Author who wrote about William Reece speaks about new revelations
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The suspect in Jessica Cain's disappearance hopes by helping officers find her remains he'll get to stay in Texas, according to sources close to the case.
William Reece, 56, has been on a plot of land on East Orem with Galveston County authorities as they dig for her remains. He had been in a Huntsville prison since 1998, convicted of aggravated kidnapping. Houston author Kathryn Casey spent time with Reece as research for her book, "Deliver Us," a true crime book about the infamous killing fields.
"He's just very cold. There's a coldness about him," said Casey. "He's a little cocky, over-confident and a bit manipulative."
Casey visited Reece at the Ellis Unit and also exchanged letters with him. She says Reece was convicted of sex assault/kidnapping crimes in both Oklahoma and Texas was charming and shrewd. He moved to the Houston area after his
release from an Oklahoma prison in 1996, and within months girls started disappearing. He was convicted in the May 1997 kidnapping and assault of a 19-year-old woman in Webster. He has always been a suspect in the murder of 12-year-old Laura Smither and one of a few suspects in Jessica Cain's disappearance.
Pulled out of prison this week on the promise of leading police to Cain, authorities are taking him seriously. So far they've dug half a football field's length and 6 feet down. Casey says Reece always denied being a murderer, but last September he was charged with the 1997 murder of Tiffany Johnston, 19, in Oklahoma -- a state, sources say, he doesn't wish to return to.
"One way or another I see Bill Reece as a very dangerous human being, and I'm glad that they have him back out of prison, that they're going after him on these other cases," Casey said. "I don't know what the police know, what his incentive is, but the Bill Reece I met in prison would have liked to play around with police so I think we'll have to see how this ends."
Crews will continue their search for remains Saturday morning.
VIDEO: Story from 1998 on William Reece being suspected in the death of Laura Smither
