HOUSTON – Jessica Cain’s name and face have been etched into the city's collective memory for nearly 20 years.
The 17-year old disappeared in 1997. Her truck was found abandoned off the Gulf Freeway. But, the cold case suddenly got hot at the end of February.
Crews began digging up dirt on a southeast Houston property. Word slowly leaked they were looking for Cain’s body.
Mandy Albritton searched for Jessica decades ago.
She, along with family friends and supporters, came here each day as crews continued to dig.
"It feels like we're finally going to get some peace for this child," Albritton told Channel 2.
Cain wasn't the only young woman to disappear under suspicious circumstances in the spring and summer of 1997.
April 3,1997: 12-year old Laura Smither was abducted while jogging near her Friendswood home. Her body was found two weeks later.
May 1997: 19-year-old Sandra Sapaugh was kidnapped at knife point from a gas station in Webster. She survived.
July 15, 1997: Kelli Ann Cox vanished. The University of North Texas student was last seen a gas station in Denton.
"My last words to Kelli were, 'I love you honey, have a good day. I'll talk to you this afternoon,'" her mother, Jan Bynum, recalls.
July 26, 1997: 19-year old Tiffany Johnston disappeared from a car wash near Oklahoma City. Her body was found in a ditch.
August 17, 1997: Jessica Cain disappeared.
There are five young women whose fate is connected by time and to one man: William Reece.
Reece is a convicted felon who moved to Houston in 1996, after serving time in Oklahoma for rape. He is the main suspect in each case.
Sandra Sapaugh was the only woman to escape. She fought off Reece and jumped out of a moving vehicle. Sapaugh later picked Reece out of a lineup and testified against him.
He was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Reece spoke to KPRC Channel 2 in 1998 from inside prison. He denied kidnapping Sapaugh and blamed his record as a convicted sex offender for the jury's decision.
"They bring up your past because you've done time. The figure if you've done it once you must have done it again," Reece said in the jailhouse interview.
For the last 17 years, Reece has remained silent.
In August 2015, detectives in Oklahoma working the Tiffany Johnston cold case got a DNA hit.
William Reece was always a suspect, but now there was solid proof.
Facing a murder charge and a possible death penalty, Reece started talking.
He revealed details about the disappearance of Jessica Cain and Kelli Ann Cox and led investigators to the Southeast Houston field. He walked the site in handcuffs to help crews narrow the search.
"I'm so glad Mr. Reece is speaking and telling the truth at this time," Mandy Albritton said from the dig site.
After more than two weeks searching, crews discovered human remains.
A forensic team is working to identify the bones.
Jan Bynum is hoping search crews at a second site in Angleton will find the remains of her daughter, Kelli Ann Cox, and bring her family closure.
