The man considered a suspect in the so-called ‘Texas Killing Fields’ murders is under parole review again.
Members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole are reviewing whether Clyde Edwin Hedrick should remain under the Super Intensive Supervision Program (SISP), which includes a GPS ankle monitor.
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The founder of Texas EquuSearch, Tim Miller, is fighting to keep Hedrick under strict supervision. Miller’s daughter, Laura, is one of four victims in the unsolved ‘Killing Fields’ murders and her death is the reason he founded Texas EquuSearch.
In 2014, Hedrick was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Ellen Rae Beason and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Beason died in 1984 and at first her death was ruled undetermined.
Hedrick was originally convicted of abuse of a corpse after admitting to hiding Beason’s body under a discarded couch along Old Causeway Road. Hedrick claimed Beason drowned while the pair was swimming and said he hid her body because he panicked. A re-examination of Beason’s body in 2011 determined she died from a blow to the head.
After serving eight years in prison, Hedrick was paroled under now defunct ‘mandatory release’ laws. The laws were originally intended to alleviate prison overcrowding by allowing inmates to accrue so-called “good time.” The law passed in 1977 called for the release of an inmate under mandatory supervision if the amount of time spent in prison, plus accrued good time equaled their sentence. The law was later changed to exclude violent felons and to give the parole board discretion, but the changes could not be applied retroactively.
Even though Hedrick was convicted in 2014, he had to be sentenced under the laws that were in effect at the time of Beason’s death.
“I don’t feel as though Clyde getting to go home is in the best interest of anybody,” Miller said.
Miller is asking the Parole Board to keep Hedrick under SISP and living at a parole halfway house in southwest Houston. While he remains a suspect, Hedrick denies any involvement and has never been charged in the murders of Laura Miller, Heide Villareal Fye, Audrey Cook and Donna Prudhomme.
In 2022, Miller won a default $24 million judgment in his 2014 wrongful death civil lawsuit filed against Hedrick over Laura’s death. Miller has never stopped searching for evidence that will help solve these murders.
“It appears as though the ‘Killing Fields’ will go on forever and ever and ever as unsolved murders and it’s frustrating,” Miller said.
Statement released by Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Kenneth A. Cusick:
“Clyde Edwin Hedrick evaded justice for 30 years for killing Ellen Beason. In 1984, Hedrick brutally smashed Beason’s skull before hiding her body to decay under a couch under a highway overpass.
“In 2014, after persistent investigation by determined law enforcement officers, the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office obtained a manslaughter conviction against Hedrick in Beason’s death.
“Even after being convicted of manslaughter for Beason’s death, Hedrick served only about eight years in prison, due to Texas’s pre-1987 mandatory supervision law. When paroled, Hedrick was placed in the Super Intensive Supervision Program with GPS monitoring. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is now considering releasing Hedrick from the Super Intensive Supervision Program.
“Ellen Beason was not Hedrick’s only victim. The Beason trial revealed that, in addition to killing Beason, Hedrick has a long history of crimes including aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, burglary of a habitation, and many other crimes. Given Hedrick’s decades-long record of violent crimes, he is not entitled to any additional leniency and the safety of our community requires that he remain under the strictest supervision allowed by Texas law. The Galveston County District Attorney’s Office will vigorously oppose any action by the Parole Board to relax Hedrick’s supervision.”