Execution scheduled for man who kidnapped and murdered retired TCU professor
A judge has set an execution date next year for a man convicted of robbing and killing a retired TCU professor who he kidnapped from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot, authorities said.
Edward Busby, 53, was sentenced in 2005 to the death penalty after a jury found him guilty of capital murder in the killing of 77-year-old Laura Lee Crane.
Judge William Knight, who presides over Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 2, signed an order on Dec. 10 for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to carry out Busby’s execution by lethal injection on May 14.
Crane, an education faculty member at Texas Christian University, retired as director of TCU’s Starpoint School, which serves students with learning difficulties. She was abducted outside a Tom Thumb store on Jan. 30, 2004.
Crane suffocated after her head was wrapped with duct tape and she was forced into the trunk of her car, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. Her body was found days later in Davis, Oklahoma.
Busby stole more than $775 using the victim’s credit cards and a blank check, the district attorney’s office said.
Busby was originally scheduled to be executed in February 2021 but was granted a stay at that time while an appeals court reviewed claims that he had intellectual disabilities.
Busby’s co-defendant, Kathleen “Kitty” Latimer, was found guilty of murder and received a life sentence. Latimer, 61, will be eligible for parole in 2034, according to Texas prison records.
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM.
