Episode 2: The Shadow of Death

Karl Richter True Crime Texarkana is brought to you by J.E. Bonding, Texarkana, Arkansas' premiere bail bond company. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, J.E. Bonding can handle all your bail bond needs. Agent Mark Luckett will provide you with fast, courteous service and do his best to help you through a trying time. Mark has all the experience you need to make the best of a sad situation. That's why he likes to say, "Two tears in the bucket, call Mark Luckett." Call him at 903-748-1402 or visit J.E. Bonding at 2315 East Street near the Miller County Sheriff's Office and Detention Center. That's 903-748-1402. Karl Richter It's been more than 40 years since their father found siblings Karen and Gordon Alexander brutally attacked in their Texarkana, Arkansas, home. Thirteen-year-old Gordon, dead on the scene, was found in a pool of blood. Karen, 14, spent three days in the intensive care unit at St. Michael's Hospital before dying of brain injuries. The case has never been solved. But now, those who never forgot the horrifying crime, including a retired police captain, have new hope that justice can finally be served. This is True Crime Texarkana: The Alexander Children Murders. Reporter Mallory Wyatt continues her look at the case. Mallory Wyatt The year was 1981. Ronald Reagan had just been inaugurated, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister of England, and tensions with the Soviet Union are higher than ever. The country was recovering from a recession and reeling from John Lennon's murder. Fashion trends were shifting from the natural colors and loose silhouettes of the '70s to the velvets and bright hues of the '80s. Texarkana, actually two towns separated by the Arkansas-Texas border, had a population of 53,000 people. The downtown post office remains a perfect example of Texarkana's double nature. It straddles the state line, so you can buy stamps in Arkansas and post letters in Texas without even leaving the building. In 1981, the lumber industry kept the Twin Cities flourishing and made it a prime location for trade. Agriculture and livestock were also area boons. Though Texarkana was small, it wasn't without its scandals. On the Texas side of town, county commissioners admitted to taking kickbacks, leading to an investigation that also netted officials in neighboring counties. The disgraced politicians were charged with 30 or more counts of extortion, mail fraud and conspiracy. Unfortunately for the Twin Cities, much worse was yet to come. Todd Steffy I don't want to be just another person that looks at it from your perspective. I want to arrive at my own perspective and kind of draw my own conclusions. Mallory Wyatt That was Dr. Todd Steffy. He's a retired forensics and criminal investigator who has been working with retired detective Calvin Seward on the Alexander case. The two have become friends, with Steffy meeting Seward's family and the two training together to renew their retired officer firearm carrying licenses. He says his investigation career lets him do his chosen work as pastor of his church in Arkansas. So I asked usually to just send me the case file and let me look at the crime scene photos, the forensic analyses that has, had been done, the crime lab report witness statements. Just let me kind of pore over the case file. That's how Steffy approached his review of the murders that shocked Carmichael Hill, a quiet neighborhood with a close-knit community. Neighbors said that by 1981, the residential area, also known as The Hill, had changed from sparsely populated countryside to a full-fledged subdivision for low- to moderate-income families. Neighborhood kids were rowdy, but adults said that they were all good kids, and there was very little violence in The Hill. All of that changed on Wednesday, April 8, 1981. Weldon Eugene Alexander arrived home after working a graveyard shift at Cooper Tire and Rubber Company. He found his front door a few feet open and instantly knew that something was wrong. When he walked inside, he found his daughter, Karen, lying across her bed with a knife in her throat. He pulled the knife out and heard her moaning something, but he couldn't understand her. He then ran into the kitchen and found his son, Gordon, in a pool of blood between the table and the cabinet, and he had stab wounds to his throat. Weldon saw that the telephone was off the hook. He hung it up and began to thumb through the phone book to find the phone number for Texarkana, Arkansas, police. It's a few years before Arkansas established the 911 service. Weldon told Texarkana Gazette reporter Jim Powell, quote, "The more I looked, the worse it got. And I ran to a neighbor's house to call an ambulance and the police." As I've worked on this story, people have told me their family members that were alive at the time were suspicious of Weldon because of his reaction. So I asked Dr. Steffy about that. Todd Steffy In this particular case with Weldon, the father of these children, uh, yes, keep in mind, uh, you just walked in on something that would be difficult to see, even if it wasn't your own children. It would be difficult to see this, just to see human beings that had, that this had been done to. And that, that in and of itself can be very upsetting and very unnerving. And so then imagine trying to thumb through a phone book to find a phone number to call for help. And imagine the possibility of literally trembling. And who — you know, you can, you can guess as to what thought processes were going on in his mind. But I can tell you that in my mind, I would probably even at some point, the thought may occur to me, is the perpetrator still here? Am I, do I need to flee, uh, for my own safety? Mallory Wyatt Karen was taken by ambulance to St. Michael's Hospital. She had been stabbed in the face, throat and struck with a blunt object on the back of her head. Gordon's body was transported to Little Rock, where medical examiner Fahmy Abdel-Malak would perform an autopsy the following morning. Police Detective Captain Jim Cowart said both of the children's throats had been cut and a table knife was found at the scene. Cowart described the knife as, quote, "the type used when eating, and it was bent and had blood on it. We think it is the murder weapon." Todd Steffy I would say that a crime or crimes of this nature could be completed fairly quickly, within minutes. Um, it's, you know, the human will to live is very strong. Anytime a, a violent attack is completed up close in a sort of hands on way, uh, there is a chance, and if you — and anytime there's, uh, such a bloody, uh, scene, um, there's a, there is a chance that you can find, um, the, the perpetrator's blood. Mallory Wyatt Neighbors said between 6:30 a.m. and Weldon's arrival at 7:20 a.m. a blue '70s-model Chevrolet pickup backed out of the driveway. They said it had been there since about three in the morning. Detective Lieutenant Richard Giles said witnesses believed the truck had a long wheelbase and a gun rack, was missing a tailgate and had a sticker on the rear window that mentioned something about cowboys. Detective Gary Stringer said the children had been home alone while their mother, Vera, was receiving treatment for her depression at Wadley Hospital, which a hospital spokesperson confirmed. Vera was told about the attack shortly after the police arrived at the family home. Stringer said Karen and Gordon were found in their street clothes rather than their pajamas and that Gordon's wheelchair was found in the living room, far away from his body. That raised another question for Dr. Steffy. "If we're — and this is, of course, a speculative question. With Gordon, he typically was aided by a wheelchair in his everyday life. In this instance, do we think that he likely got out? Or do you think that he was still in it? How do you think a person being attacked like this would respond?" Todd Steffy I think the natural human response to to immediate danger and fear would be to retreat as quickly as possible, uh, whatever that may be. If that is hobbling on one leg or crawling or, or, or whatever it may be. I think it would — the natural human response would be to get away from that fearful event that's imminent as quickly as possible. Mallory Wyatt The Arkansas State Police were also investigating the gruesome crime. The next day, neighbors spoke with Gazette reporter Lola Butcher. By email last year, she told me she couldn't remember much about the case and that she wished me well. Neighbors told her the crime was disturbing, something they weren't used to dealing with. Ida Green, whose husband owned the property, said, quote, "You never know what's going to happen these days." Neighbors said the Alexander family stuck to themselve, not often having visitors, but that the kids would often bike or play with other children in the neighborhood. The late Mark Hopkins lived with his parents, Wanda and Richard, across the street from the Alexanders. He said his sisters Tina and Wanda often played with Karen and Gordon. I spoke with him a few days before Christmas in 2022. He also said that Vera kept to herself. Mark Hopkins I seen the kids go outside and play, but you didn't ever see her. She's, she was all looney tune. She stayed in the house all the time. And her husband worked for Cooper. Mallory Wyatt Neighbor Daniel Tong said, quote, "The fact of it is, I don't think people over here would put up with it much. It's a different breed of people than in other parts of the city. They're an independent bunch." Another neighbor, Winnie Adcock, said, quote, "Oh, I bet I know what would happen if this neighborhood knew who did it." Mark Hopkins And my mom told me about it, you know? When the kids got killed I worked for CFS Bakery, and I worked at night, all night long. And I come in that morning and she was telling me about it, when, when the kids got killed. But I didn't know what was going on. When I got there, I just seen a bunch of cops there, and they asked me, and I told them I didn't know anything. Mallory Wyatt Mark said his mother heard the truck when it left, and it revved up going down the road. Mark Hopkins But she seen, she said she seen that truck when it backed up, and he was scratching gears and everything trying to get out of there. That's all we, that's all I remember. Mallory Wyatt Hopkins said the Alexander family were good people and that he spoke with Weldon all the time. Mark Hopkins He was nice. But you know, I didn't go over and talk like that. You know, he'd wave and I'd wave, and he might come out in the road and I'd go out in the road, and we'd talk a little bit, and then I'd just turn around and go home. Mallory Wyatt On Friday, April 10, Cowart gave an update on the case. He said officers had worked through Wednesday night to find new leads. Cowart said a task force had been developed with seven local detectives, three state police officers and a volunteer forensic pathologist that was working on the case. Cowart said, quote, "We will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we'll stay on it until we find the killer." Police sealed off the Alexander home for 30 hours as they scoured the property for evidence. Cowart said multiple fingerprints were lifted throughout the home and sent to the Arkansas state crime lab. Todd Steffy So I look for, you know, in terms of types of evidence there can be forensic, there can be physical evidence in terms of items collected from a scene, whether it's a weapon or clothing or, or those types of things. I look for blood stain patterns. I look for any trace evidence that may have been recovered and/or examined or analyzed. One of the things that nobody hardly talks about in cold cases, that I think is rather unique to cold cases in terms of evidence, is sort of what I call geo-historical evidence. The thing that we have in terms of geo-historical evidence is we can actually look at the geography, geographical area, and sort of a history of what types of crimes have been committed in this area since then, and who may have been involved in those crimes, if there's a crime similar to this, or, you know — we can actually consider that. And whereas if you have a fresh crime, you can certainly, you can go back and consider that in the sense of, of past history. But we've had history since this crime was committed in that geographical area that we can consider in terms of perhaps some possible evidentiary value in leading us in a, in an investigative direction. Mallory Wyatt Two witnesses said they saw the pickup at the home prior to the attacks. Another witness reported seeing a white male in his 20s, about six feet tall with a medium build, get into the truck. Karen remained in critical condition at St. Michael's, under officer protection. She had been stabbed six times in the head and had an equal number of cuts to her throat. Cowart said she had not been able to speak since the attack on her life. Preliminary autopsy results for Gordon showed signs of a struggle. Gordon was stabbed 15 times across his neck, throat and hands. A massive wound to the throat was believed to be what killed him. Cowart said investigators believed Karen let the attacker in at 6:30 a.m. and got into a struggle with him. They thought Gordon got up, put on street clothes, got in his wheelchair and found the two in the living room. They then thought Gordon tried to get help by way of the kitchen phone. Coward told Powell, quote, it appears that the murderer dragged Gordon from the wheelchair and hit him several times in the head with his fist, then took a kitchen knife and cut his throat. Then the killer wiped the bedstead off with a washcloth and wiped the countertop and sink in the kitchen off with the same cloth. After that, he washed his hands. Todd Steffy I think probably any, any, any normal, any normal adult that has normal adult strengths would probably have the strength to, to carry this out. I would think that, that a crime of this nature would take a good deal of strength to complete, but I think it's not anything that we would say the perpetrator would have to have some unusual amount of strength necessarily. Mallory Wyatt Weldon spoke with Powell in the hospital while Karen was still fighting for her life. He said, quote, "I knew something was wrong the minute I stepped on the porch. My daughter always unlocked the door for me about 6:30 every morning, but she didn't open it. It was standing open about a foot or two." The grieving father said he wanted to see the person responsible for the crime come to justice and be punished. He said his family had lived in the home for six years. Quote, "My daughter has never been to the hospital in her life. The only sickness she has ever had in her life was an ear infection. She's real healthy." He said of his wife, Vera, that she was taking the news as best as she could and that she was troubled by, quote, "all the thoughts of everything." Karen's funeral took place three days after her brother's. Reverend Wallace Edgar presided over both children's funerals at Trinity Baptist. Police said there were no suspects as of late Thursday evening. Houses throughout the Carmichael Hill neighborhood kept their porch lights on. Karen Ann Alexander passed away late Saturday night, April 11. Her brother Gordon's funeral was the next day at Trinity Baptist Church. Karen's autopsy showed her cause of death was a stab wound through her right eye at a depth of six inches. Detective Gary Stringer said Karen's death added more incentive to the investigations efforts. Quote, "What we've been doing won't hold a candle to what we're going to be doing now." Wallace Edgar Children are special to the Lord, because he said, he said, you come as a little child, with childlike faith. Mallory Wyatt Edgar said he didn't know the family well but that they often took church vans to attend Sunday service. When I spoke with him, he mentioned a Bible passage that he used at both of the kids' funerals. Wallace Edgar Use scripture of heaven for those that know the Lord or those who haven't come to the age of accountability or saved by the Lord. Mallory Wyatt The 23rd Psalm was the main verse, and it actually happened to be used at my grandmother's funeral in 2016. Reading it again resonated with me, especially in regard to Karen and Gordon. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Karl Richter If you know of any information regarding the Alexander murders, call retired police captain Calvin Seward at 903-826-4702 or email him at the address in the show notes. No detail is too small, and it may just lead to closure in this case. The story will continue in future episodes of True Crime Texarkana. True Crime Texarkana is a Texarkana Gazette podcast created in Starbear Studio, right here in downtown Texarkana, USA. Mallory Wyatt reported and wrote the show. Karl Richter produced, edited and contributed vocals. Chris Finley composed the main theme music. To support the show, leave a five-star review wherever you listen.