He has been under suspicion for four decades, yet never charged. Clyde Hedrick remains a suspect in the so-called “Killing Fields” murders, but maintains his innocence.
“I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it, and I’ve already been doing this for 44-years,” Hedrick said during a recent interview with KPRC 2 Investigates.
Hedrick was developed early on a suspect in the murder of Laura Miller and Heide Villareal Fye.
“Very early on, right after Laura’s body was found, Clyde’s name was brought up,” said Tim Miller, Laura’s father and founder of Texas EquuSearch.
Miller said Hedrick lived a few doors down from his family when they lived in Dickinson. Miller said his daughter’s boyfriend clearly remembered Hedrick talking to Laura and how his demeanor made him uncomfortable. Hedrick claims he didn’t know he lived near the Millers.
“I didn’t know them when I lived there, I was working all the time,” said Hedrick.
Retired FBI agent, Richard Rennison said witness accounts dispute Clyde’s claims of not knowing the family.
“We had witnesses that said he knew her and would talk to her ,and one person said that she saw Laura on the back of his motorcycle at one point,” said Rennison, who was on the task force investigators several unsolved murders in the area.
Heide Fye’s niece, Nina Jager also remembered seeing Clyde at her aunt’s apartment. Fye was a bartender and waitress at the Texas Moon, a very popular League City bar frequented by Hedrick in the 80s.
“I told the police that; I actually picked out his photo,” Jager said. " I picked his photo out of a book, a binder of people, and I said that guy came to her house. I didn’t even know who he was at the time, but I know I picked his black and white photo out.”
Hedrick at first denied knowing Fye or going to her apartment but then later acknowledged he probably knew her from the Texas Moon.
“There was one witness who said that they saw Heide in the car with Clyde at one point,” said Rennison,
Fye’s father documented his investigation into his daughter’s disappearance and murder through journals and cassette recordings. A friend of Heide’s said Clyde definitely knew her and Joseph Villareal said a League City detective told him he suspected Clyde wasn’t truthful about knowing his daughter.
“He told us about, his opinion of this guy Clyde, and how he knows the guy’s lying when he talks to him. He had a book and he showed us some photos of Clyde when the guy was in prison and now. He seems to think there is a connection and he’s trying to find it,” Villareal was recorded saying on one of several cassette tapes he used to document his findings.
The sister of Donna Prudhomme, Dianne Gonsoulin, said one of her nephews remembered seeing Clyde during one of his mom’s last trips home. Prudhomme’s sons were living with their grandparents in Ville Platte, Louisiana while their mother was living in the Nassau Bay, Tx. area. Gonsoulin said the last time she saw her boys was during a trip home in 1989. Prudhomme’s body was found in 1991, but she was not identified until 2019.
Gonsoulin said she showed Donna’s surviving son a picture of Clyde after her sister was identified in 2019.
“Within seconds he’s calling me saying, ‘that’s him, aunt Diane, that’s him, that’s him. I know it, I know what he had on, I know what his eyes look like, I know his shirt, I know his jewelry, I know his belt, I know his pants, I know his shoes,” Gonsoulin said her nephew told her.
Hedrick denied knowing Prudhomme or even traveling to Louisiana during that time.
Despite the connections, Clyde has never been charged with murder of Laura Miller, Donna Prudhomme, Audrey Cook and Heide Fye. Hedrick was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of Ellen Rae Beason in 1984.
“Do I have any doubt in my mind that he’s potentially suitable for several of those girls? Absolutely, absolutely. I have no second qualms about that. All of them, I can’t I’m not going to go there,” said Lt. Tommy Hansen with the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.
In the conclusion of our four part documentary, you’ll hear how Clyde was developed as a suspect and why he remains a suspect in these cases.
“I remember we had a whiteboard with all these names on it, then slowly they would be crossed off, ruled out one way or another, but we could never rule out Clyde, never rule him out,” said Rennison.
