WALKER COUNTY TEXAS IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE

   As some of our regular readers know, we have been trying to assist in unraveling a (now) 39-year old issue in Walker County, Texas. On this day in 1980. a young woman was tortured, sexually abused, and finally garroted to death before being dumped in a swamp drainage-ditch along Interstate 45. The girl has come to be known as Walker County Jane Doe; and was interred in Oakwood Cemetery by volunteers in January, 1981 after attempts to identify her were unsuccessful. 

   The details of the case are widely known and can be found with a search both here and on the Web. We first wrote about the case about a year ago. She is still unidentified. However, volunteers have made some substantial progress. Numerous tips have come into volunteer agencies. The Facebook page dedicated to WCJD has had around 100,000 shares. There are, I think, two threads on the message-board Websleuths on this case alone. Reddit has several pages on it. We've written about a half-dozen articles on the case, and combined they've been linked or shared about 20,000 times. Other blogs have written about it too. 

   Unfortunately, we can't say the same for the investigating agency: the Walker County Sheriff's Office. Under the inept leadership of Sheriff Clint McRae, the poltroons supposedly in charge of the WCJD Case didn't even issue a public statement this November.  

   This isn't uncommon, though, for this sorry excuse for a law enforcement agency. Last Summer, one of our readers sent their Department a Public Records Request where one of the questions put the Sheriff was for public statements he had made since the case was reopened in 2015. His response? "We have no documents responsive to the request." Which, incidentally, was also his response when asked for transcripts of reports he'd made to public officials on the case. In other words, he's handling the case without the slightest public accountability or oversight. He also stated on the responses to other questions that his office didn't even have records of how many man-hours or how much expense they'd put into the case since 2015 (I suspect because neither actually exist). 

   In response to a question about which public tips had been ruled out, McRae's response was that none had. Which, given the number of tips they've received since 2015 strongly implies that there are no rule-outs because none have been investigated. 

  Advances in technology have broken many of these old cases since 2015, but there is no indication that Walker County has employed any of it. Except for shopping a few contaminated relics to DNA labs for show (all of which invariably come back negative), they have done nothing of substance to solve this case. The DNA Doe Project, for example, has practically begged Walker County for a chance to work this case. So far, they have been met with refusals. 

  Whatever the motives behind all of this negligence are, the fact remains that the Walker County Sheriff's handling of this case is inexcusably bad. WCSO is a disgrace to County Sheriffs---both in Texas and across the nation---most of whom are doing a good job.

  If you live in Texas, or are otherwise an activist interested in this case, you can (respectfully) state your dissatisfaction with the progress of the case to one of the following officials:

Judge Danny Pierce (head of Walker County Commissioners); 936-436-4910 (e-mail dpierce@co.walker.tx.us)

Representative Kevin Brady (Congressman of the District including Walker County) 202-225-4905. Mr. Brady's e-mail is restricted to residents of the 8th Congressional District of Texas; however he has both a Twitter and a Facebook page where he may be contacted.

Mr. Ken Paxton (Attorney-General of Texas) 512-463-2100; or 800-252-8011 for Texas residents.

Senator John Cornyn (US Senator-Texas) East Texas Office: 903-593-0902

Senator Ted Cruz (US Senator-Texas) East Texas Office: 903-593-5130

  Let's not let this case go to 40 years.