Tim Miller, father of Laura Miller, speaks outside of the courtroom after James Dolphs Elmore Jr. was found guilty of manslaughter in Texas. (Photo: AP)
A Texas man has been sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison over the death of 16-year-old Laura Miller, whose remains were among those found in an area southeast of Houston where more than 30 girls and young women have turned up dead since the 1970s. A Galveston County jury sentenced Elmore, 61, on Thursday, a day after finding him guilty of manslaughter in Miller’s death.
Prosecutors said he prepared cocaine that his longtime friend Clyde Hedrick administered to her.
How did a decades-old case reach a jury?
Elmore first contacted Tim Miller in 2022, nearly four decades after Laura disappeared. The Houston Chronicle reported that Miller paid Elmore about $33,000 over four years while seeking information that could help authorities build a case against Hedrick. He had previously been convicted of manslaughter in 2014 in the death of Ellen Beason. Beason disappeared in 1984 and was found dead the following year. Hedrick was released on parole in 2022.
Elmore also spoke to police about what he said happened on the night Laura died and said he had helped move her body to the Calder Road field. You handed it,” Miller told him. The two men met repeatedly, and Miller filmed some of their encounters, including visits to places linked to his daughter’s death. Miller had spent years trying to find answers about Laura. After becoming frustrated with authorities during the search for his daughter, he founded Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit that helps locate missing people. During the trial, Tim Miller directly confronted Elmore over his role in Laura’s death. “You handed it to Clyde Hedrick.