'Highway from hell' serial killer hid deadly secret for two decadest

The "Texas Killing Fields" fiend has finally been jailed for life over his 1997 summer of slaughter

- GAIL SHORTLAND

The notorious "Texas Killing Fields" is a remote 50-mile area of land where more than 30 bodies - mainly those of women and girls - have been found since the 1970s. And many more young women have disappeared without trace from the area off the Interstate 45 highway between Houston and Galveston.

Crime experts have long believed the desolate stretch of wasteland close to abandoned oil fields is a hunting ground for serial killers. With little chance of the victims' screams being heard, and with nowhere for them to run, the killers have left police with a string of brutal cold cases.

During five months in 1997, a new predator stalked the area, leaving a trail of dead bodies and traumatised women behind him. However, the authorities hadn't linked the cases and didn't - until they received a series of shocking confessions.

On the morning of 3 April 1997, 12-year-old Laura Smither left her home in Friendswood, Texas, to go for a jog. She never returned. About 6,000 volunteers joined the hunt for the aspiring dancer. Her body was found 17 days later in a Pasadena pond several miles from her home.

A month later, on 17 May, Sandra Sapaugh, 19, was on her way to meet a friend. When she parked outside a store in Webster, Texas, she noticed a man in a white pick-up truck. Setting off again, she realised she had a flat tyre. Behind her was the man in the truck, who offered to help. But he attacked Sandra, tied her up in his truck, and drove off. Incredibly, she broke free and leapt from the moving vehicle. on to Interstate 45, suffering severe injuries. However, she survived and was able to give police a description of her kidnapper.