Detailed update on TX SK Kenneth Allen McDuff,bodies of 3 early 1990's victims are found in past week
Joe1orbit
Hello,
Here is an interesting update on serial killer Kenneth Allen McDuff, already
on death row for two murders, and now believed to have committed at LEAST SIX
serial murders, and a PRIME suspect in THIRTEEN serial killings, dating back
all the way to 1966. Kenneth's case really is quite interesting. He was
arrested in the late 1960's, put on trial for killing 3 teens, found guilty,
AND sentenced to the death penalty. In 1972 however, his death penalty sentence
was commuted to Life in prison WITH parole eligibility. And in October of 1989
he DID win parole, despite having been convicted of the 3 killings. He served
about....6-7 years in jail for each of the 3 killings.
You might think that Kenneth would REJOICE in his freedom, having beaten the
odds TWICE, first in getting his death sentence commuted, and secondly in
winning parole after serving 18-20 years in prison on a triple murder
conviction. And Kenneth probably DID rejoice in being free. But he did NOT
abandon or deny the genuine, True Reality rage and hate that motivated him to
commit the 3 murders in 1966. Nope, Kenneth decided to RESUME his killing
career upon his 1989 release. And he didn't waste much time. Police think he
started claiming more lives just 12 months or so after his release. He killed
at LEAST 3 additional victims, all women, before being captured again and put
on trial again for murder. He was found guilty of two NEW 1990's era killings,
and is now on death row for the SECOND time in his life! Wow, that is quite a
journey. Kenneth went from death row, to life in prison, to FREEDOM, back to
prison, and back to death row.
We learn below that Kenneth REFUSED to tell police where the dead bodies of
his 1990's victims had been dumped or buried by him. That was wise of him. But
in recent weeks some kind of a "source" came forward and told police that
he/she KNEW where the bodies of Kenneth's victims were buried. But police
refuse to IDENTIFY this source of info. My GUESS would be that the source might
be a fellow inmate that Kenneth FOOLISHLY may have confided in.
Anyway, authorities have been busy DIGGING and searching these newly
revealed dump sites of Kenneth's, and they HAVE had a lot of success. In the
past week, they have located THREE bodies. Coupled with the 3 1966 killings,
this gives Kenneth a CONFIRMED kill total of 6. Police also say that there MAY
be additional bodies of victims, and they are continuing to search these
specific dump sites.
I certainly hope that Kenneth claims full credit for ALL of his killings,
before he is legally murdered. Hopefully he will NEVER be so murdered by your
perverse society, but I think it's clear that Kenneth stands NO legitimate
chance of winning parole again, so at some point in time he SHOULD claim full
credit for all of his harvestings, and at least get his kill total correct and
complete and confirmed, in the historical Books of Blood.
If you would like to view photos of the dump site, victim Colleen Reed, and
most importantly, a photo of Kenneth himself, as well as to link to an ARCHIVE
of more than TEN different articles on Kenneth, simply point your web browser
to:
http://www.austin360.com/news/001metro/10oct/07/7colleenmcduff.htm
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
Killer's Victims May Be Located
WACO, Texas (AP) -- Since 1991, the whereabouts of several women believed slain
by serial killer Kenneth Allen McDuff had remained secret.
Now police believe they have located the bodies of three victims in the past
week, and there still could be more.
On Tuesday night, skeletal remains that could be from the body of Austin
accountant Colleen Reed were found by authorities using shovels and a bulldozer
along the Brazos River.
``We've just seen a part of it. Now, we are deciding how to excavate it,''
Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon said.
All the discoveries have come with the help of a source officials have yet to
identify. On Saturday, a body believed to be that of Brenda Thompson, a
prostitute, was found off a road north of Waco.
Remains believed to be those of another McDuff victim, Reginia Moore, were
found last Wednesday near Waco. All three women were last seen in 1991. McDuff
has been convicted of Ms. Reed's death, but he was never charged with the other
two.
McDuff was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1966 murders of three
teen-agers, but that sentence was commuted to life in 1972 when the U.S.
Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional.
He was paroled in October 1989 but was later convicted of Ms. Reed's murder and
another killing. He again was sentenced to death, but his execution was stayed
last month to give him more time to appeal.
AP-NY-10-07-98
----------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of today's Reuters news wire:
Body of McDuff Victim Believed Found
10/07/98
Reuters
(AUSTIN) -- Searchers in Falls County believe they have recovered the body of a
woman who was kidnapped from an Austin car wash in 1991 by convicted serial
killer Kenneth McDuff. Police found the body they say is Colleen Reed's in a
shallow grave near the Brazos River. The bodies of two other women believed to
be victims of McDuff were found last week. McDuff is on death row for the Reed
killing and another murder.
------------------------------------------------------------
The following three news articles all appear courtesy of the 10/7/98 online
edition of The Austin American-Statesman newspaper:
Body found near Waco
may end 7-year mystery
Colleen Reed's 1991 disappearance shocked Austin
and led to conviction of serial killer McDuff
By Leah Quin, Dylan Rivera
and Christian Davenport
American-Statesman Staff
Published: Oct. 7, 1998
MARLIN -- In a shallow, sandy grave along the Brazos River, authorities found a
body Tuesday evening they think is Austin accountant Colleen Reed's, whose 1991
abduction from a downtown Austin carwash shattered Austin's sense of security.
Reed, 28, a Louisiana native who worked for the Lower Colorado River Authority,
was kidnapped from a West Fifth Street carwash about 9 p.m. Dec. 29, 1991, as
she scrubbed her new, white Mazda Miata convertible. Witnesses heard one
scream, and then she was gone.
The random crime, coming just three weeks after the still-unsolved yogurt shop
murders, in which four teen-age girls were shot as they cleaned up a North
Austin store, swiftly earned Austin a big-city reputation for inexplicable
violence.
When Reed's murderer was identified as one of Texas' most notorious serial
killers, fear turned to outrage. Kenneth Allen McDuff, once on death row for
the murder of a Fort Worth teen-ager, had been turned loose in 1989. Within two
years, authorities said, he had killed two women and was a suspect in the
deaths of several others.
McDuff received death sentences in the murders of Reed and Melissa Northrup, a
pregnant Waco convenience store clerk. He has never admitted killing either.
"Colleen became everybody's sister," said Reed's sister, Lori Bible of Round
Rock.
If the body is Reed's, it will be the third of McDuff's believed victims found
in less than a week. Acting on the advice of an informant they have declined to
identify, Central Texas authorities have excavated the remains believed to be
of Reginia Moore and Brenda Thompson in McLennan County, near Waco.
Authorities received a tip about the body they believed to be Reed's sometime
Monday evening but had to postpone their search because of rain, said Bill
Johnston, assistant U.S. attorney from Waco who has been following McDuff's
case for six years.
The tip led them to Falls on the Brazos Park, a state park along FM 712 in
Falls County several miles southwest of Marlin, and about 15 miles northeast of
McDuff's hometown of Rosebud.
Because the tip was less detailed than the tips about the location of the other
two bodies, investigators at sunrise began searching a site about the size of a
football field, peeling off a layer of dirt with a front-end loader.
"We were getting frustrated because we didn't know if we were going to find
her," Johnston said.
The exhaustive effort paid off about 6 p.m., when the remains were found
beneath a tree about 100 feet from the south bank of the Brazos River and about
100 yards from FM 712. The site is rural and desolate, without a building in
sight.
"I thank the good Lord that we were able to be here today. It was
unbelievable," Johnston said. "We could never have imagined ever finding one,
much less three, unaccounted for (bodies) -- and all related to McDuff."
Authorities finished removing the remains about 10:20 p.m., packed up their
floodlights, filled in the hole and left the scene.
Although authorities believe the remains are Reed's, Johnston said there was no
jewelry or other physical evidence that immediately linked them to her.
Johnston said forensic tests will be conducted to determine whether the remains
belong to Reed. He said the Austin Police Department will be in charge of
identifying the remains.
"Only science can prove who this is," Johnston said.
Detectives on the scene near Marlin said it may be four to five months before
the remains of both prior victims may be positively identified using DNA
testing. Johnston said he hopes dental records will allow Reed's body to be
identified more quickly.
Authorities said they expect the body found Tuesday to be the last in their
investigation.
The tips, which began arriving before McDuff's recent stay of execution, have
nothing to do with McDuff's legal status, said Johnston, one of the three main
investigators on the McDuff case. Nor did authorities make any deals for the
information, he said.
"No one will get a deal on this. This won't lead to a deal for any accomplice,"
he said.
Johnston would not reveal who the informant is or how the information arrived
except to say, "The information is, 'McDuff killed this one, this is where she
is.'"
Decades on death row
Condemned to die by three separate juries, McDuff is the only death row inmate
in the state's history to return there after being paroled.
McDuff first killed in 1966. He shot two teen-age boys, then raped and
strangled their female friend with a broomstick. For her murder, he was
sentenced to die.
But in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.
McDuff's sentence was commuted to life in prison, which at the time meant as
few as 15 years behind bars with good behavior.
By 1989, he was out. That same year, the beaten and strangled body of a
29-year-old Temple woman was found lying in a field of tall grass in southeast
Temple. Although authorities have long suspected McDuff, her case remains
unsolved.
From then to March 1992, four more Central Texas women either went missing or
were found dead. One of them was Reed.
"The evidence shows this person is everybody's nightmare," said a McLennan
County prosecutor during McDuff's trial for the murder of Melissa Northrup.
"It's the monster who comes out of the dark and snatches innocent people off
the street and slaughters them."
The Reed case prompted an explosion of public outrage, leading to several
changes in state law governing paroles. In all, McDuff was responsible for at
least three investigations of parole board policies by grand juries and
legislative committees, a slew of bills aimed at slowing parole for convicted
killers and the perjury indictment of a former parole board head.
McDuff was scheduled to die Oct. 21, but last month, his execution was
postponed while a judge considers McDuff's federal appeal.
The convicted serial killer supposedly is ill with both hepatitis C and
cirrhosis of the liver. He has said natural causes will finish him off him
before the state does.
Remembering Reed
Colleen Reed was a tomboy, the youngest of four girls growing up in Ville
Platte, La., a town of about 10,000 in Cajun country. As a child, Reed would
ride her Shetland pony through tree limbs, get knocked off, hop back up and
"sock" her pony before jumping right back on, family members have said.
Always described as a bright and gregarious person, Reed also was the
definition of a hard worker, finishing high school in three years instead of
four and enrolling at Louisiana State University at age 16.
Reed, who stood 5 feet and 3 inches tall and weighed 115 pounds, had
shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. She was an ordinary person who had
an extraordinary impact on those around her, said Mark Rose, general manager at
the Lower Colorado River Authority, where she worked as an accountant.
Friends called her a nature and animal lover, an environmentalist, a good
friend who loved the color pink, and a dedicated worker who was promoted twice
in three years.
Reed started her day that Dec. 29 by volunteering with the LCRA flood hot line.
She went to Mass at the St. John Neumann Catholic Church, then to lunch with
her boyfriend, Oliver Guerra. She took a nap that afternoon, which she told
Guerra later she regretted because she needed to run errands. So, as darkness
fell on that warm December evening, Reed put on her pink and ivory plaid
jacket, slipped into her white Miata sports car and began the routine tasks
that would end so horribly.
Police found receipts in her car that showed she stopped by a cash machine to
deposit money, went grocery shopping and then headed to the carwash in the 1500
block of West Fifth Street, arriving about 9 p.m. Police found the car streaked
with soap suds, abandoned, Reed's purse still inside.
Reed's disappearance so affected and galvanized Austin that the Austin City
Council even passed an official resolution Jan. 30, 1992, imploring anyone who
knew where she was to come forward. The sight of her sisters crying on local
television news programs, pleading for her safe return, became a lasting image
of the Reed case, as did the pink ribbons her sisters wore in her honor.
"Colleen has really not been lost with us as far as an identity," Rose said.
Family gets call
Bible, Reed's sister, said that sometime between 6 and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday,
authorities from the U.S. Attorney's Office called her and told her that they
had found what they thought to be the remains of her sister.
Bible said she faced the moment she thought would never happen after almost
seven years of waiting.
"I was very surprised," Bible said. "My sister and I had been crying because we
had given up hope," she said, in an interview which she gave at her Round Rock
home on Tuesday night.
She said her family would bury her sister in the Louisiana hometown where her
sister grew up. She said authorities didn't tell her why they thought the
remains were Reed's.
"My emotions are just so mixed up and tangled up. ... Part of it is relief, and
there is some sadness and tears," Bible said. "We will be able to say that my
sister is dead and gone and she will not come back. This will give us all a
chance to say goodbye."
American-Statesman staff writers Kelly Daniel and Claire Osborn contributed to
this report, which also includes material from the Waco Tribune-Herald.
--------------------------------------------------------
American-Statesman Staff
Published: Oct. 7, 1998
Kenneth Allen McDuff has been sentenced to death three times. He is suspected
in the disappearances or deaths of 11 other people.
Convicted of killing:
• Edna Louise Sullivan, 16, of Everman, Aug. 6, 1966, in Tarrant County. Killed
with Sullivan were Robert Brand, 17, of Alvarado and Mark Dunnam, 16, of
Tarzana, Calif.
• Colleen Reed, 28, of Austin, Dec. 29, 1991.
• Melissa Northrup, 22, of Waco, March 1, 1992.
Suspected in these disappearances and deaths:
• Sarafia Parker, 29, found dead Oct. 14, 1989, in Temple.
• Denise "Jan" Mason, 28, found dead Jan. 17, 1990, in Travis County.
• Trudy Darby, 43, found dead Jan. 19, 1991, in Camden County, Mo.
• Cheryl Kenney, 31, of Nevada, Mo., disappeared Feb. 27, 1991.
• Angela Hammond, of Clinton, Mo., disappeared April 1991.
• Vernia Blunson, of Temple, disappeared July 1991.
• Reginia Moore, 21, and Brenda Thompson, both of Waco, disappeared Oct. 15,
1991. Bodies believed to be theirs were found last week near Waco.
• Valencia Kay Joshua, 22, of Fort Worth, found dead March 25, 1992. McDuff was
charged with Joshua's death, but police did not pursue the case because of his
other convictions.
---------------------------------------------------------------
American-Statesman Staff
Published: Oct. 7, 1998
Aug. 6, 1966:
A fisherman finds the bodies of Robert Brand, 17, of Alvarado and Mark Dunnam,
16, of Tarzana, Calif., near Fort Worth. Both were shot with a .38-caliber
pistol. A day later, searchers find Edna Louise Sullivan, 16, of Everman, raped
and strangled with a broom. McDuff is convicted of Sullivan's murder and
sentenced to die.
1972:
McDuff's sentence is commuted to life in prison after U.S. Supreme Court rules
death penalty unconstitutional.
1989:
McDuff is paroled.
1990:
McDuff is sent back to prison for violating parole but released in two months.
Dec. 29, 1991:
Colleen Reed, 28, of Austin, is abducted from a West Fifth Street carwash.
March 1, 1992:
Melissa Northrup, 22, who worked with McDuff, disappears from a convenience
store in McLennan County.
March 9, 1992:
Parole officers charge McDuff, who was last seen in Waco a few days earlier,
with parole violations and issue an arrest warrant.
March 25, 1992:
The body of Valencia Kay Joshua, 22, of Fort Worth is found buried near Texas
State Technical College in Waco. McDuff had lived in one of the college's
dormitories.
April 10, 1992:
McDuff, using assumed name Richard Fowler, is arrested in a prostitution sting
in Kansas City, Mo. Police do not determine his real identity.
April 20, 1992:
Alva Hank Worley of Belton confesses that he and McDuff kidnapped and sexually
assaulted Reed. Extensive searches begin for McDuff and Reed.
April 26, 1992:
Northrup's body is found in a Dallas County gravel pit.
May 3, 1992:
Kansas City, Mo., police receive a call from a viewer of the TV show "America's
Most Wanted," which featured a segment on McDuff a day earlier. McDuff is
arrested the next day.
Feb. 16 1993:
Houston jury convicts McDuff of Northrup's murder.
March 2, 1994:
McDuff is found guilty of killing Reed. Seguin jury takes 55 minutes to
sentence him to death.
January 1998:
State appeals court upholds McDuff's death sentences, clearing way for an
execution date.
June 25, 1998:
Court sets Oct. 21 as McDuff's execution date.
Sept. 28, 1998:
U.S. District Judge Walter Smith grants McDuff a stay of execution.
Sept. 30, 1998:
A skeleton found near Waco is believed to be remains of Reginia Moore, a
21-year-old last seen with McDuff in October 1991.
Oct. 3, 1998:
Another skeleton near Waco is believed to be the remains of Brenda Thompson,
who disappeared from Waco in October 1991. Officials caution that both sets of
remains still must be positively identified.
Oct. 6, 1998:
Remains believed to be Colleen Reed's are found near Marlin.
David Light
Greg Carr
Kenneth McDuff
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kenneth McDuff
Kenneth McDuff.jpg
1978 mugshot
Born Kenneth Allen McDuff
March 21, 1946
Rosebud, Texas, U.S.
Died November 17, 1998 (aged 52)
Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, Texas, U.S.
Cause of death Execution by lethal injection
Other names The Broomstick Murderer
The Broomstick Killer
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Conviction(s) Murder (1968)
Capital murder (1993)
Criminal penalty Death
Details
Victims 9–14+
Span of crimes August 6, 1966 – March 1, 1992
Country United States
State(s) Texas
Date apprehended For the final time on May 4, 1992
Kenneth Allen McDuff (March 21, 1946 – November 17, 1998) was an American serial killer. He was convicted in 1966 of murdering 16-year-old Edna Sullivan, her boyfriend, 17-year-old Robert Brand, and Brand's cousin, 15-year-old Mark Dunnam, who was visiting from California. They were all strangers whom McDuff abducted after noticing Sullivan. McDuff repeatedly raped her before breaking her neck with a broomstick.
McDuff was given three death sentences that were reduced to life imprisonment consequently to the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Furman v. Georgia. He was paroled in 1989 and went on to kill again. He was executed in 1998, and is suspected to have been responsible for many other killings.
Early life and background
Kenneth Allen McDuff was born at 201 Linden Street in the central Texas town of Rosebud, the fifth of six children born to John Allen "JA" and Addie McDuff. His father ran a successful concrete business during the Texas construction boom of the 1960s. McDuff was indulged by his family, particularly his mother Addie, nicknamed the "pistol packing mama" because she threatened a school bus driver with a gun after the driver kicked McDuff's older brother Lonnie off the bus.[1]
At Rosebud High School, McDuff earned the reputation of being a bully. He was careful to pick on weaker individuals after the large but not strong McDuff lost a fight he had picked with an athletic and popular boy named Tommy Sammons. As a result, he quit school and worked for his father's business doing manual labor. McDuff would often brag in later interviews that old ladies loved the way he mowed their lawns, making others jealous. McDuff was convicted of a series of burglaries and put in prison.[1]
Earlier criminal activities
McDuff's criminal record began two years before his first murder conviction. In 1964, at age 18, McDuff was convicted of 12 counts of burglary and attempted burglary in three Texas counties: Bell, Milam, and Falls. He was sentenced to 12 four-year prison terms to be served concurrently. He made parole in December 1965.[1]
McDuff briefly returned to prison after becoming involved in a fight, but was soon released. While he had not been convicted of any murders at this time, his accomplice in the 1966 triple murder, Roy Dale Green, said that McDuff bragged openly about his criminal record and claimed to have raped and killed two young women.[1]
Broomstick murders
On August 6, 1966, McDuff and Green, whom he had met around a month earlier through a mutual acquaintance, spent the day pouring concrete for McDuff's father. They then drove around, as McDuff said he was looking for a girl. At 10 pm, Robert Brand (aged 17), his girlfriend Edna Louise Sullivan (aged 16), and Brand's 15-year-old cousin Mark Dunman were standing beside their parked car on a baseball field in Everman, Texas.[1]
While cruising around, McDuff noticed Sullivan and parked around 150 yards away from the soon-to-be victims. He threatened the trio with his .38 Colt revolver and ordered them to get into the trunk of their car. With Green following in McDuff's car, McDuff drove the victims' Ford along a highway and then into a field, where he ordered Sullivan out of the trunk of the Ford and instructed Green to put her into the trunk of his Dodge Coronet. At this point, according to Green's statement, McDuff said he would have to "knock 'em off"; he proceeded to fire six shots into the trunk of the Ford in spite of Dunman and Brand's pleas not to. McDuff then instructed Green to wipe the fingerprints off the Ford.
After driving to another location, McDuff and Green, the latter allegedly under duress, raped Sullivan. After she was raped repeatedly, McDuff asked Green for something with which to strangle her. Green gave him his belt. However, in the end, McDuff opted to use a 3-foot-long (0.91 m) piece of broomstick from his car. He choked Sullivan, and then Green and he dumped her body in some bushes. They purchased Coca-Cola from a Hillsboro gas station before driving to Green's house to spend the night. The following day, McDuff buried his revolver beside Green's garage, and their mutual acquaintance Richard Boyd allowed McDuff to wash his car at his house. The next day, Green confessed to Boyd's parents, who told Green's mother, who convinced him to turn himself in. McDuff was arrested by Falls County Sheriff Brady Pamplin (who served with Texas Rangers before serving in World War II with United States Army Air Corps) and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Parnell “T.P.” McNamara, Sr.[1]
McDuff received a death sentence in Texas' electric chair; Green received a 25-year sentence and was released in 1979.[2] McDuff's death sentence was commuted to a life sentence, and he hired a lawyer, who amassed a dossier of various evidence that claimed to show that Green was the real killer. Some members of the parole board were impressed by the dossier. During a one-on-one interview with a board member, McDuff offered him a bribe to secure a favorable decision on the parole application. He was given a two-year sentence for trying to bribe the official. It proved meaningless, as board members thought McDuff could still "contribute to society" and decided to grant him a parole. He was released in 1989.[1]
Post-release crimes
Huntsville Unit, the location of the Texas execution chamber
McDuff was one of 20 former death-row inmates and 127 murderers to be paroled. After being released, he got a job at a gas station making $4 an hour while taking a class at Texas State Technical College in Waco.[3] Within three days of his release, he is widely believed to have begun killing again. The body of 29-year-old Sarafia Parker was discovered on October 14, 1989, in Temple, a town 48 miles south of Waco along the I-35 corridor. McDuff was not charged with this crime. However, he was soon returned to prison on a parole violation for making death threats to an African American youth in Rosebud.[1]
Addie McDuff paid $1,500, plus an additional $700 for expenses, to two Huntsville attorneys in return for their "evaluating" her son's prospect of release. On December 18, 1990, McDuff was again released from prison. On the night of October 10, 1991, he picked up a prostitute named Brenda Thompson in Waco. He tied her up, but then stopped his truck about 50 ft from a police checkpoint. When a policeman walked toward McDuff's vehicle, Thompson repeatedly kicked at the windshield of McDuff's truck, cracking it several times.
McDuff accelerated very quickly and drove at the officers. According to a statement filed by the officers later, three of them had to jump to avoid being hit. The policemen gave chase, but McDuff eluded them by turning off his lights and traveling the wrong way down one-way streets. Ultimately, he parked his truck in a wooded area near U.S. Route 84 and tortured Thompson to death. Her body was not discovered until 1998.
Five days later, on October 15, 1991, McDuff and a 17-year-old prostitute named Regenia DeAnne Moore were witnessed having an argument at a Waco motel. Shortly thereafter, the pair drove in McDuff's pickup truck to a remote area beside Texas State Highway 6, near Waco. McDuff tied her arms and legs with stockings before killing her. She had been missing from home for 7 years by the time her body was discovered on September 29, 1998. McDuff is also believed to have murdered Cynthia Renee Gonzalez, 23, who was found dead in a creek bed near County Road 313 in heavily wood terrain 1 mile west of I-35 on September 21, 1991, some six days after she was reported missing in Arlington.[4]
McDuff and an accomplice, Alva Hank Worley, murdered Colleen Reed, a Louisiana native, on December 29, 1991. McDuff and Worley drove to an Austin car wash and kidnapped Reed in plain sight of eyewitnesses before driving away. Worley admitted in an April 1992 interview with the Bell County Sheriff's Department that he had raped Reed and tortured her with cigarettes, but he stated that he did not participate in her murder.
McDuff's next victim was Valencia Joshua, a prostitute who was last seen alive knocking on McDuff's door. He strangled Joshua on February 24, 1992. Her body was discovered on March 15 at a golf course near their college. Next was Melissa Northrup, a 22-year-old store clerk at a Waco Quik-Pak (the same store that McDuff had worked in at one point), who was pregnant when she went missing from the store. The kidnapper also took $250 from the cash register. McDuff was a suspect because he had been seen in the vicinity of the Quik-Pak at the time of Northrup's disappearance. During the investigation before the body was found, a college friend of McDuff's told police officers that he had attempted to enlist his help in robbing the store. Northrup died on March 1, 1992, and a fisherman found her body on April 26.
A major problem for investigators was that McDuff's post-release victims were spread out across several Texas counties. This made a single coordinated investigation difficult. However, the police learned that McDuff was peddling drugs and had an illegal firearm, both federal offenses. Consequently, on March 6, 1992, a local state attorney issued a warrant for his arrest. In April 1992, Bell County investigators had brought in Worley for questioning on the basis that he was a known acquaintance of McDuff's. Worley admitted to his involvement in the kidnapping of Reed. He was held in a Travis County jail while the police continued their search for McDuff.
McDuff had moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was working at a refuse collection company and living under the assumed name of Richard Fowler. On May 1, 1992, a coworker of his named Gary Smithee watched the Fox television program America's Most Wanted. Smithee noticed how similar McDuff, who was featured on the program, was to his new co-worker. After discussing the matter with another co-worker, Smithee telephoned the Kansas City Police Department, which searched Fowler's name and found he had been arrested and fingerprinted for soliciting prostitutes. A comparison of the fingerprints taken from Fowler to those of McDuff showed they were the same. On May 4, 1992, a surveillance team of six officers arrested McDuff as he drove to a landfill south of Kansas City. The arresting officers included Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Parnell McNamara, Jr., his brother, Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara, and Falls County Sheriff Larry Pamplin, whose fathers had arrested McDuff in 1966. [1]
Victims
Name Age Death Date Details of Murder
Robert Brand 17 Aug. 6, 1966 He was kidnapped with Mark Dunman and Edna Sullivan. He was forced into the trunk of his car with Mark before McDuff fired 6 shots into it.
Mark Dunman 15 Aug. 6, 1966 He was kidnapped with Robert Brand and Edna Sullivan. He was forced into the trunk of Mark's car with Robert before McDuff fired 6 shots into it.
Edna Louise Sullivan 16 Aug. 6, 1966 She was kidnapped, repeatedly raped by McDuff and Green, and strangled with a broomstick so violently it broke her neck. Her body was dumped in some bushes.
Sarafia Parker 29 Found Oct. 14, 1989 She was beaten, strangled, and dumped in a field.
Brenda Thompson 36 Oct. 10, 1991 She was tied up, raped, and tortured to death. She almost escaped when she kicked at and cracked McDuff's windshield in front of a Police Checkpoint, but McDuff was able to evade them.
Regenia DeAnne Moore 21 Oct. 15, 1991 She was tied up with stockings, raped, and murdered.
Colleen Reed 28 Dec. 29, 1991 She was kidnapped in plain sight from an Austin car wash by McDuff and Worley. Both repeatedly raped her and tortured her with cigarettes before McDuff murdered her.
Valencia Joshua 22 Feb. 24, 1992 She was strangled to death and found at a golf course near Texas State Technical College in Waco (where both she and McDuff were students).
Melissa Northrup 22 Mar. 1, 1992 She was kidnapped from the Waco Quik-Pak where she worked and strangled with a rope. She was pregnant with her third child at the time of her murder, and was found in a Dallas County gravel pit with her hands still tied behind her back.
Trial and execution
Ellis Unit, the location of the Texas men's death row at the time of McDuff's incarceration
McDuff was indicted on one count of capital murder for Northrup's murder in McLennan County, Texas, on June 26, 1992. He was found guilty. In Texas, juries determine whether or not an individual convicted of capital murder receives life imprisonment or the death penalty. Journalist Gary Cartwright expressed the hope he would be executed, saying: "If there has ever been a good argument for the death penalty, it's Kenneth McDuff."[1]
On February 18, 1993, the jury, in a special punishment hearing, opted to sentence him to death. Following a number of delays while appeals were heard, the Western District Court denied habeas corpus relief and rescheduled the execution date for November 17, 1998. As he was denied authorization for another, he gave up Reed's burial location a few weeks before his execution.
McDuff is buried in the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, also known as "Peckerwood Hill", in Huntsville, Texas.[5] Prisoners buried there are those whose family chose not to claim their remains. His headstone contains only his date of execution (11-17-98), an "X" (meaning that he was executed by the State of Texas), and his death row number (999055). His last meal, according to death-row chef Brian Price, was a hamburger fashioned to resemble his request of a steak.[1][failed verification]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_McDuff
This criminal is even more reason to have the death penalty.