'Serial killer' charged with the capital murder of Texas student, 20, who went missing in 1997
- William Lewis Reece, 57, was charged with capital murder in the 1997 disappearance of 20-year-old Texas college student Kelli Cox
- Reece led authorities to Cox's grave outside Houston, Texas in 2016
- Reece was charged with three other cold-case murders over the summer
An alleged serial killer has been indicted in the slaying of a North Texas college student nearly two decades after she went missing.
A Texas grand jury indicted William Lewis Reece, 57, late Thursday on a charge of capital murder in the 1997 disappearance and death of 20-year-old University of North Texas student Kelli Cox.
Cox's remains were found outside Houston, Texas, and identified in 2016.
Over the summer, Reece was charged in Texas and Oklahoma in the cold-case killings of Tiffany Johnston, 19, Jessica Cain, 17, and Laura Smither, 12.
All four women disappeared over a four-month period in 1997, a year after Reece was released from prison on a kidnapping and sexual assault conviction.
A Texas grand jury indicted William Lewis Reece, 56 (left, pictured in October), on a charge of capital murder in the 1997 disappearance and death of 20-year-old student Kelli Cox
Reece is serving a 60-year sentence from an aggravated kidnapping and theft charge
Reece is serving a 60-year sentence for aggravated kidnapping and theft in Texas for kidnapping Sandra Sapaugh, who was 19 at the time, in May 1997.
During the trial, Sapaugh said that Reece abducted her by putting a knife to her throat and forcing her into his truck. She escaped by jumping out of the truck while he was driving, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Last year, Reece led police to the graves where Cain and Cox's remains were buried.
Cox went missing on July 15, 1997, after her criminology class went on a tour of a jail facility in Denton, Texas. She called her boyfriend and told him that she'd locked her purse and keys in her car, but wasn't there when he arrived at her location. She was never seen again.
Reece has been charged in the cold-case murders of Kelli Cox (left) and Jessica Cain. Reece, while incarcerated, led authorities to both of their Texas grave sites in 2016
Over the summer, Reece was charged in the murder of Oklahoman Tiffany Johnston (left) and Texan Laura Smither. They both disappeared during a four month period in 1997
Cain disappeared on August 17, 1997. The Catholic school student was supposed to be on her way home to Galveston County, Texas, after attending a party at a local restaurant. Her truck and purse were found on the shoulder of the I-45.
Smither vanished on April 3, 1997, while she was jogging in Friendswood, Texas. Her body was found in a pond 17 days later.
Johnston was abducted from a car wash on July 26, 1997 in Bethany, Oklahoma. Her body was found the next day. She had been raped and murdered. Recent DNA testing advances provided a connection between Reece and Johnston.
Reece, a native Oklahoman, has pleaded not guilty in Oklahoma, where prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.
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