{"id":674504,"date":"2026-03-22T20:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/674504\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T20:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:44:14","slug":"prime-suspect-in-texas-killing-fields-murders-dies-at-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/674504\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime suspect in \u2018Texas Killing Fields\u2019 murders dies at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 A man who long remained a prime suspect in the so-called \u201cTexas Killing Fields\u201d murders has died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Clyde Edwin Hedrick, 72, was taken to a Houston hospital last week and died on March 21 at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">For more than four decades, Hedrick had been considered a prime suspect in the murders of Laura Miller, Heide Villareal Fye, Audrey Cook and Donna Prudhomme. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>R<\/b><b>ELATED: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/news\/investigates\/2025\/12\/04\/texas-killing-fields-suspect-under-parole-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>\u2018Texas Killing Fields\u2019 suspect under parole review<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">He was never charged in any of the cases and maintained his innocence during an interview with 2 Investigates in August 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hitchcock Police Detective Corey Williams said he met with Hedrick at the hospital the day before he died. While Hedrick could not speak, Williams said he indicated he was not involved in the murders. However, Williams added that Hedrick\u2019s death does not mark the end of the investigation, though he declined to elaborate further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIf I live till December, I\u2019ll be 80 years old,\u201d said Laura\u2019s father, Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch. \u201cI\u2019m going to fight this till my dying breath.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Miller has spent more than four decades pushing for progress in the investigation. He maintains a memorial for the victims at the field where their bodies were discovered off Calder Road in League City between 1984 and 1991.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hedrick was identified early on as a suspect in the murders of Miller and Fye. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">2 Investigates has covered the cases extensively over the years, most recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/news\/investigates\/2024\/10\/17\/the-evidence-room-episode-39-the-texas-killing-fields-part-4\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/news\/investigates\/2024\/10\/17\/the-evidence-room-episode-39-the-texas-killing-fields-part-4\/\">in \u201cThe Evidence Room,\u201d a four-part documentary that aired in 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cVery early on, right after Laura\u2019s body was found, Clyde\u2019s name was brought up,\u201d Miller said in August 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Miller said Hedrick lived just a few doors down from his family when they resided in Dickinson. He also said his daughter\u2019s boyfriend recalled Hedrick speaking with Laura and described his demeanor as unsettling. Hedrick, however, claimed he did not know he lived near the Millers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Retired FBI agent Richard Rennison said witness accounts contradict Hedrick\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWe had witnesses who said he knew her and would talk to her, and one person said she saw Laura on the back of his motorcycle at one point,\u201d said Rennison, who served on a task force investigating several unsolved murders in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Fye\u2019s niece, Nina Jager, also said she remembered seeing Hedrick at her aunt\u2019s apartment. Fye worked as a bartender and waitress at the Texas Moon, a popular League City bar frequented by Hedrick in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cI told the police that. I actually picked out his photo,\u201d Jager said. \u201cI picked his photo out of a binder of people and said, \u2018That guy came to her house.\u2019 I didn\u2019t even know who he was at the time, but I knew I recognized him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hedrick initially denied knowing Fye or visiting her apartment but later acknowledged he may have known her from the Texas Moon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThere was one witness who said they saw Heide in a car with Clyde at one point,\u201d Rennison said. \u201cWe had a whiteboard with all these names on it. Slowly they were crossed off, ruled out one way or another, but we could never rule out Clyde.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>SEE ALSO: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/video\/houston-life\/2024\/05\/25\/from-their-headquarters-in-dickinson-texas-equusearch-brings-closure-for-grieving-families\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>From their headquarters in Dickinson, Texas EquuSearch brings closure for grieving families<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Fye\u2019s father documented his own investigation into his daughter\u2019s disappearance and murder through journals and cassette recordings. A friend of Fye\u2019s also said Hedrick knew her, and Joseph Villareal recalled a League City detective expressing doubts about Hedrick\u2019s truthfulness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cHe told us his opinion of this guy Clyde and how he knows the guy\u2019s lying when he talks to him,\u201d Villareal said in one of several recorded tapes. \u201cHe showed us photos of Clyde from when he was in prison and more recent ones. He believed there was a connection and was trying to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The sister of Donna Prudhomme, Dianne Gonsoulin, said one of her nephews remembered seeing Hedrick during one of his mother\u2019s last trips home. Prudhomme\u2019s sons were living with their grandparents in Ville Platte, Louisiana, while she was living in the Nassau Bay area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Gonsoulin said she last saw the boys during a trip in 1989. Prudhomme\u2019s body was discovered in 1991 but was not identified until 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">After her sister was identified, Gonsoulin said she showed a photo of Hedrick to one of Prudhomme\u2019s surviving sons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWithin seconds he called me saying, \u2018That\u2019s him, Aunt Diane, that\u2019s him,\u2019\u201d Gonsoulin said. \u201cHe said he remembered what he looked like\u2014his clothes, his eyes, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hedrick denied knowing Prudhomme or traveling to Louisiana during that time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hedrick was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with the 1984 death of Ellen Rae Beason. Most recently, he had been living at a parole halfway house in southwest Houston and remained under the state\u2019s highest level of supervision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cDo I have any doubt in my mind that he\u2019s potentially suitable for several of those girls? Absolutely,\u201d said Lt. Tommy Hansen, who retired from the Galveston County Sheriff\u2019s Office. \u201cAll of them\u2014I\u2019m not going to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 A man who long remained a prime suspect in the so-called \u201cTexas Killing Fields\u201d murders has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":674505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[284455,284458,284459,284456,6679,284454,4345,16844,284453,358,284457,235147,3187],"class_list":["post-674504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-audrey-cook","tag-calder-rd","tag-clyde-hedrick","tag-donna-prudhomme","tag-galveston-county","tag-heide-fye","tag-houston","tag-investigates","tag-laura-miller","tag-texas","tag-texas-killing-fields","tag-tim-miller","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116274782184135274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}