Billy Battenfield

Serial Killer

Billy Dean Battenfield: Serial Killer Across Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma

Overview

Billy Dean Battenfield was an American serial killer whose known murders stretched across more than three decades. His confirmed victims were killed in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, with the earliest known crimes occurring in the late 1970s and his final murder taking place shortly after he was released from prison in 2011. Battenfield was convicted of four murders and spent most of his adult life incarcerated. A disturbing feature of Battenfield's crimes was his repeated willingness to involve other people. During the murders of the 1970s, authorities said he traveled with a teenage accomplice. More than thirty years later, he committed his final known murder with another young accomplice, Brandon Ke Reed. Former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary publicly described Battenfield as a serial killer following the 2011 murder investigation.

The Murder of Thelma Ruth McCarty

Thelma Ruth McCarty, 51, disappeared from the McKinney, Texas, area in June 1977. Contemporary reporting stated that she had been missing since June 3, 1977. Battenfield was accompanied during this period by a teenage boy who was approximately 15 years old. Later accounts of the investigation described McCarty as having been abducted and killed before her body was concealed in an abandoned water well outside McKinney. McCarty's disappearance remained unresolved for more than a year and a half. Her fate was finally uncovered after investigators received information from Battenfield while he was already imprisoned in New Mexico. He provided authorities with information and a map directing them to an abandoned well approximately four miles east of McKinney. Investigators searched the well in early February 1979. After another set of skeletal remains was removed on February 3, officers went deeper into the well early on February 4 and located the remains believed to be McCarty. A purse containing her identification was discovered near the bottom of the well, helping investigators establish her identity. Authorities said robbery appeared to have been a motive in the killings connected with the well. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

Thelma Ruth McCarty Age: (51), Date of Death: 1977-06-26

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