{"id":424487,"date":"2026-09-03T00:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424487\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:28:21","slug":"bacliff-man-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-decades-old-texas-killing-fields-case-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424487\/","title":{"rendered":"Bacliff man convicted of manslaughter in decades-old \u2018Texas Killing Fields\u2019 case \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Tim<\/p>\n

Provided by POOL\/i45NOW<\/p>\n

Tim Miller, moments after the verdict was read convicting James Elmore in the death of Miller\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n

A Galveston County jury has convicted James Elmore, 61, guilty of felony manslaughter and using or exhibiting a deadly weapon in the death of Laura Miller, who disappeared in September 1984 at age 16 in the League City area. The verdict marked the end of the decades-old “Texas Killing Fields” case that went unsolved for over 40 years.<\/p>\n

Tim Miller, Laura’s father, has been seeking justice<\/a> since the day he reported Laura missing in 1984.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Elmore was charged with felony manslaughter and felony tampering with evidence in the death of Laura, as well as an additional tampering with evidence charge in the death of Audrey Cook. <\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

The manslaughter indictment alleged that Elmore prepared a vial of cocaine for his friend and prime suspect, Clyde Hedrick, to administer to Laura. Hedrick took before he was scheduled to face a grand jury, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Elmore pleaded not guilty<\/a> during a pre-trial hearing on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Provided by POOL\/i45NOW<\/p>\n

James Elmore sits in the Galveston County Courthouse on Sept. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

Elmore’s charges are part of a renewed effort to hold accountable those responsible for the deaths of around 30 women, whose bodies were found in an area in Galveston County referred to as the “Texas Killing Fields.”<\/p>\n

The \u201cTexas Killing Fields\u201d area is centered near the intersection of Calder Road and Ervin Street in League City, between Houston and Galveston. Between 1984 and 1991, in particular, four women’s bodies were found and identified as Heidi Fye-Villareal, Cook, Laura and Donna Prudhomme.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the verdict<\/p>\n

During closing arguments Wednesday, Elmore’s defense attorney, Bill Agnew, argued that Elmore didn’t live in the League City area or know Hedrick in 1984, at the time of Laura’s disappearance, based on testimony from Elmore’s sisters. The defense also argued that Elmore fabricated confessions because Tim was paying him for the information.<\/p>\n

The prosecution pointed out that Elmore confessed to Tim and provided specific details that he could have only known if he was involved. They said the details Elmore provided were corroborated by a detective. Prosecutors also pointed out that Elmore confessed details to Tim before he knew about any reward money.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also argued that Elmore could have admitted the details of Laura’s death to Tim to get things off his chest.<\/p>\n

Elmore met with Tim numerous times to talk about Laura’s death. According to Tim, Elmore allegedly said that he prepared a vial of cocaine and handed it to Hedrick, who administered it to Laura.<\/p>\n

Elmore allegedly described seeing Laura shaking, laying back down and taking her last breath. He said Clyde then covered Laura\u2019s body with a “Western-style shirt.”<\/p>\n

This is a breaking story and will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Provided by POOL\/i45NOW Tim Miller, moments after the verdict was read convicting James Elmore in the death of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100871,294,7216,12597,88876,47243,22120,66,8518,223,27,29,84299,28],"class_list":["post-424487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-court-hearing","tag-crime","tag-galveston","tag-galveston-county","tag-james-elmore","tag-laura-miller","tag-league-city","tag-local","tag-manslaughter","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-killing-fields","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}