Denton prosecutors to seek indictment of Texas serial murder suspect on trial in Oklahoma
Denton County prosecutors will seek an indictment in the kidnapping and killing of a University of North Texas student in 1997 against a Texas convict whose Oklahoma murder trial started this week.
Jury selection began this week in an Oklahoma County District Court for 61-year-old William Reece, who authorities say is a serial killer.
In the Oklahoma case, Reece is accused of abducting 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston on July 26, 1997, from a car wash in Bethany. Her body was found the next day.
Oklahoma prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Days before the Oklahoma abduction, Kelli Cox disappeared on July 15, 1997, after taking a tour of the Denton Jail with her UNT criminology class. She called her boyfriend about noon, but when he arrived to meet her he found only her car.
Skeletal remains found in Brazoria County in 2016 were those of Cox.
“We will seek an indictment once his other case is resolved,” said Denton County Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck in a Wednesday email.
There is no statute of limitations on a murder charge, so Denton County prosecutors have not yet sought an indictment against Reece.
It was Reece who led authorities to Cox’s body and the remains of another girl in Texas.
The Oklahoman reported that prosecutors wrote in a legal filing before the Oklahoma murder trial that “officers will testify that the defendant stated his reasoning for confessing to these crimes was that he wanted to clear his conscience and let the families have closure.”
Reece was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 1998 for an aggravated kidnapping in Harris County, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. While in prison, he was also sentenced to three years for theft in Brazoria County.
He was charged in September 2015 with the murder and kidnapping of Johnston in Oklahoma. He was charged in that case after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes.
In early 2016, Reece guided authorities to locations near Houston. He led them to a pasture in southeast Houston where the human remains of 17-year-old Jessican Cain were found in March 2016. On April 5, 2016, authorities found Cox’s remains at a site in Brazoria County.
Reece used a bulldozer both times to bury their bodies, according to The Oklahoman.
The Texas convict also confessed to to the August 1997 disappearance and murder of Laura Smither, 12, of Friendswood.
Smither disappeared while jogging, and her body was found a month later in Pasadena, according to multiple news outlets in Houston.
This report contains information from Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives.
