Latest news with #OdessaCrimeStoppers
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
A murder in a bar, a crowd that disappeared and a case still unsolved
Editor's Note: In the video above, Susan Rogers of Odessa Crime Stoppers explains how local law enforcement actively reviews cold cases. She addresses the challenges of decades-old investigations and the time involved in processing evidence and DNA with today's technology. ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- It was a Friday night, May 1, 1981, when officers were called to El Casino Club, a bar located at 500 South Grant Avenue in Odessa. The dispatch came in for a stabbing. Beneath one of the pool tables inside the club lay 24-year-old Reymundo A. Hernandez. He had suffered a single stab wound to the chest. Paramedics transported him to Medical Center Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. That was 44 years ago. Since then, no one has ever been arrested. At the time of Reymundo's murder, Odessa was already showing signs of a deeper problem. The oil industry was beginning to collapse, and violent crime was rising in its wake. Bars and clubs, once rowdy but routine, were becoming dangerous. By the following year, Odessa would make national headlines as the murder capital of the United States, with 29.8 homicides per 100,000 residents, a rate higher than Miami at the height of cartel violence. Oil boom & bloodshed: The 1982 murders that turned Odessa into 'Murder Town, USA' 'There's a general feeling of nervousness, if not growing fear, floating around our community…' Odessa American reporter Ken Brodnax wrote in March 1982, in an article titled Fear Intensifies as Area Murder Rate Climbs. Another Odessa officer later told The New York Times, 'When the oilfield went dry, a lot of people started leaving. A lot stayed, and got mad.' Law enforcement was overwhelmed. Odessa Police Chief Alan Stewart was blunt about it:'If you want me to say we're inefficient,' he told The Odessa American, 'the answer is yes.' There were no surveillance cameras in 1981. Forensic science was still decades away from the breakthroughs that make cold case investigations possible today. Back then, everything relied on witnesses, on someone being brave enough to speak up. 'Cases from that era are hard,' Rogers said. 'There were no cell phones, no security footage. You depended entirely on human memory, on handwritten notes, and on whoever stayed behind when the lights came on.' In Reymundo's case, few did. According to police, the El Casino Club was crowded that night, but no one came forward with usable information. The investigation stalled early, and over the years, leads dried up. 'It's heartbreaking,' Rogers said. 'He was 24. Somebody's son. Possibly someone's brother. A friend. And now, all these years later, we don't even have a photograph in the file.' Rogers says the absence of even a single photo makes the case feel even colder. 'When we put these stories out to the public, we want people to remember that the victim was a real person,' she said. 'It's difficult when we don't even have a face to show. It makes it that much easier for a case to be forgotten.' She's asking for help, not just from potential witnesses but from family, friends, former classmates, coworkers, and anyone who might still have a photo or memory of Reymundo. 'Even if you don't know anything about what happened that night, even if it's just a photo, that could be the difference between a cold case and a person whose story we can actually tell,' Rogers said. The case is currently assigned to cold case investigators. Rogers says both the Odessa Police Department and the Ector County Sheriff's Office have dedicated investigators who routinely go through these old files. 'They don't get to work on just cold cases,' Rogers explained. 'These investigators also have to manage current assaults, homicides, missing persons, and more. So they work through cold cases as best they can, when time and evidence allows.' Cold cases are labor-intensive. It can take weeks, sometimes months, just to read through a single file. Many are stored in boxes full of handwritten notes, old photographs, and fading paperwork. DNA testing, when possible, must be sent off to labs with long backlogs. Results can take months or even a year to come back. 'And if they get a DNA result,' Rogers said, 'that opens the door to a whole new round of interviews, background checks, and comparison testing. It's not like it is on TV. It is not a fast process by any means.' Still, despite limited resources and time, the work is ongoing. 'These investigators haven't given up,' Rogers said. 'Their sole job is to look at cold cases. they take them personally, they look at each one of them, and they look at them personally and how they would feel and put themselves in those families' places, and they want to get those cases solved. It's a big deal to them to get those cases solved. ' Reymundo Hernandez never got justice. He never got to grow old. Today, his name is still on a list of unsolved homicides in Ector County. But beyond the paperwork and the police reports, there's still a chance to give him back his humanity. 'Even if you think what you know isn't important, it might be,' Rogers said. 'Or maybe you don't know anything at all, but you have a photo. That's just as powerful. Help us give him more than a name in a file.' If you have any information about the 1981 murder of Reymundo A. Hernandez, or if you have a photo or memory you're willing to share, please contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or submit a tip anonymously through the P3 Tips app. Tips that lead to an arrest or meaningful development in the case may be eligible for a cash reward. Gabriella Meza is a journalist and digital reporter for ABC Big 2 News. This article is part of her ongoing series, produced in partnership with Odessa Crime you or someone you know has information related to this case or would like to contribute a photo or memory for future coverage, email her at gmeza@ case tips or anonymous reports, contact Odessa Crime Stoppers directly.) Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Jane Doe no more: Remembering the unsolved murder of Dorothy 'Marie' Garlington
Editor's Note: In the video above, Susan Rogers of Odessa Crime Stoppers explains how local law enforcement actively reviews cold cases. She addresses the challenges of decades-old investigations and the time involved in processing evidence and DNA with today's technology. ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – On a spring afternoon in 1977, three men were out hunting rattlesnakes in a remote patch of West Texas when they stumbled upon something far more unexpected than a serpent. Among the mesquite bushes, weeds, and caliche, they found a decomposing body, abandoned, beaten, and forgotten in the brush northeast of Odessa. It would take weeks before authorities could even identify the young woman. But nearly five decades later, we know her name: Dorothy 'Marie' Horton Garlington. She was just 19 years old. She was known to many as 'Marie.' She had only been in Odessa about six months and worked as a go-go dancer at the Kon Tiki Lounge off 14th and Grant. The last time anyone reported seeing her alive was around May 4, 1977, walking away from the club. She never made it home. Dorothy's body was found on May 22, 1977, in a field near Loop 338. 18 days after she was reportedly last seen. She had suffered massive trauma to her head, her jaw shattered, her skull crushed. A blood-covered rock was discovered near the body and is believed to have been the murder weapon. Her cause of death was from blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Medical Examiner's reports. At the time, law enforcement had no way of knowing who she was. There were no missing person reports, no one waiting at a police station, no frantic phone calls from a family member. Days passed, and her body, which was badly decomposed, was ultimately buried under the name 'Jane Doe' in an Odessa Cemetery. More of The Big 2 Files: After 44 years and a dig through concrete, Judie Munguia is still missing According to Ector County Sheriff's records from the time, she was wearing black shorts, one sandal, and costume jewelry rings. A white blouse was found nearby. From the time she was found (May 22) until July 8, 1977, when deputies found her fingerprints in their files, Dorothy's identity was a mystery. It was only by chance that a sheriff's investigator decided to sift through fingerprint records at the Odessa Police Department. A minor shoplifting arrest two months prior, Dorothy had stolen a $5 small set of cosmetics, which provided the only fingerprint match…She was finally identified. 'The investigator at the time went over to the Odessa Police Department and was going through some fingerprint files, just seeing if they could find anything, and he just stumbled upon these fingerprints from this case a few weeks earlier,' Rogers said. Dorothy 'Marie' Garlington was born to Mr. Eston W. Horton and Mrs. Neida Gay Henry, who at the time reportedly lived in Nederland, Texas. At just 19 years old, she had recently moved to Odessa, where she lived intermittently in local motels and worked in several bars under the name 'Marie.' According to previous reports from that time, she had previously been married and divorced. Though she had few known local connections, she was still someone's daughter, a young woman navigating early adulthood in a new city. Her life, like so many who at the time came and went in oilfield towns, left behind only fragments: a fingerprint from a petty arrest, a white blouse found near her body, and scattered recollections from those who briefly crossed her path. But behind those pieces was a person. A young girl who never made it home. According to archived reports, Garlington had been working at several local clubs. Investigators interviewed bar staff and fellow performers, but few remembered her personally. Contemporary coverage reflected a notable lack of empathy. One bar manager, interviewed in 1978, focused more on Garlington's appearance and popularity with customers than on who she was as a person. Few coworkers remembered her beyond her stage name, 'Marie,' or the fact that she could dance. Yet the absence of personal recollection does not diminish the fact that she was a person, a person whose life and death mattered. Law enforcement interviewed numerous individuals during the initial investigation. 'I know a lot of people were talked to because of the type of work she did,' said Susan Rogers of Crime Stoppers. 'She came across a lot of people… There have been hundreds of hours of investigation on this case.' Reports had also shown that prior to her death, she had been in a relationship with a man that others described as 'physically abusive' and who had previously threatened her life. But according to those same reports, he had been ruled out as a suspect for unspecified reasons. When her identity was eventually confirmed weeks later, law enforcement notified her family. According to officials, her parents chose not to have her remains moved. Dorothy Marie Garlington remains buried in Odessa, in the same grave that was originally marked for a Jane Doe. 'She's still buried here in Odessa,' Rogers said. 'Her family decided to leave her where she was.' The case is now more than four decades old. Despite hundreds of hours of investigative work, no arrests were ever made. Garlington's death was part of a troubling pattern of unsolved cases in West Texas during the late 1970s and early 1980s. A 1978 Odessa American report listed eight violent deaths that remained unsolved, including another dancer, 26-year-old Eula Mae 'Kay' Rogers Miller, who was found stabbed in her Odessa apartment in July 1970. Her murder, like Garlington's, remains open. While no known connection exists between the two women, both worked in the city's nightlife scene and were killed under violent, unresolved circumstances. Miller's story will be featured in KMID/KPEJ's July Cold Case Spotlight. By the late 1970s, law enforcement agencies in the Permian Basin were battling a spike in crime. Overwhelmed departments struggled to keep pace with rapid population growth and an uptick in violent offenses. Sheriff Elton Faught acknowledged the burden, telling reporters in 1978, 'Investigations in cases like this are always continuing…' And Garlington's case is one of them: still open, still active, and still surrounded by questions her family hopes one day to have answered. 'She's got family that really are still interested,' Rogers said. 'I've talked with her sister, who lives down in Houston… they still have a lot of questions about what happened and why nobody's ever been arrested.' Garlington's murder was also among the earliest in what would become a deadly pattern. Just a few years later, Odessa would earn national infamy as the city with the highest murder rate in the United States. In March 1982 alone, four people were killed within three weeks, their cases still unsolved more than 40 years later. To learn more about how the wave of violence escalated, and the victims whose stories remain untold, read KMID/KPEJ's special investigation: Dorothy Marie Garlington was young. She was far from home. And though her time in Odessa was brief, her life mattered. More than 40 years have passed since she was found in a quiet field outside town, her name unknown, and her story nearly lost. But today, investigators are still searching for answers. Her case is still active. And her name is no longer forgotten. Anyone with information about the 1977 murder of Dorothy Marie Garlington is urged to contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or submit a tip anonymously through the P3 Tips app or on their website. Even the smallest detail could help close a case that's been open for decades and bring justice to a young woman who never got the chance to grow old. A reward may be available for information that leads to an arrest or resolution in the case. Gabriella Meza is a Journalist/Digital Reporter with ABC Big 2 News. This story is part of her monthly Cold Case Spotlight series in partnership with Odessa Crime Stoppers. If you or a loved one knows something regarding this case or others and would like to add something to an article, contact her at gmeza@ (Contact Odessa Crime Stoppers regarding case information.) Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘Somebody knows who did this': The unsolved murder of Eddie Hernandez Palma
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- Five years have passed since Eddie Hernandez Palma was fatally stabbed in Odessa. His home, once a place of weekend car washes and family check-in calls, became the scene of a crime that remains unsolved. It was just before 1 a.m. on April 17, 2020, when Odessa Police were called to 2502 North Tom Green Avenue. There, they found Palma, 52, suffering from multiple stab wounds. Despite first responders' efforts, he died shortly after. In the days that followed, investigators pieced together fragments of what happened. Surveillance footage from a nearby gas station showed Eddie speaking briefly with an unidentified man. The man, described only as a Hispanic male, was driving a silver Toyota Prius, an older model, believed to be from between 1997 and 2003. It had paper tags and a spare tire on the front right side. Surveillance footage from OPD: What was said between the two men remains unclear. Moments after the exchange, Eddie was seen leaving the parking lot. Police believe he was already wounded by the time he returned home, where the 911 call was eventually made. Eddie Hernandez Palma was born and raised in Odessa. He was a son, a brother, a father, and a grandfather. Known by his family as someone who prioritized his loved ones, he made a habit of calling his children and grandchildren to check in, and he found joy in family gatherings. On Saturdays, without fail, he could be found outside washing his cars, listening to oldies, and enjoying the West Texas sun. He was also a man of faith, someone who regularly visited St. Mary's to light candles in prayer. He had a deep admiration for the U.S. military and took great pride in his brother's service to the country. Eddie is remembered not only by his children and grandchildren but also by his girlfriend Vanessa Munoz and the children he helped care for. His death left a ripple of grief through a large and loving family. His father, siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins continue to wait for answers. Despite interviews, billboards, evidence reviews, and community outreach, no arrests have been made. The person seen in the surveillance video has never been publicly identified. The silver Toyota Prius, with its spare tire and temporary plates, has yet to lead investigators to a suspect. 'Someone knows who this is,' said Susan Rogers, CEO of Odessa Crime Stoppers. 'The person who stabbed him didn't just disappear. Somebody recognizes that car. Somebody knows who was driving it.' As part of ongoing efforts to solve local cold cases, Odessa Crime Stoppers is renewing the call for information. Investigators believe even a small tip, a memory, a name, a license plate seen at the time, could be the key to justice. If you have any information about the 2020 murder of Eddie Hernandez Palma, you are urged to contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or visit to submit a secure anonymous tip. Tips can also be submitted through the P3 Tips app, and cash rewards are available for information that leads to an arrest. 'You will remain anonymous,' Rogers emphasized. 'And your information could help bring peace to a family that has waited four long years.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
From a night out to a 50-year mystery: A look inside one of Odessa's oldest cold cases
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- It's one of the oldest cold cases still on file in Odessa. More than 50 years ago, 62-year-old Edwin Woodrow Howell was found lying in a downtown alley with fatal head injuries, a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. On the night of April 3, 1975, Odessa police were dispatched to the alley behind the Drillers Club, near 2nd Street and Grant Avenue. When officers arrived, they found Howell lying on his back in the dirt with visible trauma to his head. He was rushed to Medical Center Hospital, but despite doctors' efforts, Howell died the following day. According to witnesses, Howell had spent the earlier part of the evening inside the Drillers Club, a popular gathering spot at the time. He had reportedly been playing dominoes, but grew frustrated after losing several games. Witnesses say he eventually left in irritation, bringing the gathering to an abrupt end. What happened after Howell walked out that door remains a mystery. Police were never able to confirm if Howell returned to the club that night, only that he ended up in the alley with injuries serious enough to take his life. No suspect was ever named. No motive was ever confirmed. 'There's not a lot of information in this case… that is literally all they gave me,' said Susan Rogers, CEO of Odessa Crime Stoppers. 'I called the PD and I said, 'Who is Edward Howell?' and that was it. He was lying on his back with trauma to his head. I don't even have a picture. But there's enough there that investigators believe he was murdered.' Today, Howell's death is considered one of Odessa's oldest unsolved homicides. There are no surviving detailed police reports. No photographs. No known relatives. As time passed, the case went cold, and Howell, a man who once lived and laughed and lost a few games of dominoes, was slowly lost to time. Still, Rogers and Odessa Crime Stoppers are determined not to let him be forgotten. 'We would love for a relative to reach out,' Rogers said. 'If you knew Edwin Woodrow Howell, if you're family, even if you just remember him from back then, please contact us. Even a photo would help.' Crime Stoppers is actively seeking help not just to solve Howell's murder, but to rebuild his story…to give a face and a history to a man who has, until now, remained just a name in a 50-year-old file. If you have any information about the 1975 death of Edwin Woodrow Howell, or if you knew him personally, you are encouraged to contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or submit a tip anonymously at Tips can also be submitted through the P3 Tips app, and a cash reward is available for information leading to an arrest. 'This is a 50-year-old case,' Rogers said. 'But time doesn't change the fact that he deserves justice.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Yahoo
Stabbed and left in a field near I-20: Who killed Lawrence Dell Salisbury?
Editor's note: Crime Stoppers reminds viewers that it's never too late to help solve a cold case. Information can be shared anonymously. ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – Just before midnight on April 29, 2014, Ector County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a 911 call. A body had been found in an open field off Parkway, just south of Interstate 20 in Odessa. The body of 59-year-old Lawrence Dell Salisbury, also known by the aliases Larry Salisbury and Lawrence Kitchens, was found lying in the dirt, hidden by tall grass and silence. He had been stabbed multiple times in the upper torso. Investigators believe he had been killed elsewhere and left in the field overnight. Today, more than a decade later, Salisbury's case remains unsolved. No suspects have ever been arrested. No one has ever been charged. 'We want people to remember these names,' said Susan Rogers, CEO of Odessa Crime Stoppers. 'Because these cases are still open. They still matter.' Not long after Salisbury was found, law enforcement released an 'Attempt to Locate' bulletin for a woman who may have been the last seen with Lawrence. The woman was last seen the day before Lawrence was found, April 28, 2014, at the McDonald's inside Love's Truck Stop in Andrews, Texas. Her image was captured on surveillance footage, but it's unknown whether she was ever located. 'She might have just been a witness,' Rogers explained. 'Someone who saw him last or had a conversation with him before this happened. If you recognize her, or if you are her, we just want to talk. We're still hoping to learn more.' The passage of time has made the case more difficult. Evidence ages. Witnesses move. Memories fade. But Rogers says that also brings new opportunities. 'Sometimes people are afraid to talk when it first happens,' she said. 'But now, ten years later, maybe they're ready.' She emphasized that no tip is too small, whether it's a memory of seeing someone near the field, a comment overheard in passing, or someone who simply remembers Salisbury. 'Even if you're not sure it's important, let us decide that,' Rogers said. 'Because sometimes it's the tiniest piece that solves the puzzle. If you have any information about the 2014 murder of Lawrence Dale Salisbury, or if you recognize the woman last seen with him at the Andrews Love's Truck Stop, please contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or submit a tip online at Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the P3 Tips app, and a cash reward is available for information that leads to an arrest. 'You don't have to know everything,' Rogers said. 'Even the smallest tip could be the missing piece.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
