Never See Them Again by M. William Phelps Read Free Book Online

because they looked sketchy, like maybe they were going to burgle the vehicle. Michelle went and got dressed.
    When Michelle returned, she stared at the girl. She “stood out to me, because she was a white female, sandy blond straight hair, fair skin, and clear complexion. She was cute. Maybe eighteen to twenty, five feet seven or so, one hundred fifteen to one hundred twenty pounds.”
    Women notice other women. Those were numbers police could work with.
    Upon a closer look, Michelle noticed the girl was wearing a black top, white shorts, black platform sandals, and a black bandana around the top of her head. She also had a black purse slung around her right shoulder. It appeared to be weighty on her boney build.
    â€œShe was carrying the purse as if it was heavy. And she had her hand in her mouth looking around.”
    The boy with her, Michelle and Craig agreed, was a white male, fair complexion, sandy blond hair. He was actually shorter, they recalled, than the female. They guessed his age to be about eighteen to twenty, same as the girl. He was thin.
    Michelle and Craig Lackner had never seen these people before. After they headed toward Tiffany Rowell’s house from the truck, up the driveway, and disappeared out of view, the Lackners didn’t think anything about them. That would come later, they explained to the detective, when they returned home near seven that night to find utter chaos outside Tiffany’s house.
    The Lackners ultimately went downtown and sat with a sketch artist, who made two drawings of the male and female. Those composites, along with the Lackners’ interview reports, would be put into a growing file. Tom Ladd and Phil Yochum were gathering so much material as the first twenty-four hours after the murders passed, they would be unable to keep up with it all.
    Just how important would these statements by the Lackners and subsequent drawings turn out to be in the years to come?
    â€œ[Those kids] were walking toward this house,” the prosecutor who would get the case would later say, “as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Had [Michelle Lackner] not gotten out of the shower [when she did] . . . this case would have never been solved.”

    A YOUNG WOMAN , scared but willing and courageous enough to talk, walked into HPD late that same night and informed the desk sergeant that she might have information relevant to the Millbridge Drive murders. Turned out the twenty-four-year-old, Nicola Baldwin (pseudonym), was a friend of Tiffany Rowell’s.
    Nicola sat down in an interview room and started talking. She was the first of what was going to be an ambush of people to talk to, Tom Ladd and his team knew.
    Nicola explained that she worked as a waitress for an Italian restaurant downtown. It was around two forty-five on the morning of the murders when Nicola showed up at Tiffany’s Millbridge Drive house. Marcus Precella was there, too. So was Adelbert Sánchez and Nicola’s brother. They were hanging out, partying. Marcus received a call from Tiffany at some point.
    â€œI gave my keys to a stripper who works here,” Tiffany said. Apparently, she had been drinking and didn’t want to drive.
    Nicola could not recall the stripper’s name, but “Tiffany wanted us to come to the club and get her.” She had no other way home.
    Marcus and Nicola got into Nicola’s vehicle and headed out to Club Exotica. Adelbert and Nicola’s brother stayed behind.
    Tiffany stood by the front door into the club with a blond dancer. A bouncer from the club kept an eye on them. Nicola and Marcus got out and hugged Tiffany.
    â€œWhat’s up?” Nicola offered.
    â€œShe needs a ride, too,” Tiffany explained, nodding at her dancer friend. “She lives near Jersey Village.”
    A bedroom community, Jersey Village is north of Houston, heading toward Weiser Airpark on Highway 290, or about an hour’s drive one way from Clear