Who is William Reece and Where Is William Reece Now? – The third episode of Netflix Crime series, “Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields,” is directed by Jessica Dimmock and centres on a somewhat empty area that is on Calder Road, not far from the section of I-45 between Houston and Galveston. Three women’s bodies were discovered in the Calder Road field in the middle of the 1980s; they were all located near to one another and in varying stages of advanced decomposition. In the same field, a second body was discovered in 1991. But by the time that body was discovered, the location had earned the nickname “The Texas Killing Fields.”
The terrifyingly named “Texas Killing Fields” was given to the area where 30 bodies had been discovered in and around the area along the highway corridor that connects Houston and the beach town of Galveston during the 1970s.
Although several serial murderers are suspected of carrying out the killings, William Lewis Reece is the only suspect to have been found guilty of more than one murder in the Texas Killing Fields.
The only other murderer who has been apprehended and found guilty in the Texas Killing Fields for the 1996 strangulation of 13-year-old Krystal Jean Baker is Kevin Edison Smith.
Everything you need to know about William Reece, a serial killer, rapist, and abductor, can be found below.
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Who Is Serial Killer William Reece?
As one of 13 siblings, William Lewis Reece was born in Oklahoma on July 1, 1959. Before going on a crime spree, he worked as a farm labourer, joined the Oklahoma National Guard, and got married twice. Reece served 10 years in prison for the Oklahoma rape of two women before being freed in October 1996.
From April through August 1997, Reece turned to murder, and four of his victims have been named. Nevertheless, there might be more. Reece was detained in September 1997 for Sandra Sapaugh’s kidnapping and attempted murder. For the attack, he was given a 60-year term.
Nearly two decades later, in 2015, Reece’s DNA was discovered to match that of cloth belonging to Tiffany Johnston, a 19-year-old who had been killed in Oklahoma in 1997. Tiffany Johnston had been murdered. Reece was convicted of Johnston’s murder and given the death penalty in August 2021 while still serving time for the attempted murder and kidnapping of Sapaugh.
Then, after Kelli Cox, 20, and Jessica Cain, 17, went missing in 1997, he admitted to killing both of them. Reece assisted police in locating their remains, which were discovered over a wide area in two different dig sites, saving them from the death penalty. Additionally, Reece admitted to authorities that he had abducted and killed 12-year-old Laura Smither, who vanished from Friendswood, Texas, on April 3, 1997. The Houston Chronicle reported that on April 20, 1997, her body was discovered 12 miles from her house.
One month before he tried to kidnap and murder Sapaugh outside a convenience shop in Webster, Smither was killed. Due to lack of supporting evidence, he was not charged despite being cited as a suspect in Smither’s slaying. He was extradited to Texas in June 2022, where he was prosecuted for the killings of Smither, Cain, and Cox. After entering a guilty plea, he was given three life terms.
Where is William Reece Today?
Reece, 63, is currently confined in Texas at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in West Livingston, which is about an hour’s drive from the Texas Killing Fields.
After his sentencing for the killings of Smither, Cain, and Cox, officials informed KPRC 2 that they would “work out the details of when he may be transferred back to Oklahoma,” as Reece had already been found guilty of Johnston’s murder in Oklahoma.
Reece would then be detained on Death Row after he reached that condition.
You can stream “Texas Killing Fields” on Netflix with subscription.
