Bogeyman (23 page)

Gary Sweet was a new detective with the Plano Police Department when he walked into the department’s cold case “murder closet” and discovered the disorganized files for the Roxann Reyes case. It was the first step in a long journey.

Photo/Gary Sweet

Part of Detective Sweet’s learning curve investigating homicides was the murder of 80-year-old Smiley Johnson who was stabbed to death and sexually assaulted in 1996 by her grandson, Michael Giles, who was 15 at the time of the murder.

Photo/Garland Police Department

A fan of “death metal” bands and a satan-worshiper, Giles told Sweet that he sexually assaulted his grandmother because he wanted to experience necrophilia.

Journal/Garland Police Department

Satan worshipper Michael Giles was also the suspect in the brutal stabbing of a young black woman in the same neighborhood. However, despite the evidence, she claimed her assailant was an older black man.

Art/Garland Police Department

As Detective Sweet began to go through the evidence boxes in the Reyes case in 2000, he came across this photograph of the child with her father, Sergio Reyes, and was especially moved and determined to catch her killer.

Photo/Garland Police Department

As Gary Sweet got farther into the Reyes investigation, he kept an “inspiration book” with photographs of the child to remind him of who he was doing it for and combat the times when he wasn’t sure he would succeed.

Photo/Gary Sweet

The bogeyman stalked his prey in the Dallas area during the mid-1980s, crossing jurisdictional lines to confuse law enforcement efforts to catch him.

Graphic/Garland Police Department

Gary Sweet (middle) and Don Phillips (right) talk to a Columbus PD detective outside of the house where Penton grew up and later lived as an adult. The investigators located twenty pieces of cloth tied together beneath the floorboards located in the attic. When tested the cloth revealed blood and semen stains; however, the stains were too old to give positive DNA results.

Photo/Garland Police Department

Albert Mulligan, a cellmate after Penton’s arrest for the Nydra Ross murder, drew this picture of his daughter who’d died young ascending to heaven. He told Sweet that Penton had taken the drawing and put breasts on the girl then added the swing-set, merry-go-round and lake, which he said was in Texas.

Drawing/Garland Police Department

While detectives Sweet and Bradshaw talked to Penton at the Ohio State Penitentiary prior to his indictment, detectives Phillips and Meeks combed through Penton’s tidy cell.

Photo/Garland Police Department

During their search, Phillips and Meeks discovered this plastic bag containing articles of civilian clothing tied together and hidden. They believe it was an “escape bag,” put together by Penton should the opportunity to escape present itself.

Photo/Garland Police Department