The Texas Tunnel Valentine's Day Murders | The Case of Carla Walker | UNSEEN

This is 77-year-old Glenn McCurley. He suspected of having kidnapped and killed up to seven women and girls in Fort Worth between 1967 and 1985. For almost 50 years, he has evaded the authorities and gotten away unscathed, and today is no different. The police have no motive, no evidence, and worst of all, no warrant. But when the system fails, it sometimes only takes one man to bring a case back to life. "I had a sister that could never get off my mind. It's easy to give up hope, but then you just realize you can't." Jim Walker, the brother of one of his victims, has waited 46 years to get revenge for his sister's kidnapping, rape, and murder, and he refuses to wait any longer. "I used to sleep in the tunnel where her body had been found, hoping her killer would return to the scene of the crime, and I was going to take care of him right there." Carla was 17 and I was 12. I looked up to Carla. I thought she was beautiful, she was a good student, she was popular. Rodney McCoy was Carla's high school sweetheart on that night. Carla and Rodney went out on their Valentine's Day. But this isn't just any date for 18-year-old Rodney McCoy. For months, he's been planning to give Carla something special, a promise ring. "It's a little rose with a diamond in the middle of it. It meant a lot to me. It meant I'm here, I'm yours, and I promise you. She opened it up and I could see the smile." He knows Carla is the one, and with the ring, he promises to stand by her forever. With a smile, she accepts the ring. Soon after, they head to the school dance to celebrate with their friends. "I had a great time, dance the whole night. I remember Carla and Rodney coming in, we were all dancing on the floor together." After the dance, the couple leaves to find a place where they can be alone, but little do they know. Their perfect night is about to be violently interrupted. "We started kissing, making out and doing what teenagers do, and when you open the door, we both kind of, our heads both fell out of the car, basically." Rodney looks up and sees a dark silhouette, holding a pistol in the open door. Before he can react, the stranger strikes him in the face with the butt of his gun. "I didn't even get a look at the guy's face. Finally, she said, "Stop hitting him. Stop hitting him. I'll go with you." "Put his hand inside the car and stuck the pistol about three or four inches from my face and started pulling the trigger." Back at the Walker's house, Carla's little brother Jim is sleeping on the couch in the living room when the sound of screeching tires suddenly wakes him up. "I heard a car hitting a curb, and then I heard Rodney's voice outside yelling Mr. Walker, Mr. Walker." The twelve-year-old runs outside and sees his sister's boyfriend stumbling across the front lawn. He's covered in blood. The passenger's side of his car is empty, Carla is nowhere to be found. The family rushes out to meet Rodney. The eighteen-year-old is frantic and out of breath, but he tries to explain what happened. "She was told, and I'm, you know, part of what happened." The next morning, police, FBI agents, and sheriff staff arrive at the Walker's home to set up the search effort. "Rodney is their soul suspect. Everyone, from Carla's classmates to the Walker's neighbors, is convinced Rodney is involved in her disappearance. Everyone except the Walker's." "I knew that Rodney was being talked to a whole lot by law enforcement. From the time Rodney came back from the hospital here in Fort Worth after the assault, Rodney stated our house. He stayed upstairs, slept in Carla's bed. That's how much we loved him, and how much he loved us." After three days of unsuccessful searching, one of the detectives remembers a case from a year before Becky Martin, a missing girl around Carla's age, had been discovered inside a cattle culvert on the outskirts of Fort Worth. On that hunch, the search party, along with the Walker's, focused their efforts on the underground tunnels scattered across the countryside. When suddenly, their search takes a turn for the worse. "The mom and dad went in there and I heard Mom scream, you know, and it's that death scream." Carla's brutal murder shakes Fort Worth. The whole town grieves the loss of a young girl. At the funeral, over 1,000 members of the community gathered to pay their respects to Carla. Rodney attends with the family, but a heavy cloud of suspicion looms over him. He faces the judgmental looks of his classmates, their parents, and everyone else in attendance. In spite of this, Rodney gathers the courage to walk over to Carla's casket. As he looks at her for one last time, something catches his eye. The promise Rinky gave her is nowhere to be found. The night she was taken flashes before his eyes, and Rodney breaks down. This will be his last day sleeping in Carla's bed at the Walker's. But after graduation, Rodney moves to Alaska to work in an oil rig, never to return to Fort Worth. "I wish it would have been the other way around, and for so many years, so many years my thoughts were how terrified and how scared Carla was at night that's been with me forever." With Rodney's departure, Jim feels even more isolated. Everybody around him is consumed by grief, but the 12-year-old only feels anger. It becomes an obsession. He wants revenge for what happened to Carla. "At the time, I used to sleep in the culvert where her body had been found, hoping her killer would return to the scene of the crime, and I was going to take care of him right there." "See, and I wanted to see it. I wanted to know if my sister was still alive when she went into that place, what she saw, what she smelled, how it felt. It was cold, but I just wanted to experience that." Neither Jim nor the police ever catch a glimpse of the killer, but he refuses to give up. He's convinced he can solve the case himself, and applies to the police academy as soon as he's old enough. He's accepted, but something goes wrong during one of his exams. His vision is blurry, and it's only getting worse. Jim is eventually diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that throws a wrench in his future as a detective. He's going blind. "I heard my life experience has led me to living with legal blindness. Prognosis is irreversible, and that it will probably only get worse." With Jim's career in law enforcement cut short, he begins to lose all hope of ever bringing his sister's killer to justice. All of his siblings eventually leave Fort Worth, years, turned into decades. Come 2020, Jim is the only walker left in Fort Worth. "It was a very dark time. My marriage was on the rocks, my dad had died. I know in his heart, he felt like he let his beautiful daughter down, and not getting justice for her. By the time mom died, I think she also too died of a broken heart." With everyone around him gone, Jim's drive to find Carla's killer becomes stronger. Every year, he does the only thing he can do. Call the Fort Worth Police and try to convince whoever's in charge of their cold case department to reopen his sister's case. "After how many cold cases do you have? And she said we have 971 unsolved murders. I said, "Man, my heart bleeds for all 971 of those families. But right now, I only care about one case." I said, "Whoever did this is either dead, dying. We're running out daylight." And I said to her, "I want to truth." At the other end of the line, his Fort Worth Police Department's new cold case investigator, detective Leo Wagner. "When I saw what had happened to this young girl, the mother and me, obviously, you know, screams out, you know, "Hey, this could be your child, and that you really need to do something." Thanks to Jim's call, Wagner decides to reopen Carla's case. After 46 years of frustration and setbacks, hope is renewed. Jim has spent his entire life looking for a way to get justice for his sister, and now, with a new expert finally willing to work the case, he's ready to do whatever it takes to help. "I had a sister that could never get off online. It's easy to give up hope, but then you just realize you can't give up hope." That's why he got his hope, you know, every day's a new day. First, Wagner goes over the events of Carla's abduction on the night of the 1974 Valentine's Day dance. After the attacker struck Rodney on the head with the butt of his gun, his weapon jammed. As Rodney began to lose consciousness, the attacker started clearing his pistol, realizing that the man was preparing to shoot Rodney, Carla stepped up, saying she'd go with him if he stopped hurting Rodney. "She was doing what she thought she needed to do to make sure Rodney did not get shot. I think she sacrificed herself." "I see Carla's face, and she screamed, Rodney go get my dad. I was terrified, and that's the last word I heard her say. That's the last time I saw her. I just went out. "Face first in the seat." Even though they didn't solve the case back in 1974, the police still did their due diligence and collected every piece of evidence, including a full-pistol magazine, Carla's torn dress and clothing, and a final clue that, to them, implicated Rodney, the promise ring. For reasons no one could explain, it had been pulled off her finger and left in the culvert next to her body. And to this day, we don't know how that ended up there if it was purposely taken or if it was removed in a struggle. No matter what happened with the ring, Wagner refuses to fall into the same trap as past investigators. She is determined to find who actually killed Carla and exonerate Rodney, who has been living in exile after the backlash he endured as a suspect back in 1974. The detective knows how new DNA technologies can reignite cold cases, and hopes Carla's case will be no different. All she needs is a sufficient amount of DNA. I really felt compelled to help this family in any way that I could. We went through every single piece of paper in those boxes. We knew that in 2009, we had some DNA come off the dress, so we fully believe that there was more. There had to be more. There was a single source, full-mail profile obtained off of Carla's bra. We were thrilled. Yet two things block her progress. First, at five nanograms, the sample is by far the smallest the detective has ever had to work with. Any and all manipulation carries a high risk of destroying the fragile genetic material. And second, the partial profile they identified doesn't match any of the criminals already registered in the database. And it's really only enough to exclude individuals. And so it's more of a working lead than it is something to clinch a suspect. So we had something to work with, we just didn't have enough. But detective Wagner knows of a way to get more. The private laboratory south of Houston has developed a new technology to identify suspects using only small amounts of DNA. This technique would use up the entire remaining sample, and success isn't guaranteed. But Leah and Jim are willing to take that risk to get answers. We still had hope because we believe that there was somebody out there and we were definitely going to find out who it was. The gamble pays off. With the new DNA profile, Detective Wagner finally has a name, Glenn McCurley. She recognizes it right away as suspect number 22 from the 1974 investigation. Back then, police questioned every local owner of registered Ruger pistols. After a loaded clip was found at the scene of the abduction, McCurley was one of them. He even took a polygraph and passed, but DNA doesn't lie. We researched where he was currently residing, and it happened to still be in Fort Worth. Only a couple miles away from the bowling alley. And so what we decided to do was have an officer go out there and talk with the residents of the house. You miss McCurley? Hi. Mr. McCurley. He's in the back. He reacts jokingly at first. Mr. McCurley. I'm here again. But his tone shifts once Wagner starts asking questions. Back in 1974, there was a young lady that got kidnapped from the bowling alley. We re-interviewed everybody that was in the case, and we had seen at one point they talked to you, Mr. McCurley. I told her that's the same story I told you. I said, well, you sure got the wrong fella because I never killed nobody. In order for us to eliminate you, the quickest way to do that is to get your DNA. I think they're going through all that. But Glenn McCurley's wife, Judy, isn't about to let her husband lie to the detective. I didn't do that, actually. DNA testing is a new thing, honey. And when he starts trying to build an alibi for the night Carla was taken, and for the days that followed, his wife cuts in again, correcting him. Yeah, I'm with her part of the time. That's not true, Glenn. No. I agree. I got a million. I did. It was my parents' silver. They're million. McCurley has the right to refuse Wagner's request, but the detective won't let that deter her. When night falls, she sends officers to dig through the suspects trash for anything that might have his DNA on it. They recover a plastic McDonald's straw. They're able to match it to the original sample and get a warrant for his arrest. On September 21, 2020, he's taken into custody during the ensuing interrogation McCurley finally cracks. I've never seen her. I've never met her. I've never talked to her. I wasn't aware. I think she was standing beside him. Your DNA was on her body. It is evidence that does not lie. What we're saying, Mr. McCurley, is that your DNA was found at Carla Walker, okay? There's no question about it. Can you tell us what happened? How did you kill her? Oh, my God, she killed her. You've been home long to that for a long time. I can remember Detective Wagner saying, "We got him. I cried." And then I called Rodney. I said, "We got him." And there was a pause, and Rodney said, "Got him." And I said, "Yep, we got him, buddy. We know who did this to you and Carla, and Rodney started crying." Later during the interview, Detective Wagner asks McCurley where he left Carla's body. He starts giving directions, insisting it was beside a building, but this isn't where Carla was found. This raises red flags for the detectives. She may not be the killer's only victim when they try to push him for answers, the 77-year-old suspect completely shuts down, leaving Wagner with nothing. For Jim, the feeling of defeat is familiar. He's lived with it for decades, but he's not a 12-year-old boy anymore. In the years since Carla was taken, anger has been keeping him moving, but now, sitting this close to the truth, he knows he isn't here for revenge, but for answers and for peace. "I know this might be hard to believe, but it's true. I feel compassion and forgiveness, I do. And by me having compassion and forgiveness in my heart, evil has no control over my spirit." Jim has had Carla on his mind for a long time, but the thought that McCurley might have been a serial killer all along has never escaped his or Detective Wagner's minds. Since Carla's murder, several women and girls have been abducted and killed around Valentine's Day in the Fort Worth area, each of their cases remaining unsolved to this day. And another family is now also painfully aware of these facts, the McCurley's. A few days before the trial, Roddy McCurley, the killer's own son, tries desperately to get answers from his father. If there were other crimes, I wanted him to give those families some peace and confess to those things. I thought if there was anybody that could open his eyes and soften his heart, it would beat me, because I know he loves me. When I looked into my dad's eyes, I saw nothing. He was completely closed off, but if he loves me at all, he has any love for me at all. He would take that, that overwhelming weight off of me, that's what I want, I want that peace. A murder of 1247 years in the making begins in a Tarant County courtroom, Carla Walker. On August 19th, 2021, Glenn McCurley's murder trial begins. From his seat, Jim notices the heavy silence that follows Rodney's testimony, who has returned to Fort Worth to tell his story. He's also aware of the McCurley family nearby, and even though he can't see them, he knows the weight they're carrying. Jim has lived with Carla's murder for 46 years. For the McCurley's, this is all happening in real time, and despite everything he has been through, Jim knows he needs to do something. After one of the days in trial, he approaches their son, Rodney. His heart was broken, his soul was broken, I can tell. His world had been completely devastated, and I said, "Rody, I said, I'm Jim Walker, how are you?" He just came to talk. I said, "Can I give you a hug, buddy?" And we hugged. I said, "Hey, you're not responsible for the sins of your father. You do not own this. This is not responsibility." Yeah, meeting Jim was a pretty, pretty special moment in my life. He was comforting me, and I think that surprised me. When he could have done the exact opposite, but here he is, someone that was victimized by my father, he was comforting me. I realized Rodney was a victim, you know? He saw someone in a dark, desperate place and said, "I'm going to give that person love." The next day, Jim and Rodney sit next to the McCurley's, together all the victims and survivors form a united front. Rodney locks eyes with his father as the judge asks everyone to sit down. At that moment, something shifts in Glenn McCurley. He quietly says a few words to his attorney, who then walks straight to the judge, and the court is immediately adjourned. After almost half a century, think about that. Time and evidence caught up with a killer today. A cold case mystery of who killed teenager Carla Walker and Fort Worth ended, and it happened suddenly. Here's our Jason Allen. Before a third day of testimony in his murder trial could even start Tuesday, Glenn McCurley stopped it. He changed his plea to guilty for killing 17-year-old Carla Walker in 1974. Judge Elizabeth Beach immediately sent him to prison for life, and families finally let emotions show in the courtroom. This was a lot of healing going on in there today for not just me and my family, but our whole community. Behind a cloud of suspicion on me for all those years. I mean, that's torment. To mark the end of the case, and Rodney's return to Fort Worth, Jim and Wagner prepare a surprise for him. They return something he lost 46 years ago. Rodney on behalf of-- [INAUDIBLE] --and the Walker family is going to give you back heart as well, so you can have a peace of mind. [APPLAUSE] I'm indebted to them forever. What they did for me is pretty amazing. Wow, so much. I remember it exactly. So unexpected that was so heartfelt. I got a little peace of my heart back, and it just means so much to me. Today, Jim remains close friends with not only Wagner and Rodney, but also with Rodney McCurley. Jim stands by Rodney, helping him find peace and acceptance for his father's crimes, and move forward with his life, just as he already did for himself. I don't know what I would do without a relationship that I have with Jim. You never know why God puts people on each other's paths. I wish it was for another reason, but I'm happy that we did. Love you, Rodney, thank you, Jim. Glen McCurley, now dubbed the Valentine's Day Killer, is suspected of having killed between four and seven women and girls in and around four worth between 1967 and 1985. To solve these crimes and countless other cold cases with insufficient DNA samples, police needed new resources to access advanced forensic technology. In Congress, Texas Senator John Corman is pushing a bill named after Carla Walker. Walker was abducted and killed in 1974. It wasn't until 2020, when advanced DNA technology helped investigators find her killer. Now Corman is pushing the Carla Walker Act, which would help fund similar technology and solve more cases just like hers. We lost Carla, but because what happened to Carla, we're going to be able to take a lot of bad people off the streets. That's our goal now is to help other Carla Walker families. There's other families out there just like ours. ours is no more important than any other family. I hope that Carla was happy. And she knew we didn't give up. [Music]