One of the first known victims found in the Texas Killing Fields was Colette Wilson, a 13-year-old girl who was abducted from an intersection in Alvin, Texas. According to the True Crime Edition, Wilson had just returned from band camp and was waiting for her mother, Claire, to pick her up. Mere minutes passed between when Colette was dropped off and when her mom arrived to find a deserted intersection. Claire checked for her daughter at a friend’s house, but Colette wasn’t there. Neither was she waiting at home. It soon became apparent that the young girl was missing — perhaps in a car that Colette’s mother had seen on her way to pick up her daughter.

Police initially assumed that Colette was a runaway, leading the Wilson family to round up their neighbors and form an impromptu search party. The police finally admitted that Colette was likely abducted, but seemed to bungle the search, throwing away potential evidence and squandering vital time.

While searching for Colette, other victims were discovered, including 14-year-old Brenda Jones and 19-year-old Gloria Ann Gonzales. Not long after, Colette’s skeletal remains were uncovered nearby. Claire Wilson is reported as saying, “Colette was dead, but we could bury her.” The families of other victims found in the Texas Killing Fields would not even have that small comfort.

Though the Texas Killing Fields is now an ominous place, it’s not far from the beaches and bays of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 1970s as much as today, the waterfront was a popular draw in the hot Texas summer. But, the True Crime Edition reports, by the end of 1971, several young women had been killed in the area. At first, most of the girls were assumed to be runaways, and their stories were little impediment to others spending a summer on the beach.

Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Renee Johnson were among the four “surfer girls,” as the Houston Chronicle calls them, who disappeared that summer. Shaw and Johnson were both about to enter high school in the fall and spent much time together on the area’s beaches. The friends would often hitchhike back home, and that’s exactly what they did on August 4, 1971, the last day they were seen alive. Later that year, Debbie Ackerman and Maria Johnson, who spent time in the same places as Shaw and Johnson, also disappeared. All four were killed, their remains later found in nearby bayous.

Michael Lloyd Self, a mechanic, was arrested in 1972 and pinned for the murders of Sharon Shaw and Rhonda Renee Johnson, according to the Houston Chronicle. It may have been a relief for locals to see him convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but the relief would be shortlived. While Self was locked away in prison, the murders continued.

There were also some serious problems with Self’s conviction. It’s reported that Self had brain damage, and the True Crime Edition claims that he had a reputation as an “oddball” and was a nonviolent voyeur who showed an interest in local police activity. It later came out that Self’s confession was obtained through coercion. Chief of Police Don Morris reportedly threatened Self during the interrogation process, going so far as to force Self to play Russian roulette with a loaded revolver. Self died in prison in 2000, with many wondering if the wrong man had been convicted after all.

While some of the victims found in the Texas Killing Fields were identified relatively quickly, others remain unknown. One such individual is a women currently only known as Princess Blue. Per the Houston Press, her remains were discovered by a local man on a remote road in 1990. Her skeletal remains provided no identifying features other than a class ring with a large blue stone, which led to her moniker. It was linked to Robert E. Lee High School in nearby Houston, with the year 1975 inscribed on the ring.

However, analysis of the remains indicate that she was unlikely to have graduated that year. An initial Harris County Medical Examiner’s office examination estimated that she was between 15 and 19, and a 2007 analysis upgraded her age range to 17 to 21. A forensic artist also created a portrait based on her remains and her DNA was added to databases. However, as of 2021, she remains unidentified. ABC13 reports that investigators have taken samples of her remains for phenotypic analysis that could help reveal further details of her identity.

Technology is helping law enforcement to identify the victims found in the Texas Killing Fields, but the names of perpetrators are even more difficult to pin down. One man has received plenty of attention for his possible link to multiple crimes in the area, as Houston Public Media reports. In the 1990s, Edward Harold Bell was serving a 70-year sentence for murder. From his prison cell, he claimed that he killed 11 girls linked to the Texas Killing Fields. He referred to them as the “eleven who went to heaven” and provided names for four of his reported victims, as well as details like hair color and the years he committed the crimes.

Bell died in 2019, leaving behind little real evidence for authorities to confirm his story. DNA may have provided some insights, but it was impossible to recover it from some of the evidence, which had been collected decades ago. Some have also speculated that Bell falsely confessed to gain attention and notoriety. Yet, as the Houston Chronicle reports, it’s hard for investigators to ignore the detailed confession letter Bell left behind. That letter included details that line up eerily well with the facts of some cases.