After years of unsolved rapes and murders in northwest Houston, resident Katie George just learned to adjust.
"I was in the house. I'd just stay on the porch, be on the phone, but I wouldn't go. Nope," said George.
The Acres Homes multi-service center is one of the only places she's felt comfortable venturing out to. With news of an arrest, her comfort zone just got bigger.
"That's real good," said George.
Houston police believe Lamarques McWilliams, 33, is tied to as many as 22 rapes and three murders, including the stabbing death of Pamela Goss. In April of 2006, Goss' nude body was found dumped beside a church on Mansfield. Goss had been stabbed to death. A source tells Eyewitness News forensic tests will help them tie McWilliams to her murder. So far he's only been charged with two rapes.
This woman's daughter is one of his alleged victims.
"She thanks God everyday she got away with her life," said the victim's mother.
We are not identifying her because her daughter was raped. She says her daughter picked McWilliams out of a lineup as the man who in July forced her into his car at gunpoint and raped her.
"I believe in the death penalty," said the victim's mother.
She has no sympathy, only relief.
"That's a true blessing they caught him. They could have gotten someone else's daughter and maybe she wouldn't be the lucky one to get away," said the victim's mother.
Like Pamela Goss. As hers and other cases evolve, Acres Homes residents are now talking about what may be next for the man police think has terrorized so many for so long.
"I think he needs to be put somewhere because evidently he can't blend in with society naturally. He needs to be put away," said Charles Ingram of the Acres Homes Citizens Council.
Police believe DNA tests will link McWilliams to two other murders. A source told us investigators are working to connect McWilliams to the murder of Jasmine Clark, whose nude body was found in the woods in January 2006 and the murder of 45-year-old Vanessa Lackey Franklin. Her partially clothed body was found in a vacant lot. She'd been strangled to death.
State Representative Sylvester Turner, whose district includes Acres Homes, issued a statement regarding the arrest of the suspected serial killer who dumped bodies in Acres Homes:
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"I am elated at the news that Houston Police have arrested the man they believe is responsible for these terrible murders. I congratulate HPD and am grateful that they did not give up on this case. The people of Acres Homes will sleep better tonight knowing that this suspect is behind bars."
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