Could inmate help solve a 20-year-old unsolved murder?
HOUSTON (FOX 26) - William Lewis Reece is seen in a white shirt wearing handcuffs. He left his prison cell for a jail cell in Galveston County on February 16th. He’s serving a 60 year sentence for an aggravated kidnapping that occurred in 1997.
The same year aspiring actress Jessica Cain from Tiki Island disappeared.
In the past week, law officers involved in all the digging here on Est Orem have said little, almost nothing in fact.
But back in 2004, LaMarque police sergeant Dennis Macik was digging through boxes and showed us the picture where Cain’s father found his pick-up truck.
“You know that’s the biggest mystery of this whole thing,” Macik said at the time. “Why did she pull over at 2 o’clock in the morning for someone on the freeway.”
And also in 2004, family friend Carolyn Gandara wondered why Cain’s purse was still in the truck.
“She left in a hurry,” Gandara told us back then. “You know any woman who would leave her purse behind?”
After almost 20 years could Reece finally solve this mystery?
While they are not saying so, authorities apparently believe he can based on all the time they’ve spent digging at this field.
One person who would love to see the mystery finally solved is Cain’s childhood friend Stephanie Hardy James.
“Why her? Why the sweetest girl I’ve ever known,” James said. “She did everything she was supposed to, she was the most innocent victim.”
Last fall the Oklahoma State Investigative Bureau charged Reece with murder in the kidnapping and strangulation death of 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston.
Her body was found in Canadian County Oklahoma the day after her car was discovered at a car wash.