Free Body Hunter by Patricia Springer Page A

surgery, but Tina hadn’t shown up since the night before. It was three P.M. when Shelly phoned Tina’s apartment.
    â€œThere’s no answer,” Shelly told her grandmother who had accompanied her and her two-year-old daughter, Amy, to the hospital.
    â€œWe need to go by her apartment and check on her. She needs to come see her mom,” Mildred Kimbrew said.
    Kelly drove to the Park Regency Apartments on Seymour Road where Tina Kimbrew lived alone. She noticed Tina’s car parked out front.
    â€œThere’s no answer,” Shelly told her grandmother. “She must have gotten a ride with someone. Her car’s here.”
    Amy’s angelic face was a mess from the candy she had been given at the hospital. Kelly decided to clean the child’s dirty hands before heading home.
    â€œLet’s go inside and clean Amy up,” she said.
    As Shelly turned the spare key Tina had given her grandmother in the lock of the apartment, she was met at the door by Tina’s poodle, Nicole, jumping and barking loudly.
    She glanced to the right, inside the apartment, noticing that a table and lamp had been knocked over.
    â€œLook what that dog did to this apartment,” Shelly said irritably. One leg of the wicker table had been broken, a gold glass ashtray with cigarette butts was spilled on the carpet, and a can of Sergant’s flea powder had been dumped on the floor. Beside the sofa was a plastic tumbler and a Styrofoam cup from the Sonic Drive-In.
    As Kelly moved farther into the seemingly empty room, she noticed her cousin lying motionless on the floor.
    She must be unconscious. Maybe she fell, Shelly thought to herself as she moved closer to Tina.
    Tina was lying on her back, next to a brown floral pillow that had been pulled from the sofa. Her dark brown hair was drawn above her head and spread across the lighter brown carpeting. She wore a white-lace nightgown that was pulled above her waist. Her underpants lay nearby.
    Stunned, Shelly grabbed Amy and backed up slowly to rest against the wall. She could only stare at her cousin’s face in horror. Frozen with fear, Shelly couldn’t move. She could hardly breathe.
    Mildred Kimbrew rushed to Tina, shaking her gently in an attempt to wake her up. Bruises marred the familiar pretty face.
    â€œShelly, she’s dead! I can’t look at her like this. Let’s get something to cover her up,” the older woman said, shaking.
    Shelly rushed to the bedroom and returned with a pink, blue, and white floral sheet. She draped the fabric over Tina and called the police.
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    Detective Steve Pruitt was on his way home when he received the radio call.
    â€œThere’s a report of a deceased person at the Park Regency Apartments.” The dispatcher’s voice broke through Pruitt’s thoughts.
    Pruitt, an investigator in the Crimes Against Persons Division of the Wichita Falls Police Department, turned his car around and headed toward the apartments. When he arrived on the scene, Officer Allen was inside, checking the victim on the floor for signs of life.
    Allen looked up at Pruitt as he entered the room. He shook his head slightly, lowering his eyes to the pale woman on the floor in front of him.
    Pruitt removed the sheet covering the corpse. He looked at Tina Kimbrew’s body carefully, making mental notes: light-colored nightgown, bruising on face, neck, and legs, exposed genitals, panties close to the body on the floor.
    â€œWho put the sheet over the victim?” Pruitt asked.
    â€œI did. But I didn’t touch anything. I didn’t know what to do,” Shelly Kelly said through her tears.
    Pruitt feared that the presence of the victim’s relatives would hamper the investigation. They very well could have contaminated the crime scene. He moved to get Kelly, Amy, and Mrs. Kimbrew out of the apartment as quickly as possible.
    Tina Kimbrew was the fourth woman killed in Wichita Falls in eighteen months.