In July 2006, eighteen-year-old Roxanne Paltauf vanished from a Budget Inn near Interstate 35 and Rundberg Lane in Austin, Texas. Just hours earlier, she had promised her mother she would be home the next morning.

Roxanne was the oldest of five children and shared an immensely close relationship with her family. She was working toward her GED, holding multiple jobs, and planning for her future. But those closest to her worried about her volatile relationship. 

After she went missing, her boyfriend Louis Reginald Walls called and claimed the couple had argued and that she stormed out of their motel room carrying nothing. He said she left behind her purse, jewelry, clothing, and cellphone, a story that immediately alarmed her family, who knew Roxanne never went anywhere without her belongings.

As detectives began looking into her disappearance, after initially treating her case as little more than a lover’s spat, troubling details emerged. Walls waited nearly twenty-four hours to report Roxanne missing and continued using her cellphone in the days after she vanished. Friends and family also shared allegations of abuse and growing concerns about the relationship.

Despite mounting suspicions, The Austin Police lacked the evidence needed to prove a crime had occurred.

Twenty years later, Roxanne Paltauf remains missing.

Part one of two.

Roxanne’s family is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction — or for information that leads to finding her remains. If you have any information about what happened to Roxanne Elizabeth Paltauf, you can submit a tip anonymously at roxannepaltauf.com or call the Austin Police Department at (512) 974-5250.

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In June of 1987, eighteen-year-old Michael Jefferson "Mike" Adams seemed to have everything going for him. A recent early graduate of Cooper High School, Mike had already enrolled at Texas Tech University to study architecture, worked full-time to save for college, and had purchased his own car through hard work and determination.

On the night of June 8, after closing the grocery store where he worked, Mike drove to his family's home in Abilene. His stepsister watched from a window as he stepped out of his car and casually spoke with someone waiting in another vehicle parked along the street. The interaction appeared completely normal.

Mike was never seen again.

When his family awoke the next morning, his car remained in the driveway, his wallet and cash were still inside the house, and his bed had never been slept in. Detectives quickly concluded that Mike had likely believed he was leaving for only a short time with someone he knew and trusted.

Over the years, police have explored numerous theories surrounding Mike's disappearance. Despite decades of investigation, none of those leads have ever provided definitive answers.

Nearly forty years later, Mike Adams remains missing. His father spent the rest of his life searching for answers before passing away in 2024, never learning what happened to his youngest son.

If you have information about the disappearance of Michael Jefferson Adams, please contact the Abilene Police Department at (325) 673-8331.

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In Part Two of our series on the dark history of Wharton County, we examine three more haunting cases that continue to leave families searching for answers.

The episode begins in Ganado, Texas, with the unsolved 1999 murder of beloved English teacher Jean Schoeneberg. A respected educator known for her high standards and daily morning walks, Jean was found brutally murdered along a quiet rural road near her home. Despite decades of investigation, DNA testing, and renewed leads, her killer has never been identified.

Next, we explore the 2014 disappearance of Mitchelle Deborah Hicks, a 25-year-old mother of two who vanished after leaving a residence in Wharton. Investigators believe she may have been taken against her will, but more than a decade later, few details have been released publicly, and her family is still waiting for answers.

Finally, we follow the remarkable identification of Wharton County Jane Doe, whose skeletal remains were discovered in a remote field in 2021. For four years she had no name, until advances in forensic genetic genealogy revealed she was sixteen-year-old Yeimy Maciela Beltrand. Her identification led investigators to name a suspect in her murder, but he fled before he could be arrested and remains a fugitive.

These cases span more than twenty-five years, yet they share the same painful reality: families whose lives were forever changed, investigations that remain incomplete, and the enduring hope that someone, somewhere, still knows the truth.

If you have any information about the murder of Jean Schoeneberg or the whereabouts of Luis Omar Beltran-Mendoza, suspected in the murder of Yeimy Maciela Beltrand, please contact the Wharton County Sheriff’s Office at (979) 532-1550.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Mitchelle Deborah Hicks, please call the Wharton Police Department at (979) 532-3131.

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For more than 150 years, Wharton County, Texas, has been shaped by both prosperity and violence. In the first installment of this special series, we trace the county's darker history: from racial terror and vigilante justice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to two heartbreaking crimes in modern times that forever changed the community.

In 1988, 24-year-old Juana Velasquez Moreno was brutally murdered while opening the Kwik Chek convenience store where she worked. For decades, her family believed the investigation had simply gone cold, only to later discover that a suspect had twice been indicted for her murder without their knowledge.

Just over two years later, fifteen-year-old Rosemary Diaz vanished while working alone at a small country store in Danevang. Twenty-five years passed before long-hidden secrets led investigators to her grave, finally revealing what happened on the night she disappeared.

This episode explores how violence has echoed across generations in Wharton County, where justice has never necessarily prevailed, sometimes failed, and sometimes arrived far too late.

If you have any information about the murder of Sanjuana Velasquez Moreno, please contact the Wharton County Sheriff’s Office at (979) 532-1550.

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Nearly twenty years after Brandi Wells disappeared, the questions surrounding her case remain as haunting as ever.

In part two, we examine the investigation that unfolded after Brandi's black Pontiac Grand Prix was found abandoned near Interstate 20. Detectives pursued leads, including a man whose phone number was discovered inside Brandi's car and the mysterious trail left by Brandi's actual cellphone after it passed through multiple hands. A critical mistake involving nightclub surveillance footage sent investigators down the wrong path for weeks before the real Brandi was finally identified entering and leaving Graham Central Station alone.

As searches expanded across East Texas, Brandi's family refused to let her name fade from public memory. They endured the emotional turmoil of potential identifications, including the heartbreaking possibility that Brandi might have been the young murder victim later known as Lavender Doe. Each lead brought renewed hope, only to end in disappointment.

Someone, somewhere, knows what happened after Brandi Wells walked out of Graham Central Station in the early morning hours of August 3, 2006. Until that person comes forward, one of East Texas's most enduring mysteries remains unsolved.

Part two of two.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Brandi Ellen Wells, please contact the Longview Police Department at (903) 237-1110.

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In August 2006, twenty-three-year-old Brandi Wells left her mother's home in Tyler, Texas, for what should have been an ordinary night out. Excited about returning to college and rebuilding her life after a difficult few years, Brandi drove to Longview's popular Graham Central Station nightclub for Ladies Night. She was seen socializing, dancing, and asking acquaintances for a few dollars for gas before leaving the club shortly after midnight.

When Brandi failed to return home, her family initially hoped there was a simple explanation. But as hours turned into days, concern gave way to fear. Unknown to them, Brandi's black Pontiac Grand Prix had already been discovered abandoned along Interstate 20, its driver's door standing open and several troubling details left behind. Personal belongings remained inside, but Brandi had vanished without a trace.

Nearly twenty years later, the disappearance of Brandi Wells remains one of East Texas's most haunting unsolved mysteries. In this first installment, we explore who Brandi was before she became a missing person's case, retrace the final confirmed hours of her life, and examine how an ordinary night out ended with questions that still have no answers.

Part one of two.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Brandi Ellen Wells, please contact the Longview Police at (903) 237-1110.

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On the morning of March 27, 1991, three-year-old Megan Elizabeth Garner was playing outside her family's apartment at the Casa Grande Apartments in Tyler, Texas. It was spring break, the weather was warm, and nothing about the day seemed unusual.

That is, until Megan vanished.

What began as a frantic search by family members quickly escalated into one of East Texas's most enduring missing child investigations. Law enforcement officers, firefighters, volunteers, tracking dogs, helicopters, and eventually the FBI searched tirelessly for answers. Despite extensive efforts, investigators found no physical evidence, no confirmed sightings, and no clear explanation for how a child disappeared in broad daylight from a crowded apartment complex.

Over the following months and years, Megan's case gained national attention through organizations such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Kevin Collins Foundation, America's Most Wanted, and The 700 Club's Child Quest. Millions of Americans saw her photograph, yet every promising lead ultimately led nowhere.

More than three and a half decades later, Megan remains missing.

In this episode, we examine the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, the massive search effort that followed, the theories investigators considered, and the heartbreaking reality faced by a family still searching for answers after all these years.

f you have any information about the disappearance of Megan Elizabeth Garner, please contact the Tyler Police Department at 903-531-1000.

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In December 1996, 32-year-old Sharon McLane was brutally murdered inside her Bedford, Texas apartment. Two years later, her friend John Earl Nolley was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. The case appeared closed.

But questions never completely disappeared.

Years after Nolley’s conviction, attorneys with the Innocence Project and Tarrant County’s Conviction Integrity Unit uncovered troubling problems with the original prosecution, including undisclosed evidence, unreliable jailhouse informant testimony, and forensic findings that cast doubt on the verdict.

Early in the case, Paul Dennis Reid, a violent serial killer later convicted of seven murders in Tennessee and suspected in several others, emerged as an alternate suspect. But police discounted him despite many witnesses placing him at Sharon’s apartment complex around the time of the murder, among other things.

In the final chapter of Sharon McLane’s story, we examine Reid’s murder convictions, the evidence that pointed away from Nolley, and the extraordinary review that ultimately led to Nolley’s release after nearly two decades behind bars.

While John Earl Nolley eventually regained his freedom, Sharon McLane’s murder remains unsolved, leaving behind one lingering question that has never been definitively answered:

Who killed Sharon McLane?

Part three of three.

If you have any information about the murder of Sharon Lucretia McLane, please call the Bedford police at (817) 952-2127.

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In December of 1996, 32-year-old Sharon McLane was found brutally murdered inside her Bedford, Texas apartment, stabbed and slashed more than fifty times in a crime that shocked the Mid-Cities area between Dallas and Fort Worth. Police quickly focused on Sharon’s acquaintance, John Earl Nolley, and within months he was arrested, charged, and eventually convicted of her murder. But while investigators in Texas built their case against Nolley, another terrifying series of murders was unfolding hundreds of miles away in Tennessee.

As Nashville-area detectives investigated what became known as the “Fast Food Murders,” authorities began connecting multiple brutal restaurant killings tied to a violent drifter and former fast-food employee named Paul Dennis Reid Jr. The murders stretched from Captain D’s in Donelson to a McDonald’s in Hermitage and eventually to the abduction and murder of two Baskin-Robbins employees in Clarksville. The crimes shared disturbing similarities: restaurant workers targeted during opening or closing shifts, robbery mixed with extreme violence, and victims executed by firearm or repeatedly stabbed. 

As Reid’s history and alleged crimes came to light, Sharon McLane’s defense attorneys began noticing troubling overlaps between the Tennessee murders and Sharon’s killing in Bedford. Witnesses reportedly placed Reid at Sharon’s apartment complex around the time investigators believed she was murdered. Others claimed Reid had previously been seen at Sharon’s workplace. Hair recovered from Sharon’s clothing reportedly did not belong to either Sharon or John Nolley, and witnesses later described Reid appearing with cuts on his hands shortly after the murder.

The rise and fall of Paul Dennis Reid was at the expense of several lives, the horrifying Tennessee fast-food murders. And his arrest cast a shadow over the prosecution of John Earl Nolley. As investigators in Tennessee connected Reid to one of the region’s most infamous murder sprees, questions continued to linger in Texas about whether Sharon McLane’s killer had truly been identified, or whether another violent predator had passed through the Metroplex before the violence escalated elsewhere.

Part two of three.

If you have any information about the murder of Sharon Lucretia McLane, please call the Bedford police at (817) 952-2127.

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In December 1996, 32-year-old Sharon McLane was murdered inside her home in Bedford, a brutal crime that immediately shook family, friends, and investigators.

As detectives began piecing together Sharon’s final hours, questions quickly emerged. Who would want to hurt her? Was this a crime of opportunity, or did someone Sharon knew walk through that door?

Sharon’s her life, her relationships, and the circumstances leading up to the night she was killed were vague. As investigators work to establish a timeline, early evidence and witness statements begin to paint a troubling picture, one that suggests Sharon’s killer may not have been a stranger at all.

This is the beginning of a case that would raise serious questions, uncover conflicting accounts, and leave those closest to Sharon searching for the truth.

Part one of three.

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