GALVESTON, Texas (Court TV) — Nearly 40 years after investigators found a missing girl’s body in a Texas field, her father took the stand to testify about his yearslong search for her killer.
James Elmore sits in court on Sept. 1, 2026. (Court TV)
James Elmore, 61, is charged with manslaughter in the death of Laura Miller, 16, whose body was found in an area of League City known as “The Killing Fields” after the remains of more than 30 people were found there in the 1980s and 1990s. Miller disappeared from her home on Sept. 10, 1984, after telling her family she was going down the road to use a pay phone.
Laura Miller’s father, Tim Miller, reported his daughter missing that night. “It was the worst time of my life — the worst time,” he recalled in court on Tuesday. “I begged, I pleaded for somebody to do something. I knew something happened to Laura. I just knew it. I just didn’t know what it was.”
Tim Miller took an active role in searching for his daughter for the next two years. In 1986, he heard a report that the remains of two women had been found and took the information to the League City Police Department to ask if one of the bodies could be Laura. He was shocked to learn the department hadn’t even filed a missing person report for his daughter. After the Millers brought in some of Laura’s clothing and gave police the name of her dentist, she was identified as one of the victims.
Tim Miller said he spent all his time at the field where his daughter’s body had been found; one day he decided to plant a cross on the site. While digging, “I found a little bone, and it was one of Laura’s bones,” Tim Miller testified through tears.
The loss of his daughter inspired Tim Miller to start Texas EquuSearch, a nonprofit organization that searches for missing people. He said as of 2026, the group has operated in 42 states and 11 countries and has located more than 400 deceased victims and many others alive “that would have been dead.”
Prosecutor holds up Laura Miller’s missing poster in court. (Court TV)
Tim Miller first contacted Elmore through his work with Texas EquuSearch in 2022. Elmore messaged the group asking to speak with Tim Miller because he wanted to “get some things off his chest and be straight up.” Tim Miller was skeptical about what Elmore might know, but went along with Elmore on a drive to the area where Laura Miller’s body had been found. That alone wasn’t enough to convince Tim Miller, so Elmore then instructed him to drive to Clyde Hedrick’s house — just two houses down from where the Miller family used to live.
Tim Miller testified that he had long suspected that Hedrick was involved in his daughter’s disappearance; Elmore confirmed his suspicions and said that Hedrick used to hide and spy on the teenager before her death.
Through tears, Tim Miller relayed what Elmore told him about his daughter’s final moments. Elmore allegedly said that Hedrick raped Laura Miller while Elmore injected himself with cocaine. At that point, Hedrick allegedly asked Elmore to “mix up another.” Elmore said, “Clyde, don’t do it man, don’t do it,” Tim Miller testified. Miller said that Elmore relayed that Hedrick then injected Laura with cocaine. “He said he seen Laura — Mr. Elmore said he seen Laura shaking and shaking, lying back down, taking her last breath. I said, ‘My God, what did he do next?’ He said he covered her with his Western shirt. I said, ‘Why did he do that?’ He said because he didn’t want the dead bits looking back at him.”
Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch, testifies at James Elmore’s trial on Sept. 1, 2026. (Court TV)
“You handed [the drugs] to Clyde Hedrick,” Tim Miller said as he stared down the defendant on Tuesday. “You handed it. Damn you!”
Tim Miller said he paid Elmore thousands of dollars as a reward for sharing information about what happened to his daughter. “I gladly gave him money,” he said. “He was the only person left” with information about what happened.
A grand jury indicted Elmore on charges of manslaughter for Miller’s death and tampering with evidence in the death of Audrey Cook, another woman found buried in the same area. Hedrick died before the grand jury presentation in March 2026, KTRK reported.
