I live in Santa Fe, Texas, just minutes from Calder Road — one of the most notorious dumping grounds tied to the Texas Killing Fields.
Living so close to this site has made this case impossible to ignore, especially now that convicted killer Clyde Hedrick faces another parole review.
The Calder Road Victims
Between 1983 and 1991, investigators found four sets of remains along Calder Road:
• Heidi Marie Villarreal-Fye, 23
• Laura Lynn Miller, 16
• Jane Doe (unidentified)
• Janet Doe (unidentified)
Victims Honored at the Calder Road Memorial
The memorial also honors other women whose cases connect to the wider Texas Killing Fields. These include Audrey Lee Cook and Donna Prudhomme. Although they were not found in the Calder Road field, their tragedies are part of the same heartbreaking history.
Laura Miller’s case is widely known because of her tragic death and the work her father did afterward.
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.
Laura’s killer has never been arrested. Tim Miller has spent decades searching for answers not only about Laura’s death but also for every victim connected to the Texas Killing Fields.
Investigators worked tirelessly, piecing together evidence in the Texas Killing Fields cases, following techniques recommended by the FBI’s Missing Persons & Violent Crime Resources.
The Name That Will Not Go Away: Clyde Edwin Hedrick
One man has remained at the center of suspicion: Clyde Edwin Hedrick.
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.
Because there was not enough physical evidence for a criminal charge in Laura Miller’s death, Tim Miller filed a civil wrongful-death lawsuit. A jury found Hedrick liable and awarded Miller millions of dollars in damages.
However, that ruling did not result in a criminal conviction, and Hedrick has consistently denied involvement in the Calder Road cases.
Parole, Halfway Houses, and Public Fear
In recent years, Hedrick has lived under state parole supervision, including time in a halfway house near Houston. His supervision status has become a renewed source of fear as the parole system periodically considers loosening restrictions.
For the victims’ families, this is deeply unsettling. They believe the man they hold responsible for Laura Miller’s death could one day face fewer restrictions — even though the case was never criminally resolved.
For people who live near the Killing Fields, it raises a frightening question:
Will the Texas Killing Fields Ever Be Solved?
Advances in DNA technology have helped identify some previously unknown victims, giving grieving families long-overdue answers. Yet the Calder Road murders remain officially unsolved.
Clyde Hedrick is no longer in prison. Since his release in 2021, he has been under strict supervised release with GPS monitoring. The parole board is reviewing whether to ease those conditions, a move strongly opposed by victims’ families.
From my home in Santa Fe, Calder Road is never distant — just a quiet stretch of land with terrible secrets. Until someone is held fully accountable, those secrets continue to haunt this community.
The Texas Killing Fields may be silent — but the questions are not.
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