It has been more than two decades since 34-year-old Kim Langwell disappeared and former Beaumont, Texas, Detective Joe Ball still relives those early days of the investigation over and over again.

Det. Joe Ball: This case, even after I retired … This case has haunted me because I couldn’t find her.

Det. Joe Ball:  I felt like I had failed  (emotional).

Peter Van Sant: And you felt that you failed the family?

Det. Joe Ball: Yes. And her.

The haunting case of Kimberly Langwell

On July 10, 1999, a day after Kim Langwell failed to arrive home, Ball was summoned to a strip mall parking lot in front of an Eckerd Pharmacy.

Tiffani McInnis: My mom’s car is there and nobody’s checked it out. We need to see what’s in the car.

Kim’s daughter, Tiffani McInnis, who was just 15 at the time, and Kim’s sister, Susan Butts, had already arrived at the scene.

Peter Van Sant: When you looked through the window, what did you see in the car?

Tiffani McInnis: No purse, no wallet, no keys.

Susan Butts: Yeah, no, the purse was not in there.

Susan Butts: The car was locked.

Peter Van Sant: No keys inside?

Susan Butts: No nothing. … It just looked like somebody walked away.

Peter Van Sant (in the parking lot): This is where Kim’s vehicle was.

Det. Joe Ball: This is where Kim’s vehicle was parked.

Peter Van Sant: And what did that suggest to you?

Det. Joe Ball: It suggested to me that she either met someone here and left with them or that she had been kidnapped out of this parking lot.

But no one could recall seeing anyone get in or out of Kim’s car.

Esther Randall: I do know that they said to me, maybe she just went off. Maybe she just had started a new life. And left her child? No she didn’t. She didn’t do that.

Esther Randall was like a second mom to Kim, who called her “Mimi.”

Esther Randall: I thought of her as my own. … We adored her. She was easy to love. She was fun.

Tiffani McInnis: She was an amazing mom. She had me at a very young age, but she treated me like I was everything.

It became clear to Ball that Kim would never abandon her only child.

Det. Joe Ball: I was pretty sure that something had happened to her.

“Everybody’s a suspect” 

So, he focused on those who were closest to Kim, starting with Kim’s boyfriend Ken Weatherford. He was the one who discovered her abandoned car in the parking lot the evening she disappeared.

Tiffani McInnis: He seemed like a really nice guy. … He cared about my mom. He cared about me.

Kim and Ken had met at the Mobil Chemical plant where they both worked. They had been dating for just six months. Weeks before Kim disappeared, they took a trip to Cozumel, Mexico.

Esther Randall: She had a great time, and she had a tan and it was fun.

Peter Van Sant: Did you sense they were both in love?

Esther Randall: Yes. … She was like, “I’m happy Mimi.”

However, Ball says he was suspicious of Weatherford, mostly because of what he didn’t do the night Kim disappeared.

Det. Joe Ball: He saw her car in the parking lot, but he did nothing. He didn’t tell anybody. He waited until the next day before he told anybody that he knew where Kim’s car was.

Peter Van Sant: And did you think to yourself, this man may be hiding something from me?

Det. Joe Ball: I suspect everybody. … Everybody’s a suspect. 

And that included co-workers and former bosses like Frank McCormick.

Tiffani McInnis: Frank McCormick was a supervisor out in Mobil and he worked in the same building as my mom.

Tiffani says McCormick, who was married, often came around their house and left Kim presents, like chocolates from Paris.

Esther Randall: He adored her, he talked about her big blue eyes and how sweet she was … And then it went from that to a little darker.

McCormick began sending Kim love letters — dozens of them. He also sent disturbing photo collages. Grainy copies were given to “48 Hours” by investigators.

Esther Randall: Pictures of all kinds of women with Kim’s face on the bodies.

Esther said that Kim was upset about McCormick’s bizarre behavior. But she didn’t report him for fear of retribution.

Esther Randall: Kim was nice to everybody, but I think he just thought because she was so nice to him that she liked him.

Detectives say, despite McCormick’s obsessive behavior, he had an alibi. Around the time Kim disappeared, he told investigators he was at a “grocery store” to “buy some chips” for a poker game. And he had the receipt to prove it.

Det. Joe Ball: We looked at him, we talked to him and we were able to rule him out as a suspect.

But authorities had someone else on their radar: Terry Rose, Kim’s ex-boyfriend. Kim and Terry dated and lived together for about six years. After they broke up, the two stayed in contact.

Tiffani McInnis:  I do know that she kept a … friendly relationship. He would help her do things.

In fact, the night Kim disappeared, Kim had stopped by Terry Rose’s house on the way home from work.

Tiffani McInnis: He was doing something in the house and needed help, hanging some boards, which I thought was strange.

Just two days after Kim’s disappearance, Terry Rose willingly came into the police station and provided a statement. Terry said on the evening she disappeared, Kim arrived “about 5:10 or 5:15 PM” and was at his house “for just a short time” before leaving to meet Tiffani. Terry claimed he had not heard from her since.

Det. Joe Ball:  I felt that Terry was not being completely truthful with us. … It was the tone of the whole interview and how vague he was about details.

Yet Terry Rose was cooperative. He allowed police to search in and around his house.

Det. Joe Ball: We went into every room in that house. It was just a very junky house. There was stuff everywhere. …

Det. Joe Ball: It made it very difficult to conduct a search.

Ball says there were no signs of Kim at the house, and no evidence that any violence had taken place there. But, he had Terry Rose take a polygraph test and he failed.

Det. Joe Ball: At that point, I was pretty focused on Terry.

Det. Joe Ball: I was pretty sure that he was lying, but I didn’t have any evidence to confront him with.

Tiffani McInnis: If not even the authorities can do something to find my mom, who’s gonna help us?

Investigators focus on Terry Rose 

Tiffani McInnis: Once mom was gone for a — for a little while, you know, you … come to realize that hey … she’s not gonna come back.

Tiffani McInnis endured the typical teenage growing pains under the shadow of her mother’s missing person investigation.

Tiffani McInnis: I got to a point of just complete denial. … You just don’t wanna look anymore. … Aunt Susan did a really good job keeping it going … She did searches and stuff like that.

Like investigators, Susan says she became more and more convinced who was responsible.

Susan Butts: It just always ended up right back at Terry.

Esther says Kim had shared her fear of Terry Rose well before her disappearance.

Esther Randall: “I’m afraid he’s gonna kill me. … If I leave, he’s gonna kill me.”

Kim had described Terry’s obsessive and possessive behavior during their six-year relationship, says Esther, which she sometimes witnessed firsthand.

Esther Randall: She came into my house, and my phone would ring the entire time she was there. … When are you coming? Are you still there? Is she still there?

Peter Van Sant: Controlling.

Esther Randall: Controlling. Unbelievably controlling.

Esther says Kim told her that, at times, that need for control boiled over into violence.

Peter Van Sant: And what are some of those things he did to her?

Esther Randall: Strangled her. … He threw her on a bed and strangled her till she couldn’t breathe anymore. And then she woke up and he was gone.

Tiffani believes her mother shielded her from witnessing any abuse but says she did experience Terry Rose’s obsession firsthand after the relationship finally ended.

Tiffani McInnis: He would call the house at all times during the day, night. If mom wasn’t home, he questioned me, you know, “where is she at? Where has she been? … When do you expect her home?” … We had found him lurking outside the house.

But that all stopped abruptly once Kim was gone.

Peter Van Sant: Was Terry concerned about your sister?

Susan Butts: No, not at all.

Peter Van Sant: Did he help look for her?

Susan Butts: No, never.

In 2001, two years after Kim’s disappearance, the FBI assisted by interviewing Terry Rose. He admitted to “one physical confrontation” with Kim where he “slapped her in the face.” And he acknowledged that “he had no alibi” for the crucial hours from “approximately 5:30 p.m.” on the day Kim went missing until he met up with a friend that evening.

Det. Joe Ball: He called his friend David Wiley. … and they shot pool from about 9:30 until probably midnight or a little after. … but after I talked to David Wiley, I was … even more suspicious, because I was pretty sure David Wiley was lying to me, too.

But investigators still lacked any physical evidence of an actual crime. And the case went cold.

Decades passed, until 2023, when the TV program “Cold Justice” chose to investigate the unsolved case. And the Beaumont Police Department appointed detectives to work alongside them.

Det. Heather Wilson: When I got assigned the case … we set … the bar pretty low.

Detective Heather Wilson became the lead investigator working alongside Lieutenant Mitch Sliger and Detective Jesus Tamayo. They began by looking at all the original suspects once again — like Kim’s last boyfriend, Ken Weatherford.

Lt. Mitch Sliger: We had already narrowed down the timeframe … when we believe something happened to Kim.

Weatherford declined an interview with “48 Hours.” He was actually with Tiffani around the time Kim went missing, so investigators ruled him out.

Det. Heather Wilson: And we also looked into … a former boss of Kim’s named Frank McCormick.

That boss who had sent Kim all those disturbing love letters and images.

Det. Heather Wilson: You have to ask yourself, how far was he willing to go to get her attention.

Peter Van Sant: Because obsession can lead to something dangerous.

Det. Heather Wilson: Absolutely.

Frank McCormick declined an interview with “48 Hours” but he did speak to investigators. Detective Wilson confronted him with a stack of those letters.

DETECTIVE WILSON: Those bringing back some memories for you? Been a long time, huh?

FRANK MCCORMICK (looking at the letters): … as I sit here it’s hard for me to believe I wrote this but obviously it’s my handwriting.

Regardless of what he said he remembered, McCormick still had that alibi—documented by the grocery store receipt from around the time Kim disappeared.

Det. Heather Wilson: So, ultimately we felt like, uh, Frank was — was not relevant to this case.

Peter Van Sant: Who became your top suspects in the disappearance of Kim?

Det. Heather Wilson: Our top suspect was Terry Rose. … he’s showing all — all the typical behaviors … of someone who is abusive … He just … couldn’t let go.

But when approached more than two decades later, Terry Rose, now 66 years old, was still adamant he had nothing to do with Kim Langwell’s disappearance.

DETECTIVE WILSON: … What’s your theory on what happened to her, what do you think?

TERRY ROSE: I don’t really know. … Once we broke it off, I figured just leave her alone.

Det. Heather Wilson: So, we’re trying to find his inner circle … So, we wanted to find these people that were close to Terry.

One of those people was David Wiley, who Terry Rose played pool with the night Kim went missing.

Det. Jesus Tamayo: We could feel that David was the weakest link.

Detective Jesus Tamayo showed up at David Wiley’s door in 2023 and interviewed him in his patrol vehicle.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: … knowing Terry like you knew Terry, did he have anything to do with Kimberly’s disappearance?

DAVID WILEY: I don’t think so. Not at all. … And I just don’t think he’s that type of person.

Investigators were convinced Wiley wasn’t telling them everything he knew. So, in April 2024, the D.A. convened a grand jury where Terry Rose and David Wiley would have to testify under oath. Rose stuck to his original story, but Wiley, while also consistent, seemed uneasy.

Lt. Mitch Sliger: He was very nervous. He seemed very uncomfortable.

Det. Heather Wilson: So we decided to call David Wiley and see if he would just be willing to come in and take a polygraph test. … he immediately was like, you’re gonna need to contact my attorney … and ended the phone call. … so we knew at that point that we were onto something.

That hunch was confirmed when Wiley’s attorney called back.

Det. Heather Wilson: He does have information for y’all that’s gonna help you find her.

More than two decades later, a break in the cold case?

In April 2024, more than two decades after Kim Langwell disappeared, David Wiley was ready to talk to investigators.

Det. Heather Wilson: This was huge. This is what we needed.

But only under one condition.

Det. Heather Wilson: His attorney told us … he wants full immunity from any kind of prosecution. I said, “OK we kind of need to know what we’re working with here.”

Detectives wondered if Wiley could have been an accomplice.

Det. Heather Wilson: He said no. … He didn’t. He’s not saying that he killed her, that he just has information of what happened to her. So we’re like we can work with that.

With assurances of an immunity deal, David Wiley met with investigators at his attorney’s office.

ATTORNEY: … our goal is you’re gonna, you’re to — here to tell the truth …

DAVID WILEY: Yeah.

ATTORNEY: OK.

Wiley told detectives that on July 9, 1999 — the day Kim disappeared —he received a call around 6:15 p.m. from his friend and former boss Terry Rose.

DAVID WILEY (in his attorney’s office): … he called me and asked me to pick him up at Walmart … He just said, when you get close to the parking lot, call me … I called … and he was in Kim’s car.

DAVID WILEY: … When I pulled up next to him, he said that he did not like that parking lot and to follow him …

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: … did you ask him why are you in the car?

DETECTIVE WILSON: … And so y’all left Walmart and you followed him to Colonnade?

DAVID WILEY: I went, down … turned into the Colonnade Shopping Center parking lot. He stopped in a spot, got out, and got in my truck and I took him and dropped him off at his house and went back to my little trailer I was living in.

Later that evening, Wiley said he met up with Terry to play pool. The two then had breakfast the next morning. Wiley was foggy on the timing but says Terry—out of the blue—told him a horrific story about what had happened to Kim.

DAVID WILEY (in his attorney’s office): He told me that they, she was at his house, and I guess they argued, and then he shot her.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: … And then after that, did he say what did he do with the body? …

DAVID WILEY: He told me that he put her under the slab in one of the bedrooms.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: One of the bedrooms? … Did he say which one?

DAVID WILEY: No, he did not say which one.

Det. Heather Wilson: We couldn’t quite comprehend she’s under the slab in a bedroom in his house.

Days later, David Wiley was given a polygraph test.

POLYGRAPH EXAMINER: Did Terry tell you he shot Kim?

DAVID WILEY: Yes.

POLYGRAPH EXAMINER: Did Terry tell you where he buried Kim?

DAVID WILEY: Yes.

He passed. But before they could arrest Terry Rose, the District Attorney’s Office insisted they get physical evidence that would back up Wiley’s story.

Det. Heather Wilson: We still had a lot of work to do. … We’re gonna be cracking the slab of this house. We’re gonna be looking under the floor as David described where she was. … It was gonna be a huge operation.

And it would take intricate and secretive planning. Detectives feared that if Terry Rose found out, David Wiley’s life could be in danger. They were also concerned about the safety of Terry’s common law wife, Violet.

Lt. Mitch Sliger: What is his mindset? If this man is really the narcissist psychopath we believe him to be, will Violet’s life be in danger too?

So, they devised a ruse. On June 10, 2024, Terry Rose and Violet were called to the police station to discuss another case. Terry’s father had been a victim of a homicide five years after Kim disappeared. After that conversation, the Langwell investigators stepped in.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: How you doing?

TERRY ROSE: All right.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: Good. Good. I don’t know if you remember me.

TERRY ROSE: You look familiar.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: I was one of the guys that uh, that was working on the Kimberly Langwell case.

TERRY ROSE: Uh-huh.

Det. Heather Wilson: I think he was truly caught off guard that he was called to the police station for one thing and now this is happening. 

As Detectives Tamayo and Wilson served Terry Rose with the search warrant, investigators were at his house ready to begin looking for Kim Langwell.

DETECTIVE WILSON (in interrogation room with Terry Rose): … I want you to understand … what all it entails.

TERRY ROSE: OK.

DETECTIVE WILSON: It’s gonna be a thorough search of the house, possibly under the house. … so if there is information that you wanna tell us, is Kimberly on the property?

TERRY ROSE: No.

DETECTIVE WILSON: Is there any evidence of her murder on the property?

TERRY ROSE: Shouldn’t be. No.

DETECTIVE WILSON: … Did you murder Kim?

TERRY ROSE: No.

DETECTIVE WILSON: So is there any reason why we’re gonna find any kind of blood or evidence or remains or anything like that anywhere on your property sir?

TERRY ROSE: No.

TERRY ROSE: … I don’t know what you want.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: We want the body.

TERRY ROSE: Well I understand that. … I don’t have anything to tell you.

DETECTIVE WILSON: OK. We just wanted to give you that opportunity.

TERRY ROSE (referencing the search warrant he’s holding): Is this mine or?

DETECTIVE WILSON: You can keep that, yes sir.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: That’s your copy.

Det. Heather Wilson: I think at that point … he knew that his world was crashing down, but he couldn’t stop it.

Detectives Wilson and Tamayo then went to speak to Violet.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: … we have the search warrant to look for Kimberly Langwell all through the property.

VIOLET: OK.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: … if there’s anything that we need to know now before we begin, this is the time.

VIOLET: I honestly can tell you, I don’t know anything about where she is, or anything about that.

Det. Heather Wilson: She really wasn’t worried about Terry, I don’t think. I think she really thought that he had nothing to do with this and we weren’t going to find whatever we were looking for.

VIOLET (to detectives): So y’all just do what you have to do. … if I had known this, I would have washed the dishes, and coffee pot … (laughs)

Terry Rose and Violet were free to go, but not to their home. Police put tracking devices on Terry’s vehicles so they could monitor his movements. The next day, an FBI evidence response team assisted Beaumont P.D. investigators at Terry’s house.

Det. Heather Wilson: They brought in their own equipment, ground penetrating radar. … So they started that tedious process of scanning all the rooms.

By day three of the search, they scanned one of the two bedrooms in Terry Rose’s house. But the next morning, the equipment had to be pulled.

Lt. Mitch Sliger: Now there was a little bit of a scramble and a panic of we need to get another GPR out here, ground penetrating radar. But Detective Wilson had a great idea and somebody we could call.

That somebody was Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch — an organization that specializes in finding missing people. 

Tim Miller: You know it doesn’t matter when we get that phone call, we’re, we’re there to help the family, help law enforcement.

Later that afternoon, Miller and his team got to work on the second bedroom.

Tim Miller: Literally within three or four minutes we noticed … that there’s something here. … There’s no wire mesh. This area has been disturbed. … And then I pounded on it just a couple times lightly. … and that area was hollow.

Peter Van Sant: You could hear it?

Tim Miller: I could hear it. And it was like, she has to be here.

Det. Heather Wilson: Almost immediately, we start breaking the tile flooring that was in that bedroom.

Det. Jesus Tamayo: We started with sledgehammers.

Det. Heather Wilson: Sledgehammers. And once we made that initial break in the tile, we realized that he had stacked cinder blocks underneath the flooring. So those cinder blocks just immediately collapsed. And there was a divet.

Det. Jesus Tamayo: A void.

Det. Heather Wilson: Yeah a void. So we knew this is not normal. … we knew we were in the right area.

Then Tamayo made a discovery.

Det. Jesus Tamayo: I found a uh, like a key chain and a pair of sunglasses.

Not long after, they found something else.

Det. Heather Wilson: One of our ID technicians actually found three small, very small bones that we believe were toe bones.

After Kim Langwell’s remains are discovered, Terry Rose is charged with her murder

Det. Jesus Tamayo: Once we found human bones, we knew she was there. … And the decision was made, it’s time to, get an arrest warrant.

On June 13, 2024 – more than two decades after Kim Langwell disappeared —- undercover Beaumont Police officers had their eyes on Terry Rose, tracking his every movement, as they waited for an arrest warrant for murder to be signed by a judge.

Peter Van Sant: And Mitch, you’re being briefed on all this, right?

Lt. Mitch Sliger: Yes. … I’m back at the police station …

Peter Van Sant: Where is Terry?

Lt. Mitch Sliger: Terry is going to a local restaurant here in town to have dinner with his wife … Terry Rose is walking out of the restaurant and I could hear the chatter.

OFFICER RADIO: Alright, I got eyes on him.

Lt. Mitch Sliger: … is that warrant signed? We see him moving. He’s paying his check. He’s walking. And then I say, “warrant signed arrest him.”

OFFICER RADIO: Alright I say move boys. Feet on the ground.” (Officer begins running, Terry goes to his knees in parking lot)

Lt. Mitch Sliger: His demeanor was different, it wasn’t the same Terry I’d seen. … You could see the defeat on his face. I think he knew it was over …

TERRY ROSE: I’m not going anywhere.

OFFICER: Hang on.

TERRY ROSE: Don’t hurt me …

Terry Rose was immediately transported to the police department where Wilson and Tamayo were waiting to question him.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: Have a seat right here …

DETECTIVE WILSON: … We do have an arrest warrant for you for — for the offense of murder.

TERRY ROSE: I understand.

DETECTIVE WILSON: … You don’t want to talk?

TERRY ROSE: Nothing to say. What can I say?

DETECTIVE WILSON: Well, there- there’s probably a lot to say. I mean, are you curious about what — what we have found or why you’re here?

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: You may have some questions for us …

TERRY ROSE: No. You got what you want.

Det. Heather Wilson: His true character is being revealed in that moment.

TERRY ROSE: I won’t be believed anyway. I don’t — I’m not gonna waste my breath.

DETECTIVE WILSON: I mean, I’m interested in what you have to say. I really am. I will — I will hear you out.

TERRY ROSE: Doesn’t matter.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: The family, maybe.

DETECTIVE WILSON: Do you have anything to say to — to Kim’s family?

TERRY ROSE: No.

Detectives then brought Terry Rose’s wife, Violet, along with her brother and sister-in-law, into the interrogation room.

VIOLET: I was gonna ask the obvious question.

VIOLET’S BROTHER: That’s what I was gonna say, I assume we’re here …

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: Yes.

VIOLET: They found Kim.

DETECTIVES WILSON & TAMAYO: Yes.

VIOLET: May I ask where?

DETECTIVE WILSON: Under one of the bedrooms.

VIOLET: (Short of breath) … You mean —

VIOLET’S SISTER-IN-LAW: Oh, Violet.

VIOLET:  — I’ve been sleeping, over her … 

VIOLET’S BROTHER: It’s OK Violet. It’s OK. Violet, Violet, you didn’t know, you trusted him. OK? It’s OK, Violet. It’s OK.

VIOLET: I’ve been sleeping there for 20 years.

VIOLET’S BROTHER: I understand Violet, I understand.

VIOLET: Oh my God. Oh my God.

VIOLET’S BROTHER: You’re gonna get through this. You’re gonna get through this.

VIOLET: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

VIOLET’S SISTER-IN-LAW: You got friends and family that love you Violet, you’re gonna get through this, OK.

VIOLET: OK. OK. I’m sorry.

DETECTIVE WILSON: Don’t be.

DETECTIVE TAMAYO: It’s OK.

DETECTIVE WILSON: Don’t be sorry.

VIOLET: Oh that’s a shock …

Peter Van Sant: Do you believe that Violet knew nothing about the fact that her husband … murdered this woman and buried her under the floor of the house?

Det. Heather Wilson: I believe that she did not know any of that. … I don’t think she ever speculated that he was actually involved.

Violet declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview. Now in custody, Terry Rose headed to jail facing a murder charge.

Tiffani McInnis: … and we watched him walk, down the stairs in handcuffs, you know with police escorting him to the police car and then, you know, stared him down, gave him the looks that he deserved as he you know had to drive right past us to go to prison.

Peter Van Sant: And your eyes were sending a message, right?

Tiffani McInnis: Absolutely.

Peter Van Sant: And that message was?

Tiffani McInnis: We got you. I finally have her back, not the way I want her, but he’s — he’s finally going to pay for what he did.

Back at the Rose property, investigators continued to dig into the early morning hours, to make sure they recovered all of the remains.

Det. Heather Wilson: … So the whole excavation process took about 13 hours. So, we were there through the night … we found her completely skeletonized. She had been wrapped in a blanket. So, luckily — she was all there. We found all of her. … And there was also a very obvious, gunshot wound to the back of her head …

Peter Van Sant: Is there an emotional component for you at this moment?

Det. Heather Wilson: It is. It’s very — it’s kind of hard to describe the room, but it was very quiet and we all knew that this was a grave site, somewhere that she had been buried and imprisoned for years. And, um, it was a great moment knowing that we’re finally getting her out of this house … to bring her home to her family …

Weeks later, the results from DNA testing and dental records verified what everyone already knew: that the remains were in fact, Kim’s.

Luke Nichols: We were very excited about going to trial in this case.

Jefferson County Prosecutor Luke Nichols was also confident.

Luke Nichols: They found a murder victim’s body under a man’s floor. Uh, so as far as proving it, it was a good — great case, strong case.

Nichols was ready to share with jurors his theory of what happened to Kim Langwell the evening she was murdered.

Luke Nichols: Something that Kim said or did brought home to Terry Rose that he lost, that he lost her, that she was moving on with her life. She had a new boyfriend that she was getting serious with. She did not need him anymore. And that set him off.

Luke Nichols: I think once he killed her and made the decision to put her body under his floor … it was just a sick twisted way of maintaining physical control over her body.

But just a week before the trial was to begin, Rose’s defense attorney approached Nichols about a plea deal. Nichols offered a maximum sentence of 40 years without the ability to appeal in exchange for a guilty plea from Terry Rose.

Luke Nichols: With a guilty plea, he’s admitting guilt for the first time since this happened … More importantly, we can’t promise that a jury of 12 people is gonna always get it right.

When presented with the deal, Tiffani and Susan had mixed feelings.

Tiffani McInnis: I wasn’t happy, you know, at first. … what I had to think about is the fact that we have lived and breathed this situation for 25 years. And if I can walk away from this courtroom and I don’t have to come back for any kind of appeals … that’s a good day.

Terry Rose’s attorney agreed to the terms. Now prosecutor Nichols would have to persuade the judge to give Rose the maximum 40-year sentence.

Luke Nichols: We had this horrible story of what he had done to this family … I thought it was important to get all that out there.

Nichols would present crucial evidence at the sentencing hearing, including testimony from his star witness, David Wiley.

Luke Nichols: … what I told him was this is your chance to make it as right as you can at this point. You can’t go back, uh, 25 years and start telling the truth, but you can start now …

A daughter faces her mother’s killer in court 

Tiffani McInnis: (sighs) I’m anxious, I’m nervous to have to look at him … So, a lot of nerves going into that—that moment.

That moment, over a quarter of a century in the making, came in December 2025 when Tiffani McInnis—flanked by supporters—faced her mother’s killer in a courtroom.

Luke Nichols: The terms of the plea deal were he would get anything up to 40 years. … at his age, 40 years is a life sentence. And my goal from the get-go was to make sure he never breathed one more breath … of free air.

Prosecutor Nichols called David Wiley to the stand, who recounted Terry Rose’s confession to him back in 1999.

LUKE NICHOLS (in court): Did he give you any detail as to how that happened or where he shot her?

DAVID WILEY: Uh, the only thing he told me was back of the head.

LUKE NICHOLS: That he shot Kim in the back of the head?

DAVID WILEY: Correct. …

LUKE NICHOLS: Now, the police asked you about this in 1999, didn’t they?

DAVID WILEY: Yes, they did.

LUKE NICHOLS: And did you tell them the truth about what had happened and what Terry had said?

DAVID WILEY: No, I did not.

LUKE NICHOLS: And so you kept your mouth shut?

DAVID WILEY: I did.

LUKE NICHOLS: You kept Terry’s secret?

DAVID WILEY: I did.

Wiley said he now regrets guarding that secret, which caused so much needless heartache and despair.

LUKE NICHOLS (in court): Twenty-five years after it happened, what made you come forward?

DAVID WILEY: I didn’t wanna live with it any longer, tired of it being on my conscience.

LUKE NICHOLS: Is there something you wanna say to Tiffani McInnis and her family?

DAVID WILEY: I wish I’d came forward right when it happened.

Peter Van Sant: What was it like to listen to Wiley on the stand?

Tiffani McInnis: Frustrating. … It’s frustrating that here, we spent all this time trying to figure out what the hell happened and you had an answer right in your back pocket.

LUKE NICHOLS (in court): So, Tiffani, um, I’m sorry, you have to be here.

TIFFANI MCINNIS: Me too.

Tiffani was called to testify.

Tiffani McInnis: And once I’m on the stand, all I can think about is not stare at him because I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk.

She described those agonizing years not knowing where her mother was or what had happened to her.

TIFFANI MCINNIS (in court): My mom is the person that I go to for everything. … so, um, lost, very lost.

Tiffani recalled her devastation on learning her mother’s fate all those years: “I just screamed and pulled over my car.” And then expressed her hope for Terry Rose’s punishment.

TIFFANI MCINNIS: I would like him sentenced to at least 40 years. I think he deserves that.

LUKE NICHOLS: And you and I’ve spoken, there’s not a number that really makes this right, is there?

TIFFANI MCINNIS: No, there never will be.

The judge also heard from Terry Rose himself via a recorded jail call with his son. At one point, Terry Rose callously described his frame of mind when he killed Kim Langwell.

TERRY ROSE (jail phone call): … Uh, you know, I’m not like a — a psychopath, sociopath, crazy ass, you know I’m not none of that. I’m just — I had a bad day, I dealt with it wrong, I f***ed up. And I’m gonna deal with it …

Then, the two coldly discussed what they wished for Tiffani:

TERRY ROSE JR. (jail phone call): … She’s in her 40s, people die in their 40s and 50s all the time.

TERRY ROSE: That’d be sweet. (laughter) Yeah, that’d be sweet. I — I will pee in a cup. Send it to y’all to pour on her grave … (laughter)

Luke Nichols: I will mail you a cup of my piss and you can pour it on her grave. And to say that … about the daughter of a woman you killed … is just horrific.

JUDGE RAQUEL WEST: The fact on that phone call that you said you’re not a psychopath … Who isn’t a psychopath that kills someone that they once cared about and buries them in their house and lives on top of them for 25 years? I would think that’s the definition in Webster’s dictionary of a psychopath.

Now, Judge West handed down her sentence.  

JUDGE RAQUEL WEST: And Tiffani is right, 40 years isn’t enough. There is a part of me that wishes I had not accepted this plea agreement and that we had gone to trial last week, because I do think a jury would’ve given you life or 99 years, I actually do. … I’m going to sentence you to a term of 40 years in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Corrections. (clapping in the courtroom)

And Tiffani got the final word.

TIFFANI MCINNIS (in court, reading impact statement): Milestones that should have been shared with my mom, my 16th birthday, my 18th birthday, my high school graduation … have all been shadowed by her absence.

Tiffani McInnis: It wasn’t until we got to my victim statement that I really stared at him, and I wanted him to hear my words because I meant every single one.

TIFFANI MCINNIS (in court, reading impact statement): You referred to the day you murdered my mother and buried her beneath your bedroom as a bad day? …That bad day cost me everything.

Peter Van Sant: If he’s watching, do you have anything to say to Terry Rose?

Tiffani McInnis: I don’t think I have anything left to say to him. I hope he rots in jail.

Peter Van Sant: When you think about your mom now, what do you think about?

Tiffani McInnis: (cries) Um, I try to remember all the good times with mom more than anything. … the good memories … her humor. … my mom was so strong and she deserves us talking about her –

Susan Butts: Mm-hmm.

Tiffani McInnis: — and keeping her alive in that way. …

Peter Van Sant: How she lived as opposed to how she died?

Tiffani McInnis: Absolutely, yeah. 

---

Produced by Chris Young Ritzen, Hannah Vair and Richard Fetzer. Jenna Jackson is the development producer. Ken Blum, Marlon Disla, Michael Baluzy and Marcus Balsam are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.

In: