A 67-year-old man from Texas was arrested after police found hidden human remains at his home. They think the remains belong to his ex-girlfriend, who went missing 25 years ago.
Kendall Langwell, 34, was last seen leaving work on July 9, 1999, just after 5 p.m. She called her 15-year-old daughter to let her know she would be home for dinner around 6:30 p.m. after visiting her ex-boyfriend Terry Rose in Beaumont. Investigators say Langwell’s phone and other personal items were still in her car when it was found abandoned at a pharmacy around 10:30 p.m., but her car keys and purse were not.
A “reliable informant” told police in April that Rose had killed Langwell in his home the night she went missing and then buried her on his land, according to a probable cause affidavit from Beaumont’s CBS affiliate KFDM. The case went cold for years.
The daughter of Langwell, Tiffani McInnis, said on Friday that she had always thought her mother never left Rose’s house.
“It’s hard whenever—you know where your mom is and there’s nothing you can do about it,” she told KFDM after the Beaumont Police Department held a news conference Friday to say Rose had been arrested and the body had been found.
Investigators said they are still waiting for DNA reports to confirm who the bodies belong to, but they think the case is closed and are happy that Langwell’s family can finally move on with their lives.
McInnis wrote on Facebook in November that she thought her mother’s case had “finally gained some traction” after being shown on Oxygen’s “Cold Justice With Kelly Siegler.”
The sister of Langwell, Susan Lofgren Butts, thanks the show and the Beaumont Police Department for their work on Facebook in November. She also said, without naming Rose, that the family had always thought they knew who killed Langwell.
Butts wrote, “He said something that clears up any doubt for me.” “He also believed that there was no one there and no crime.”
Butts said, “Well, things have changed.” He said that the evidence at the time was weak but that there was “a lot of it.”
During Friday’s news conference, Police Chief Jimmy Singletary got emotional and called the probe “extraordinary.” He also praised the detectives who had worked on the case for decades.
“They were going to make sure the family could move on,” he said. “And by golly, they did.”
The nonprofit volunteer search and recovery group Equusearch said on its website Friday that ground-penetrating radar tools helped volunteers find a possible area of interest “within minutes” of arriving. This is where the body parts were found.
According to EquuSearch, the family of Kimberly Langwell will finally have some answers and may be able to start a new grieving process when they bring their beloved Kimberly home. However, positive identification still needs to be proven.
This is what McInnis said about Rose: “I hope he goes to jail forever.” “At the very least, I hope he lives the 25 years we’ve been through.”
The bond for Rose was set at $1 million on Friday. He may or may not have hired a lawyer, and it’s not clear when he is next due in court.
Source: Huffpost
