Evil Eyes (11 page)

In mid-March 1982, Emily LaQua disappeared. At first, Elizabeth LaQua did not think much of it, since Emily had run away several times before. This time, however, it was the real deal. She hoped her daughter would find a nice group of churchgoing youth that would guide her back onto the right path.

“She had potential,” Emily’s mother acknowledged, “but she needed the right peer group. To her, it was more important to be accepted and loved by her peers than anything else.”

Emily LaQua and Elaina Davison stuck out their thumbs and headed for Texas. The girls were stopped in Fort Worth, Texas, near Dallas, by juvenile authorities, but they were released and continued their trek to Brookshire.

Twenty-five hundred miles later, they made it. Emily knocked on her father’s door and told him that she and Elaina needed a place to stay. Her father worked as a cook at the local Union 76 truck stop and gas station. He

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wanted to make sure she got a job as well. Within two days, Emily landed a job as a waitress.

It also did not take long for father and daughter to go after one another. During her first week in Brookshire, Emily came home late at night with two young men in tow. Her father was furious. He, in essence, grounded her and told her she could only go to work and then had to come home and stay home every night.

The following day, March 20, 1982, one day after Coral Watts moved into his new apartment in Houston, Emily was stewing in her juices. She was furious with her father for grounding her. She stormed out of the house and headed off for work at 5:00
A
.
M
. She had been in Brookshire for one week.

Frank LaQua never saw his daughter again.

Emily was last seen hitchhiking alongside Interstate 10. Coral Watts just so happened to be driving on Interstate 10 the same day.

According to Frank LaQua’s supervisor, Hattie Bonner, Frank was despondent when his daughter did not show up the next morning. He immediately filed missing persons reports with the Brookshire Police Department and the Waller County Sheriff’s Department.

“He was really worried about her [disappearing],” Bonner lamented. “He put her picture up on the cash register out front [of the Union 76] in case anybody knew where she was, but he didn’t hear anything.” Frank LaQua believed, at first, that his daughter probably just ran away again. Maybe even back to her mother in Washington State. But he never heard anything in regard to her whereabouts.

After several months with no word on Emily, Frank LaQua moved out of Brookshire to Wenatchee, Washington. He could not take it in Texas any longer.

Edith Anna Stokes was born to parents Ray and Laura, but Ray Stokes passed away and Laura Stokes then married James Allen, who subsequently adopted Edith. “Anna,” as she would most commonly be called, was the oldest of the Allen children.

Anna’s father was one of the top prosecuting attorneys in Dallas County. Allen, a first assistant district attorney, was considered one of the fiercest opponents against criminals in a Texas courtroom.

His specialty?

Death penalty prosecutions.

Allen was considered “hard-core” when it came to the death penalty. Indeed, he oversaw twenty cases in which the jury returned death verdicts.

District Attorney (DA) Allen was known for his impas-sioned speeches in the courtroom, practically demand-ing that juries find each and every defendant to be guilty and to consider them evil. At times he cried during his own closing arguments because he was so filled with fervor and disgust for the criminals on trial.

Allen was eventually elected to the state criminal district judgeship. Judge Allen continued his fervent opposition

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to defendants and was known to make defense attorneys’ lives a living hell. He had little patience for petulant lawyers and even less patience for their “scumbag” clients. Allen parlayed a successful tenure as a criminal judge to a position on the state appellate court in the Fifth District Court of Appeals.

Justice Allen and Laura Allen raised their wonderful children, but were especially proud of their oldest daughter, Anna, who excelled in education.

Laura Allen recalled the perspicacious manner of her then two-year-old daughter. As Laura watched Anna’s one-year-old brother, she heard what she described as a “glee-ful chortle,” which came from the kitchen. Laura went in to investigate and found her oldest child perched on top of the refrigerator. It was even more unusual, since there was no countertop next to the appliance. Anna simply smiled and laughed as her mother pondered how in the world she got up there.

Laura Allen described her daughter as a “smart girl” who always did “good in school.” She stated that Anna was the type of person that “anything she attempted, she learned to do.”

A shy and timid girl, Anna was sometimes too smart for her own good. Her mother stated that she was known to “foment trouble” amongst her brothers and sisters. Anna was good at getting everyone else in trouble, but some-how managed to avoid it herself.

As Anna matured, she started to come out of her shell. At Edward H. Carey Junior High School, Anna joined the drill team. Her mischievousness never quite left her. She convinced her mother to hold a slumber party at their house for the entire drill team. Her mother remembered that everything was proceeding smoothly— until the boys showed up. Surprisingly, Anna’s father let

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the boys stay, but under one condition. They could only stay for a half hour. Amazingly, the boys agreed and complied with her father’s wishes.

By the time Anna entered high school, she had moved out of her geeky phase and had turned into a beautiful young lady. She also kept her focus on her education. When she received her scores for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the college entrance exam, Anna was ecstatic. She informed her mother that she had scored a 1540.

Her mother, even though she was a teacher, had no idea what the SATs were about or what a good score was. She asked, “Is that good?”

“Mo-ther,” the exasperated daughter sighed, “a perfect score is sixteen hundred.”

Anna parlayed her excellent SAT score and high-school education into an easy entry into college at the University of Texas in Austin. Anna succeeded at University of Texas from the very beginning. Her freshman year, she received Alpha Lambda Delta honors for her grades. By the time she completed her college degree in 1970, she was awarded Phi Beta Kappa honors for Latin and the classics. After graduation Anna moved back to Dallas to be near her family and became a teacher. She was not satisfied with the work, so she decided to turn to business. Anna got a job with the financial firm Goldman Sachs, became a trader, and transferred to Houston to work in their corporate offices.

Anna, however, knew she needed to do more than just crunch numbers. She had always expressed an interest in medicine. She constantly bemoaned to her mother the fact that she hadn’t gone to medical school. Finally her mother said, “Why don’t you?”

Anna applied to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. Despite her stellar academic

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and business accomplishments, she was turned down because of her age. She was all of thirty and the school did not believe she would last or, much less, become a physician. On her second go-round, she interviewed with a professor who took one look at her, rolled his eyes, and began to berate her.

“Wouldn’t you know it, I get an old girl who is going to take up a space in the medical school and is not going to be able to finish, is not going to be able to practice medicine. Let’s get on with it.”

Anna looked up at the professor and said, “Wouldn’t you know it, I’d get some son of a bitch like you interview-ing me.”

She was accepted.

Anna excelled in medical school. She also found time to enjoy her family. Her mother recalled that she spent hours baking the “most exquisite cookies” for her nieces and nephews. She took the time out to write letters to friends and family and would never forget an anniversary, birthday, or holiday with either a letter, a phone call, or a visit in person.

Anna also fell in love while she was in medical school. She began to date one of her classmates, John C. Ledet. The couple’s courtship was quick and they married right away. Unfortunately, their relationship struggled and the couple soon divorced. Anna returned her focus to her studies and tried to look out for herself.

One week after Emily LaQua went missing, thirty-four- year-old Anna Ledet went for her early-morning ritual: a jog around the UTMB campus. She liked to take off in the dark, when it was peaceful, quiet, and no one would bother her.

She left, as usual, at 4:30
A
.
M
., on March 27, 1982. Anna was thrilled that she would be officially graduating

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in less than two months. All of the hard work, all of the pain from her failed relationship with John, all of it would finally come to an end. She had already been accepted to conduct her residency in nephrology, which is the study of kidneys, especially their functions and diseases, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She was especially excited on this particular day because the day before she had completed all of her medical school coursework.

A positive end.

She had a bright future awaiting her.

The man in the brown Grand Prix, however, would snuff out that bright light.

Anna Ledet’s best friend and UTMB classmate, Linda Ray, said that Anna usually ran with some friends. She assumed Anna ran alone that particular day because the campus had let out for spring break. Most of her friends took vacations or went home to visit their families.

Anna Ledet’s body was discovered at sunrise near the 200 block of East Postoffice Road and Ferry Road. Her jogging suit–clad body was drenched in blood as she lay sprawled across the concrete walkway. She had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

Seventeen times.

Ledet’s attacker’s appetite was not satiated. Covered in the coed’s blood, he slid back into his Grand Prix and drove away.

He wanted more.

The man spotted another UTMB medical student, Glenda Kirby, walking down a sidewalk just two blocks away from Ledet’s death scene. The man pulled up to the curb behind the woman as she walked, oblivious to any

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danger. The man got out of his car, stepped onto the sidewalk, and headed toward Kirby.

Anna Ledet’s blood literally dripped from his hands. The man approached Glenda Kirby. He began to sprint toward her. He flew through the air and tackled her to the concrete. The man grasped at his latest victim with his hands—his already bloody hands. They were too slick. Glenda Kirby slipped out of his grasp and fled for

safety. She had no idea who had attacked her.

Toward the end of March 1982, Acting Police Chief John Bales fired thirteen police officers for “questionable activities.” Bales, who would soon be replaced by incoming police chief Lee Brown, stated he was merely “cleaning house.” The effect on the rank and file was not positive, to say the least.

By the beginning of April 1982, Mayor Whitmire was quoted in the
Houston Chronicle
as stating that the police were suffering from severe corruption. The morale within the Houston Police Department hit an all-time low.

While the police and the politicians continued to bicker, a killer remained loose on the streets of Houston.

Yolanda “Yollie” Gracia was always the “cool aunt.” Her niece, Maricela Gracia, who lived across the street from her on the 5600 block of Tucker Street, on the east side of town, remembered a sweet aunt who always included her in more adult endeavors. Yollie would take Maricela driving around in her yellow Maverick. The young ladies would listen to blaring disco music

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while they went shopping at the nearby Edgewood Shopping Mall.

Despite being the cool aunt, twenty-two-year-old Yollie was also a good mother. She and her husband, Hector Gracia, gave birth to their only child, Myra Lynn Gracia, on September 28, 1981. Gracia maintained a clean, cozy home, worked a full-time job at Gordon’s Jewelers, located on the 1100 block of Main Street, and doted on her newborn baby. Despite all of her numerous responsibilities, Yollie maintained a healthy, happy demeanor.

On April 15, 1982, Yollie went to work at Gordon’s Jewelers. That night she wore a white dress with flowery design and a beige jacket and shoes. Usually after she finished her shift, her husband would pick her up and drive her home. Some nights he was unable to get her, so she would take the bus home instead. On this particular evening, Hector informed her that he had to work overtime and that she would need to catch the bus. Gracia’s coworkers believed she left work at 6:00
P
.
M
. and took the bus home.

She never made it there.

Gracia’s bus stopped at the corner of Midvale Street and Moline Street. She stepped off the bus and headed toward her home. As the bus sputtered off, Coral Watts scooted out of his trusty Grand Prix. He had been watching the bus when he noticed the young woman step off. She was only four blocks and one-half mile from home.

Yolanda Gracia’s lifeless body was discovered the following day at 6:00
A
.
M
., in between the yards of two residences on the 7200 block of Moline Street. A neighbor had stepped outside to retrieve his morning paper when he spotted Gracia’s body facedown in the yard. Her purse lay

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next to her body. It had not been opened and nothing had been taken from it.

It was later discovered that Gracia had been stabbed four times, twice in the chest. The other two were considered superficial defense-type wounds. Apparently, Yolanda Gracia attempted to put up a fight for her life.