Texas Killing Fields convict James Elmore who confessed to 16-year-old Laura Miller’s 1984 death gets 20 years

A 61-year-old man has been sentenced to prison in connection with the 1984 death of a Texas teenager, the Houston Chronicle reported.

James Dolphs Elmore Jr., 61, was handed the maximum sentence of 20 years in state prison on Thursday, per the newspaper.

Elmore was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday, September 2, in relation to the death of 16-year-old Laura Miller, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Miller vanished in 1984, according to the outlet. Her body was discovered dead two years later in 1986, the report said.

Her remains were found in an area infamously known as the Texas Killing Fields, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The Texas Killing Fields are located in League City, according to the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office.

The bodies of about 30 girls and women have been discovered in the area since the 1970s, according to the district attorney’s office.

Authorities suspect several people are behind the various deaths, prosecutors said.

Miller was one of four people discovered dead at the site between 1984 and 1991, authorities have said.

The others include Heidi Fye-Villareal, Audrey Cook, and Donna Prudhomme, according to authorities.

Elmore was arrested in relation to Miller because he allegedly was linked to cocaine that led to her death, The Associated Press reported.

Miller was missing for more than a year before her body was discovered in the Texas Killing Fields, according to the outlet.

Her disappearance and death led her father, Tim Miller, to found EquuSearch, a non-profit search and recovery team, per the outlet.

The organization helps families find their missing loved ones, the report said.

“I begged, I pleaded for somebody to do something,” Tim said during Elmore’s jury trial, per The Associated Press.

“I knew something happened to Laura, I just knew it,” the father said, per the report. “I just didn’t know what it was.”

Defense attorney Bill Agnew sought leniency for Elmore’s sentencing, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Agnew said that his client helped investigators learn what happened to Laura through his confessions, per the newspaper.

In 2022, Elmore went to Tim to reveal he was there at the time of his daughter’s death, the newspaper reported.

Elmore said Laura had been at a party at the home of his former neighbor, Clyde Hedrick, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Hedrick gave her a large cocaine dose resulting in a fatal overdose, Elmore said, according to the newspaper.

Elmore allegedly admitted to supplying Hedrick with the cocaine, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The defendant also allegedly admitted to helping get rid of Laura’s body, according to the newspaper.

Tim said in court that he filmed Elmore’s confession for evidence, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The father provided Elmore $33,000 over the span of four years, according to the newspaper.

Authorities have suspected Hedrick caused the deaths of Laura, Cook, Fye-Villareal, and Prudhomme, officials said.

Prosecutors announced in March that they sought to prosecute Hedrick, according to the district attorney’s office. Hedrick, however, died before the scheduled grand jury presentation, the office said.

“Over the last 40 years Hedrick has been the prime suspect for the murders of several women in the Calder Road Field,” the district attorney’s office said in a March 31 news release.

Hedrick died by suicide at the age of 72, The Associated Press reported.

Hedrick was indicted in 2013 in connection with the death of Ellen Beason, a woman who disappeared around the same time as Laura, prosecutors said.

He was ultimately convicted of manslaughter and served eight years of his 20-year sentence, prosecutors said.