Decades after 16-year-old Laura Miller’s body was discovered in an area infamously known as the “Texas Killing Fields,” a man has been sentenced to prison in connection with her death.
James Dolphs Elmore Jr., was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday, September 2, in relation to Miller’s death, the Houston Chronicle reported. Miller vanished in 1984 and was found dead two years later in 1986.
On Thursday, Elmore, 61, was handed the maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison, per the newspaper.
The bodies of about 30 girls and women have been discovered in the Texas Killing Fields, located in League City, since the 1970s, according to the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office. Authorities suspect several people are behind the various deaths.
Miller was one of four people discovered dead at the site between 1984 and 1991, authorities have said. The others include Heidi Fye-Villareal, Audrey Cook, and Donna Prudhomme.
Elmore was arrested in relation to Miller because he allegedly was linked to cocaine that led to her death, authorities said, The Associated Press reported.
Miller was missing for more than a year before her body was discovered in the Texas Killing Fields, according to the outlet.
Her disappearance and death led to her father Tim Miller founding EquuSearch, a non-profit search and recovery team that helps families find their missing loved ones.
“I begged, I pleaded for somebody to do something,” Tim said during Elmore’s jury trial, per The Associated Press. “I knew something happened to Laura, I just knew it. I just didn’t know what it was.”
Elmore’s defense attorney Bill Agnew sought leniency for Elmore’s sentencing and said that his client helped investigators learn what happened to Laura through his confessions, according to the Houston Chronicle.
In 2022, Elmore went to Tim to reveal he was there at the time of his daughter’s death, the newspaper reported.
Elmore said Laura had been at a party at the home of his former neighbor, Clyde Hedrick, where Hedrick gave her a large cocaine dose resulting in a fatal overdose. Elmore allegedly admitted to supplying Hedrick with the cocaine, and to helping get rid of Laura’s body, according to the newspaper.
Tim said in court that he filmed Elmore’s confession for evidence and provided Elmore $33,000 over the span of four years, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Authorities have suspected Hedrick caused the deaths of Laura, Cook, Fye-Villareal and Prudhomme, and announced in March that they sought to prosecute him.
“Over the last 40 years Hedrick has been the prime suspect for the murders of several women in the Calder Road Field,” the district attorney’s office said in a March 31 news release.
Hedrick, however, died “before the scheduled grand jury presentation,” the office said.
He died by suicide at the age of 72, The Associated Press reported.
Hedrick was indicted in 2013 in connection with the death of Ellen Beason, a woman who disappeared around the same time as Laura, prosecutors said. He was ultimately convicted of manslaughter and served eight years of his 20-year sentence.
