Texas convict facing kidnapping, murder charges waives extradition

A Texas convict who led authorities to the body of a University of North Texas student last seen in 1997 has waived extradition and will be transferred to Oklahoma to face kidnapping and murder charges there, a prosecutor said Thursday.

In a brief hearing Wednesday in Galveston County, William Reece, 57, of Houston, did not fight his transfer to Oklahoma.

The Texas convict is a suspect in some of Texas’ oldest cold cases, including the abduction and killing of UNT honor student Kelli Cox of Farmers Branch.

In Oklahoma, Reece is accused of kidnapping and murdering 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston, who was abducted on July 26, 1997, from a car wash in Bethany, Okla. He was charged in September 2015 after DNA evidence linked him to the case.

Reece, who was in the Friendswood Jail on Thursday, could be moved to Oklahoma next week, Galveston County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Petroff said in a telephone interview.

While he’s in Oklahoma, Reece is expected to be charged in Texas with murder in the killings of Jessica Cain, 17, of La Marque and Laura Smither, 12, of Friendswood, Petroff said.

Cain went missing in August 1997 after attending a cast party where she had celebrated her performance in a high school musical. Her dad’s pickup was found on the route to her Tiki Island home.

Earlier this year, Reece guided authorities to locations near Houston. He led them to a pasture in Brazoria County where human remains were found March 18. Medical examiners later identified the remains as those of Cain.

“We would not seek the death penalty if Jessica Cain was found,” Petroff said. “And he led us to her.”

Reece is also a suspect in Smither’s killing in April 1997.

Smither disappeared while jogging, and her body was found a month later in Pasadena.

Murder charges also are expected to be filed in Denton in the Cox case, Denton police have said.

Cox disappeared July 15, 1997, after taking a tour of the Denton Jail with her UNT criminology class. She called her boyfriend about noon and when he arrived to meet her, he found only her car.

Initially, Reece led authorities to skeletal remains that were later identified as those of Cain. Days later, he directed authorities to where other skeletal remains were buried.

Authorities found them April 5 at a site in Brazoria County, in a pasture off Texas 288 near Rosharon.

Dental records confirmed that the bones were those of Cox.

Cox had a 19-month-old daughter, who is now a student at UNT.

Shortly after the slayings in 1997, Reece was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 1998 for an aggravated kidnapping in Harris County, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. While in prison, he was also sentenced to three years for theft in Brazoria County.

He had been in a state prison at the time that he started leading authorities to skeletal remains.

This report includes information from The Associated Press.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Texas convict facing kidnapping, murder charges waives extradition."