Reece pleads guilty to Jessica Cain murder

Just shy of 25 years since Jessica Cain went missing after her vehicle was found abandoned on Interstate 45 in August of 1997, William Reece, 62, has pled guilty to her murder.

The case gained national attention while volunteers and investigators conducted an extensive search for her in the weeks and months following.

Cain, who had close ties to Liberty, was one of three women that Reece admitted to killing on Wednesday, June 29. He appeared in the case of Cain and Laura Smither in Galveston County before appearing in Brazoria County in the case of Kelli Cox later in the day.

Already serving a 60-year sentence for a kidnapping here in Texas in 1998, Reece had been cooperating with authorities since 2016 when he led investigators to the remains of Cain and Cox in a pasture on the southeast side of Houston off East Orem Drive.

In June of last year, Reece was sentenced to death in another murder in Oklahoma but reached a deal to not face the death penalty in the Cain case after cooperating with authorities.

Cain was laid to rest at Fairlawn Cemetery in Liberty on April 18, 2016; she is the daughter of C.H. & Suzy Johnson Cain.