It was a night they could never forget: the night of the Valentine’s Day dance. The theme? “Love is a Kaleidoscope.”
Rodney McCoy asked his girlfriend, Carla Walker, to go with him. Things were pretty serious between the two; Rodney had given Carla a promise ring a couple of months earlier.
That February night in 1974, the couple got all dressed up and headed to the high school cafeteria.
They danced the night away. Afterwards, they went for a ride around town. They stopped at the local bowling alley for a quick bathroom break.
And, well, one thing led to another. The teenagers ended up making out in the car in the parking lot.
That’s when the teenage dream evaporated.
Rodney told the police that the passenger door burst open, and standing there was a stranger with a gun.
He said the stranger hit him with the butt of the gun, and then pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t fire.
Rodney said he saw the stranger grab Carla by the arm and pull her out of the car.
He said Carla screamed, “Rodney, go get my dad,” and that’s the last time he saw his girlfriend.
Four days after Carla was taken, a patrol officer spotted something in a culvert on a remote road southwest of town.
It was Carla.
Investigators began documenting everything they possibly could at the crime scene. They were meticulous: recording video at the crime scene, preserving physical evidence, taking every precaution not to contaminate anything.
Technology was developing so quickly, maybe it would help someday. But no one knew at the time just how long it would take to find answers for the Walker family and justice for Carla.
Loved ones remember Carla as feisty, bubbly and fun to be around.
To find out what happened, you can watch our full episode, “After the Dance,” now.
After solving the Carla Walker case, Detectives Leah Wagner and Jeff Bennett of the Fort Worth Police Department started to look at other cold cases in the area. Here is more information about three unsolved homicides the detectives believe could be linked to Carla’s case.
After the trial, detectives returned something special to Carla’s high school boyfriend, Rodney.