The most terrifying part of a cold case, you wake up every day going, “Is that the person that killed my sister?” For the Walker family, it absolutely was true. Rodney McCoy and Carla Walker were your all-American high school couple. The door gets ripped open and a male grabs her with one hand and attempts to shoot Rodney with the other.
I could see blood. I could see Rodney’s eyes bulging. He was screaming, pleading with my dad, “Mr. Walker, Mr. Walker, help me. They got her. They’re going to hurt her bad. I know they are. She was tortured, raped, murdered. You locked your doors. You never went anywhere by herself anymore. We always called him the bad guy.
Is he amongst us looking for his next victim? Carla Walker was the boogeyman. It was the case that affects how our parents parented us. They found some DNA on her dress. This profile was uploaded into Cotus and there were no hits. Was one of those cases that everyone thought couldn’t be solved. This case was cold for 47 years.
Was it someone we knew? Everybody who knew Carlos murderer thought he was a wonderful man. He’s been in our backyard the entire time. How did you kill him? I just choked him. Carla was a good spirit, a good soul, feisty, nobody’s fool. She had piercing eyes, a beautiful smile.
I’m James Young Walker and I am Carla’s youngest brother. In high school, Carla was wellliked by most of her peers. All groups of kids, they would always say, “Oh, she’s so nice. She’s so nice and just smiled a lot, real active. Carla was on a cheer squad. Rodney was her boyfriend who was a quarterback on the varsity.
I knew that he’d given her a promise ring. There was a commitment there between both of them. For high school, they were serious and that was a big deal to get a promise ring. You know, out of all my friends, I really think their relationship would have lasted. and he was so crazy about her. Saturday, February 16th, Carla and Rodney were going to attend the high school Valentine’s dance.
She was a junior in high school. I was seventh grade in middle school. Rodney, he’s running late, forgot the curs, and Carla was a little bit irritated cuz she want she liked being punctual. She looked good, was ready to see her girlfriends. And so she called me and she was really ticked off because Rodney was late.
And she goes, “I think I’m just not going to go.” And I said, “No, don’t do that. He’s late, but you know, he’s coming.” We talked for a little bit and then he got there and we hung up. Rodney had a curs and put it on her and mom and dad took a lot of pictures of Carla and Rodney and wished them well and they left to go to the dance.
Mom and dad and and my aunt and uncle were playing dominoes, laughing, drinking coffee, and everybody was waiting up for Carla and Rodney to come back and tell us about their fun night. Mom was starting to get a little concerned uh that it was after 1:00 and Carla and Rodney weren’t home yet. And on February 17th, about 1:30 a.m.
Sunday morning, I heard slamming tires of a car coming directly hitting straight on a curb. And I heard Rodney’s voice yelling, “Mr. Walker, Mr. Walker, help me. They’ve got her. They’re going to hurt her bat. I know they are.” And then pounding on the front screen door. Looked up and I saw Rodney’s face. And I could see blood.
I could see Rodney’s eyes bulging. His lips perched. He had a slash. He was just looking saying, “They’ve got her, Mr. Walker. Help me. They’ve got her. And they’re going to hurt her bad. I know they are.” I mean, I was just terrified. I had no idea what was going on. And dad looked at me and said, “Jimmy, come with me.
” And I just stood there frozen, shook my head. No. I knew my dad was going to kill somebody if he found him. He was gone for 30 minutes, searched up and down the street, didn’t find her, came back, and by then law enforcement started showing up. According to Rodney, he and Carlo went out to dinner.
Then they showed up to the dance, hung out with their friends for a while, had a great time. Um, at one point they and another couple had decided that they were going to leave the dance and go cruising. Cruising was a popular thing at the time. They just had a little strip there where they would drive up and down. So, they decided to do that with the other couple.
I’m Sergeant Leah Wagner with the Fort Worth Police Department. During the investigation of this case, I was Detective Leah Wagner. I am now the supervisor over our human trafficking and child exploitation unit. close to midnight. Uh the female from the other couple said, “Hey, I have a curfew.” So Rodney went ahead and dropped the other couple back off at the dance.
Rodney took her to a local fast food place, bought her some food around 12:20. Carla needed to use the restroom, so Rodney took her to the Ridgely Bowling Alley to use the restroom. I’m Jeff Bennett. I’m a detective with the Fort Worth Police Department in the homicide cold case unit. They went inside.
We’re in just for a short time. They came back out to the car, started doing what high school couples do. They were kissing in the front seat. Carla was leaned up against her door. While that is going on, the door gets ripped open and a male grabs her with one hand and attempts to shoot Rodney with the other. He pulled the trigger and fortunately the gun malfunctioned and this individual starts beating Rodney about the head with this gun and pistol whipping.
As Rodney is losing consciousness, Carla’s screaming, “Get help. Get my dad and and leave him alone. Leave him alone.” And when Rodney comes too, Carla’s gone. Rodney at this point is frantic. He’s looking for her. Has no idea what’s happened. He doesn’t see her around. Doesn’t see the male around. So he decides to drive to the Walker’s home where he bangs on the door and asks them for help.
And so Mr. Walker then drives over to the bowling alley where Rodney said that this had taken place. And when he arrives, he finds a magazine from a Ruger 22 Mark1 on the ground in a purse. Fort Worth PD send Rodney to the hospital to get treated for his injuries. And then they quickly put the word out trying to figure out what happened to Carla.
Over the next day or so, they start an intensive investigation where they’re talking to students, witnesses, anybody that may have seen Carla, seen the mail that attacked her, or anything involving uh what had occurred in the case. My dad had gotten a telephone call from the police department and he said, “Connie, did you see Carla last night?” And I said, “No.
” And he said, “Someone took her.” And I said, “Someone took her?” What do you mean? I mean, I You just didn’t think of those things back then. I I was scared. I cried, you know, and and he said, “And the police want you to come down and be interviewed.” I had been with Carla the night before at a party out at the lake.
They asked me some questions about that. Who was there? Did anyone bother us? Did Rodney have any enemies? Did Carla have any enemies? Just those type of things. And uh then just went home. Our house kind of became a command center during the day. And uh all throughout the county uh volunteers, high schoolers, just good men and women were volunteering to go and look for Carla.
Wednesday, February 20th, some officers about 6:30 p.m. were checking culverts along Benbrook Lake and they went down in a culvert and her body was found. Homicide detectives, crime scene officers were called out to the scene and one of the crime scene officers got 8 mm footage of the crime scene, which is really phenomenal.
That’s not something that you run across very often in a case this old. Carla was found about halfway in the middle of this culvert. It’s a cattle culvert underneath this road. And because it was February, it was cold weather. Carla’s body was very well preserved. She did have torn clothing which was indicative of sexual assault.
She also had some bruising and scratches um on her face and neck and body and there was blood on her dress. investigators did a fantastic job of collecting absolutely everything they could. They collected dirt clumps. They collected pieces of hair and fibers. They even found um a promise ring that was uh given to her by Rodney, but it was it was by her body in the dirt.
So, they took everything that they could see at that scene. I was there when a news reporter knocked on the front door and the news reporters said through the screen, “So, Mr. and Mrs. Walker, do you have anything to say after they have found your daughter’s body?” And uh all of a sudden, I remember seeing my dad look at me and my mom look straight ahead and that’s the first time I ever saw my dad tear up.
And uh anyway, that news reporter was quickly escorted off of our property and asked not to return or it would not go well. Uh a few minutes later, Taran County Sheriff’s Department for PD the homicide, they said, “Hey, we found we believe we found Carlos body. She’s deceased.” Even 50 plus years later, it’s uh it’s still a quick memory.
And that’s I can see every detail of it in my mind, my mind’s eye. And uh I remember being at home when we got the news that they had found her. My friend and I, we really had a hard time with that. Kind of just broke down cuz I kept thinking she was going to come back and be alive. 16 years old, you just don’t think you’re going to lose a friend.
Maybe a grandparent or but not a friend. And just this also scared cuz we didn’t know who did it. Was it someone we knew? It was devastating. The guys were angry, especially Uncle Jim and my grandmother aunt. They were so sad. When you walk into their house, you see this big portrait of Carla. She was just like this angel. The bad guy took her.
In 1974, we’re talking Fort Worth, the city of Benbrook. Parents felt very comfortable letting their kids go out on the weekends, spend time, uh, going to parties with each other. And after this crime had occurred, the whole community changed dramatically. Everyone heard the story. If you lived in Fort Worth, you knew the story.
You locked your doors when you used to not worry so much about locking your doors. You never went anywhere by yourself anymore. We always called him the bad guy. Is he at the football game? Is he amongst us looking for his next victim? Does he look scary? Our group of friends that Carla, we used to do stuff together.
We didn’t want to go out anymore. I didn’t want to live in Fort Worth anymore where this happened. I started sleeping with my parents in the middle king size bed with my dad having a gun by the bed. Law enforcement investigated every tip that they received by phone or by mail. They interviewed witnesses. Rodney had said that it was a male that he believed to be uh maybe in his mid20s, had a cowboy accent.
He really didn’t have much detail beyond that. He he was having a really hard time trying to figure out and visualize what what this meal looked like. Her family at first thought that there was more than one person involved because one of the things that Rodney said when he first appeared at the Walker’s residence was they have her, they have her.
So, initially they thought they were looking for multiple people when in reality um when things calm down they realize it was just one. Investigators start looking at everybody. Rodney, the boyfriend obviously going to be one of the first suspects on their list. And Rodney’s pursued pretty hard by law enforcement.
Rodney’s saying it’s about 12:20 when this abduction occurs. He had been knocked out for just a couple of minutes, but he’s not showing up at the Walker’s house until 1:45 and it’s only a couple minutes away. So, there were some discrepancies in Rodney’s story, but they pretty much ruled Rodney out not too long after interviewing him several times.
One of the things that they also did was the magazine that was found in the parking lot, they knew that it belonged to a Ruger. So, they got a list of all the Ruger owners in the area and they went through and they systematically interviewed each and every one of those Ruger owners. They wanted to see their weapon.
Everybody could produce the weapon except for one individual. And when they interviewed him, he didn’t have his gun. He said been stolen out of his car a couple weeks prior to Carlo’s abduction. It was also then discovered that he had bought a magazine for that particular gun a few weeks after Carla’s murder.
And he was arrested on investigation of a murder. He was even polygraphed. He passed that polygraph and they just didn’t have enough to continue to keep him as a suspect. So, he was a suspect on paper, but nothing more. They they kept hitting roadblocks because there was there was just nothing definitive. In May of 1974, um first breakthroughs and and a possible who done it was um a guy named Tommy Neland.
He had abducted and assaulted a gal on the east side of Fort Worth. He was put into a lineup where Rodney McCoy was able to listen to each of these individuals in the lineup say a phrase that Rodney says that this perpetrator used during the abduction. And when he heard each of these individuals say that phrase, he did identify Tommy Ray Nean as the person he had heard at the car that night.
They talked to friends and family members and Tommy Neland did have an alibi ultimately because they they just didn’t have enough and he had an alibi. They weren’t able to charge Neland with uh Carla’s murder. In 1977, a male named Jimmy Dean Sasser decided that he was going to confess to Carla’s murder.
He was actually in jail in Tennessee. So, he was extradited back to Texas where he told law enforcement here that he was the one that had actually kidnapped and killed Carla. They charged him with it initially, but once more details came out about his confession and the fact that they were conflicting with details of the case, they ended up dropping the charges against Jimmy Dean.
Upon further investigation and talking to his friends and family, they believed his true intent was just to come back to Texas. So, every lead that the police department had pursued really just became a dead end. Uh there was nothing they could really sink their teeth into. There was nobody that they could get enough evidence to write an arrest warrant.
Uh so, the case just became cult. In 1979, there had been no movement. Carlos case was still well known. Law enforcement were still looking, running down any leads that they had. And um I was mad. And I sat inside the cattle covert with a hammer and a flashlight. I think I had a knife, too. I was just hoping whoever it was would I’d hear a car stop and somebody get out and hop down there.
I would have killed somebody. It really wasn’t until 2009 2010 that the investigators got their next big break and that was with DNA. They had sent Carla’s dress off to a lab and they found some DNA on her dress. A partial DNA profile had been developed. Uh, prior detectives were able to exclude several individuals from being involved in Carla’s murder.
The case just kind of slows down at that point. detectives start working on other cases because they didn’t have a whole lot to continue to work with at that point. Things changed for me in 2017. I can absolutely tell you I saw the hand of God move in my sister’s case. I was blessed.
I got to meet this incredible detective. Her name’s Detective Leah Wagner. I received a call from Carla’s brother, Jim Walker. We had a very long good conversation at which time he said, “Hey, listen. I I’m just I’m frustrated. It’s been a very long time and my parents have passed. Um some of my siblings have passed.
We really want to know what happened to Carla. It was 2019 when I get Jeff as a partner. And the first thing I’ve asked him to do is work on Carla’s case. We had four large banker boxes of information. Obviously, that looks to be a little overwhelming when you’re looking at all of this. You know, very competent, very qualified detectives had worked on this case.
So, my thought was the first thing I need to do is start reading every piece of paper in that case file from beginning to end. And through that process, developed a suspect list of 85 suspects. One of the main things we wanted to do was any male that she came into contact with that was a friend of hers or might have been mentioned in the case, we wanted to see if we can get DNA from them.
So, we just started plugging away and we had multiple interviews. We got multiple DNA samples and we just worked all the angles that we could. I felt strongly that Rodney McCoy was involved in Carla’s murder. You know, the boyfriend’s always going to be looked at in a case like this. We know there’s a gap of time in his story, and we’re trying to figure out what occurred during that gap of time.
One of the pieces of this, too, Rodney had given Carla a promise ring. You’re looking at this promise ring that’s found outside the culvert and you’re wondering did they get into a fight, an altercation, and you feel like it almost has to be intentional that that that ring has been removed and none of her other jewelry had been removed.
The thing was is that the DNA that was found in 2009 2010 was from an unknown male. So, we knew there was another man involved. Now, we didn’t know what part he played, but the way we figured it is there’s there’s a few different possibilities. One is it could have been somebody that Rodney caught Carla with that night and maybe he got in jealous rage.
It could have been somebody that they knew, um, a friend or an ex-boyfriend. Um, but then we thought, well, then why wouldn’t Rodney mention his name? And then the third possibility was maybe it is a stranger. So, because we knew that this other male existed, before we could point the finger at anybody, we had to figure out who is this unknown male.
It was 2019 when we actually hear from Paul Holes. He calls Jeff and I and says, “Hey, you know, this case was brought to my attention. And I don’t know if you know who I am or not, but I’m one of the detectives that was involved in the Golden State Killer and um I currently have a show and I’d really like to interview you guys on this case and see if there’s any way that I can help.
Well, our biggest obstacle and I think with most agencies are finances and the cost of doing the DNA work is extremely expensive. We told Paul we would be open to doing a show with him, but we needed some help getting some of the evidence tested and DNA work done and worked out an agreement for them to help finance some of the DNA testing.
So what they did was they sent more items of Carlos clothing back to a lab in California for further DNA testing because as time goes on, testing advances and uh sometimes what had been tested before that didn’t yield results may have a different result later. And that’s exactly what happened after it was sent to that lab in California.
We then received a full profile off of Carla’s bra. So now the unknown male that was on her dress is now a full profile of a male on her bra. This profile was uploaded into Cotus and there were no hits. We were really frustrated cuz we we were super excited thinking, “Oh, this is going to be it. We’re surely we’re going to find this person now that we have it.” That didn’t happen.
Shortly after that, Paul recommended a company to send the extracts off to try and do genetic genealogy. And the company that this was sent to pretty much consumed everything that we had and no results. We’re really stressed out as investigators. When you get excited, feeling like, hey, we’ve got a lead and it and it doesn’t pan out, it really does affect you more more than people realize.
you know, we’ve used DNA and and once you use DNA, there’s a process called consumption where you’re using either most of it or all of it and that doesn’t leave anything left. It’s a big concern, especially in our field because if we don’t have answers, somebody down the road might be able to get them if they still have DNA left. We had really hit a brick wall.
We were all devastated. I know Paul was devastated. We were devastated. We just felt like this might have been it. I called the lab and I said, “How much DNA do we have?” And they said, “We really only have like a few manogs,” which was not enough to do the genetic genealogy. We go back to Paul at this point.
We’re like, “Do you have any other ideas of what we can do with this DNA cuz we’re running on an empty here now that we have a full profile? You know, we need to do something with it.” He goes, “There’s this new company. You might reach out and see if they can help you out.” It’s a company called Aram. We had originally first heard about this case in 2020.
I watched this television show with Kristen, the DNA of murder, and at the end the screen goes black and it says DNA testing is in progress. It It’s terrible. It’s terrible to see this very, very painful story and at the end there’s just like an abrupt cliffhanger. I’ve known Paul Holes for a while. The forensics community is not large.
I call him on the phone and I said, “Paul, what happened at the end of the episode?” And Paul said, “Well, it’s not in the episode, but it turns out the testing had had failed.” And he sounded really disappointed. And I said, “Is there anything else at all in this case that we could look at?” And Paul said, “I don’t know.
There was another another piece of DNA that had been found, but it was a much smaller quantity of DNA and it was in terrible shape.” And I said, “Paul, I really think I really think we could do something with this. I’d like the chance to look at it.” And he said, “Look, I talked to Detective Jeff Bennett and he is u apprehensive.
He is open to talking to you uh but he wants to meet in person. Detective Wagner and myself drive down to Aram. We want to make sure their chain of custody protocols are in place. We want to get a comfort level that this is a legitimate lab that can work with our DNA and give us results because this is the last bit of DNA that we have left.
They proceeded to interrogate us and ask us everything they could ask and and wanted to know principally why we thought we’d have a better chance at being able to make sense of this DNA when a previous lab had taken a lot more DNA with a lot better quality and not had a result. He assured us that the new processes that he had only used um a minimal amount and that he could actually kind of do a pre-est and it would give him an idea of whether or not the DNA that we had was going to be viable enough.
This is it. We don’t have any other evidence that we feel like we can get DNA from. But we know this case is 46 years old. How much time do we really have to be able to solve this case? We thought this is our last shot. So, we’re going to do this. We ship off the very last amount of DNA that we have in hopes that we’re going to be able to get an answer.
Working with crime scene evidence, especially crime scene evidence from a murder that occurred in the ‘ 70s. They just collected that evidence in a box and put it up on a shelf. They were not thinking about how to preserve sperm DNA so that it could later lead to an identity, right? And that’s what makes that DNA difficult to read.
My name is Dr. Kristen Middleman and I’m the chief development officer here at Aram. In June of 2020, we received the DNA sample from Carla’s bra. It was a drop of male DNA found on her bra strap. Now, this piece of evidence was much more degraded, much more of a mixture than the evidence before, and more than 10 times less than the last sample that was tested.
and every lab that they had talked to before had deemed it unusable. I personally took on the challenge of working this case directly. I did not want to disappoint Jeff Bennett and Leo Wagner and uh I certainly didn’t want to disappoint Paul. The DNA sample from Carla’s bra went through feasibility analysis and it actually looked great for us.
To our delight, this evidence, although it was challenging by their description, it was really on par for the kind of work we do at Oram. he had seen much worse and we ran it through our process forensic grade genome sequencing. It took a week I think at that time this is early on for author to build a profile.
As we began to do the genealological search with the profile we found very good relatives not super close but but close enough to we were able to start building a tree. 5 weeks in we’ve got a profile looks great. We’ve done a search. were beginning the initial stages at analyzing the relatives and we already see something.
It was a Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. on July 4th and my analyst called and said, “I I think I think I’ve got a family unit.” And I look at the information, I step out, look at the information, we discuss it, and and it feels like a relevant update. I get a phone call from David Middleman and I’m going, “This guy has to have good news for us.
” So, I answer this call and David’s on the other end. He goes, “Well, Jeff, I think we have a last name for you.” The genealogy led to Glenn McCurley, senior. And I said, “I have a mccurly on a suspect list. I think he’s number 22. Well, let me go grab my binder. I’ll be right back.” We instantly heard Jeff Bennett ruffling through those papers and pulling it out and he knew the name immediately.
You could hear the excitement in his voice. Grabbed my binder. I looked at it. I said, “Sure enough, David.” I said, “Is it Glenn Samuel Mccurly?” And he says, “Well, I’m down to Glenn Samuel Mccurly, but he died in 1972. Your offense is 1974.” And I said, “Did he have a son, a junior, Glenn Samuel Mccurly Jr.?” And he goes, “I don’t know.
We’re not there yet. Let me call you back. About an hour later, I get a call from David and he goes, “Glenn McCurley had three sons and one of them was a junior.” And he goes, “We’ve been able to identify that the other two brothers were not living in Texas at the time, but Glenn Samuel McCurley was living in Fort Worth in 1974.
” That was a goosebump moment because I knew I was hearing something that detectives had wanted to hear for 46 years. I called Leah to let her know. We’re we’re just super stoked that we actually have a good true lead. Now, at this point, we knew we still had a lot of work ahead of us, but we were extremely excited.
We knew we were on the trail of our guy that had killed Carla. Glenn Samuel McCurley was one of the Ruger 22 gun owners that was interviewed off of that list. And in April of 1974, he spoke with police and gave him his side of the story. Uh he was even polygraphed. Um he passed that polygraph. First thing that we do, we have one of our officers go out to the Mccurly home doing a welfare check.
They’re an older couple at this point. They’re still living here just a few minutes from where the walkers live. Hi, I’m Officer Mlullen. Hi. Hey. Uh, no. They sent us out here just checking, but the van is parked in the yard. It’s technically a violation. So, is Mr. McCurley? He’s in the back. Mrs.
McCurley comes to the door and he asks if uh who lives in the home. She said it was just her and her husband. How long y’all lived here? Uh, since 1978. Wow. And during his conversation with Mrs. Mccurley, Mr. Mccurley walks out from the backyard. Mr. McCurley, I didn’t do anything. I ain’t got no money either. You ain’t Well, I ain’t got no money.
I’m a policeman. Come out of the rain. He’s the type of individual that cuts jokes and tries to keep it light-hearted. He was doing this with the police officer. You said you lived here since 78, so you probably got a lot of stuff. Oh, you wouldn’t even believe it. So, at that point, we knew that the McCuries were the only ones living at this home and they were there.
Y’all need anything, let us know. Thanks. All right. We know we’re going to have to get a hold of Mccurly. We’re going to need to get DNA directly from him to match this up to our STR profile that’s in Cotus. We did what we call a trash run, and that’s taking trash that’s abandoned at the curb.
We had five bags of trash that we proceeded to go through. We identified some items from the trash that we wanted to send off. We took a bunch of those items, sent them back to the lab in California that did the original testing, and they ended up finding a match on a McDonald’s straw. And so the person that was on the McDonald’s straw was the same DNA match to the full profile that was on Carlos Rock.
So now we have a match, but that’s still not good enough. In uh criminal proceedings, you still have to prove who it came from. Lee and I then decided to go do an out of custody interview with Glenn. Jeff and I show up and announce one day his wife answers the door and we tell her, “We reopened an old case from 1974 and you know, we we’d like to talk to y’all.
” She invited us in and the four of us sit down and we talked for a while. My name is Detective Wagner. I’m from Fort Worth PD and this is Detective Bennett who’s also from Fort Worth PD. And we are here with Mr. Can you state your full name, please? Uh Glenn McCurley. We’re going to take you way way back. Okay.
There was a young lady that got kidnapped from the bowling alley. You know who I’m talking about? Carla Walker. I think Walker. I do remember the case and I read about it on Facebook once in a while that I knew it had been reopened. Uh we’re just we’re reining everybody that was in the case and we had seen at one point they talked to Mr.
McCurley and so they took me down the river. Yeah. And I’m sure they asked you if you knew Cara, right? What did they ask you if you knew her? The girl. I don’t I can’t remember that. Okay. Yeah. I Well, I imagine what they would have asked you is where were you that night? Well, she I was with her part of the time because she she was down here to No, I we I’d gone to Midland.
My daddy my parents still lived in Midland. My daddy had surgery and I went with my sister. I don’t know what day it was. He had I went out there. He said, “Oh, you know, I was probably driving my wife uh back and forth to work.” His wife speaks up and she goes, “No, Glenn, don’t you remember? I was in West Texas that week.
My dad was having heart surgery. There was a gun involved in the thing. Okay. And it happened to be a gun like I had. Okay. It was a Ruger. 22. Mhm. When I was fishing out here Mhm. under the bridge one day and I heard these loud somebody digging out in the pavement, you know, with their car. And I went back up there.
I looked into their seat and they had stolen that gun. Oh, okay. He claimed that his gun had been stolen uh 6 weeks ago. So, when he’s saying 6 weeks ago, that lines up with the time of the offense. And then when we asked him if he had reported it to the police, he said no, he was an ex-con and that um he wasn’t supposed to have a gun.
So, he he didn’t tell the police. Did they tell you why they were looking for a 22? There was somebody had a little girl had gotten captured or something. They were investigating because they found a clip. Okay. In order for us to eliminate you, the quickest way to do that is to get your DNA.
Is that something that you would be okay with? We’ve asked for DNA for every guy that we’ve talked to, and we’ve talked to probably about 15 of them that Well, I think they’ve already gone through all that before. Mhm. And they had me down there. Oh, did they ever ask you for your DNA before? I don’t That wasn’t They didn’t even do that back then.
That’s right. That’s right. No, you know what? It didn’t happen till the 80s when he says, “Oh, I I I did that back, you know, back then.” His His wife said, “No, you didn’t, honey. They didn’t have DNA back then.” But that’s the quickest way for us to rule you out, especially if somebody stole your gun.
Well, I told him that. I told him that it was stolen. Mhm. After a little while, we asked him, we revisit the question about getting his buckle swab. He had had a hard time refusing at this point, uh, since it was made clear he hadn’t given his DNA, so we were able to get a buckle swab from him. Well, we appreciate y’all’s hospitality.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Uh, you may or may not hear from us again. I don’t know. Let me Well, I hope I don’t do. Oh, come on. Now it’s just a matter of getting the results back from the buckle swab that we obtained from Mccurly. And about a week later, we got the results back. We finally get confirmation that all of it matches DNA from Glenn the McDonald’s and the bra.
We wrote an arrest warrant. We had our fugitive unit go out and arrest him and bring him back to our offices for us to interview him. We’re here because we are looking into the murder of Carla Walker and we’ve done a very thorough investigation. We know what happened and our evidence has led us to you.
Now, this is your opportunity to talk to us to tell us your side because I have I have bosses that I have to answer to. And what they want to know is that if you have any regret, if there’s if there’s anything that you can tell us that doesn’t paint a picture of you that makes you look like a monster. Because frankly, right now, when you’re talking about a young girl that got murdered, we only have one side and we’d like to hear yours.
That I did something to that girl. Yes, sir. I don’t think so. You don’t think so? What? That I did? I I don’t know. I’ve never seen the girl or anything. When was I supposed to have done that? He tries to go around it for a while. I need you to tell me something that I can believe because everything you’re telling me right now, well, if I tell you whether you don’t believe me, I will believe the truth.
Okay? I will believe the truth. But right now, you’re not giving me the truth. I did not kill anybody. Then what did you do? He gives us this story that Rodney and Carla were in the front seat arguing. He went up to the car door to save Carla. He was rattling against her or something. I don’t know. Okay. And she was screaming and yelling.
He felt like he had to come up with a story to place himself at the crime scene since we were so adamant that we had his DNA. Everybody has their own individual DNA. And if somebody had killed your granddaughter and left their semen on her, would it be important to you to find out who did that? It takes about an hour and a half before he finally decides that he’s going to tell us the truth.
How did you kill her? I guess choke. So after an hour and a half of talking to him, he finally confesses that he strangled and raped Carla. It was gratifying to finally have that peace after everything because it’s one thing to have the evidence point to it and it’s another to have the person admit to doing it.
You’ve told us the hardest part. You’ve told us about killing Carla, but we need the whole story. The one thing he stood on through that entire interview was the fact he didn’t have the gun. I felt pretty confident he had the gun. So, I continued to press him. You’re not giving us everything, which then doesn’t make you believable, and I don’t want that for you.
I didn’t have the gun then. It was gone. I said, Glenn, I know you have the gun. Where is it? No, it’s in a little room up in the ceiling. We got a search warrant and went to that exact spot and we secured the weapon. was back past a laundry room up in a ceiling behind some paneling just like you described wrapped up in a towel and to see this weapon that had been used 46 years ago in a crime that was just another chilling moment because you’re seeing this weapon you know that beat Rodney and that Rodney had been
extremely honest all the way through about this the house that they were living in when he was arrested was not the same home in which they had lived in previously so He had moved it a couple times and even created a secret place for it. So to me that that that there’s attachment there. I got a call and Jeff uh said, “I want to let you know we’ve made the arrest.
We got the right guy.” There was a lot of release of builtup tension, right? We started doing what all families would do and going online, finding out information. And we found out that he and his family had lived all these years, 45 years, from that front door of our house to the perpetrator’s house, straight lines about a mile.
And he lived there ever since he committed this crime with his family, a wife and two sons. I’m going to be real, that pissed me off. We were crying one minute, laughing one minute, and like, “Wow, the bad guys been in our backyard the entire time.” Entire time. Going by my grandparents’ house all the time.
I mean, I’m sure he did if he took his kids to school. I called Rodney. Rodney was also victimized. Devastated his life. He still had a successful life, but emotionally, physically, spiritually crushed him. I never truly felt like Rodney was a legitimate suspect. Uh just didn’t see it. Didn’t make sense. When I called Rodney, I said, “I just want to let you know we got him.
” And uh I said, “Yeah.” I said, “We got him.” And uh that was a good day. When we found out who did it, I really couldn’t even look at a picture. I couldn’t look at his picture. I really could not look at his picture. You know, if something came on the news or if they show I I would turn my head.
I couldn’t look at the picture. But gosh, what a miracle. I mean, it was prayers answered without a doubt. It It was just a real miracle. And thank God for the DNA testing that they can do. Unfortunately, the very next day, Glenn McCurley starts denying that he was involved in Cara’s murder.
So, he plead not guilty and the case goes to trial. The trial started in August of 2021. As a prosecutor, I have to tear this case apart that is solved and see if I can prove it in court because there is a difference between solving a case and proving a case. My name is Kim Davinon and I’m an assistant district attorney in Tarant County.
When we first got this case, I had to learn what the heck FGG was. So, not only did I have to learn the science of it, but then I had to find out whether or not it had been admitted somewhere else and what that looked like. So, it was a big journey. This was the first time this technology was used in a trial in Texas. They say we need to see every part of how you got there.
Because we are the first, what we have to do is help the court understand that the science is valid. It’s reliable. You want to make sure you’re doing it right because what you do affects every other case that’s being touched. And that’s a lot of pressure. If I mess this up somehow, if the court messes up somehow, if anything goes wrong, it affects the ability to use FGG in Texas.
I saw this trial take a real toll on David because when you stay up all night wondering if you’re going to have to look a family in the face and say, “Because you built something different, something new, now they can’t get justice.” That’s a lot of weight, especially when you live with people or love people that haven’t gotten justice.
The defense attorney filed many, many, many motions to suppress based on this being used for the first time in in in courts. And so what we have to do is help the court understand that the science is valid. It’s reliable because if the DNA is out, then everything’s out. On the third day of trial, it was ruled that the DNA was going to be admissible.
The defense attorney came up to me as we were getting ready to start and he said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” And I said, “Sure.” And he said, “He wants to plead guilty.” The judge went ahead and uh sentenced him right there to life in prison. at the witness impact statement. I was able to talk to him and and you know I wasn’t screaming, yelling or cussing, although the urge was there.
But I told him, I said, “Because I got this relationship with this guy named God, I forgive you.” Finally getting to what took me 45 years to get to forgiveness, uh, but doesn’t mean I ever forgot. Nowhere in God’s word does it say you forgive and forget, doesn’t? I was so happy that he plead guilty and he was going to prison.
I remember thinking, “Oh my god.” Like, not only are we providing justice for Carla Walker’s killer, but we are freeing Rodney from a lifetime of suspicion. And I can’t imagine what what that’s been like for him. After the trial had concluded, Leah mentioned to me, she goes, “Hey, Jeff, what do you think about if we give that promise ring back to Rodney McCoy?” I said, “You know what, Leah, that’s a brilliant idea.
” Once we got permission, we went ahead and we presented it to him and it was super emotional for everybody and then his daughter actually came up to me and she told me thank you. She said you know this whole process has has really helped him um find himself again. That too like just all of it was just super super emotional for everybody.
A very special day and I said um Rodney how do you feel now? and he thought he thought and he said healed. When we first arrested Glenn McCurley in September of 2020, Jeff had asked the question, “Why did you leave her body where you left it?” “What was the reason you selected the spot that you did to place her body?” It was against the building.
Wasn’t against the building. Just a couple minutes ago, you said you did what you did and then you dropped her off. I walked her over to the to these bushes and just had her stay right there and then I I took off. Well, we know that’s not how it ended up. Both of us kind of look each other with our eyes wide because we both know what that means.
The more he talks, the more he continues to talk about somewhere that has nothing to do with where Carlo was found. And that was a goosebump moment because we knew there are other victims out there that Glenn had done this to. We had always felt like this was not a oneanddone, that he he was a suspect and others.
Somebody doesn’t show up to a parking lot of a place that’s open to the public and attack two people with a weapon unless they’ve built up to that. There’s always precursors to that type of activity. Glenn McCurley was a truck driver. He drove from Fort Worth to California for years. Felt very confident that there’s probably girls between here and California that Glenn McCurley was responsible for.
I feel very confident that Glenn McCurley was involved in Becky Martin’s murder. She was one of the girls that we had found in a culvert 1973, almost identical to the culvert that Carla was found in, probably 15, 20 minutes from where Carla was found. When confronted with that information, he just refused to admit to anything else.
We were in the process of trying to identify cases he was involved with and 2 weeks before we were going to go down and interview Glenn. He passed away in prison. He ended up spending 2 years in prison before he just ended up passing. You know, I just I feel like it’s really unfair that Carla got her life cut short at 17 and he got to live, you know, 78 years before he even had to answer for what he did to her.
Carla Walker is just one of hundreds of thousands of victims in this country. She was our our victim. So, that was the number one priority. And uh technology popped up. Dave Arthur Lab came online. That was a godsend. And that’s where we’re at today talking about the Carla Walker Act.
Jim Walker told me, “I want to help others that don’t have answers get the same thing.” I realized that would include legislation that needed to be legislation. The Carla Walker Act, it is a pilot program to fund forensic genetic genealogy for the very first time. The idea that it would be done in Carla’s name, it’s so beautiful, right? because her family suffered for so many years and for that suffering to ultimately lead to possibility.
Cara Walker will be with us forever in that way. DNA has been transformative. I I’m not sure anybody ever finally achieves closure, but at least they get some answers to their questions because I think just the human imagination is one that we always, you know, if we don’t really know, we we imagine the worst.
This, I think, provides a smoother and more direct path toward achieving justice. We still got work to do to be sure, but u I can’t imagine anyone having a a principled objection to something as important as this. This affects all of our families might have affected your family. We have to get behind this and we have to pass this.
We got 280 plus labs in our country that they’ll follow the matrix of the Carter Walker Act. We’re going to start catching perpetrators. We’re going to start saving future loss, future grief. we’re going to start saving future lives. The most terrifying part of a cold case for a family is not knowing if the person that did this to them is standing next to them in line at the grocery store.
You wake up every day going, “Is that the person that killed my sister? Am I just passing by them on a regular Tuesday?” And the reality was for the Walker family, it absolutely was true. Glenn Samuel McCurley lost a son to a car wreck and he buried him within eye distance of Carla’s grave. This is someone that has lived within the community for 47 years.
He got away with this crime. His wife ran a daycare for the church. Everybody who knew Carlos murderer, kidnapper, rapist, and murderer thought he was a wonderful man. Demonic murderers are in our presence. They need to be held accountable. Uh we need to bring these perpetrators to justice.
We have the technology now to do this. These men do not need nor do they deserve to be walking amongst us. I don’t care if they did it once and now they’re distinguished member of our society. Uh we’re coming for you. If you’ve done this, best thing is to fess up, get it done because we’re coming for you. In our case, so thankful for the prosecutorial team, Author Lab.
I describe them this way. I always to me they’re a gift from God. Detective Leo Wagner and Detective Jeff Bennett. They are forever and always friends. They’re my family. If you could tell your sister anything right now, what would you say? I miss you not getting to be a great aunt that you would have been to my girls, my son.
Um, I’m sorry this happened to you, but we never gave up.
