Texas EquuSearch launches new search for remains of victims in Houston most notorious serial killing

Monday, August 9, 2021

New search for victims' remains launched in serial killings

Decades since three killers left a trail of terror across Houston. The area's premiere search and rescue group keeps working to bring the victims home.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- More than four decades after Houston's most notorious serial killings came to an end when the alleged killers turned on each other, the area's best-known search and rescue group is still hoping to bring missing victims home.

The bodies of 27 victims were uncovered by authorities in Aug. 1973 in three locations after Dean Corll was shot and killed by Elmer Wayne Henley.

Texas EquuSearch representatives said they believe there are a number of young victims who were never found, and now they are leading a new search to find them.

"It's amazing how the community comes together to help," said Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch.

Miller announced during a press conference Sunday afternoon that with the help of new equipment from Earth Measurement Corporation, they hope to find the remains of those victims.

"There is now a very successful tool available to us today that the detectives didn't have in 1973," Texas EquuSearch representatives said in a statement. "And we plan to use that tool very soon to locate the other young boys that we believe Corll, David Brooks and Henley murdered, and are still buried out there unfound."

Henley told police Corll had tortured and murdered six teenagers at Corll's home. He led police to a boat storage shed on Silver Bell Street in Houston where the first eight bodies were found. Nine more bodies were found a day later at that location.

Four more bodies were found near Lake Sam Rayburn in east Texas. The day after Henley's arrest, Brooks turned himself in, and the two men led police to six bodies at High Island.

Henley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He was last denied parole in October of 2015. His next scheduled parole review date is October of 2025.

Brooks was convicted of murder and was serving a life sentence when he died in May 2020.

"We have been researching the murders very intensely over the last few months, and we believe there is a good probability that we can find, and recover some of the still-missing boys," Texas EquuSearch representatives said. "We will soon be working with investigators from the Pasadena Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to find more of those young boy's human remains."

Sergeant James Anderson with the Pasadena Police Department was also present at the press conference.

He said these crimes forced parents to become more vigilant of their children while they played out in the street.

Anderson said he was about 18 years old during the time of the crimes.

"I remember that a lot of people were scared and had a closer watch on their kids," he said. "Before that, we were free to roam."

Miller's hope is to bring some families closure.

"Unfortunately, many of the parents have passed away never knowing where their child was," he said. "Hopefully there are brothers and sisters out there that can reach out to us."