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William Reece, a serial killer already serving a death sentence for the murder of a woman in Oklahoma, admitted to killing three Texas girls in 1997. The killings went unsolved for decades until last June when he finally confessed that he was behind their disappearances and deaths.
CBS' episode of 48 Hours, titled The Daughters Who Disappeared, will shed light on the horrific deeds of William Reece.
Reece recently confessed to the murders of Kelli Ann Cox, 20, Laura Kate Smither, 12, Jessica Lee Cain, 17, and Tiffany Johnston, 19.
He committed four murders and one kidnapping during a five-month period in 1997, going on a violent killing rampage throughout Texas and Oklahoma. He committed the murders after serving time in jail for the r*pe of two women in Oklahoma. It took investigators almost 20 years before he was connected to the unsolved homicides.
William Reece: Five quick facts to know about the convicted serial killer on death row
1) William Reece was physically abusive towards his first wife
William Reece married a woman named Judy Flaming in 1979 after she got pregnant and soon after their marriage, he joined the Oklahoma National Guard for a short while. A year after they got married, his wife filed for divorce, but Reece persuaded her to remarry him, and the couple soon had their second child.
According to Flaming, Reese started drinking heavily and getting violent. In 1982, she even filed a police report after he physically assaulted her, stating that her husband threatened to kill her with a knife and a shotgun. She then divorced him for a second time. Reece remarried, but a few months later, his second wife filed for divorce.
2) Reece was found guilty of s*xually assaulting two women before he embarked on the killing spree
William Reece abducted the 19-year-old daughter of a sheriff's officer in April 1986. He was working as a truck driver at the time, and he reportedly convinced her to get in his vehicle by promising to take her to the closest pay phone. Instead, he tied her up and r*ped her. But the victim managed to escape and report the incident to authorities. Reece was arrested and charged but went free after bail.
A month after his bail, Reece assaulted another woman while still on the run and was arrested once again. He was tried on two r*pe charges, found guilty, and given a 25-year jail term. However, an appeal showed that Reece's prosecution case had procedural flaws, which led to a reduction in his sentence and him being granted parole in October 1996.
Reece relocated to his mother's house in Anadarko, Oklahoma, upon his release. He got his license back in early 1997 and eventually moved to Houston, Texas.
3) William Reece embarked on a killing spree for a period of five months in 1997
Reece was named as a suspect in the kidnapping and attempted r*pe of Sandra Sapaugh, 19, in the fall of 1997. She claimed that in May 1997, Reece lured her into his truck by offering her help with a flat tire situation. He then assaulted her and tied her wrists before driving off.
Sapaugh was able to escape the bindings and jump out of the vehicle, suffering terrible injuries in the process. She survived the incident and reported it to authorities. She was able to identify her attacker and revealed his license plate number once put under hypnosis. She even identified Reece in a police photo database, which resulted in his ultimate arrest.
In 1997, Reece was found guilty of the kidnapping charge and given a 60-year jail term. Reece was suspected by the police of being involved in the disappearance of three teenage girls from Houston and the nearby suburbs, one of whom was last seen alive and subsequently discovered dead close to his place of employment.
4) In 2021, Reece was sentenced to death for the murder of Tiffany Johnston
Reece started helping with the investigations into the other killings in 2016 while serving a 60-year jail term for the 1998 Texas kidnapping of Sandra Sapaugh. He was transferred from Texas to Oklahoma in July to face Johnston's murder charges there. The trial began on April 21, 2017, but was adjourned until June 2019.
The trial was once again postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and started in May 2021. He was finally found guilty on all charges by a jury on May 28 after years of delays, and the Oklahoma County District Court formally sentenced him to death in August.
5) Last June, William Reece confessed to the three other killings he committed in 1997
William Reece returned to Texas to face justice for the killings of Laura Smither, Kelli Cox, and Jessica Cain after being convicted in the murder of Tiffany Johnston. The 62-year-old pleaded guilty to the murders of Laura Smither of Friendswood, Jessica Cain of Tiki Island, and Kelli Cox of Denton in 1997.
Reece was already on death row at the time when he pleaded guilty and was further sentenced to life in prison in each case.
Learn more about the case on CBS' 48 Hours episode titled The Daughters Who Disappeared.
