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The Texas Killing Fields is an area bordering the Calder Oil Field, which is a 25-acre patch of land situated a mile from Interstate Highway 45.
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Since the early 1970s, some 30 bodies of murder victims have been found within the Killing Fields area. These were mainly the bodies of girls or young women. Furthermore, many young girls have disappeared from this area. Their bodies, if they are deceased, are still missing.
It is believed that many of the murders were the work of a serial killer. Many of the victims were aged 10–25 years, and many shared similar physical features. A few of them had similar hairstyles. Despite exhaustive efforts by the Texas City police, along with the assistance of the FBI, very few of these murders have been solved.
The fields have been described as "a perfect place [for] killing somebody and getting away with it." After visiting some of the sites of recovered bodies in Texas City, Ami Canaan Mann, director of the film, Texas Killing Fields, commented, "You could actually see the refineries that are in the south end of Texas City. You could see the I-45. But if you yelled, no one would necessarily hear you. And if you ran, there wouldn’t necessarily be anywhere to go."
Suspects
One suspect was convicted murderer Edward Harold Bell, who was 72 years old in November 2011. Bell claimed in a 1998 letter to police that he had murdered 11 girls in Galveston County. Although he was a longtime suspect, prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to prosecute him.
The Krystal Jean Baker case
In April 2012, 16 years after Krystal Jean Baker's beaten, raped and strangled body was found, Kevin Edison Smith was arrested and convicted of murdering her.
In 2009, Smith had been arrested on a drug charge in Louisiana. At about the same time, a detective tested Krystal's dress for DNA. A match was confirmed, using advanced technology that was not available at the time of Krystal's disappearance. A jury deliberated for about 30 minutes and found Smith guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Film adaptation
A film adaptation of the deadly events that occurred along the I-45 highway was released on September 9, 2011, with the title Texas Killing Fields.
It was directed by Ami Canaan Mann and starred Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The film is loosely based on the murders while depicting a fictional portrayal of the struggle that local police faced while attempting to solve the murders. The film focuses on the lead police detectives, Capt. Brian Goetschius and Mike Land, who dedicated their careers to solving the mysteries of I-45. The filmmakers hired officers Goetschius and Land as consultants while making the movie.
Screenwriter and Federal Agent Donald Ferrarone said he drew information from an interview with a kidnapping victim and the family of one of the murder victims.
Janet Miller, mother of victim Laura Miller, said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News that she was angry at first about the film, stating “I was upset because no one notified me. The parents should know what’s going on.”
Tim Miller, the father of Laura Miller, said he saw the film for what the filmmakers intended — to raise awareness about the crimes and to generate new tips.
In an interview with CBS News for 48 Hours, actor Sam Worthington said, “People — you never know — might just go and see the movie and go, 'Oh, I remember when someone went down in the fields, and I remember a certain car and a certain person seemed a bit dodgy.' Maybe a family can then know what happened to their daughter.”