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Life has a way of knocking you down, sometimes when you least expect it. Pushing through adversity, worse yet, pushing past the evil that left you hollow and broken takes faith one day at a time.

 

For local resident Dianne Gonsoulin it was God and faith that helped get her through multiple major losses in her life, one of which was the disappearance of her sister Donna Gonsoulin Prudhomme then learning 30 years later that Donna’s remains were found in what has become known as the Texas Killing Fields. 

 

Her family, and others, believe she was the victim of alleged serial killer Clyde Edwin Hedrick. Hedrick has not been charged in connection with Prudhomme’s killing nor with the killings of three other females, all of whose remains were found on land off Calder Road in League City.

 

Hedrick spent eight years of a 20 year sentence in the death of Ellen Beason, 29. Beason disappeared in 1984 after telling her friends she was going swimming with Hedrick. Her remains were found in 1986 under a sofa dumped on the side of a road. He was convicted on the misdemeanor charge of abuse of a corpse – he told authorities she drowned. Her body was exhumed twice, once in 1993 and again in 2012 where court records showed her skull was fractured. 

 

He was released from prison Oct. 4, 2021 on mandatory supervision. Mandatory Supervision is a legislatively mandated release of a prisoner to parole supervision when the combination of actual calendar time and good conduct time equal the sentence, according to information from Texas Board of Prisons and Parole. 

 

Dianne was the baby of the family with Donna being the closest in age to her. Five years separated the two and during her high school years Dianne spent a lot of time at Donna’s place. 

 

“She was fun and loving and caring,” Dianne said while describing her sister. “She was a good old Cajun and she always made sure there was a pot on the stove.”

 

But there were problems along the way. The close knit family that included six children saw the effects of their father’s PTSD and alcoholism. His issues resulted from his time in the military during World War II and the Korean War where the elder Gonsoulin, a master sergeant with two purple hearts and other commendations, was a French interpreter.

 

Donna left, married her high school sweetheart and began having children at a young age. But there was a dark side in which she endured domestic abuse by her husband that lasted years. Donna turned to substance abuse. 

 

Eventually she met someone and moved to Austin with her two sons and had a good life for a couple of years.

 

Unfortunately she relapsed. She brought her two sons to stay with their paternal  grandmother in Louisiana and moved to the Clear Lake area to start a new life.

 

She visited Dianne in October 1989 and two weeks later called Dianne for her birth certificate so she could go to Mexico. She was never seen again, Dianne said.

 

Through the years Dianne had her own trials and tribulations to bear. On the outside she had a successful healthcare career and family life but inside there was unresolved grief. 

 

Dianne began struggling with her own substance use disorder due to generational trauma. 

 

“Yes, I have had some traumatic experiences but I’ve also had a very good life in a lot of ways. My kids knew they were loved and supported and we’ve had a good life,” Dianne said. “I know one thing, I’ve been loved, so loved, by so many of my friends and family.”

 

Time passed without Donna contacting her. 

Clyde Edwin Hedrick

The 2022 Netflix docuseries Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields sheds light on the unsolved murders of four females; one teen and three adults and names Clyde Edwin Hedrick the suspect in interviews with FBI. 

 

Hedrick has maintained his innocence to accusations of his involvement in the deaths of Donna and others.

 

• Laura Miller, 16, last seen Sept. 10, 1984 in League City. Her remains were found Feb. 2, 1986 in a field off Calder Road. Her father Tim Miller founded Texas Equusearch in 2000 providing support to the families of lost and missing individuals. He has been very vocal on his thoughts on Hedrick’s alleged guilt.
• Heidi Fye, 25, last seen in League City Oct. 10, 1983. Her remains were discovered after a dog found her skull on Calder Road on April 4, 1984. 
• Audrey Cook, 30, last  heard from December 1985. Her remains were found the same day as Laura Miller though they were not located together. She was dubbed Jane Doe by police. 
• Donna Prudhomme, 34, last seen July 1991 in Nassau Bay. Her remains were found Sept. 8, 1991. She was dubbed Janet Doe by police.

 

Hedrick, according to the docuseries, lived in the same neighborhood as Miller  and also frequented  the Texas Moon Club in League City where Fye worked. In addition, Beason was last seen at the same club leaving with Hedrick. 

 

When Dianne first saw a photo of Hedrick in his latter years she wondered how her sister could be involved with someone that looked like him in his condition. Through the years Hedrick had cancer of the jaw leaving his once chiseled face permanently misshaped. Then she saw photos of him as a young man with a playful smile and black hat and she understood why her sister was drawn to the man. 

 

Dianne said that most recently she was told by a key witness that Donna was dating Hedrick.

 

The Netflix docuseries portrays Hedrick as a ladies man back in the 1980s and 1990s where he frequented dance halls and caught the eye of a number of women.

 

Identifying the remains

Donna’s and Cook’s remains went unidentified for decades leaving their families and loved ones in a quandary. It was through new DNA technology that the two women were given their identities back.

 

In an attempt to identify Jane Doe and Janet Doe, League City Police Cold Case detectives agreed to allow the FBI to use a company called Parabon Nano Labs.

A “snapshot” of Donna and Cook were made public and even placed on billboards but Dianne did not see the billboards nor had she heard the term The Killing Fields.

 

Dianne had just celebrated her two year anniversary of her sobriety on Jan. 20, 2019 then nine days later she received a phone call from her cousin saying officials had identified Donna. 

 

The results were not released to the public until a national press conference on April 15, 2019.  Days later she would finally meet Tim Miller.

 

She also was able to see the memorial marker for Donna in the Killing Fields. 

 

“For the next little girl”

Tim Miller through Texas Equusearch, recently asked supporters to write to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to request Hedrick not be released from supervision and GPS monitoring. 

 

“Clyde Edwin Hedrick is an alleged serial killer and believed to have raped and murdered Laura Miller, Heide Fye Villareal, Audrey Cook, Donna Prudhomme and countless other girls and women,” according to the Facbeook post, adding Hedrick’s list of convictions as well as stating that the list of crimes he has not been charged with is even longer. 

 

Port Arthur Newsmedia contacted the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and was told Hedrick is on mandatory supervision (parole) until April 3, 2033. His current location was not immediately released by authorities.

 

Dianne, like Miller, wants Hedrick to remain on monitoring and GPS in a halfway house. “He needs to be in a controlled environment,” she said. 

 

She hopes he will eventually be charged in the deaths of Donna as well as Laura Miller, Audrey Cook, and Heidi Fye. She also believes there are more victims, possibly even children.

 

Donna is doing her part to keep the community informed after learning of the push for letters to the parole board to keep Hedrick under supervised monitoring. 

“I do it for multiple reasons but mainly for the next little girl,” she said.