Texas Equusearch holds press conference regarding search for human remains of 'Candy Man' victims
HOUSTON - Nearly 50 years after a notorious serial killer's murder, investigators believe many of the young victims could still be out there.
Officials say Dean Corll, otherwise known as the "Candy Man' or the ‘Pied Piper’ and his two accomplices: David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley were responsible for the murder of about 30 young boys in the Houston area as well as other locations along the Texas gulf. However, law enforcement officials, members of the general public, and Texas Equusearch suspect there are a number of young victims that have not been found.
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In fact, Henley is reported to have said there are more victims out there. And based on a press release from Texas Equusearch, "they actually killed so many … that the heartless predators couldn't remember exactly where they put the victims."
The release adds that investigators have been researching the murders intensely over the last few months and believe there's a chance they can find and recover some of the boys that are still missing.
"Technology has greatly advanced since it became known that the men killed so many kids," the release explains. "Fast forward to today. [sic] There is now a very successful tool available to us today - that the detectives didn’t have in 1973. And we plan to use that tool very soon to locate the other young boys that we believe Corll, Brooks, and Henley murdered, and are still buried out there unfound."
CONTINUOUS COVERAGE ON MISSING PERSONS
It's for this reason, Texas Equusearch held a conference Sunday at 2 p.m. in the 4500 block of Silver Bell St. near Player St. to discuss their intentions as well as plans during the search.
"The young victims died trying to live their lives as a kid, and they innocently accepted the false friendship offers of a killer with underhanded motives," Texas Equusearch said in a press statement. "And it cost them their lives. They did nothing whatsoever that could ever justify anyone torturing and killing them. There is no excuse for the rabid betrayal of the boys."
On Sunday, Aug. 8, 1973, during a fight between Henley and Corll, officials say the former shot Corll several times with a .22 caliber pistol. Henley and Brooks were both serving life sentences for their involvement but Brooks reportedly died on May 28, 2020, at a Galveston hospital while being treated for COVID-19.