There is a police investigation going on in Galveston, Texas that is unlike any we have seen in recent memory by the city police department. We all remember the Baby Grace investigation which was about an 8 on the Ricter Scale, but that was the Sheriff's Office case and they wrapped that one up in fairly short order, considering.
The current case involves the violent attack of a woman back in January in which the victim was savagely beaten, partially disrobed, and left for dead. She survived, but when she got out of the hospital she took off and she's either been hiding ever since or she is just one of those people who don't know what's going on in the world outside. Knowing her background, she probably fits that category.
One officer involved in the investigation says she is either hiding from the police or is afraid that if she shows her face, the bad guy will come for her again. Either way, police are desperately trying to find her because she may hold the key they need to solve two murders. They are convinced that whoever beat her up, also assaulted and killed two other women within a month of her assault.
Charles Wiley, the police chief, a usually soft spoken, easy going, laid back type of guy, has all hands on deck for this case, assigning 10 of his detectives to the investigation, full-time. That is a large percentage of his entire detective squad in a department that is already 20 officers undermanned. Not only that, he asked for and got, help from several neighboring agencies. It's always good to get the whole police community involved in these type cases. So often we have seen an investigating agency try to keep everything in their own little corner of the world so they get all the glory when the case comes to a successful end. Yes, cops, even police chiefs have egos, but they are all pushed aside in this case.
Earlier this week detectives arrested a man in a sexual assault case that bore some similarties to these latest cases, in that the victim was brutally beaten and left for dead. Police connected him to a 2006 case through his DNA which was taken while he was a prison inmate. They have rushed his DNA to Austin to see if they get a match on these latest victims.
Police are quick to say however, that they aren't betting their whole pot on the guy and they have several other suspects that "look pretty good." We know they have probably pulled in every registered sex offender in the area and are no doubt getting DNA samples from the one's they don't already have, and no doubt they are pin-pointing where they were at the time of the assaults and murders. It's a big job. Galveston, at our last count about 2-years ago had over 150 registered sex offenders living on the island. With the influx of the riff raff that washed ashore with Hurricane Ike, who knows how many more there are.
Wiley, a great proponent of community based policing, has all his beat cops asking questions in the neighorhoods. This is where community policing can really pay off, in these kinds of investigations.
Often these cases are smeared all over the front pages and the TV news for a day or two, then they sort of just fade away when reporters aren't getting anything new from police, but that doesn't mean the investigation has slowed. Believe me, there are a lot of cops busting their butts 24/7 on this one, and if I were a betting man, my money would be on an arrest in the not too distant future.
Watch for it. The police know a hell of lot more than they're telling us, you can bet on that.
Breck Porter
editor@thepolicenews.net
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