HOUSTON — As the search continues for more victims of serial killer Dean Corll, a man tells KHOU 11 he had a close encounter with an accomplice decades ago.
While the search this week didn’t turn up anything at the former home of Corll in Pasadena, it did bring up old memories.
KHOU 11 spoke to a man who claims he had a strange encounter with Corll's accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, in 1972.
“I was alone, walking down the street and a young man pulled up next to me and said ‘Hey man, where in the hell are you going?’ And he said it in a way like he had known me all my life," said James, who asked only to be identified by his first name.
He spoke to KHOU 11 in a phone interview about what he remembers. James says he was in Houston visiting his grandmother, who lived in The Heights. He decided to walk to a nearby convenience store, when he claims Henley pulled up.
"He was talking about going to drink a few beers and smoke a little weed and hang out with a friend of his," James said.
He tells KHOU 11 he got in the car, they drove around The Heights and ended up at another home. James says there were two other men and a woman there, but Henley told him they had to wait for her to leave.
"They were both looking at me strangely and I felt in my heart that there was a threat, something was going on and I was about to walk into some kind of trap," he said.
James told us Henley took him for another drive, while they were waiting for the woman to leave. But, he got a bad feeling, got out of the car at an intersection and ran back to his grandma's house. He didn't realize until a few months later what he might have escaped.
“Everything came about in the news, Corll had been killed and it all came out and that’s when I recognized Elmer Henley as the fellow who picked me up. Really that’s my story, I got away," he said.
James says he never went to police because nothing happened, but he's glad he trusted his gut. Twenty-eight other boys who were lured to Corll's home in Pasadena were raped, tortured and murdered.
KHOU 11 can’t confirm James' story, but victim’s advocate Andy Kahan says over the years he’s heard from families about other possible victims.
“I’m not surprised because this case definitely resonates with the people of Houston and for those that have been around for 40, 50 years, no one is ever going to forget what at the time was the largest serial killings in this country’s history," said Kahan.
Equusearch founder Tim Miller said they're not done searching. He's been in contact with Henley who claims there are as many as 20 more victims.
There are other areas of interest they plan to search in the coming weeks and Miller said he's hoping Henley will be allowed to help them.
