Bones to Talk With
Leads
The X-ray of Christina's ankle injury proved a match to what the medical examiner had discovered about the corpse at the autopsy. However, they did not find a match between between her hair to a blond hair found on Brian King's trousers. That meant it could have come from the killer.
The evidence technician from the Southwest Forensic Institute, Charles Lynch, also picked up a tiny fiber on Brian's sneaker. "I looked at the fiber on the male victim's shoe using transmitted light microscopy," Lynch said on Court TV's "Forensic Files." "I've seen those types of carpet fibers before, usually from Japanese vehicles, so that was my communication to the police, that it may be from a tan vehicle of Japanese make."
The last time Brian King was seen alive, he had entered what his father described as a tan car. Thus, if they found the car they had a possible physical link between Brian and his killer.
What seemed most ominous about the case was the fury with which the killer had attacked Christina. Unless it was a specific revenge killing, it suggested that this person was going to kill again.
Asking around, investigators learned from neighbors that on the night the two disappeared, they had intended to go out with a boy named Jason. No one seemed to know his last name.
Then they learned that people had seen a young man, currently working as a roofer, carrying a pistol. Another man, Christopher Nowlin, was questioned about his association with the two kids, and he admitted knowing them. When asked if he knew who might have done such a crime, he offered a name: Jason Massey. He knew of a plan involving Massey going to Christina's house on some night in July, honking twice, and then meeting her after midnight. Nowlin thought Jason Massey was weird and knew that he had a history of mutilating animals and keeping their heads as trophies. He had watched Massey kill a calf, and Massey had told him once that if he ever heard about a serial killer in the area, it would be him, Massey. He liked to brag about things like that.
To the police, that sounded like the type of person they were looking for. They started asking questions about Jason Massey's background.
Jason Massey had long, blond hair.
He was a high school dropout, age 20, and the child of a transient substance abuser who moved from one tenement after another. He'd been born in 1973 to a single mother who neglected him to go into bars and often beat him with a belt or paddle. His mother fed herself before him and hid food in her room, according to what Carol Ann Davis discovered and what was said in the trial, so Jason and his younger sister lived with constant need. The family moved frequently, even living in a car at times, so when Jason came across those who were weaker, he reversed his role from victim to victimizer—a typical progression for males. He beat younger kids and tortured cats. By his early teen years, he was drinking alcohol excessively and taking drugs.
Jason turned out to have a record of petty crimes, stalking and animal abuse. He had tried befriending a girl and when she showed little interest, he allegedly killed her dog to teach her a lesson. Earlier in 1993, the police had stopped him for suspected intoxication, finding a cat in his car with a noose around its neck (Cox says it was alive, other statements say it was dead), and a number of sharp tools. Massey was sentenced to 120 days in jail, but got out early enough to be a suspect in the murders. And that wasn't all.
"A couple of days before the discovery of the bodies," said Lt. Royce Gothard, "Ennis police had received a call about a calf that had been mutilated behind the McDonald's." When they arrived, they found an abandoned 1982 tan Subaru and a bracelet on the ground engraved with the name, "Jason." Someone had run from the scene, who was soon identified as Jason Massey.
With all of these indicators pointing to him, investigators decided to bring Massey in for questioning.