The 12-year-old aspirant ballerina murderer is William Reece. The serial murderer, rapist, and kidnapper is now incarcerated and serving a life term.
Laura Smither, a 12-year-old aspiring dancer, vanished on April 3, 1997. The little girl left her Friendswood, Texas home and went for a morning exercise nearby.
Her parents, Gay and Bob Smither, looked everywhere for their cherished baby daughter after she disappeared for a while.
Numerous volunteers, including U.S. Marines, helped the parents search for their daughter, but they were unable to locate her.
Finding Laura took them 17 days. Sadly, it was already too late. The little girl’s lifeless corpse was discovered by the search squad 12 kilometers from her house. More tragically, William Reece’s murderer Laura Smither was not brought to justice for more than 20 years.
What Has Happened to Laura Smither’s Killer, William Reece?
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William Reece is a serial murderer, rapist, and kidnapper who admitted to killing Laura Smither in June 2022.
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The killer admitted to killing Laura Smither on April 3, 1997. William said that he inadvertently hit the dancer with his car on a wet day.
He confessed to throwing the 12-year-old’s body into a lake. Later, Reece admitted to strangling the girl to death.
After she disappeared, more than 6,000 people looked for her over more than 800 square kilometers. Seventeen days later, on April 20, 1997, her corpse was discovered in a small water retention pond ten miles from her house.
The killer is now incarcerated for life. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice reports that Reece is now being held in the Polunsky prison in Livingston, Texas.
Other Crimes And Charges Against William Reece
Reece had other victims besides Laura. In 1997, he also murdered Killi Cox, Tiffany Johnson, and Jessica Cain.
In April 1986, Reece abducted and sexually assaulted the 19-year-old daughter of a sheriff’s officer. He was detained and charged, but after posting bail, police let him go.
In the autumn of 1997, William was once again a suspect in a different case. He abducted Sandra Sapaugh, 19, and made an attempt to rape her.
William Reece was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 1998 after being found guilty of abduction. The criminal series featuring the rapist, however, continued.
He was required by law to provide a DNA sample in the early 2000s so that it could be included to CODIS. He was connected to Tiffany Johnston’s murder in 2015, according to evidence.
Reece was promptly found guilty of Tiffany’s murder by the jury. The death penalty was imposed on Reece in August 2021.
Reece was being contacted by Texas Police over a potential connection to the cases of Laura Smither, Kelli Cox, and Jessica Cain.
The killer wanted the death penalty off the table when Texas detectives visited him in jail before agreeing to speak further. The Smithers and Jan Bynum agreed that they wanted to know what happened to their daughters.
In the counties of Brazoria and Harris, authorities found the skeletal remains of Kelli Ann Cox, Jessica Cain, and Tiffany.
Meet Bob and Gay Smither, Laura Smither’s parents
Laura Smither’s parents are Gay Smither and Bob Smither, respectively. The shocking abduction and death of their cherished daughter had left them speechless.
In April 1998, they opened the Laura Recovery Center. The nonprofit company strives to prevent kidnappings and abductions and to help those who have been taken hostage return home.
The center’s early goals were teaching law enforcement, coordinating community searches, and raising awareness of child abduction. But as of 2013, it is no longer active in the search for missing kids.
The Laura Recovery Center has organized several community-led searches for stolen children, including those for Danielle van Dam and Morgan Harrington.
In the initial out-of-state search for van Dam, hundreds of volunteers spent weeks scouring roads, deserts, and rural areas.
It was one of the most major volunteer search efforts in California. A volunteer team that the organization had organized found her corpse.
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