Chapter 1: What happened to Kim Langwell and how long was she missing?
Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Greene, 48 Hours correspondent. And today we are discussing the case of Kim Langwell, who went missing on July 9th, 1999 in Texas. Her daughter, Tiffany McInnes, was just 15 years old at the time and then spent over two decades wondering what happened to her mother.
And then in 2024, investigators found Kim's body buried under the floor of her ex-boyfriend's house, who was still living there all those years later. So with me now to discuss his report is 48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant. Peter, welcome. This is quite a case.
Yes, and great to be with you again, Anne-Marie. I've covered a lot of cases in which people have disposed of their victims in, shall I say, unique ways, burning, sinking, burying, dismembering, and scattering.
Chapter 2: Who were the initial suspects in Kim Langwell's disappearance?
Even leaving them out for animals to consume, but never have I covered one where a victim is buried under the floorboards in the killer's house. It's just mind boggling when you really put this together. And as we hear from the judge, what she had to say in this hour, this killer was a real psychopath.
Mm hmm. A quick reminder to everyone, if you haven't actually watched this episode yet or listen to it, it's called Kimberly Langwell's Hidden Grave. Go check it out and then come on back for this conversation. All right. So when Kim Langwell first disappeared, investigators considered a few possible suspects, including her then boyfriend, Ken Weatherford.
And Kim's former boss, Frank McCormick, who police discovered would send her love letters, leave presents at her home. And then Frank's behavior became sort of even more suspicious when they discovered these disturbing photo collages he sent Kim of women, other women's bodies, but with her face on it.
Chapter 3: What led to Terry Rose becoming the prime suspect in Kim's case?
Can you just explain more about how Ken and Frank were then eventually ruled out in this investigation?
I know, and both of them sound like persons of interest. Often the spouse or the romantic partner, as our viewers well know, is where police first start their investigation. But Ken Weatherford had a solid alibi. He was with Kim's daughter, Tiffany, during the time frame that her mother went missing. Frank McCormick's behavior upset Kim, but Frank willingly provided a statement.
Around the time Kim disappeared, he told investigators he was at a grocery store to buy some chips for a poker game, and he had the receipt to prove it. So investigators determined he had an alibi at the time, and we reached out, by the way, for an interview with Frank McCormick, but he declined.
OK, so then the original investigators move on and they look into Kim's ex-boyfriend, Terry Rose. He admits that he saw her on the evening that she disappeared and hadn't heard from her after that, obviously.
Chapter 4: How did the investigation into Kim's case resume after decades?
But investigators found Terry Rose vague. He failed a polygraph test. He becomes the prime suspect at this time.
Well, Detective Ball was pretty certain that Terry Rose was lying. And if someone's lying to an investigator, you know, that sets off the alarm. But he didn't have any real evidence yet to confront him with. And people always have to remember they can't arrest on a feeling. They need evidence. And Rose did come willingly to the police station and he provided a statement.
Rose said that on the evening she disappeared, Kim arrived around 510 or 515 p.m.
Chapter 5: What role did the nonprofit Texas EquiSearch play in finding Kim's body?
and was at his house for just a short time, he said, before leaving to go meet her daughter, Tiffany. Detective Ball thought he was being cooperative, allowing police to search in and around his house. Murderers don't do that, right? They don't say, hey, come on over. Look around, do anything you want.
So investigators said that there was lots of junk inside that house everywhere, but no evidence of Kim or that any violence had occurred inside that house. And what a little bit more on Rose. He is perplexing because he didn't have a criminal record and still to this day has never had any other criminal record through the years. This is his one and only.
But here's the thing.
Chapter 6: What shocking evidence was revealed during Terry Rose's trial?
Kim's family and her friends, they were suspicious of him. Kim's friend Esther said that Rose was violent, that he was controlling, that Kim even told Esther that she was afraid that if she tried to leave, he would kill her. What was Rose's behavior like after Kim disappeared?
Well, Tiffany witnessed Terry's obsessive behavior after the relationship ended. He would call the house at all times of the day and night. He would lurk around outside and he questioned Tiffany on Kim's whereabouts. I mean, this was really creepy. And all of that stopped when Kim went missing. Isn't that interesting?
And according to Kim's sister, Susan, he put up those billboards around town, you know, asking for help in finding her.
Chapter 7: How did Tiffany McInnes respond during the sentencing of Terry Rose?
But the family felt it wasn't in a genuine effort to find her. Perhaps it was just performative, a manipulation, perhaps to show police that he was concerned to find her.
You know, Tiffany is just 15. I have a daughter in that age range. This is the time when you are growing into from a child really to a young woman. There's no good time, obviously, to lose your mother. But 15 is particularly crucial. These billboards, it must have been kind of torturous emotionally for Tiffany.
That's the word. It was torturous for her to go out and there out in the public, a giant billboard with your mother's picture on it.
Chapter 8: What is the impact of Kim Langwell's case on her family today?
It was traumatic. And how she made it through all of that to this wonderful woman that we know today is such an accomplishment. She went through hell.
So, you know, Rose is out there putting up these billboards. Did he actually reach out to Tiffany? I don't know. Did he try to console her?
Not at all. And in fact, she told us about a disturbing interaction she had with Rose at a Jack in the Box restaurant a few years after her mother's disappearance. Let's listen to a conversation we had about that.
At 18 years old, I remember walking into a Jack in the Box to get some food, and I have somebody standing behind me, and I go to turn around, and Terry Rose is in my face. He's standing right in front of me, and it just shocked me. I thought, oh my God. And he looks directly at me, and he says, you remember me? And I said, do I remember you? Yeah, yeah, I remember you.
And he said, have you seen your mom lately?
Oh, no.
And my mouth just dropped open. I was so scared and I wanted to be strong. And I just remember looking at him and I said, yeah, I see her in my dreams. It was so odd to ask me if I remembered him just three years after I lost my mom. And I had lived in this man's house for five years.
Tiffany said she felt like he was taunting her, knowing the entire time that he had her mother's remains.
So awful. So here we are with this case, though, back then, there's no physical evidence. So the case goes cold. And it's decades later when Beaumont police decide that they want to reinvestigate. But I wonder why. Why did they think that this was a case worth taking a second look at?
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