was beaming, smiling, had her beautiful
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dress on.
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Carla was wearing a baby blue dress with lots of
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white ruffles.
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It was very cute and pretty and went with her
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strawberry blonde hair.
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I don't think any of us will ever forget that dress.
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Rodney pinned on the corsage and pictures were taken and
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Anson and my mom fussed over Carla and Dad and
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the guys talked a little bit to Rodney, said, y'all
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be safe, have fun. See you when you get home.
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And that's not exactly how it went that night.
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But I went to the Valentine's dance that year because
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I was yearbook editor. And I do remember seeing Carla
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and Rodney and just, you know, saying hi to them.
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It was kind of a typical high school dance, you know.
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After that, they rode around with some friends kind of
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going by the usual haunts, you know, the hangouts.
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There were two fast food restaurants right there farther on
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Camp Vuey, Highway 183.
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It was Mr.
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Quick's Hamburgers in one part, and they shared a parking
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lot with the Taco Bell. And so that's kind of
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where the high school students would congregate.
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They drove through the parking lot, got out, would talk
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with everybody. But unfortunately, the bathrooms had been shut down.
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They weren't working, so Carla needed to use the restrooms.
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and Rodney drove her a block and a half south
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of Camp Bowie to an all-night bowling alley.
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The couple visited the bowling alley twice during the evening.
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On the second occasion, just after midnight, they decided to
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remain in the parking lot. It was a decision that
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would change their lives forever.
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They began making out in the car and kind of
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leaning up against the passenger side door as they were
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using her purse as her pillow I believe and the
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door jerks.
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Open Carla started to fall and Rodney grabbed her back
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of her head and started to pull her back in
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but when he reached down to grab her he started
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seeing stars he didn't know what was happening and he.
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Attacks him viciously and he's very dazed and the man
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hits him again He was.
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Just stunned, had no idea what was going on. Rodney
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said he saw a hand come in and grab Carla
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and say to Carla, you're going with me, aren't you, sweetie?
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And Carla was pulled out of the car.
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Rodney's suffering head injuries, bleeding all over the place in
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his eyes, pretty bad. So Carla tells the man, I'll
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go with you, stop hitting him.
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Rodney had been beaten with a handgun. When the beating stopped,
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his attacker spoke directly to him.
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He was in the darkness looking in and all Rodney
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could see was the pistol coming in to his face.
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Rodney says, the guy points it right at my forehead
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and says, I'm going to kill you. The guy pulled
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the trigger and it just clicked.
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The evening which had started like a fairy tale had
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turned into a horror story, and the nightmare had only
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just begun. The night 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted from
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a parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas, her family was
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expecting her and her boyfriend to return home from a
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school dance.
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We waited for Carla and Rodney to come back to
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hear about all the fun details of the dance.
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In the parking lot of the bowling alley, Rodney regained consciousness.
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He knew he had to get help.
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He hightails it to the Walker home.
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I was standing over by the front door and I
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heard a car, tires hitting a curb head on going
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pretty quick. My parents and uncle did too.
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He's pretty frantic, saying they got her.
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Mr.
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Walker, they got her. His right side of his face
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was lit up and it was all bloody. Big, long cut,
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like somebody had taken a knife and slit his cheek
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open a couple inches.
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Every mother's nightmare, every parent's nightmare. Their daughter's been abducted
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at gunpoint. by an unknown man.
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I stepped back with my back toward the fireplace watching
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all the events take place up here. To see these
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people who were solid, solid people become panicked. When dad
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found out what had happened and where it had happened,
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he got his pistol. He was out this door to
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my left.
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At 2.01 a.m., the police were called. A search of
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00:12:30.769 --> 00:12:35.429
the area surrounding the Brunswick Ridgely bowling alley was carried out.
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Detectives recovered Carla's purse.
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I found out about it on the news with Carla's picture.
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It was just shocking. And from that point on, I
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was riveted, all of us were, to where she was,
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00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:51.460
what had happened to her.
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Carla's abduction... launches this gigantic search. And you got high
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00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:02.899
school kids from her school searching. You have virtually every
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00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.379
law enforcement officer in the area searching.
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Helicopters, dogs, all that stuff. They're searching alleys behind buildings,
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00:13:12.629 --> 00:13:17.710
construction sites, pastures, rivers, gorges, tunnels.
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00:13:19.370 --> 00:13:23.539
There was a magazine in the parking lot. Rodney told
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00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:25.730
police the story of being hit on the head with
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a gun. Obviously, when he tried to shoot Rodney, the
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00:13:28.230 --> 00:13:29.870
magazine had fallen out in the parking lot.
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The reason the pistol didn't go off, the perpetrator was
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00:13:34.649 --> 00:13:38.220
hitting Rodney when Rodney fell out with Carla. He ejected
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00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:40.600
his own clip, and there was a bullet in the chamber,
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00:13:40.899 --> 00:13:43.700
but that gun could not be fired without the clip
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00:13:43.960 --> 00:13:45.039
being inserted.
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Police had their first real piece of evidence The attacker
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00:13:52.669 --> 00:13:56.879
had a Ruger 22 pistol, a recent model. What they
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00:13:56.940 --> 00:13:59.919
didn't have was Carla or the name of the person
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00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:00.960
who'd taken her.
220
00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:06.440
It was frightening to know that there was someone out
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00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.399
there who could do something like that.
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00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:14.279
Carla was abducted from a public place. She was abducted
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in front of a witness as well, and that's an
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00:14:17.110 --> 00:14:22.460
incredibly reckless thing for the abductor to do, This is
225
00:14:22.700 --> 00:14:24.980
somebody who's particularly dangerous.
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00:14:26.139 --> 00:14:29.039
There's a panic in this house, a spirit of fear.
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00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:36.820
Law enforcement started constantly streaming through that front door for
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00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:37.519
several days.
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00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:45.539
On the Monday morning, her shell-shocked classmates at Western Hills
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00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:49.379
High School struggled to make sense of what had happened
231
00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:50.159
to their friend.
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They were devastated. They were like shell-shocked. I don't know
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how they managed through school that day.
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00:14:58.750 --> 00:15:01.690
There was a lot of speculation about it being classmates
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00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:03.230
and even Rodney McCoy.
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00:15:03.750 --> 00:15:06.809
Maybe he's got her captive somewhere, or maybe he drove
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00:15:06.850 --> 00:15:07.850
her out of town.
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00:15:07.909 --> 00:15:09.750
It was those kinds of speculations.
239
00:15:09.750 --> 00:15:17.899
98% of the time, it's somebody that knows their victim,
240
00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:20.820
and the victim knows the perpetrator.
241
00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:25.649
The school itself became a focus of inquiry. Detectives spoke
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00:15:25.690 --> 00:15:28.389
to students about the night of the dance in a
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00:15:28.470 --> 00:15:32.169
bid to locate anyone Carla may have interacted with.
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00:15:33.809 --> 00:15:36.429
I went to the principal's office, and when I got there,
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00:15:36.509 --> 00:15:40.600
there was a police officer and a detective and our principal.
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00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:43.340
They explained to me that because of what had happened
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00:15:43.379 --> 00:15:45.500
to Carla, they would like for me to look at
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00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:48.960
all of the photo negatives from the Valentine's dance that
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00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:50.580
the yearbook photographer had taken.
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00:15:51.750 --> 00:15:53.330
And I didn't see anything.
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00:15:54.590 --> 00:15:59.450
As the hours turned to days, local, state, and federal forces,
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00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:02.970
as well as family and friends, were all active in
253
00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:04.330
the hunt for Carla.
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00:16:05.710 --> 00:16:08.470
She just disappeared out of the parking lot. I met
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00:16:08.690 --> 00:16:15.149
FBI agents, Texas Rangers, Sheriff's Department, City of Fort Worth, Benbrook, detectives,
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00:16:15.169 --> 00:16:20.929
law enforcement officers. I do remember a palpable tension because
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00:16:21.340 --> 00:16:25.100
I think these seasoned law enforcement officers knew the longer
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00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:29.460
without results, the more likely negative outcome.
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00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:34.460
A lot of my classmates were part of those search
260
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groups that were just going out and walking fields and
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00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:41.399
walking around Benbrook Lake, walking at different places where they
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00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:44.720
thought that they could find something, anything that would have
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to do with Carla's case.
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A team of officers were working a road that's now
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00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:53.059
called Pearl Ranch Road. There was cattle culverts you could
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00:16:53.100 --> 00:16:56.000
hardly see. One of the officers got out of the
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00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:58.419
car while the other officer was waiting, and he went
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00:16:58.460 --> 00:17:00.899
over and leaned over and looked under, and he said,
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she's here.
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She was found in a culvert, concrete culvert where cattle
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00:17:11.569 --> 00:17:15.349
crossed through under the road, and she's found deceased.
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At 6.35 p.m. on the 20th of February, three days
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after she was taken, Carla's body was found five miles
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00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:37.819
southwest of the Ridgely Bowling Alley. The case was now
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a homicide investigation.
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I don't know if you've ever heard a guttorial scream
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from a mom who just found her baby dead. It
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00:17:50.660 --> 00:17:52.579
was one of those kind of screams. It's hard to
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00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:54.019
articulate the sound.
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That night at the 10 o'clock news, there was actual
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footage of them taking the body bag out of the
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culvert near Benbrook Lake. I will never forget that feeling
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00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:09.549
of seeing a body bag and knowing that there was
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00:18:09.609 --> 00:18:12.109
someone I knew inside that body bag.
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00:18:19.049 --> 00:18:23.549
That same evening at the All Saints Hospital morgue, Carla's
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00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:29.490
body was autopsied. It revealed multiple injuries, evidence of sexual
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00:18:29.509 --> 00:18:31.430
assault and strangulation.
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00:18:32.869 --> 00:18:34.319
They found traces of morphine.
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00:18:34.970 --> 00:18:37.740
Yeah, the medical examiner did say that she had been
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00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:40.559
kept alive and hadn't been dead that long, but she
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00:18:40.579 --> 00:18:42.039
didn't die there in the culvert.
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She had died before.
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00:18:44.019 --> 00:18:45.200
During that time.
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She was probably going through the most horrendous experience, and
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00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:56.339
the person who abducted her was clearly enjoying hurting her,
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00:18:56.859 --> 00:19:00.640
making her frightened, dominating her, or he would have killed
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00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:01.880
her straight away.
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I know the parents were freaked out and beginning to
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00:19:06.099 --> 00:19:07.700
keep their kids in at weekend nights.
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00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:12.839
From that day forward, we locked our car doors. To
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00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:14.880
this day, when I get in the car, the door
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00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:15.460
gets locked.
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00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:20.839
On February the 22nd, just two days after the discovery
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00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:24.380
of her body, Carla's funeral was held at the Western
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00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:29.430
Hills Church of Christ. It was attended by more than 1,200 mourners.
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00:19:30.630 --> 00:19:33.329
A thousand plus people were there. The procession line going
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00:19:33.369 --> 00:19:36.230
from the church, which was law enforcement, had it all
308
00:19:36.490 --> 00:19:39.789
wired up and was recording, taking pictures of everybody, thinking
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00:19:39.829 --> 00:19:41.910
that perhaps the suspect would be there.
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00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:46.690
There's always the possibility of that in a crime like this,
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00:19:46.859 --> 00:19:50.880
that maybe the killer will turn up at the funeral
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00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:53.859
or will be standing around on the edges or will
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00:19:53.940 --> 00:19:57.079
be watching and the police will always want to be
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00:19:57.319 --> 00:19:58.039
mindful of that.
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00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:01.789
They had us all filed by the open casket and
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00:20:01.829 --> 00:20:04.210
that is probably one of the most traumatizing things I
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00:20:04.250 --> 00:20:08.269
remember from that, especially at that age. The poor girl
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00:20:08.329 --> 00:20:13.130
had been beaten and strangled, and it was simply horrific.
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00:20:13.190 --> 00:20:14.049
I had nightmares.
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00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:22.470
The funeral yielded nothing on Carla's killer. The best lead
321
00:20:22.529 --> 00:20:26.410
investigators had was eyewitness Rodney McCoy.
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00:20:26.809 --> 00:20:31.029
Carla's boyfriend, Rodney, would be a prime suspect.
323
00:20:32.029 --> 00:20:33.009
When a woman....
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00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:37.569
The first suspect will always be the intimate partner, the boyfriend.
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00:20:38.910 --> 00:20:44.049
Rodney McCoy was interviewed, but the problem the authorities had
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00:20:44.130 --> 00:20:47.410
was that because of his head injuries, he couldn't remember
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00:20:47.470 --> 00:20:50.410
very clearly what had happened to him on that fateful
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00:20:50.470 --> 00:20:54.470
night on the 16th of February, 1974. They sent him
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00:20:54.509 --> 00:20:57.819
to a hypnotherapist to see if they could dislodge his memories.
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00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:00.859
I want you to tell me what you see. I've
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00:21:00.900 --> 00:21:04.490
got a gun on my face. First thing I noticed
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00:21:04.549 --> 00:21:09.890
is his short hair, kind of a skinny nose, some
333
00:21:09.930 --> 00:21:14.970
kind of greenish, sleeveless jacket, a cowboy hat.
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00:21:15.910 --> 00:21:18.410
He fell off. What color cowboy hat?
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00:21:19.109 --> 00:21:20.069
It's real white.
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00:21:21.490 --> 00:21:24.269
He said the guy was dressed like a cowboy. I
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00:21:24.309 --> 00:21:27.049
do remember him saying he had a vest of some sort.
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00:21:27.950 --> 00:21:32.289
Basing their investigation on the magazine cartridge left at the scene,
339
00:21:33.210 --> 00:21:37.349
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were enlisted to
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00:21:37.410 --> 00:21:43.349
find Fort Worth-registered owners of Ruger pistols. With no gun database,
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00:21:43.730 --> 00:21:47.180
it was a mammoth task, taking hundreds of man-hours.
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00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:51.500
So they began a check of all the Ruger pistols,
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00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:53.980
which that magazine belonged to, in the area.
344
00:21:55.339 --> 00:22:00.000
Authorities come back with around 30 names. The police take
345
00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:04.089
their time and interview each one of the 30 people
346
00:22:04.730 --> 00:22:08.099
who owned a Ruger 22. One of the people they
347
00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:11.400
interview is Glenn McCurley, Jr., the truck driver.
348
00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:16.920
As with the other Ruger 22 owners, McCurley was brought
349
00:22:17.019 --> 00:22:18.240
in for questioning.
350
00:22:19.619 --> 00:22:23.019
He said that his gun was stolen. He said, I
351
00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:26.740
was fishing and I always took this gun for safety.
352
00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:29.259
had it wrapped up in a towel under the front
353
00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:31.900
seat of my truck, and I could hear a truck
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00:22:31.940 --> 00:22:34.099
spinning off and taking off, and so I went up
355
00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:35.900
there to check my truck, and lo and behold, my
356
00:22:35.940 --> 00:22:37.960
gun was gone. And he said that happened like before
357
00:22:38.029 --> 00:22:38.970
Carla was abducted.
358
00:22:39.529 --> 00:22:41.730
Police didn't have anything else on this guy. They gave
359
00:22:41.769 --> 00:22:44.670
him a polygraph test, and from what I understand.
360
00:22:44.710 --> 00:22:45.250
He passed.
361
00:22:47.109 --> 00:22:49.930
Very, very little evidence. We're in the days before DNA.
362
00:22:50.630 --> 00:22:54.369
There's no CCTV. There's no number plate recognition. It just
363
00:22:54.390 --> 00:22:54.869
goes cold.
364
00:22:55.980 --> 00:23:00.640
Despite the efforts of investigators, all leads had been exhausted.
365
00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:06.410
For over four decades, the stranger who abducted, raped, and
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00:23:06.529 --> 00:23:12.609
murdered Carla Walker remained a free man. Until invisible evidence
367
00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:18.279
left behind at the crime scene finally led detectives to
368
00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:30.099
the killer's door. In the decades that followed the 1974
369
00:23:30.099 --> 00:23:35.190
rape and murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker, her family in
370
00:23:35.269 --> 00:23:37.910
Fort Worth refused to give up hope.
371
00:23:38.950 --> 00:23:42.150
Cindy, her sister, and Carla's mom spent a lot of
372
00:23:42.170 --> 00:23:45.230
their time, a lot of their lives, keeping Carla's story alive.
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00:23:46.940 --> 00:23:53.359
I saw my mom from 74 until really 79. What
374
00:23:53.380 --> 00:23:56.059
I know now to be go through a chronic clinical
375
00:23:56.079 --> 00:23:59.579
disease depression. She still got up, she still washed clothes,
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00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:04.289
made dinner, tried to have happy Christmases, happy events, but
377
00:24:04.549 --> 00:24:07.470
she had changed. My dad was, to me, my hero
378
00:24:07.490 --> 00:24:08.890
because he carried my mom.
379
00:24:09.890 --> 00:24:14.130
The mystery of Carla Walker's unsolved murder was one which
380
00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:15.599
never went away.
381
00:24:16.690 --> 00:24:20.309
These cases never get absolutely shut down. They never say
382
00:24:20.450 --> 00:24:25.049
case closed where they haven't arrested anybody. So it becomes
383
00:24:25.190 --> 00:24:26.730
what we refer to as a cold case.
384
00:24:26.730 --> 00:24:32.420
1974, 1978, 1985, every time a new lead came in,
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00:24:32.660 --> 00:24:35.380
they jumped on it and they investigated it thoroughly. It
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00:24:35.400 --> 00:24:37.460
was one of those cases that detectives worked their whole
387
00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:40.319
careers on. And so as the cases would go through
388
00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:41.740
and technology would change, it.
389
00:24:41.740 --> 00:24:42.539
Would come back up.
390
00:24:43.970 --> 00:24:46.410
Things kind of quieted down and then things would pop
391
00:24:46.609 --> 00:24:50.299
up if there was a suspect, but then they would
392
00:24:50.339 --> 00:24:53.339
say that he had been cleared or whatever. You would
393
00:24:53.740 --> 00:24:58.359
have conversations semi-regularly about, hey, there's this new technology, should
394
00:24:58.380 --> 00:25:01.109
we try it? Hey, we are thinking about sending this
395
00:25:01.140 --> 00:25:02.369
off for testing, what do you think?
396
00:25:04.009 --> 00:25:10.509
In 2016, Carla's story caught the attention of podcaster Vincent Strange.
397
00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:15.000
it would catapult the case back into the spotlight.
398
00:25:17.490 --> 00:25:20.789
I came upon Carla's story, just kind of internet search,
399
00:25:21.589 --> 00:25:26.509
and it grabbed me right away. There was one Facebook page.
400
00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:30.920
It was Justice for Carla, and there was just no
401
00:25:31.019 --> 00:25:34.180
activity on it. There was nothing happening. We need to
402
00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:36.440
get this out before the public, shine a.
403
00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:37.289
Light back on it.
404
00:25:38.420 --> 00:25:41.750
When Vincent called me out of the blue... at my
405
00:25:41.809 --> 00:25:44.970
job one day and just he introduced himself and he said,
406
00:25:45.349 --> 00:25:47.910
I was told that you were the high school yearbook
407
00:25:47.990 --> 00:25:50.369
editor and that you knew a lot of people and
408
00:25:50.390 --> 00:25:52.299
that you might be able to help me get it started.
409
00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:58.380
Carla's friends and family took part in the podcast. The
410
00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:02.960
renewed interest in her murder motivated her brother to give
411
00:26:03.019 --> 00:26:05.400
it one more shot with the police.
412
00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:14.660
Jim, who was only 12 when the killing took place,
413
00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:18.140
never forgot and kept in touch with the detectives throughout
414
00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:21.799
the ensuing years, badgering them to look into what might
415
00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:23.740
have happened, keeping on at them.
416
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:27.660
Fort Worth PD had reopened the case at Jim Walker's urging.
417
00:26:27.819 --> 00:26:30.539
He literally called up the cold case department and said,
418
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:33.019
all right, I hear there's a new detective and I
419
00:26:33.059 --> 00:26:33.480
need y'all.
420
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:34.279
To start looking at it again.
421
00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:38.400
Leah Wagner, cold case detective, received a call from Jim
422
00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:41.039
that was stern and pretty to the point.
423
00:26:41.539 --> 00:26:45.990
You've worked hard. Problem is, whoever killed my sister is
424
00:26:46.109 --> 00:26:51.730
either dead, dying, or getting extremely old right now. I
425
00:26:51.750 --> 00:26:54.289
think we need a new set of eyes on Carla's
426
00:26:54.329 --> 00:26:56.690
case because we're running out of daylight, and I would
427
00:26:56.730 --> 00:27:00.049
like to find this person, why he's got a pulse.
428
00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:03.960
The paperwork on the case was extensive, over 6,000 pages
429
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:04.559
of information.
430
00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:10.170
There were two banker boxes filled with handwritten notes of
431
00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:14.480
leads and investigation tips and investigations the police had begun
432
00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:17.519
on their own. They truly left no stone unturned.
433
00:27:18.180 --> 00:27:19.680
They were re-interviewing everyone.
434
00:27:19.859 --> 00:27:22.400
I know a lot of that focus was on Rodney still.
435
00:27:23.529 --> 00:27:27.910
I went through, I interviewed, interviewed, and, you know, one time,
436
00:27:28.130 --> 00:27:29.890
I think it picked me up at one of my
437
00:27:29.910 --> 00:27:30.769
best talks ever.
438
00:27:32.890 --> 00:27:34.750
Every time a new investigator would pick up the case
439
00:27:34.789 --> 00:27:36.130
and they would write out there who I want to
440
00:27:36.150 --> 00:27:38.150
talk to list, Rodney was always number one on the list.
441
00:27:38.430 --> 00:27:42.069
I think the ultimate list maybe had 38 people on it.
442
00:27:42.130 --> 00:27:43.589
Let's re-interview these people.
443
00:27:44.190 --> 00:27:48.460
The team were hopeful that DNA testing could help the investigation.
444
00:27:48.900 --> 00:27:53.319
The science did not exist in 1974, but perhaps now
445
00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:55.980
could help name the rapist and murderer.
446
00:27:57.859 --> 00:27:59.900
And so we went to go pull the evidence to
447
00:27:59.940 --> 00:28:01.990
see what we had. And when I tell you It
448
00:28:02.069 --> 00:28:05.589
is like an angel spoke to the crime scene officers
449
00:28:05.630 --> 00:28:09.000
in 1974. They did everything right. They preserved it in
450
00:28:09.059 --> 00:28:11.539
ways they didn't even know were going to be so important.
451
00:28:12.619 --> 00:28:15.660
DNA tests are expensive. There's no question of that.
452
00:28:16.140 --> 00:28:19.869
And to carry out the DNA tests that was necessary
453
00:28:20.470 --> 00:28:28.990
on Carla's clothing would have cost $ 20, 000.
454
00:28:25.019 --> 00:28:29.660
Vincent Strange's podcast about Carla's murder had gained a lot
455
00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:34.299
of exposure. One listener, a TV presenter, offered to put
456
00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:40.920
up the money to fund the DNA testing. In 2019,
457
00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:44.680
an unexpected call came in to the police department.
458
00:28:46.339 --> 00:28:50.420
They got a call from NBC Universal saying, we want
459
00:28:50.440 --> 00:28:53.140
to do a case in your cold case division today.
460
00:28:53.670 --> 00:28:56.250
The detectives were literally working on Carla Walker's case at
461
00:28:56.269 --> 00:29:01.109
the time. And so they paid for some testing. Whatever
462
00:29:01.170 --> 00:29:02.990
our DNA was going to come from, it was going
463
00:29:03.009 --> 00:29:07.710
to come from Carla's clothes. There was so much of
464
00:29:07.829 --> 00:29:13.079
Rodney's blood on her dress from his head injury. Finding
465
00:29:13.579 --> 00:29:16.099
DNA on the dress that was not Carla's and was
466
00:29:16.140 --> 00:29:20.440
not Rodney's was hard to do. There was definitely a
467
00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:24.109
male sample that didn't belong to Rodney, that was semen,
468
00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:29.750
was on Carla's bra strap. And so in 2020, they say,
469
00:29:29.930 --> 00:29:34.930
here we go. And we waited. We get the call
470
00:29:36.980 --> 00:29:42.279
that says there were no matches. and it was so disheartening.
471
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:47.900
Not one single hit is found not one well we're
472
00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:51.640
back at square one except we aren't another DNA test
473
00:29:51.720 --> 00:29:54.170
is conducted by a different company.
474
00:29:55.970 --> 00:29:58.930
We had so many little DNA left to test.
475
00:29:58.970 --> 00:30:02.150
We had four nanograms, which is nothing. It's nothing. And
476
00:30:02.210 --> 00:30:04.119
we knew this was it. We had one shot to
477
00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:04.579
test it.
478
00:30:05.420 --> 00:30:09.079
They were able to take these, like maybe two cells.
479
00:30:09.099 --> 00:30:14.009
Starting in June of 2020, they started working Carla's case.
480
00:30:15.289 --> 00:30:19.109
When you get forensic genetic genealogy results, they don't tell
481
00:30:19.150 --> 00:30:21.650
you who a person is. You're going to have A
482
00:30:21.710 --> 00:30:24.309
list of someone who is in the database for having
483
00:30:24.369 --> 00:30:27.369
given their DNA to a commercial database. And what you
484
00:30:27.390 --> 00:30:30.650
get is, hey, we know this person here is a
485
00:30:30.809 --> 00:30:33.289
second degree, a third degrees away relative.
486
00:30:34.849 --> 00:30:40.359
On Independence Day weekend of 2020, the DNA tests finally
487
00:30:40.430 --> 00:30:42.579
revealed a familial match.
488
00:30:43.319 --> 00:30:45.420
We've got a family named McCurley. We think you should
489
00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:48.779
look into McCurley. There were three boys. They lived kind
490
00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:50.769
of in the Denton area. And before he can even
491
00:30:50.809 --> 00:30:54.650
finish talking, Detective Bennett, who knew the file backwards and forwards,
492
00:30:54.710 --> 00:30:57.089
which is an impossibility given the size of the file,
493
00:30:57.109 --> 00:31:00.650
but he did, he hops up and says, I know
494
00:31:01.029 --> 00:31:01.750
Glenn McCurley.
495
00:31:01.829 --> 00:31:02.910
He's on our list.
496
00:31:05.130 --> 00:31:09.099
And I think he had 84 suspects on that list.
497
00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:11.799
I think McCurley was 18th on that list.
498
00:31:12.700 --> 00:31:17.099
The DNA analysis linked semen found on Carla's bra strap
499
00:31:17.539 --> 00:31:21.859
to the McCurley family. Next, they set out to demonstrate
500
00:31:22.539 --> 00:31:24.859
that it belonged to the man they interviewed in 1974
501
00:31:24.859 --> 00:31:27.740
about the Ruger. 22 pistol, the now 77-year-old Glenn McCurley.
502
00:31:40.059 --> 00:31:42.319
We did what's called a trash run, which means you
503
00:31:42.359 --> 00:31:44.640
wait until someone puts their trash out on the street,
504
00:31:44.900 --> 00:31:48.160
because then it is no longer private property. And in
505
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:49.960
the middle of the night, the police come and take
506
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:51.980
a trash bag, and they take it back to the lab,
507
00:31:52.059 --> 00:31:54.019
and you try to find things in the trash that
508
00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:55.900
you know are going to have DNA on it. In
509
00:31:55.920 --> 00:31:58.119
this particular case, it was a McDonald's straw.
510
00:31:58.900 --> 00:32:01.869
Law enforcement did all their due diligence, redoing the DNA
511
00:32:01.900 --> 00:32:04.329
profile to make sure the profile that came out of
512
00:32:04.349 --> 00:32:07.269
the trash grab was the same profile discovered on the
513
00:32:07.289 --> 00:32:09.490
inside of Carla's bra strap, which was a semen.
514
00:32:10.269 --> 00:32:13.769
To make sure the DNA evidence would be admissible in court,
515
00:32:14.089 --> 00:32:19.039
detectives needed to obtain an official DNA sample from Glenn McCurley.
516
00:32:19.420 --> 00:32:22.000
Police went to his home to speak to him again.
517
00:32:23.299 --> 00:32:25.930
In order for us to eliminate you, the quickest way
518
00:32:25.950 --> 00:32:27.509
to do that is to get your DNA.
519
00:32:27.730 --> 00:32:29.410
Is that something that you would be okay with?
520
00:32:30.460 --> 00:32:33.259
Glenn McCurley is an upright member of the community. He
521
00:32:33.299 --> 00:32:37.119
and his wife, Judy, are churchgoers. They're well-known in that
522
00:32:37.339 --> 00:32:40.799
suburb of Fort Worth. He hesitates for a moment and
523
00:32:40.839 --> 00:32:44.240
then agrees to have his cheek swabbed for DNA.
524
00:32:45.059 --> 00:32:46.839
And all it is is two big cotton swabs.
525
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:49.039
I promise they won't go up your nose. They're going
526
00:32:49.059 --> 00:32:50.779
to be the inside of your cheek.
527
00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:53.920
We had a search warrant ready to go, but he
528
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:57.160
ultimately consensually gave his DNA. We sent that back off
529
00:32:57.180 --> 00:32:59.859
to the lab, and they said, this matches the straw.
530
00:33:00.579 --> 00:33:04.140
which matches the bra, which matches the crime. And so
531
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:07.680
all of a sudden, we had, after 47 years, we
532
00:33:07.720 --> 00:33:08.519
had finally solved it.
533
00:33:14.710 --> 00:33:17.569
Glenn Samuel McCurley. It was the guy who killed my sister.
534
00:33:18.869 --> 00:33:21.589
At a press conference in Fort Worth, it was announced.
535
00:33:21.650 --> 00:33:22.529
His name was announced.
536
00:33:22.690 --> 00:33:24.609
It was a shock to everyone because this was a
537
00:33:24.630 --> 00:33:27.190
guy who lived blocks from Carla.
538
00:33:28.130 --> 00:33:31.559
He had sons that went to Western Hills. His wife, Judy,
539
00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:34.420
worked in the nursery at one of the churches that
540
00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:37.759
a lot of people went to. His family was known
541
00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:38.680
in the area.
542
00:33:39.730 --> 00:33:42.529
Since 1974 until the day he was arrested, he drove
543
00:33:42.609 --> 00:33:44.950
up and down Williams Road almost every day. Drove by
544
00:33:44.970 --> 00:33:46.849
the house. He knew exactly where we lived. I'm pretty
545
00:33:46.890 --> 00:33:48.569
sure he came by here when we had garage sales.
546
00:33:49.250 --> 00:33:51.349
He is a man who was able to commit this
547
00:33:51.509 --> 00:33:54.400
heinous crime and live amongst us like he's a normal person.
548
00:33:55.380 --> 00:33:56.799
There's nothing more terrifying than that.
549
00:33:57.789 --> 00:34:01.980
After so many years of torment, Carla Walker's loved ones
550
00:34:02.059 --> 00:34:06.140
were within touching distance of the truth about her brutal
551
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:12.239
rape and murder in February 1974. But Glenn McCurley wasn't
552
00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:16.269
going down without a fight, and at his upcoming trial,
553
00:34:16.769 --> 00:34:17.949
he was going to plead.
554
00:34:20.309 --> 00:34:21.150
not guilty.
555
00:34:27.630 --> 00:34:32.849
On September the 21st, 2020, the man who detectives had
556
00:34:32.949 --> 00:34:37.650
linked with the murder of 17-year-old Carla Walker was arrested.
557
00:34:38.969 --> 00:34:42.710
Glenn McCurley was taken to the police station to be
558
00:34:42.809 --> 00:34:48.809
interviewed about that fateful night of February the 16th, 1974.
559
00:34:56.719 --> 00:34:58.480
They went to his home and they arrested him and
560
00:34:58.500 --> 00:35:00.420
they took him to the police station and they interviewed him.
561
00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:05.139
I just, I don't know the girl. I've never seen her.
562
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:09.199
And I haven't, I haven't killed anybody.
563
00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:12.099
For the first hour, he starts saying he doesn't even
564
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:13.179
know who Carla Walker is.
565
00:35:14.139 --> 00:35:16.300
Well, I don't see how you could have anything on
566
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:19.449
me because I don't have, I don't know anything about it.
567
00:35:20.300 --> 00:35:24.460
During the three-hour interview, police work to get a confession
568
00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:25.539
from McCurley.
569
00:35:26.639 --> 00:35:28.539
How are you going to make things right before you
570
00:35:28.579 --> 00:35:31.599
pass away if you don't admit to the things that
571
00:35:31.639 --> 00:35:32.300
you've done?
572
00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.929
No matter how many times I watch that video.
573
00:35:37.510 --> 00:35:40.610
This is just your opportunity to tell your side of
574
00:35:40.639 --> 00:35:41.369
what happened.
575
00:35:43.090 --> 00:35:49.869
Every time I hold my breath. Where he pauses.
576
00:35:49.889 --> 00:35:55.469
And he gets real quiet and he puts his head down.
577
00:36:01.699 --> 00:36:07.750
I did do it, I guess. That's basically his confession there.
578
00:36:08.510 --> 00:36:08.989
They got him.
579
00:36:10.889 --> 00:36:14.340
He says, I strangled that little girl. Justice was going
580
00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:17.679
to be served that day. It's a pretty magical moment.
581
00:36:18.699 --> 00:36:22.460
McCurley said that he was saving Carla, that Rodney was
582
00:36:22.840 --> 00:36:23.559
assaulting her.
583
00:36:24.099 --> 00:36:26.349
And he kind of comes in and saves the day.
584
00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:31.400
She went with him willingly and they started having consensual relations.
585
00:36:33.460 --> 00:36:36.039
She started hugging me, thanking me.
586
00:36:37.539 --> 00:36:40.300
We know that's not what happened, but it does definitely
587
00:36:40.500 --> 00:36:42.579
put him there with her, which was the important part.
588
00:36:43.420 --> 00:36:48.159
After 46 years, McCurley had admitted to being responsible for
589
00:36:48.199 --> 00:36:53.099
the death of Carla Walker. Andy had another confession about
590
00:36:53.159 --> 00:36:57.210
the gun he'd claimed was stolen. He also tells them
591
00:36:57.369 --> 00:37:00.329
where he's hidden the gun, a Ruger 22.
592
00:37:00.329 --> 00:37:02.250
He's wrapped in a towel and put it in the
593
00:37:02.309 --> 00:37:05.460
attic of his house. You might ask yourself, why on
594
00:37:05.539 --> 00:37:06.579
earth did he keep the gun?
595
00:37:07.380 --> 00:37:09.340
Was it a souvenir, a trophy?
596
00:37:10.539 --> 00:37:12.880
No one thought he kept the gun. We didn't even
597
00:37:12.900 --> 00:37:14.789
think to ask it because why would you?
598
00:37:15.590 --> 00:37:18.309
He could relive what he did to Carla.
599
00:37:18.829 --> 00:37:23.230
Through that gun, but they do like to relive their crimes,
600
00:37:23.909 --> 00:37:27.409
visit back those feelings that they felt when they were
601
00:37:27.429 --> 00:37:28.530
committing those crimes.
602
00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:30.340
And that gun was a link for him.
603
00:37:31.820 --> 00:37:34.019
So the police leave the interview and go back to
604
00:37:34.059 --> 00:37:38.739
his house and look, and sure enough, there's the gun.
605
00:37:38.920 --> 00:37:40.599
In 2020, court systems were taking a little bit of
606
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:44.019
a break due to COVID. Due to McCurley's age, we
607
00:37:44.059 --> 00:37:46.559
knew we needed to try it sooner rather than later.
608
00:37:47.750 --> 00:37:50.989
When we started going through pretrial hearings in May of 2021,
609
00:37:50.989 --> 00:37:53.630
I knew Justice was going to be served. I knew
610
00:37:53.730 --> 00:37:57.219
I personally would be able to make sure he would never,
611
00:37:57.480 --> 00:37:59.840
ever breathe the air of a free man.
612
00:38:01.059 --> 00:38:03.659
We knew, obviously, the biggest portion of this case that
613
00:38:03.739 --> 00:38:06.329
was going to be contested would be the new science,
614
00:38:06.389 --> 00:38:09.969
the forensic genetic genealogy. It actually had never been admitted
615
00:38:10.269 --> 00:38:11.989
in the United States at that point.
616
00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:18.199
In Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 1, Carla's friends
617
00:38:18.300 --> 00:38:21.679
and family had their first glimpse of the man accused
618
00:38:21.739 --> 00:38:25.000
of her murder almost half a century ago.
619
00:38:25.019 --> 00:38:28.300
He was actually kind of an imposing figure. He was
620
00:38:28.340 --> 00:38:28.820
very tall.
621
00:38:29.230 --> 00:38:32.750
He definitely had kind of a gruff exterior the whole time.
622
00:38:33.949 --> 00:38:36.789
He also was in a wheelchair, even though I had
623
00:38:36.809 --> 00:38:38.750
seen him walk in and out of the courtroom on
624
00:38:38.769 --> 00:38:39.949
days when the cameras weren't there.
625
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:45.159
He just looked like a confused, angry old man. He
626
00:38:45.940 --> 00:38:49.559
had cancer. He wasn't expected to live long. I certainly
627
00:38:49.599 --> 00:38:50.860
had no sympathy for him.
628
00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:57.530
Inside the courtroom, Carla's friends and family sat on one side.
629
00:38:58.110 --> 00:39:01.329
On the other, those who'd come to support the defendant,
630
00:39:01.789 --> 00:39:02.710
Glenn McCurley.
631
00:39:03.769 --> 00:39:08.269
Watching his son was pretty brutal. His son was just devastated.
632
00:39:08.550 --> 00:39:10.909
It was unbelievable, the pain in his eyes and his face.
633
00:39:11.469 --> 00:39:13.969
McCurley's wife, on the other hand. They were blowing each
634
00:39:13.989 --> 00:39:16.219
other kisses and stuff like that during the trial. It
635
00:39:17.019 --> 00:39:17.880
was a bit strange.
636
00:39:19.420 --> 00:39:23.159
In the courthouse, under the glare of the national media,
637
00:39:23.539 --> 00:39:27.429
the prosecution worked hard to tell the story of what
638
00:39:27.469 --> 00:39:28.750
had happened to Carla.
639
00:39:29.469 --> 00:39:33.530
On the night that Carla was abducted McCurley's wife was
640
00:39:33.610 --> 00:39:38.400
away so he had complete freedom really to come and
641
00:39:38.500 --> 00:39:40.840
go from the house his.
642
00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:42.880
Wife happened to be out of town he went out
643
00:39:42.900 --> 00:39:45.679
drinking and he certainly knew what he was looking for
644
00:39:45.760 --> 00:39:51.989
I think He didn't just stumble across Carla on accident.
645
00:39:52.269 --> 00:39:54.199
He was lying in wait for somebody.
646
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:57.860
How did he manage to confront his wife at church
647
00:39:57.920 --> 00:40:02.679
every Sunday morning, knowing that he'd quite premeditatedly taken this
648
00:40:02.980 --> 00:40:08.429
young girl's life? Without a moment's hesitation. And what's more,
649
00:40:08.510 --> 00:40:10.030
tortured her, dumped her, raped her.
650
00:40:10.190 --> 00:40:10.920
How do you do that? I.
651
00:40:13.300 --> 00:40:15.619
Saw the trial every day, even though I wasn't there
652
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:16.260
in person.
653
00:40:16.469 --> 00:40:20.969
And when Leah Wagner, the detective, pulled Carla's dress out
654
00:40:21.010 --> 00:40:24.849
of that evidence bag, it took my breath away. To
655
00:40:25.550 --> 00:40:29.349
see that dress again just put me right back to 1974.
656
00:40:29.329 --> 00:40:37.829
This wasn't a minimal crime by any stretch of the imagination.
657
00:40:37.909 --> 00:40:41.900
She was beat from head to toe and strangled and raped.
658
00:40:47.659 --> 00:40:50.800
At the start of the third day of Carla Walker's
659
00:40:50.860 --> 00:40:55.489
murder trial, Glenn McCurley, who for so long had denied
660
00:40:55.570 --> 00:40:59.630
his role in Carla's murder, spoke to his attorney.
661
00:41:02.489 --> 00:41:06.219
The medical examiner and Carla's brother, Jim, were going to testify.
662
00:41:06.719 --> 00:41:09.280
They were about to go through that in excruciating detail.
663
00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:12.159
And I think he just didn't want to sit through
664
00:41:12.199 --> 00:41:13.760
it and didn't want his family to hear it. And
665
00:41:13.880 --> 00:41:17.469
so he asked to plead guilty. The judge has him
666
00:41:17.489 --> 00:41:19.449
sit down and says, are you pleading guilty?
667
00:41:19.489 --> 00:41:25.050
And all of a sudden, the room got silent. That
668
00:41:25.090 --> 00:41:28.030
was pretty amazing. I don't think any of us expected that.
669
00:41:29.750 --> 00:41:32.929
I remember turning around and looking at the Walker family
670
00:41:33.050 --> 00:41:35.590
and just thinking, I can't believe I get to be
671
00:41:35.650 --> 00:41:36.510
here for this moment.
672
00:41:39.340 --> 00:41:45.030
On the morning of Tuesday, August the 21st, 2021... Almost
673
00:41:45.130 --> 00:41:51.599
half a century since Carla's murder, 78-year-old Glenn McCurley pleaded
674
00:41:51.699 --> 00:41:55.659
guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in
675
00:41:55.739 --> 00:41:58.929
prison without the possibility of parole.
676
00:42:00.670 --> 00:42:03.309
For Jim Walker, it provided.
677
00:42:02.829 --> 00:42:08.690
The opportunity that he'd waited nearly 50 years for, to
678
00:42:08.750 --> 00:42:12.039
look the man who killed his sister in the eye.
679
00:42:13.329 --> 00:42:15.849
Because I believe in God, I'm a Christian. So I
680
00:42:15.869 --> 00:42:17.269
told him, I said, I want you to know, I
681
00:42:17.329 --> 00:42:19.269
forgive you and I hope and pray to see you
682
00:42:19.329 --> 00:42:19.829
in heaven.
683
00:42:20.849 --> 00:42:23.340
Never in my career have I ever seen anything like that. Never,
684
00:42:23.389 --> 00:42:29.099
probably will again. So then I see Jim begin to
685
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:30.940
hug McCurley's son.
686
00:42:30.960 --> 00:42:34.119
I told his son, you don't own the sins of
687
00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:36.860
your dad. It's not on you. You've been victimized as well.
688
00:42:38.670 --> 00:42:42.150
He was 12 when his sister died and he had
689
00:42:42.250 --> 00:42:46.550
the grace to walk over and hug that man's family and.
690
00:42:46.530 --> 00:42:47.510
Show them love.
691
00:42:48.449 --> 00:42:51.829
I was so happy for our community, for Carlos' friends.
692
00:42:51.849 --> 00:42:54.570
I was so happy for Rodney because he'd been under
693
00:42:54.610 --> 00:42:57.449
a cloud of suspicion for decades. I can't describe the
694
00:42:57.489 --> 00:42:59.289
peace other than I knew where it came from. I
695
00:42:59.309 --> 00:43:00.590
had peace, and I still have peace.
696
00:43:02.090 --> 00:43:06.739
Nine months after his conviction, in one final desperate act,
697
00:43:07.239 --> 00:43:12.280
Glenn McCurley appealed his conviction, but the killer was unsuccessful.
698
00:43:13.530 --> 00:43:17.550
I pushed for the death penalty, but because of his age,
699
00:43:18.289 --> 00:43:20.050
we figured he was going to die in prison anyway.
700
00:43:22.630 --> 00:43:27.199
The appeal process was finalized in May of 2023, and
701
00:43:27.619 --> 00:43:29.880
McCurley died in prison that summer.
702
00:43:32.099 --> 00:43:37.659
On the 14th of July, 2023, 80-year-old Glenn McCurley died
703
00:43:37.980 --> 00:43:42.690
in the Gibb-Lewis unit, Texas, taking his secrets to the grave.
704
00:43:43.369 --> 00:43:46.590
He never said why. He never really said how. The
705
00:43:46.610 --> 00:43:50.010
police who found her body said that she wasn't killed there.
706
00:43:50.090 --> 00:43:52.789
She was killed somewhere else and dumped there. There's still
707
00:43:52.809 --> 00:43:55.070
a lot of questions that we would have liked answered.
708
00:43:56.769 --> 00:44:00.789
For the family, justice for Carla, but also a legacy
709
00:44:00.949 --> 00:44:06.329
offering hope for other families that forensic genetic genealogy be
710
00:44:06.389 --> 00:44:08.840
available to help solve their cases.
711
00:44:09.949 --> 00:44:14.409
The Carla Walker Act will provide forensic genetic genealogy funds
712
00:44:14.530 --> 00:44:18.659
to focus in on code cases and get those code
713
00:44:18.699 --> 00:44:25.739
cases work hopefully resolved. Never give up. You're the voice
714
00:44:25.780 --> 00:44:27.800
for your loved one. We don't know why we go
715
00:44:27.820 --> 00:44:31.340
through these things, but remember, goodness is always there. There's
716
00:44:31.380 --> 00:44:34.530
good people there who want to walk through this difficult
717
00:44:34.550 --> 00:44:37.170
time with you, but don't give up. Have hope.
718
00:44:38.260 --> 00:44:41.539
He abducted, raped, and killed a young girl in the
719
00:44:41.639 --> 00:44:45.119
prime of her life. He spent a lifetime watching the
720
00:44:45.219 --> 00:44:49.570
carnage he'd caused and the ruined lives of those left behind.
721
00:44:50.340 --> 00:44:54.949
Because of this, Glenn Samuel McCurley's name will be remembered
722
00:44:55.389 --> 00:44:58.210
as one of the world's most evil killers.
