Human remains found at dig site in Brazoria County

BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas – Sources tell KPRC 2 that human remains have been found at a dig site in Brazoria County where crews were searching for the body of 20-year-old Kelli Ann Cox, a woman who has been missing for 18 years.

"May not be the answers I want, but at least it doesn't leave me wondering," said Cox' mother, Jan Bynum. "If it is my child, I want to bring her home."

Bynum said she received word of the discovery on Sunday night. However, investigators caution the remains found in the filed have not yet been identified.

"I've learned, you know, until they confirm that, I'm going to keep my guard up," said Bynum.

Crews were digging just north of Angleton, in a field off Highway 288 near County Road 49, when the remains were found on Friday. Sources told KPRC 2 the remains were sent to a North Texas forensics lab for examination and the remains were determined to be human.

On Monday, crews found more remains that appear to be human, sources said, and the remains are being sent to a lab for examination.

Cox was an honor student at North Texas State in Denton and the mother of a baby girl when she disappeared in July 1997 after touring the Denton jail with her criminology class. She phoned her boyfriend to pick her up from a payphone nearby, but was never heard from again.

At the time, William Reece, 56, was a suspect in the case but never charged. But now Reece, serving 60 years for aggravated kidnapping in Harris county, is talking.

Cox is one of five women who was kidnapped, disappeared or murdered in 1997 under similar circumstances. Sources tell Channel 2 Investigates all five are connected to William Reece.

Last month he accompanied police to another dig site in southeast Houston where on March 18 police found skeletal remains that may or may not be those of 17-year-old Jessica Cain, the Tikki Island girl who disappeared the same year as Cox.

The remains have yet to be identified by the Harris County medical examiner.

“I think if everybody does the right thing for the right reasons and works together we can get results,” said Tim Miller of Texas Equusearch, who has been out at both dig sites. “Let’s just hope we're done.”

Reece is cooperating with Texas Rangers and Denton police. Cox's mother, Bynum, said it's the first real break in the case since her daughter disappeared.

“My plea would be for him to tell whoever needs to be told so we can know what happened to our daughter.” Bynum said.

Reece was charged with murder and kidnapping last year after DNA evidence linked him to a teenage Oklahoma girl who also was killed in 1997. He's also suspected of kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Laura Smither of Friendswood was killed the same year.

The daughter Cox left behind is a woman now. She is 20 years old — the same age as her mother when she went missing.

DNA helped police near Oklahoma City recently charge Reece with the 1997 kidnapping and murder of Tiffany Johnston.

Sandra Sapaugh is the only woman known to have encountered Reece and survived. Sapaugh was kidnapped in 1997, but survived by jumping out of Reece's truck as it sped down the Gulf Freeway.

Reece was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping Sapaugh and sentenced to 60 years in prison. State records show Reece was temporarily released from prison in February to the custody of Galveston County law enforcement officials who are working on these cases.