HOUSTON — A Galveston County grand jury on Tuesday indicted 61-year-old James Dolphs Elmore Jr. for his alleged role in the deaths of 16-year-old Laura Miller and 30-year-old Audrey Cook, whose bodies were found in the area known as the Texas Killing Fields in 1986. Elmore was arrested Tuesday and is being held without bond in the Galveston County Jail, and court and jail records did not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Elmore has been charged with manslaughter and felony tampering with evidence in the death of Miller and with tampering with evidence in Cook's killing. The two women were among four whose bodies were found between 1984 and 1991 in a rural field off a dirt road in League City, located about 28 miles southeast of Houston. The other two women found in the area were 25-year-old Heidi Fye-Villareal and 34-year-old Donna Prudhomme.

A stretch of land along Interstate 45 southeast of Houston was dubbed the "Texas Killing Fields" after the bodies of more than 30 women were found there, beginning in the 1970s. Most of the deaths associated with the area remain unsolved.

Galveston County District Attorney Kenneth Cusick said that law enforcement agencies in the county worked together on the investigation and that charging Elmore and arresting him represented progress in the case. Cusick, who was appointed as district attorney in October, said he had pledged to take a harder look at these cases and that he is committed to continue working on them and that active leads remain to bring potential suspects to justice.

Prosecutors also alleged that Clyde Hedrick was responsible for the deaths of the four women and presented evidence to a grand jury seeking indictments against him. Hedrick died by suicide last month before the grand jury returned a decision in his case. Hedrick was convicted of manslaughter in 2014 in the death of Ellen Beason, whose body was found in 1985 after she went missing the previous year. He was released from prison in 2022 and was on parole at the time of his death, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit that helps look for missing people, said he had met 30 times with Elmore in the last four years, during which Elmore shared information. Miller declined to elaborate to avoid jeopardizing the case. Miller, who founded the organization after his daughter's death, said, "I think with everything that they had in the past, it's inexcusable that Clyde Hedrick had the opportunity to die without never been indicted, convicted."

Nina Jager said she had mixed feelings about Elmore's indictment because her grandfather had investigated the case, believed Hedrick was responsible, and had been ignored by authorities. "Maybe today is a result of all the work that he put in, all the searching the fields, going and talking to people and doing his own investigation because he just didn't feel supported," Jager said.