People held a vigil on Saturday in League City, Texas, to remember the lives of four women whose bodies were found in the Texas “killing fields” between 1983 and 1991.
The bodies were discovered in a rural field off I-45 in Galveston County and are considered part of a series of murders, according to the FBI. Heidi Fye, a bartender in League City and the first of the victims, had gone missing in 1983. Investigators discovered her body a few months after her disappearance.
Law enforcement later found the body of 16-year-old Laura Miller, who had disappeared in 1986, along with the body of an unidentified woman who was designated a Jane Doe. Someone discovered a fourth body, known at the time as Janet Doe, in 1991.
Due to advancements in technology, the two unidentified women were eventually identified in 2019. They were Audrey Cook and Donna Prudhomme, according to the FBI.
Forty years later, the families of the murdered women gathered in the same field where their bodies were discovered. Attendees included Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller, and Nina Jager, Heidi Fye’s niece.
“A lot of emotions. A lot of memories over the last 40 years,” Miller said, according to WFAA. “We want to be able to put our lives back together someday.”
“Forty years … I’m looking at my family and what we’ve gone through … decades of missing her,” said Jager, per WFAA.
The families of the victims are still seeking justice.
“As long as I’m still breathing and able, I’m not going to stop,” said Jager, reported WFAA.
Clyde Edwin Hedrick, who was sentenced and imprisoned in 2014 on an unrelated manslaughter charge, has been thought to be the alleged “killing fields” murderer, KXAN reported. Although never formally charged, Galveston County officials have reportedly not ruled out Hedrick as a suspect.
The Dallas Express contacted the League City Police Department but has not received comment as of the print date.