GALVESTON COUNTY UN SOLVED Cases that have gone cold but are not forgotten PLUS: Crime-prevention tips2 | Unsolved Galveston County | March 2021 RCC Resale - Galveston 2025 Broadway St. (409) 762-1520 RCC Home Store - Galveston 1708 23rd St. (409) 443-0540 RCC Resale - La Marque 15033 Delaney Rd (409) 942-4380 RCC Resale - League City 814 W. Main St. (281) 554-6983 OPEN Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm Sundays 12pm - 4pm VISIT US AT www.rccgc.org Facebook: “RCC Resale Stores” (Galveston Resale location only) RCC Resale has four locations in Galveston County and we are entirely donation-driven.Revenue from RCC Resale stores helps to advance the mission of the Resource & Crisis Center of Galveston County which is to promote the safety, well-being and best interests of victims of family violence, sexual assault and child abuse, while advocating for the prevention of such crimes. RCC Resale offers clothing for all ages, art, housewares, home décor, vintage collectibles and antiques. Stop by any of our locations and know that you are improving the lives of others in your community by shopping for a worthy cause.March 2021 | Unsolved Galveston County | 3 CONTENTS Murder of woman at Alcoholics Anonymous meeting still unsolved ..................................................................................................4 With kidnappers dead, investigators hope for new information on Sikes’ remains ......................................................6 Evidence missing key in most unsolved homicides ........................................9 Case of Shelly Franklin’s killing lingers for 35 years ..........................................10 How victims can respond to being stalked .........................................................11 Self-defense tips to protect yourself ......................................................................13 Enjoy a safe night on the town/ Tips for starting a neighborhood watch ...............................................................14 Personal safety tips to live by ....................................................................................15 If you would like to submit a tip about any of these crimes, or any other crime or abuse, contact Galveston County Crime Stoppers. 24-hour hotline: 409-763-TIPS (8477) Online: www.galveston.crimestoppersweb.com Mobile App: P3Tips.com4 | Unsolved Galveston County | March 2021 By KERI HEATH The Daily News It’s been three years, and still no one has been charged in the murder of Donna Brown, who was found stabbed in August 2018 in a building commonly used for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. While investigators think they’ve identified a likely suspect in the case, they just haven’t found enough ev- idence to warrant a conviction for Brown’s death. Brown, 79, died at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 9, 2018, after she was stabbed Aug. 5 inside a building at the intersection of 33rd Street and Avenue P, police said. At the time, police reached out to the public for help identifying the culprit. About 18 months into the case, investigators had exhausted all their leads and interviewed everyone they could, Galveston detective Michelle Sollenberger said. “It’s so sad because this case is one that I really feel like is solvable,” Sollenberger said. “We’re just missing that one piece.” An AA attendee herself, Brown had been sober for 30 years and often led the women-only meeting, Sollenberger said. While police have a suspect, they haven’t been able to compile enough evidence for the District Attorney’s Of- fice to press charges, Sollenberger said. It’s incredibly frustrating to Elizabeth Rogers, Brown’s niece. “She was an amazing woman and what she did for that community was so amazing,” Rogers said. Brown had volunteered to help peo- ple in the AA program, at a food pantry and mentoring young people, Rogers said. She’d moved to Galveston about six years before from West Palm Beach, Florida to start a new life, Rogers said. On Aug. 5, Brown had arrived early to a 4 p.m. women-only Alcoholics Anon- ymous meeting, held at the 33rd Street building, Sollenberger said. Members told Sollenberger that Brown, who ran the 4 p.m. meeting, often arrived early to turn on the lights and make coffee. Video images from a security camera about a block away shows Brown enter- ing the building at 3:44 p.m. Six minutes later, at 3:50 p.m., a tall man leaves the building and only three minutes after that, at 3:53 p.m., people begin showing up for the 4 p.m. meeting, Sollenberger said. Sollenberger thinks Brown probably told the man to leave before the wom- en-only meeting began. “Everyone said she would have really fussed at him for a man being there,” Sollenberger said. Because it’s far away, the video isn’t clear, but Sollenberger believes no one besides the tall man was in the building with Brown because the camera shows both doors into the building, she said. “We had one person go in and one person go out,” Sollenberger said. “There’s not a ghost in there that did this. It’s really frustrating to not have the physical evidence to back up what we see on the video.” An AA member who’d picked up a backpack he left in the building about an hour and a half before Brown arrived also encountered the man and identified him from a photo, Sollenberger said. Murder of woman at Alcoholics Anonymous meeting still unsolved JENNIFER REYNOLDS/The Daily News Galveston Police detective Michelle Sollenberger holds a photo of Donna Brown, who was found stabbed in August 2018 in a building at 33rd Street and Avenue P used for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.March 2021 | Unsolved Galveston County | 5 ROOFING & REPAIRS Protect and beautify your home with the best in the business. Call the people you can trust.Call the people you can trust. Licensed and BondedLicensed and Bonded Locally Owned forLocally Owned for Over 30 YearsOver 30 Years 409-762-8068 | office@morganroofingtexas.com | morganroofingtexas.com Morgan Roofing, LLC Galveston’s #1 Roofing Company And a neighbor’s porch camera captured a profile of the man, but didn’t take a front image of his face, he said. But this case was partic- ularly difficult because the building was open to the public, Sollenberger said. “We had tons of DNA in the building because it belongs to the public,” Sollenberger said. The local AA chapter also would leave the building open during the summer so people who didn’t have air condition- ing could get out of the heat, Sollenberger said. Brown was a retired Pan Am stewardess and trav- eled the world, Rogers said. “My aunt was this beau- tiful woman, this class A woman,” Rogers said. Brown was spending this chapter of her life giving back to people, she said. “That’s who she was in that part of her life,” Rogers said. The man who police be- lieve killed Brown is in jail right now for an unrelated crime, Sollenberger said. But Rogers worries about what will happen when he’s released, she said. “If this is not solved and he is released, it’s going to be a danger for the community,” Rogers said. “I care about that community.” The case isn’t active, but it’s not closed, Sol- lenberger said. “Even though this case is technically classified as cold, any case with new evidence or new infor- mation can be reactivat- ed,” Sollenberger said. Sollenberger encour- aged anyone who had additional information about Brown’s case to contact police. “It’s so sad because this case is one that I really feel like is solvable. We’re just missing that one piece.” MICHELLE SOLLENBERGER, Galveston police detective JENNIFER REYNOLDS/The Daily News Galveston Police detective Michelle Sollenberger shows a photo from Donna Brown’s days as a Pan Am stew- ardess. 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ONLY SAME DAY SERVICE ON THE ISLAND6 | Unsolved Galveston County | March 2021 JENNIFER REYNOLDS/The Daily News Galveston County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Tommy Hansen talks about the 1986 kidnapping of Shelley Sikes at the Joe Max Taylor Law Enforcement Center in Galveston on March 11, 2021. By JOHN WAYNE FERGUSON The Daily News The people convicted in Shelley Sikes’ disappear- ance are dead and gone. But investigators hope their deaths while in prison will compel some- one to come forward with information that has long remained elusive: where is Sikes’ final rest- ing place? Sikes was 19 and had just finished working her shift at Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant on Memorial Day 1986. As she was driv- ing home along 61st Street in Galveston, she encoun- tered Gerald Zwarst and John Robert King. Deputies found Sikes’ car abandoned north of the causeway the next morning. She was gone, and hasn’t been found since. Zwarst and King were eventually convicted of kidnapping Sikes. They were connected to Sikes after King attempted to commit suicide in El Paso. His suicide note men- tioned Sikes, and after With kidnappers dead, investigators hope for new information on Sikes’ remainsMarch 2021 | Unsolved Galveston County | 7 his attempt failed, he implicated Zwarst. The men were arrested in 1987; but her body was never found. King died in prison in 2015. Zwarst died in No- vember. They never told investigators what they did with Sikes’ body. With their passing, the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office is hoping that someone will come forward with information they have been withhold- ing out of loyalty to the two men, said Sheriff’s Office investigator Tommy Hansen, who has been part of the Sikes investiga- tion for nearly 40 years. “If somebody had an allegiance, some friend to John King or Gerald Zwarst, that’s null and void because they’re both dead,” Hansen said. Hansen had talked to Zwarst and King’s attorneys, because their deaths removed any privi- lege that existed between them, Hansen said. The lawyers were cooperative but weren’t able to provide any new information, Hansen said. There had been times when it felt like investi- gators were on the verge of bringing the case to an end, Hansen said. Police have searched in many spots over the years for clues to Sikes’ resting place. Early searches were centered near King’s home on Gordy Street in Bacliff, an unincorporated com- munity on the edge of Galveston Bay. Searching the thick woods was like trying to find the proverbial needle in a hay stack, investigators said. Hansen thinks some- one removed Sikes’ body after initial searches in Bacliff proved fruitless. “Originally, way back, Gerald Zwarst was coop- erative and told us the last place he saw the re- mains was at a location,” Hansen said. “We went out there, and dug there, and she had been there, but she had obviously been moved.” He hoped with Zwarst and King dead, no one would feel compelled to continue to protect them by staying quiet, he said. While Zwarst and King can’t face more charges over Sikes’ disappear- ance, finding her remains could finally bring some closure for her surviving family, and to investiga- tors, Hansen said. “They would like to have a proper burial for their daughter,” Hansen said. Anyone with infor- mation about Sikes’ disappearance can call the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office at 409- 766-2300 or Galveston County Crime Stoppers at 409-763-8477. “We went out there, and dug there, and she had been there, but she had obviously been moved.” TOMMY HANSEN, Galveston County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant The Daily News file photo Galveston County Sheriff’s Office investigator Tommy Hansen holds files and a poster with a photo of Shelley Sikes as he talks to Eddie Sikes, right, on May 24, 2006, at the Galveston County Courthouse. Shelley Sikes was reported missing 20 years ago.8 | Unsolved Galveston County | March 2021 Have you NOTICED not all CHECKING accounts are created equal. As a checking account holder at GGECU, you’re entitled to enjoy all of these benefits: At GGECU your DIRECT DEPOSIT can EARN you MONEY!!!!!!!!!! With DIRECT DEPOSIT you can earn up to 1% off the current loan rate with your APPROVED LOAN!!!!!! 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March 2021 | Unsolved Galveston County | 9 By MATT DEGROOD The Daily News Misty Johnson is mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore. About six months after her son, Austin Johnson, was shot and killed and his girlfriend severely wounded, Texas City police still have not made any arrests in connec- tion to the September incident, she said. This despite the fact that she’s fairly sure she knows who’s responsible. “The cops aren’t doing anything,” she said. Texas City police con- cede most of Johnson’s points, except for the suggestion that they aren’t doing anything. “We’re working on that to the fullest extent,” said detective Jeff Winstead, a member of the criminal investigations division of the Texas City Police Department. “I just don’t think we have quite enough infor- mation to file in that one.” In many ways, Johnson’s case is common in the world of unsolved crime. While popular television and true crime podcasts portray deep mysteries, shifting suspects and miss- ing evidence leading to homicides going unsolved for years, the reality is far different. Texas City investigators in an interview about active and recently cold homicide cases attributed the search for evidence as the one thing that keeps many of those unsolved. Still other police depart- ments, such as League City Police Department, declined to speak about their active homicide in- vestigations, arguing to do so would jeopardize the integrity of the case. And it’s often the family members of victims that keep momentum going on those cases, Winstead said. “That’s what keeps these cases alive — either a fam- ily member or a detective taking an interest in a case, or a patrol officer or even an everyday citizen,” Win- stead said. “If not for those people, the case would go on a shelf and sit there.” Texas City police inves- tigated 14 homicides in 2020. Two of them have yet to result in charges be- ing filed, Winstead said. That’s abnormally high, Winstead said. Most years, the department investigates between three and five. No one, specific reason led to the increase — the caseload includes domestic violence, random acts of violence and other causes. But, in addition to the active cases, the depart- ment also has placed a renewed focus on solving some of the recent cold cases investigators have, Winstead said. Because the department has changed its software for cataloguing cases, it’s somewhat unclear how many outstanding cold cases exist in department history, Winstead said. Investigators have thus far identified between 11 and 12 homicide cold cas- es, but realistically there’s probably three times that number, Winstead said. “The reason we’ve ID’d those is a family member, or someone, will call in and inquire,” Winstead said. Winstead hears from a family member of Keyon- na Allums, for instance, regularly, he said. Allums, 33, was killed on Thanksgiving Day 2014 in her Texas City apartment in the 8800 block of Em- mett F. Lowry Expressway. A relative found her on the bathroom floor. Initially, first responders found no indication of foul play. An autopsy showed she was strangled, however. Allums’ case bears some similarity to the death of Austin Johnson in Sep- tember 2020. After initially investigating the case as a murder-suicide, detectives determined it was a ho- micide and an aggravated assault, police said. Johnson, 29, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 39-year-old woman was transported to the University of Texas Medical Branch hospital in critical condition. That woman survived, but has no memory of the event and is disabled, Misty Johnson said. Evidence missing key in most unsolved homicides JENNIFER REYNOLDS/The Daily News Misty Johnson holds a portrait of her son, Austin, at her home in Texas City on March 16. Johnson believes she knows who shot and killed her son in September, but police haven’t made an arrest yet. “That’s what keeps these cases alive — either a family member or a detective taking an interest in a case, or a patrol officer or even an everyday citizen. If not for those people, the case would go on a shelf and sit there.” JEFF WINSTEAD , Texas City Police Department lead detectiveNext >