Suspected serial killer William Reece was moved from Friendswood to Oklahoma Monday to face murder and kidnapping charges.
DNA recently helped lead Oklahoma City detectives to Reece for the 1997 cold case murder of Tiffany Johnston.
After his trial in Oklahoma, Reece will be returned to Texas to be tried for the murders of 12-year-old Laura Smither of Friendswood and 17-year-old Jessica Cain of La Marque. Both girls were also killed in 1997.
Cain’s body wasn’t found until this year when Reece, in prison for another case, agreed to show authorities where he buried her.
Reece has spent half his life locked up for sexual assaults and kidnapping.
In 1986, he kidnapped his first known victim at the side of an Oklahoma highway.
“He had her perform sexual acts and he duct-taped her and zipped her up into a sleeping bag. She very wisely talked her way out of it,” Casey said. “The odd thing was that once he had done this to her, he talked to her about wanting to marry her.”
That victim was able to escape and Reece was charged.
While he was under indictment in that case, Reece sexually assaulted another woman.
He was convicted, but released from prison after serving only 10 years. That’s when Reece moved to the Houston area. A few months later, girls began to disappear.
In April 1997, Smither vanished while jogging in her Friendswood neighborhood. Her body was later found in a Pasadena pond.
Then months later, on July 15, Kelli Cox from Denton, Texas, disappeared. Her remains were found this year in Brazoria County.
Eleven days later, Johnston disappeared from a Bethany, Oklahoma car wash.
Cain vanished in August 1997 after attending a theater cast party with friends.
