Pasadena’s Cold Case Killings Leave Police Baffled

PASADENA, TX -- Detectives with the Pasadena Police Department are asking for the public's help with several cold cases that in some cases, remained unsolved for more than 35 years.

These are the cases where few leads or wintesses were ever found, and as a result remain unsolved leaaving their families to wonder if justice will ever be done for their family. (Sign up for Patch’s daily newsletter for your neighborhood.)

Here are their stories:

Samarra Kay Cribbs
One of those happened on March 5, 1977, at the Parkside Place Apartments in the 3100 block of Spencer Highway.

Police were called to the location just before 3 a.m., when someone reported a disturbance in the parking lot.

Samarra Kaye Cribbs

When police arrived minutes later, they found the body of 31-year old Samarra Kay Cribbs in the parking lot.

She’d been stabbed once in the back, and was seen before her death with a white man, 20 - 30 years old, about 6’ tall, 170 lbs., large build, dark shoulder length hair, and was wearing a dark leather coat.

Police never found her killer.

Martha Alice Hernandez
On Oct. 27. 1978, Martha Alice Hernandez was shot to death, and was found lying in the driveway of her brother’s home in the 2500 block of McNay Street by family members.

Narciso Hernandez in 1978, is believed
to have been responsible for his wife's murder
and is considered armed and dangerous.

Homicide investigators looking into the case, believed that her husband, Narciso Munoz Hernandez, was responsible and he was charged for her murder, but escaped and has been on the run ever since.

Police consider him armed and dangerous.

Angela Desiree Kelly
On March 28, 1979, the body of Angel Desiree Kelly was discovered lying alongside the curb in the 7800 block of Red Bluff Road by a passing motorist.

Angela Desiree Kelly

Her hands were tied behind her back and investigators determined that someone had strangled her, and left her on the side of the road.

Police conducted numerous interviews, but her killer still has not been found.

Detta Dee Taylor Maris
On July 14, 1990, Detta Dee Taylor Maris, 35, vanished from her Pasadena home in the 6200 block of Georgiana Street.

Taylor, who was a housewife, lived at the home with her husband, Wiley Ray Maris, and their teenaged daughter.

Detta Dee Taylor Maris (left) was last seen July 14, 1990
Her body was found eight months later.

At the time of his wife’s disappearance, Maris was questioned by police but revealed very little to investigators or family members.

Eight months after she disappeared, her badly decomposed body was found in a rice field in Liberty County.

The cause of her death was ruled a homicide.

Anyone with any information on these cases is asked to call the Pasadena Police Department at 713-475-5590.

Image: Robin Schiavone

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