I live in Santa Fe, Texas, just minutes from Calder Road — one of the most notorious dumping grounds linked 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 is once again under parole review.
The Calder Road Victims
Between 1983 and 1991, four sets of remains were found in the same field along Calder Road.
- Heidi Marie Villarreal-Fye, 23
- Laura Lynn Miller, 16
- Jane Doe (unidentified)
- Janet Doe (unidentified)
All four victims were left in the same remote field along Calder Road, which is why their cases are now permanently tied to the Texas Killing Fields mystery.
Victims Honored at the Calder Road Memorial
The memorial site also honors other women whose cases are linked to the wider Texas Killing Fields.
These include:
Audrey Lee Cook and Donna Prudhomme are also honored at the memorial; however, they were not found in the Calder Road field. Even so, their cases remain part of the same tragic Texas Killing Fields history.
Laura Miller’s case became widely known because of both 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. At first, police treated her disappearance as a runaway. Her father, Tim Miller, refused to accept that.
Seventeen months later, investigators found Laura’s remains along Calder Road.
The loss of his daughter transformed Tim Miller’s life. Instead of giving up, he turned his grief into action and later founded Texas EquuSearch, a volunteer organization that has helped locate missing people across the country.
Laura’s killer was never arrested.
Tim Miller has spent decades searching for the truth — not only for Laura, but for every victim connected to the Texas Killing Fields.
The Name That Will Not Go Away: Clyde Edwin Hedrick
One man has long remained at the center of suspicion: Clyde Edwin Hedrick.
Hedrick lived in the area at the time Laura disappeared and has been identified by investigators and families as a person of interest in the Calder Road murders. He was later convicted of a separate, unrelated killing — the 1984 murder of Ellen Beason, a brutal crime in which the victim was bludgeoned and concealed.
Hedrick served years in prison for that murder but was later released under Texas parole laws.
Because prosecutors lacked the physical evidence needed for a criminal case in Laura Miller’s death, Tim Miller filed a civil wrongful-death lawsuit instead. A jury found Hedrick liable and awarded Miller millions of dollars in damages.
That ruling was not a criminal conviction. Hedrick has never been tried or convicted for the Calder Road murders and has consistently denied involvement.
Parole, Halfway Houses, and Public Fear
In recent years, Hedrick has been living under state parole supervision, including time in a halfway house in the Houston area. His supervision status has become a renewed source of public concern as the Texas parole system periodically reviews whether restrictions should be loosened.
For the families of victims, this is deeply unsettling. They believe the man they hold responsible for Laura Miller’s death could one day live with fewer restrictions — despite the case never being criminally resolved.
For people who live near the Killing Fields, it raises a frightening question:
Will the Texas Killing Fields Ever Be Solved?
Modern DNA technology has helped identify some previously unknown victims, offering long-overdue answers to grieving families. But the Calder Road murders themselves remain officially unsolved.
Clyde Hedrick is no longer behind bars. He was released in 2021 and is now under strict supervised release in a halfway house with GPS monitoring. The parole board is currently reviewing whether those restrictions should be eased — a decision victims’ families strongly oppose.
From where I live in Santa Fe, Calder Road is not some distant crime scene. It is right here — a quiet stretch of land hiding terrible secrets. Until someone is held fully accountable, those secrets will continue to haunt this community.
The Texas Killing Fields may be silent — but the questions are not.