“Freed To Kill” These Wounds Don’t Heal. The Living Hurt Forever by Serial Killer Kenneth McDuff Episode 16 Season 1

December 29th of 1991 marks the date of Colleen Reed’s deadly abduction from an Austin car wash by paroled serial killer Kenneth McDuff.

The family members of McDuff’s victims still suffer emotional wounds nearly three decades later at the time of this episode’s recording in December of 2020.

The tragic loss and the horrific details of the sadistic torture of Miss Reed were etched into the memories of her family and friends forever.

There is no such thing as closure. Not even when McDuff was executed by lethal injection for the murder of 22-year-old Melissa Northrup, the pregnant mother of two children abducted by McDuff from a Waco convenience store during her night shift in 1992.

After his execution in 1998, Northrup’s mother, brother, and family members of McDuff’s other victims told me they would sleep better knowing that a corrupt system could never release the serial killer from prison again to hurt another innocent woman.

But the pain continues. It bubbles to the surface as the calendar triggers memories.

December 29th stands out on that mental calendar for the family of Colleen Reed.

That’s when the 28-year-old petite accountant went to a self-service car wash on an evening 29 years ago.

It was located on West 5th Street near the popular TexMex restaurant El Arroyo.

Little did Ms. Reed know that for weeks serial killer Kenneth McDuff and his accomplice Alva Hank Worley had been cruising around the University of Texas campus in Austin looking for the right moment and the right type of woman to abduct.

McDuff had come close to snatching little girls roller skating down a sidewalk a few days earlier.

The sick irony of all of this is that McDuff was on the hunt, that was his word for it, hunt. Just a few blocks from the Texas State Capitol. Where Senator Ted Lyon had grilled members of the Texas parole board about why they had released 65 former death row inmates including McDuff.

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972, McDuff’s death sentence along with other death row inmates was commuted to life.

All of them would become eligible for parole.

But who in their right mind would set any of them free to kill again?

I had broken the blockbuster story that triggered the hearings. I told the television audience that McDuff was known as the broomstick killer.

He had abducted three teenagers outside of Fort Worth in August of 1966. Executed two boys who were cousins. And violated a teenage girl with a jagged broomstick handle before he used it to crush her throat.

23 years later, just one day after walking out of prison in 1989 on parole, McDuff started a new killing spree. By the time of the Senate hearings and unaware that he was out, McDuff had turned Central Texas into a killing ground.

Women’s bodies started turning up, just as a Texas Sheriff who had apprehended McDuff in 1966 predicted when he heard the shocking message that McDuff was out on parole.

The parole board claimed it secretly released McDuff and other violent offenders to relieve prison overcrowding. One member who voted to free him said they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to turn loose 150 inmates a day to stay out of trouble with a federal judge.

But allegations of corruption continue to hang over his release until this day.

McDuff cruised hundreds of miles. A typical trait of serial killers on the hunt for victims.

In December of 1991, McDuff and Worley drove around Austin in a two-door tan 1985 Ford Thunderbird with a long distinctive body style that was memorable to witnesses.

McDuff’s soulless chocolate-colored eyes spied Colleen Reed alone in the car wash spraying soap to remove dirty streaks on her white Mazda Miata sports car.

He stalked his prey like a shark. Circling the car wash, McDuff quietly rolled into a nearby stall.

McDuff slipped up behind Colleen Reed. Bulked up from pumping iron in prison, McDuff grabbed Reed around the throat with one massive hand, lifted her off the ground, and shoved her into the car.

Witnesses heard a shrill scream. A car door slam. And got a brief glimpse of McDuff and Worley as they drove away recklessly but did not get the license plate number.

Colleen Reed suffered unthinkable acts of rape and sadistic torture for hours. Worley confessed that she screamed so much that finally, nothing came out.

Finally, McDuff announced he was going to quote, “use her up”. Leaving Worley behind McDuff drove away to find a shovel with Ms. Reed in the trunk of his car.

Seven years later, a month before McDuff’s execution, prison investigator John Moriarty used a ploy to close the chapter on Ms. Reed’s death.

McDuff wanted to see a dentist on Death Row to relieve a painful toothache. Moriarty had the Warden tell McDuff there was a two-week waiting period.

Then, Moriarty struck a deal. McDuff could see the dentist the next day if he divulged the location of Colleen Reed’s body.

Armed guards took the unusual step of transporting McDuff from Death Row to a remote location in a rural county.

Seven years after burying Colleen Reed there, McDuff directed U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston to the exact spot where he had buried her body in a dry riverbed.

Johnston had organized the original manhunt that led to McDuff’s capture. Johnston prosecuted the Parole Board Chairman who released McDuff for corruption.

And now it was Johnston who would touch Colleen Reed since she had gone missing long years ago.

On his hands and knees, Johnston carefully scraped away dirt, revealing Miss Reed’s skull and skeletal remains. He found her knotted shoelaces in the grave. McDuff’s signature method of tying up his victims.

An ATF agent and Austin Homicide Detective took Colleen home wrapped in a blanket on the back seat of their car.

Bill Johnston and U.S. Marshals on the case would serve as pallbearers at her funeral.

And that brings us full circle to today’s episode on the 29th anniversary of Colleen Reed’s abduction and murder.

Now, you are going to hear from Colleen Reed’s niece. Jessica. She asked us not to reveal her last name. Jessica fears that Hank Worley, McDuff’s accomplice in her aunt’s murder, may get out of prison on parole someday.

I have asked Jessica to read the email that she first sent me after discovering the True Crime Reporter™ podcast about McDuff’s murder of her aunt and countless other women.

Note that she was a 10-year-old girl in grade school at the time of her Aunt Colleen’s murder.

Jessica

Hello. My name is Jessica. My aunt was Colleen Reed. My father was married to Lori Bible when Colleen went missing. I was in 6th or 7th grade then.

Colleen had spent Christmas Day with us, a few days before she went missing. She had gotten me and my 2 brothers Super Soaker water guns for Christmas. We were so excited to get those guns, and we wanted to use them now. We asked aunt Colleen if we could wash her car with them, and she, of course, said yes. So we went out with our new water guns and “washed “ her white car. I’m sure you can imagine the ending results of 3 kids washing a white car with water guns. Muddy streaks painted the car, leaving it worse-looking than when we started. A few days later, my aunt wound up in a car wash cleaning up our mess.

You can only imagine how much guilt I carried through the years. Had we only done a good job when washing her car, she wouldn’t have been at the car wash that night and she’d still be alive. Might I add, at no given point In Time did the family ever hint of such a thing-the guilt I carried was solely from my head. I know now, as grown woman, as a mother, it wasn’t our fault.. she could have cleaned her car earlier or during daylight hours. But none the less, the series of events leading up to her disappearance,ultimately started with us on Christmas Day.

Up until tonight, I’ve never really looked into the details of her disappearance because somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking, I lived it, why look for information about something I lived through. You and I both know that your perception of situations is different, depending on your age. For example, our perception of the way we view Christmas or Easter when we’re 10 years old is completely different then from when we’re 30 years old. It’s because of this, and also approaching the anniversary of her abduction, I decided to take a trip down memory lane. Thus far, my recollection of that time in my life was of the news reporters in our home all the time, the fights between my father and Lori, the Missing Person flyers that blanketed my home, the people asking questions or the way I was treated when discovering my aunt was Colleen. I never truly understood the magnitude of this situation and the effects it ultimately had on my life.

I remember when we finally found her. I think I was 17. My father and Lori had been long divorced and I had run away to Padre Island to attempt to be my own person at the ripe old age of 16. Lori reached out to me and told me, Aunt Colleen had been found and we could finally lay her to rest. I drove home and attended the funeral. We laid roses for each one of the other victims whose life was taken too soon because of this monster. I think it was 11-13. I can’t remember. I do remember the coffin. I remember thinking to myself how little bit of remains were in there when she’s was finally buried. Isn’t that fucked up? That one of my thoughts during her funeral was how little of her was actually in the casket that we buried?? It’s all so hazy. Between a recent traumatic brain injury I sustained and the years between, details are fuzzy and more like a dream I had.

Tonight, I googled Colleen Reed. Tonight I started looking into the facts. Tonight, my perception of that event changed. I stumbled on 3 podcast from you. I listened to them all. Although your podcast were EXTREMELY hard to hear and tears are still streaming down my face, making this difficult to write, I appreciate the delicacy you took when reporting the details. Specifically when it came to the confession of H. Worley. That was one of the most disgustingly painful things I’ve ever heard and unfortunately painted a vivid account of her last hours. With all that being said, you reported respectfully, compassionately and tactfully, with us in mind. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for still being so careful of our feelings and not treating this like some story. You made the personal connection and it speaks volumes of your character and to your ability to investigate and report.

I doubt I can be of much help, but if you find yourself in a situation where I could, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I hope you blow the top off of those crooked bastards on the parole board, if you haven’t already. They are the ones to blame. And I spent years blaming a little girl who was only in middle school. I bet they haven’t shed one tear over their mistake. I guess I shed enough for them too.

My apologies for taking so much of your time. Thank you again for your interest, investigation, and tactfulness, and for how respectful you are when reporting your discoveries. Stay well, Jessica