Police confirm new developments in the decades-old investigation into multiple deaths near Calder Road.
Police confirmed that longtime Texas Killing Fields suspect Clyde Edwin Hedrick died at 72 after removing his breathing tube while hospitalized during an interview. Prosecutors had been preparing murder charges against him before his death.
A Galveston County grand jury indicted James Dolphs Elmore Jr., 61, of Bacliff, on manslaughter and evidence‑tampering charges related to the deaths of Laura Lynn Miller and Audrey Lee Cook. Authorities say Elmore helped conceal the victims’ remains and provided a vial of cocaine linked to Miller’s death.
Investigators identified four women connected to the Calder Road “Killing Fields”: Heidi Fye, Laura Miller, Audrey Cook, and Donna Prudhomme. They located Fye and Miller in the 1980s. DNA testing later confirmed the identities of Cook and Prudhomme in 2019.
The Calder Road case remains active. Officials continue reviewing other cold cases and leads connected to the site.
A memorial near Calder Road honors the victims. Families, law enforcement, and community members visit regularly to pay their respects and remember the lives lost.
Laura Miller and a Father’s Search for Justice
Laura Miller disappeared on September 10, 1984, after calling her boyfriend from a payphone in League City, Texas. Police initially treated her disappearance as a runaway case, but her father, Tim Miller, refused to accept that explanation.
Seventeen months later, investigators located Laura’s remains along Calder Road. The loss of his daughter changed Tim Miller’s life. Rather than give up, he turned his grief into action and founded Texas EquuSearch, a volunteer organization that helps locate missing people across the country.
Hedrick lived in the area when Laura disappeared, and investigators and families have long considered him a person of interest in the Calder Road murders.
He was later convicted of a separate killing — the 1984 murder of Ellen Beason — a brutal crime in which the victim was bludgeoned and hidden.
Hedrick served years in prison for that murder and was released under Texas parole laws.
Clyde Edwin Hedrick, long considered a suspect in multiple killings tied to the Texas Killing Fields, died in March 2026 while on parole, before authorities could file additional charges against him.
Remembering the Victims: Calder Road Killing Fields Memorial
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