Aug. 11, 2007
Dangerous Reunion
Two Women Fight To Keep A Killer Behind Bars
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Play CBS Video Video Wesley Wayne Miller Deposition See more of Wesley Wayne Miller's deposition, taken in Montgomery County, Texas.
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Video Rapist Targeted Cheerleaders Susan Spencer gives Harry Smith a preview of a "48 Hours" story about the murder of high school cheerleader Retha Stratton and the rape of several other cheerleaders.
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Interactive Forensics 101 Find out more about forensics, DNA and some cases in which DNA has made a difference.
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Interactive Crime Beat Statistics and specifics on crime in America.
The very next day, another rape happened just across the street from Lisa’s house and the circumstances were strikingly similar. The victim was the sister of another cheerleader, Roxy McDonnell, who just happened to be dating Wesley Miller.
"And we had just said to the dad, 'Well, he's built like Wesley. And has arms like Wesley's.' And he says, 'Wesley, come here.' And he said, 'Let me see your arm.' And he pulls his arm over. He said, 'You mean it look just like this?' And we're like, 'Yeah,'" Lisa recalls. "And Wesley yanked his arm back and went upstairs. Without saying a word."
Even Roxy had doubts.
Officer Hicks had reported what Lisa had said, but no one connected the dots. "And it was a situation where if I think if we ignore it, it will go away. That was the impression that I got," he remembers.
Police had a sketch of a man seen fleeing the neighborhood after attacking Lisa. Inexplicably, the police never showed the composite to the victims.
Officer Hicks, at some point, had even made a telltale notation at the bottom on that composite: he wrote "Believed to be Wesley Miller." But Hicks says no one ever questioned Miller.
Then again, Wesley’s friends, and not even his victims, could imagine he had anything to do with these crimes.
Amy Moody went to Castleberry High with Retha Stratton, a pal since childhood. The longtime friends graduated in 1981, ready to take on the world. "And we couldn't wait for that day that we graduated so that we could be on our own," Amy remembers.
They moved into a small house, blissfully unaware that a rapist in the area was targeting one-time-cheerleaders, although they had heard some rumors about the rapes.
Amy and Retha changed the locks on their new place, but six weeks had passed since Lisa and her neighbor were raped. Nothing had happened and fears faded.
"Everything got quiet again and that week was the first time that she had started comin' back home by herself again," Amy recalls.
But on Jan. 21, 1982, Amy came home only to make a horrendous discovery.
"She was on the floor. Like maybe he had pushed her in the closet and the closet door opened so she fell out. And she was completely bloody. The knife was still, he had left the knife stickin' in her chest. He had slit her wrists. Her panties were wadded up in her mouth," Amy remembers.
Fort Worth Police Detective Dennis Timmons was first on the scene. "You could follow the blood trail easily out of the living room into the hallway and into Retha's bedroom, and into the closet, and where her body was found," he recalls.
Retha had been stabbed 38 times with a kitchen knife. "She had a look on her face as if to say, you know, 'Vindicate me. I wasn't supposed to die this way.' And I'll never forget that," Timmons remembers.
It took the detective only five hours to zero in on his one and only suspect: Wesley Miller.
A neighbor had seen Wesley's pick-up near Retha’s house at the time of the murder. Police determined that Retha was killed in the late afternoon, between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. Shortly after that, Wesley showed up at his girlfriend Roxy’s house nearby.
"She lets him in the house. He goes to the bathroom, and she can hear him lock the door. And she said that was unusual for him to lock the door," Timmons explains.
Even more unusual, Wesley asked Roxy to wash his jeans, which had blood on them. "He had told her that he had been playing touch football with some of his friends and brothers friends and one of the boys had gotten a nose bleed and bled on them," Timmons tells Spencer.
But after they heard of Retha’s murder, Roxy’s parents turned the jeans over to the police.
Produced By Ian Paisley and Jenna Jackson
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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I know it''s difficult to let things go sometimes. I have had 2, yes 2 brothers murdered as well as my mother was murdered by my stepfather. I can tell you unbelieveable stories of crimes you couldn''t imagine possible.
But that is not why I post my comment. I understand Wesley Miller''s sentence might have been light, but that''s the way justice works sometimes. I know a man that killed another totally in self defense and received a 12 year sentence. I know another man that killed a man by stabbing him in the neck 26 times...he was out of prison in 18 months. Is this fair?? of course not, but it is the way the justice system is designed to work.
By backing up the system causes more problems, more money from taxpayers, etc. When your prison term is up, then it is up. I believe this "civil commitmentment" rules he needs to abide by is a violation of his civil rights. Naturally, a prisoner loses many rights, but no one, NO ONE loses there civil rights, unless mandated by a couple of women who think they deserved to make his sentence, not the jury of his peers.
Yeah, really worked didn't it kids! just pray, too bad it didn't work BEFORE the attack thereby preventing it.
"and then that November, a man raped another young woman in the nearby town of Saginaw. "
I guess SHE didn't PRAY, or she didn't grovel enough maybe!
www.zeitgeist.com
evilbible.com
Posted by Beadazzle at 01:51 AM : Aug 12, 2007
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Nice thought, but that could not help me when I was nine and raped by my brothers in my own bed.
I hope nobody in River Oaks was trying to cover for Wesley, being a small town probably very proud of their football team and thier star player...seems very strange that they didn't show the composite to the victims or question him until it was obvious that he was involved...
Why can't we deport our criminals to China? That would free up prison space...
Seriously, I'm so happy for these women for doing what they did. Still, I wouldn't want him within 1,000 miles of me much less 25.
It's injustice like this that makes me people take matters into their own hands when they have been assualted, raped, etc.
God help us all...
good riddance to that problem
Chemical castration makes more sense from an ethical standpoint. I don't want the state finding reasons to get into the business of deliberate maiming, no matter what the provocation. There are cases--Ted Bundy being the poster child--where the death penalty can be argued as the only protection for the community at large. It may well be that this is one of those cases, but the initial prosecutorial decisions rule out that option. Despite miscarriages of justice, the system should err on the side of caution against system abuse. A society's respect for rule of law has a direct effect on preservation of essential liberties. Justifying judicial vindictiveness risks broadening the range of crimes that can be rationalized to trigger retribution by the state. That's why the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
- by beadazzle August 12, 2007 4:51 AM EDT
- I'm glad these women got what they wanted. I know all to well what it's like to go through life after being raped,only to see that person again some years later,walking freely amongst us wearing one of those monitor bands.
- Reply to this comment
See all 13 CommentsWe just put away a serial rapist murderer called BTK a couple years ago,who started his reign in the 70's then got quiet till the 90's and it turned out it was someone I knew. When he started back up the city of Wichita Ks and Park City KS were on pins and needles once again.
I've learned a lot over the years on how to avoid becoming a victim again,but it's something that the once it happens to you,you'll never get over it,like people tell you to.
To all you women out there,get training in hand guns and martial arts and learn to change your comings and goings routes to places you frequent the most. You will be a lot safer in this world.