It had been more than two decades since 34-year-old Kimberly “Kim” Langwell failed to come home on July 9, 1999. Former Beaumont detective Joe Ball said the case haunted him. Kim’s 15-year-old daughter, Tiffani McInnis, discovered her mother’s locked car in a strip mall parking lot the next day with no purse, wallet or keys inside. Investigators considered that Kim either left with someone she knew or had been abducted; no one reported seeing anyone enter or exit the vehicle.
Detectives initially focused on those closest to Kim. Her boyfriend, Ken Weatherford — who had found the car — drew suspicion because he waited until the next day to report it. A former supervisor, Frank McCormick, had sent Kim obsessive letters and disturbing photo collages, but he produced an alibi supported by a grocery receipt. Kim’s ex-boyfriend, Terry Rose, a six-year partner who remained in contact after their breakup, became a central figure. Kim had stopped by Terry’s house the evening she disappeared; he later told police she was there briefly and left to meet Tiffani. Investigators found his initial statements vague and began watching him closely.
Terry voluntarily came in for questioning two days after Kim vanished and later failed a polygraph. Police searched his cluttered home but found no signs of Kim or violence. Without physical evidence, the case grew cold despite the FBI interviewing Terry in 2001, where he admitted one physical confrontation and said he had no alibi during the crucial hours on the night Kim disappeared. Detectives, including Ball, suspected Terry but lacked proof.
In 2023 the television program Cold Justice reopened the investigation, and Beaumont police detectives Heather Wilson, Mitch Sliger and Jesus Tamayo reexamined the case. They revisited past suspects and timelines. Weatherford was ruled out. McCormick was confronted about the letters but still had an alibi. The detectives’ top suspect remained Terry Rose, whose exes and acquaintances described him as controlling and occasionally violent. Family members recalled Kim telling them she feared Terry.
Investigators sought Terry’s circle and turned to David Wiley, a friend who played pool with Terry the night Kim disappeared. Wiley had been interviewed decades earlier but was inconsistent and seemed evasive. In April 2024 a grand jury compelled testimony, and Wiley’s attorney later told detectives he had information that could help them find Kim — but Wiley wanted immunity. With assurances he wouldn’t face prosecution, Wiley met detectives in his attorney’s office and said Terry had confessed to him.
Wiley recounted that on July 9, 1999, Terry called and was in Kim’s car. Wiley picked Terry up at a Walmart parking lot and later dropped him at his house. The next morning, over breakfast, Terry allegedly told Wiley that he and Kim argued, he shot her, and he had put her body “under the slab in one of the bedrooms.” Wiley passed a polygraph confirming he had been told these facts. Detectives still needed physical evidence before seeking charges.
They planned a covert operation. On June 10, 2024, Terry and his common-law wife Violet were summoned to the police station under the pretext of discussing an unrelated case. While serving a search warrant, investigators searched Terry’s house with FBI equipment and began scanning the floors with ground-penetrating radar. After an initial scan, Texas EquuSearch founder Tim Miller and his team were called in. On the second bedroom they quickly detected a hollow area beneath the tile where cinder blocks had been stacked and the flooring had been disturbed.
Detectives broke the tile and collapsed the cinder blocks, revealing a void. In that void they found a key chain, a pair of sunglasses and, shortly thereafter, small human bones believed to be toe bones. The discovery of human remains prompted an arrest warrant. On June 13, 2024, undercover officers watched Terry leave a restaurant and arrested him as the warrant was signed.
At the house, excavation continued through the night. Investigators found Kim’s skeleton wrapped in a blanket and a clear bullet wound to the back of her head. DNA and dental records later confirmed the remains were Kim Langwell. Detectives described the scene as a grave site where she had been buried and hidden for more than 25 years.
Terry Rose was charged with murder. Prosecutors described a motive rooted in possession and control: Kim had moved on with a new boyfriend and was done with Terry, which investigators and the prosecutor said triggered a violent response. Facing strong evidence and the prospect of trial, Rose’s defense entered plea negotiations. Prosecutor Luke Nichols offered a deal: a guilty plea in exchange for a sentence up to a maximum of 40 years with no appeal. Nichols said he believed the evidence — a body found beneath a man’s floor, Wiley’s testimony and forensic confirmation — formed a strong case, though he also acknowledged the uncertainty of juries.
David Wiley testified at the sentencing hearing, admitting he had known details in 1999 and had not told police. He said he came forward decades later because he could no longer live with the secret. In court Wiley recounted Terry’s confession that Kim had been shot in the back of the head. Tiffani, who had lived for 25 years with uncertainty and loss, testified and delivered a victim impact statement describing the milestones missed and the lasting void left by her mother’s absence.
During sentencing, the presiding judge criticized Terry Rose’s attempts to minimize his actions and admonished him after prosecutors played a recorded jail call in which Terry callously discussed his crime and mocked the idea of remorse. The judge remarked that a person who kills someone they once cared for and buries them beneath the floor of their house fits the dictionary definition of a psychopath. Ultimately, Judge Raquel West sentenced Terry Rose to 40 years in the Texas Department of Corrections — the maximum under the plea agreement. Members of Kim’s family expressed mixed feelings about the plea but relief at resolution; Tiffani said she hoped Rose would “rot in jail” and that no sentence would ever make things right.
Family and friends remembered Kim as a devoted and loving mother who had been easy to love, fun and strong. Tiffani said she tries to hold on to memories of how her mother lived rather than how she died. For investigators who had worked the case for years, the discovery brought closure after decades: a missing woman’s remains located, a suspect held to account, and a grieving family finally able to know what happened and begin to grieve with certainty.