EXCLUSIVE: Friends of Jessica Cain talk about her remains being identified
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The remains found in a southeast Houston field last month have been identified as missing teenager Jessica Cain.
Jessica Cain's friend, Danni Previte, hates the word closure.
She doesn't feel any.
"There's no good ending," she explained. "If you knew her, you know she wouldn't have left her family voluntarily, you just knew from day one this was not going to go well."
Those in the tiny city of Anahuac were shocked when popular 17-year-old Jessica Cain disappeared in 1997. For nearly two decades, there were no arrests, no signs of the teenager.
Then, convicted kidnapper and accused murderer, William Reece, came forward. He led authorities to a field on E. Orem Road near Hobby Airport, claiming he had buried Cain's body there. After an exhaustive search, then identification process, investigators confirmed yesterday that the bones recovered are Cain's.
"It makes you different. It's always there in the back of your mind," explained Previte. "It's like the illusion that stuff like that doesn't happen is gone."
"You saw her and it made you want to smile. She just radiated that happiness," said Nacheal Kelley. "Just how a person can be so sick makes me sick."
The Harris County Medical Examiner confirms DNA led to the identification. Cain was 17 years old when she vanished in 1997. Suspected serial killer, William Reece, led authorities to where he buried her body in a field on E. Orem Road near Hobby Airport.
"At least we don't have to wonder where she is anymore," said Sue Dietrich-Nance, the former Tiki Island police chief who helped put Reece behind bars on his current 60 year kidnapping sentence.
Last week, the remains of Kelli Cox were identified. She was 20 when she went missing in Denton, Texas, in 1997. Her body was found recently after investigators searched a field in Brazoria County, also with Reece's guidance.
Reece, who's currently facing a murder charge in a cold case out of Oklahoma, has been cooperating with investigators in exchange for plea deals in at least three murder cases in Texas. He has yet to be charged. His attorney, Anthony Osso, says he wants to avoid trials and keep Reece, whose health is declining, off death row. He also says several agencies have requested to speak to Reece about their unsolved murder cases.
News that Jessica Cain had been found after 19 years spread quickly Friday. Her friends left messages on a Facebook page named for her. No one was home at her parents' house near Dayton on Friday. Jessica was their only child.
"I'm just sorry it had to be 19 years and it's for his own benefit, not because he truly has a conscience," said Dietrich-Nance. "After 19 years, he decided to help these families. Well, what about the girls? He didn't help the girls. He murdered them and he's a monster."
