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Longtime Suspect in Texas Killing Fields Cases Dies at 72 as Probes Continue

Officials say the investigations will proceed despite the death of a man long scrutinized in the unsolved Calder Drive killings.

Overview

  • The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed that Clyde Edwin Hedrick, 72, died around 2 p.m. on March 21 at a Houston hospital.
  • Investigators said the Killing Fields inquiries remain active, and a Hitchcock detective reported Hedrick indicated his innocence during a hospital visit the day before he died.
  • Hedrick had for decades been regarded as a prime suspect in the Calder Drive murders of Heide Fye, Laura Miller, Audrey Cook and Donna Prudhomme.
  • Witness accounts cited by a retired FBI agent and family members placed Hedrick with some victims, though he was never charged in those cases.
  • He was convicted in 2014 of manslaughter in the separate death of Ellen Beason and was released in 2021 under the state’s Super Intensive Supervision parole program.