Kimberly Langwell’s Hidden Grave

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>> My mom’s car is there and nobody’s checked it out.

We need to see what’s in the car.

>> Kim’s daughter, Tiffany McInness, who was just 15 at the time, and Kim’s sister, Susan Buts, had already arrived at the scene.

When you looked through the window, what did you see in the car? >> I saw her briefcase and a phone.

>> No purse, no wallet, no keys.

>> No.

No.

Yeah.

The purse was not in there.

The car was locked.

>> No keys inside.

>> Mm-m.

Nothing.

It just looked like somebody walked away.

>> This is where Kim’s vehicle was.

>> This is where Kim’s vehicle was parked.

>> And what did that suggest to you? >> 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.

>> I do know that they said to me, “Maybe she’s 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.

>> I thought of her as my own.

We adored her.

She was easy to love.

She was fun.

She was an amazing mom.

She had me at a very young age, but she treated me like I was everything.

>> Hi, Mommy.

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

>> I was pretty sure that something had happened to her.

>> 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.

>> He seemed like a really nice guy.

He cared about my mom.

He cared about me.

>> Kim and Ken had met at the mobile chemical plant where they both worked.

They had been dating for just 6 months.

Weeks before Kim disappeared.

They took a trip to Cosml, Mexico.

>> She had a great time and she had a tan and it was fun.

Did you sense they were both in love? >> Yes.

She was like, “I’m happy, Mimi.

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

>> He saw her car in the parking lot, but he did nothing.

He didn’t tell anybody.

He He waited until the next day before he told anybody that he knew where Kim’s car was.

>> And did you think to yourself, “This man may be hiding something from me?” I suspect everybody.

Everybody’s a suspect.

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

This is an ID photo taken of him decades later.

>> Frank McCormack was uh a supervisor out in Mobile and he worked in the same building as my mom.

>> Tiffany says McCormack, who was married, often came around their house and left Kim presents like chocolates from Paris.

>> He had daughter.

He talked about her big blue eyes and how sweet she was.

And then it went from that to a little darker.

>> McCormack began sending Kim love letters, dozens of them.

He also sent disturbing photo collages.

These are grainy copies that were given to 48 hours by investigators.

>> Pictures of all kinds of women with Kim’s face on the bodies.

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

>> Kim was nice to everybody, but I think he just thought because she was nice to him that she liked him.

>> Detectives say despite McCormack’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.

>> We looked at him, we talked to him and uh and we were able to rule him out as the suspect.

>> But authorities had someone else on their radar, Terry Rose, Kim’s ex-boyfriend.

Kim and Terry dated and lived together for about 6 years.

After they broke up, the two stayed in contact.

>> 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.

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

Just 2 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 Tiffany.

Terry claimed he had not heard from her since.

>> I felt like Terry was not being completely truthful with us.

It was the tone of the whole interview and how vague he was about uh about details.

>> Yet Terry Rose was cooperative.

He allowed police to search in and around his house.

>> We went into every room in that house.

It was just a a very junky house.

There was stuff everywhere.

Made it very difficult to 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 take a polygraph test and he failed.

>> At that point, I was I was pretty focused on Terry.

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

>> If not even the authorities can do something to find my mom, who’s going to help us? Once mom was gone for a little while, you know, you come to realize that, hey, she’s not going to come back.

>> Tiffany McInnness endured the typical teenage growing pains under the shadow of her mother’s missing person investigation.

I got to a point of just complete denial.

You just don’t want to 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.

>> It just always ended up right back at Terry.

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

I’m afraid he’s going to kill me.

If I leave, he’s going to kill me.

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

>> She came to my house, my phone ring the entire time she was there.

When are you coming? Are you still there? Is she still there? >> Controlling.

>> Controlling.

Unbelievably controlling.

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

And what are some of those things he did to her? >> 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.

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

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.

>> Was Terry concerned about your sister? >> No, not at all.

>> Did he help look for her? >> No, never.

In 2001, 2 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 pm on the day Kim went missing until he met up with a friend that evening.

He called uh his friend uh David Wy and they shot pool from about 9:30 until probably midnight or a little after.

But after I talked to David Wy, I was even more suspicious because I was pretty sure David Wy 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 Bowmont PD appointed detectives to work alongside them.

>> When I got signed the case, we set the the bar pretty low.

>> Detective Heather Wilson became the lead investigator, working alongside Lieutenant Mitch Sligger and Detective Jesus Tamayo.

They began by looking at all the original suspects once again, like Kim’s last boyfriend, Ken Weatherford.

>> We had already narrowed down the time frame when we believed something happened to Kim.

>> Weatherford declined an interview with 48 hours.

He was actually with Tiffany around the time Kim went missing.

So, investigators ruled him out.

>> We also looked into a former boss of Kim’s named Frank McCormack.

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

>> You have to ask yourself, how far was he wanting to go to get her attention? >> Cuz obsession can lead to something dangerous.

>> Absolutely.

>> Frank McCormack declined an interview with 48 hours, but he did speak to investigators.

Detective Wilson confronted him with a stack of those letters.

>> Those bringing back some memories for you.

It’s been a long time.

It’s 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, McCormack still had that alibi documented by the grocery store receipt from around the time Kim disappeared.

>> So ultimately, we felt like Frank was not relevant to this case.

>> Who became your top suspects in the disappearance of Kim? >> Our top suspect was Terry Rose.

He’s showing all the typical behaviors of someone who is abusive.

He just couldn’t 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.

>> What’s your theory on what happened to her? What do you think? >> I don’t really know.

Once we broke it off, I figured just leave her alone.

And 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 Wy who Terry Rose played pool with the night Kim went missing.

>> We could feel that David was the weakest link.

>> Mr.

David.

>> Yes, sir.

>> Good morning.

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

>> Knowing Terry like he knew Terry.

Did he have anything to do with Kimberly? >> I don’t think so.

>> Not at all.

And I just don’t think he’s that type of person.

>> Investigators were convinced Wy wasn’t telling them everything he knew.

So, in April of 2024, the DA convened a grand jury where Terry Rose and David Wy would have to testify under oath.

Rose stuck to his original story, but Wy, while also consistent, seemed uneasy.

>> He was very nervous.

He seemed very uncomfortable.

>> So, we decided to call David Wy and see if he would just be willing to come in and take a polygraph test.

He immediately was like, “You’re going to need to contact my attorney.

” And and ended the phone call.

So, we knew at that point that we were on to something.

>> That hunch was confirmed when Wley’s attorney called back.

>> He does have information for y’all that’s going to help you find her.

How are you doing today? Good.

>> How you doing? Doing great.

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

>> This was huge.

This is what we needed.

>> But only under one condition.

>> His attorney told us he wants full immunity from any kind of prosecution.

He said, “Okay, we we kind of need to know what we’re working with here.

” Detectives wondered if WY could have been an accomplice.

>> 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 asurances of an immunity deal, David Wy met with investigators at his attorney’s office.

>> Our goal is you’re going you’re here to tell the truth.

Okay.

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

>> He called me and asked me to pick him up at Walmart.

Just said, “When you get close to the parking lot, call me.

” I called.

He was in Kim’s car.

When I pulled up next to him, he said that he did not like that parking lot and to follow him.

>> Did you ask him why are you in the car? >> No, I did not ask.

>> So, y’all left Walmart and you followed him >> to Colinade, >> turned into the Colonade 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, Wy said he met up with Terry to play pool.

The two then had breakfast the next morning.

Wy was foggy on the timing, but says Terry out of the blue told him a horrific story about what had happened to Kim.

>> He told me that they she was at his house and I guess they argued and then he shot her.

And then after that, did he say what did he do with the body? >> He told me that he put her under the slab in one of the bedrooms.

>> One of the bedrooms.

And did he say which one? >> No, he did not say which one.

>> We couldn’t quite comprehend.

She’s under the slab in a bedroom in his house.

Days later, David Wy was given a polygraph test.

>> Did Terry tell you he shot Kim? >> Yes.

Did Terry tell you where he buried Kim? >> Yes.

>> And passed.

But before they could arrest Terry Rose, the district attorney’s office insisted they get physical evidence that would back up Wigh’s story.

>> We still had a lot of work to do.

We’re going to be cracking the slab of this house.

We’re going to be looking under the floor as David described where she was.

It was going to be a huge operation >> and it would take intricate and secretive planning.

Detectives feared that if Terry Rose found out, David Wley’s life could be in danger.

They were also concerned about the safety of Terry’s common law wife, Violet.

>> 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 10th, 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 5 years after Kim disappeared.

After that conversation, the Langwell investigators stepped in.

>> How you doing? All right.

Good.

Good.

I can’t remember.

>> I’m one of the guys that uh that I was that was working on the Kimberly case.

>> Uhhuh.

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

>> It’s been signed by the judge.

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

I want you to understand what all it entails.

Um, it’s going to be a thorough search of the house, possibly under the house.

So, if there is information that you want to tell us, is Kimberly on the property? Is there any evidence of her murder on the property? >> Shouldn’t be.

>> No.

>> Did you murder Kim? >> No.

So, is there any reason why we’re going to find any kind of blood or evidence or remains or anything like that anywhere on your property, sir? >> No.

>> I don’t know what you want.

>> You want the body? >> Well, I understand this.

I don’t have anything to tell you.

>> Okay.

We just wanted to give you that opportunity.

>> Is this mine or >> That’s your Yes, sir.

>> I think at that point he knew that his world was crashing down, but he couldn’t stop it.

Come, Violet.

>> Hi.

>> Detectives Wilson and Tamayo >> then went to speak to Violet.

>> We have the search warrant to look for Kimberly Manuel all through the property.

>> Okay.

>> If there’s anything that we need to know now before we begin, this is the time.

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

>> She really wasn’t worried about Terry.

I don’t think I think that she really thought that he had nothing to do with this and we weren’t going to find whatever we were looking for.

>> So y’all just do what you have to do.

>> Well, if I had have known this, I would have washed the dishes.

>> Oh gosh.

>> Terry Rose and Violet were free to go, but not to their home.

Police put tracking devices on Tererry’s vehicles so they could monitor his movements.

The next day, an FBI evidence response team assisted Bulmont PD investigators at Terry’s house.

>> 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.

Now, there was a little bit of a scramble and a panic of we need to get another GPR out here, a ground pinch radar.

But Detective Wilson had a great idea and somebody we could call on.

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

>> 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.

>> 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.

>> You could hear it.

>> I could hear it.

And it was like, she has to be here.

>> Almost immediately, we start breaking the tile flooring that was in that bedroom.

We started with a sledgehammer 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 a a divot.

Yeah.

A void.

>> So we knew this is not normal.

We knew we were in the right area.

>> Then Detective Tamayo made a discovery.

I found a uh like a keychain in a pair of sunglasses.

>> Not long after, they found something else.

>> One of our ID technicians actually found three small, very small bones that we believe were toebones.

Once we found human bones, we knew she was there and the decision was made.

It’s time to get an arrest war.

On June 13th, 2024, more than two decades after Kim Langwell disappeared, undercover Bowmont 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.

And Mitch, you’re being briefed on all this, right? >> Yes, I’m back at the police station.

>> And where is Terry? 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.

>> All right, I got eyes on.

>> Is that warrant sign? We see him moving.

He’s paying his check.

He’s walking and then I say warrant sign.

Arrest him.

>> All right.

I say move, boys.

Feet on the ground.

>> Hands.

Hands.

LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS.

>> HANDS UP.

HANDS UP.

>> Back up.

VIOLET, BACK UP.

OVER HERE.

over here.

>> Get down on the ground.

>> Get her.

Get her.

>> 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.

>> Don’t hurt me.

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

See him right here.

We do have an arrest warrant for you for for the offense of murder.

You don’t want to talk.

>> Nothing to say.

What can I say? >> Well, there there’s probably a lot to say.

I mean, are you curious about what what we have >> found or or why you’re here? >> No, you got what you want.

>> His true character is being revealed in that moment.

>> I won’t be believed anyway.

I don’t I’m not going to waste my breath.

I mean, I’m interested in what you have to say.

I really am.

I I will hear you out.

>> The family, maybe.

>> Do you have anything to say to to Kim’s family? >> No.

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

>> I was going to ask the obvious question.

>> I was I was going to say we’re here because >> Yes.

>> You found him.

>> Yes.

May I ask where? >> Uh, >> under one of the bedrooms.

>> Violet sleeping.

>> It’s okay, Violet.

Violet, it’s okay.

Hey, Violet.

Violet again.

You didn’t know it.

You trusted him.

Okay.

>> It’s okay, Violet.

It’s okay.

>> I understand, Violet.

I understand.

>> Oh my god.

>> Oh my god.

>> You’re going to get through this.

You’re going to get through this.

>> Mhm.

You got my >> Okay.

>> I’m sorry.

>> Don’t be Don’t be sorry.

>> Well, that’s a shock.

>> 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? >> I believe that she did not know any of that.

I don’t think she ever speculated that he was actually involved.

Violet declined our request for an interview.

Now in custody, Terry Rose headed to jail facing a murder charge.

>> And we watched him walk down the stairs and 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.

And your eyes were sending a message, right? >> Absolutely.

>> And that message was, >> “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.

” >> Did you do it? >> Did you? >> Back at the Rose property, investigators continued to dig into the early morning hours.

to make sure they recovered all of the remains.

>> 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.

>> Is there an emotional component for you at this moment? >> 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.

come back.

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

We were very excited about going to trial on this case.

>> Jefferson County Prosecutor Luke Nichols was also confident >> they found a murder victim’s body under a man’s floor.

Uh, so as far as proving it, it was a great case, strong case.

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

>> 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.

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.

>> Harry Rose, you’re being charged with the murder of Kimberly Lang.

>> But just a week before the trial was to begin, Rose’s defense attorney approached Nicholls about a plea deal.

Nicholls offered a maximum sentence of 40 years without the ability to appeal in exchange for a guilty plea from Terry Rose.

>> 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 going to always get it right.

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

>> 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.

>> Rose’s attorney agreed to the terms.

Now, prosecutor Nichols would have to persuade the judge to give Terry Rose the maximum 40-year sentence.

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

>> Nicholls would present crucial evidence at the sentencing hearing, including testimony from his star witness, David Wy.

>> 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 25 years and start telling the truth, but you can start now.

” State calls David Wy.

I’m anxious.

I’m nervous to have to look at him.

So, a lot of nerves going in to that that moment.

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

>> All right.

>> 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 is to make sure he never breathed one more breath of free air.

>> Prosecutor Nichols called David Wy to the stand.

>> You swear or affirm the testimony you’re going to give in this hearing will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

>> Yes, I do.

>> Who recounted Terry Rose’s confession to him back in 1999? >> Did you give you any detail as to how that happened or where he shot her? >> Only thing you told me was the back of the head.

>> That he shot Kim in the back of the head.

>> Correct.

Now, the police asked you about this in 1999, didn’t they? >> Yes, they did.

>> And did you tell them the truth about what had happened and what Terry had said? >> No, I did not.

>> And so, you kept your mouth shut, didn’t he? >> I did.

>> You kept Terry’s secret? >> I did.

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

>> 25 years after it happened, what made you come forward? >> I didn’t want to live it any longer.

Tired of it being on my conscience.

Is there something you want to say to Tiffany McGuinness and her family? >> I wish I’d have came forward right when it happened.

>> What was it like to listen to Wy on the stand? >> 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.

>> So, Tiffany, um I’m sorry you have to be here.

Me, too.

>> Tiffany was called to testify.

>> And once I’m on the stand, all I can think about is do 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.

>> My mom is the person that I go to for everything.

So, um, lost, very lost.

>> Tiffany recalled her devastation on learning her mother’s fate all those years later.

I just screamed and pulled over my car >> and then expressed her hope for Terry Rose’s punishment.

>> I would like him sentenced to at least 40 years.

I think he deserves that.

>> And you and I’ve spoken.

There’s not a number that really makes this right, isn’t it? >> No, there never will be.

>> The judge also heard from Terry Rose himself.

This is a prepaid call from >> Terry Road >> via a recorded jail call with his son.

At one point, Terry Rose callously described his frame of mind when he killed Kim Langwell.

>> Uh, you know, I’m not like 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 up and I’m got to deal with it.

Then the two coldly discussed what they wished for Tiffany.

>> She’s in her 40s.

People die in their 40s and 50s all the time.

>> That’d be sweet.

>> I mean, >> yeah, that’d be sweet.

I I will pee in a cup, send it to y’all to pour on her grave.

>> I will mail you a cup of my and you can pour it on her grave.

And to say that about the daughter of a woman you killed is just horrific.

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.

>> And Tiffany’s 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 have given you life for 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.

>> And Tiffany got the final word.

>> 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.

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

You refer to the day you murdered my mother and buried her beneath your bedroom as a bad day.

That bad day cost me everything.

If he’s watching, do you have anything to say to Terry Rose? >> I don’t think I have anything left to say to him.

I hope he rots in jail.

>> When you think about your mom now, what do you think about? >> 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 and keeping her alive in that way.

>> How she lived as opposed to how she died.

>> Absolutely.

Yeah.

Welcome to Postmortem.

I’m your host Ann Marie Green, 48 Hours correspondent.

And today we are discussing the case of Kim Langwell, who went missing on July 9th, 1999 in Texas.

Her daughter, Tiffany McKinnus, was just 15 years old at the time and then spent over two decades wondering what happened to her mother.

And then in 2024, investigators found Kim’s body buried under the floor of her ex-boyfriend’s house, who was still living there all those years later.

So with me now to discuss his report is 48 hours correspondent Peter Vans.

Peter, welcome.

This is quite a case.

>> Yes.

And uh great to be with you again, Anmarie.

I’ve covered a lot of cases in which people have disposed of their victims in, shall I say, unique ways.

burning, sinking, burying, dismembering, and scattering, even leaving them out for animals to consume.

But never have I covered one where a victim is buried under the floorboards in the killer’s house.

It’s just mindboggling when you really put this together.

And as we hear from the judge, what she had to say in this hour, this killer was a real psychopath.

Mhm.

A quick reminder to everyone, if you haven’t actually watched this episode yet, uh, or listened to it, it’s called Kimberly Langwell’s Hidden Grave.

Go check it out and then come on back for this conversation.

All right.

So, when Kim Langwell first disappeared, investigators considered a few possible suspects, including her then boyfriend, Ken Weatherford, and Kim’s former boss, Frank McCormack, who police discovered would send her love letters, leave presents at her home.

And then Frank’s behavior became sort of even more suspicious when they discovered these disturbing photo collages he sent him of women, other women’s bodies, but with her face on it.

Can you just explain more about how Ken and Frank were then eventually ruled out in this investigation? >> I know, and both of them sound like persons of interest.

Often the spouse or the romantic partner, as our viewers well know, is where police first start their investigation.

But Ken Weatherford had a solid alibi.

He was with Kim’s daughter, Tiffany, during the time frame that her mother went missing.

Frank McCormick’s behavior upset Kim, but Frank willingly provided a statement.

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.

So investigators determined he had an alibi at the time and we reached out, by the way, for an interview with Frank McCormack, but he declined.

>> Okay.

So then the original investigators move on and they look into Kim’s ex-boyfriend, Terry Rose.

He admits that he saw her on the evening that she disappeared and hadn’t heard from her after that, obviously.

But investigators found Terry Rose vague.

He failed a polygraph test.

He becomes the prime suspect at this time.

>> Well, Detective Ball was pretty certain that Terry Rose was lying.

And if someone’s lying to an investigator, you know, that sets off the alarm.

>> But he didn’t have any real evidence yet to confront him with.

And people always have to remember they can’t arrest on a feeling.

They need evidence.

>> And Rose did come willingly to the police station and he provided a statement.

Rose said that on the evening she disappeared.

Kim arrived around 5:10 or 5:15 pm and was at his house for just a short time, he said, before leaving to go meet her daughter, Tiffany.

Detective Ball thought he was being cooperative, allowing police to search in and around his house.

Murderers don’t do that, right? They don’t say, “Hey, come on over.

Look around.

Do anything you want.

” So investigators said that there was lots of junk inside that house everywhere, but no evidence of Kim or that any violence had occurred inside that house.

>> And what a little bit more on Rose, he is perplexing because he didn’t have a criminal record and still to this day has never had any other criminal record through the years.

This is his one and only.

But here’s the thing.

Like Kim’s family and her friends, they, you know, were suspicious of him.

Kim’s friend Esther said that Rose was violent, that he was controlling, that Kim even told Esther that she was afraid that if she tried to leave, he would kill her.

What was Rose’s behavior like after Kim disappeared? >> Well, Tiffany witnessed um Tererry’s obsessive behavior after the relationship ended.

He would call the house at all times of the day and night.

He would lurk around outside and he questioned Tiffany on Kim’s whereabouts.

I mean, this was really creepy.

And all of that stopped when Kim went missing.

Isn’t that interesting? And according to Kim’s sister, Susan, he put up those billboards around town, you know, asking for help in finding her.

But the family felt it wasn’t in a genuine effort to to find her.

Perhaps it was just performative, a manipulation perhaps to show police that he was concerned to find her.

>> Um, you know, Tiffany is just 15.

I have a daughter in that age range.

This is the time when you are be growing into from a child really to a young woman.

There’s no good time obviously to lose your mother, but 15 is particularly crucial.

these billboards.

It must have been kind of torturous emotionally for Tiffany.

>> That’s the word.

It was torturous for her to go out and there out in the public a giant billboard with your mother’s picture on it.

>> It was traumatic.

And how she made it through all of that to this wonderful woman that we know today is um is a such an accomplishment.

She she went through hell.

>> So, you know, Rose is out there putting up these billboards.

Did he actually reach out to Tiffany? I don’t I don’t know.

Did he try to console her? >> Not at all.

And in fact, she told us about a disturbing interaction she had with Rose at a Jack in the Box restaurant um a few years after her mother’s disappearance.

Let’s listen to uh a conversation we had about that.

At 18 years old, I remember walking into a Jack in the Box to get some food and I have somebody standing behind me and I go to turn around and Terry Rose is in my face.

He’s standing right in front of me and it just shocked me.

I I thought, “Oh my god.

” And he looks directly at me and he says, “You remember me?” And I said, “Do I remember you?” “Yeah, yeah, I remember you.

And he said, “Have you seen your mom lately?” >> Uh, no.

>> And my mouth just dropped open.

I was so scared and I wanted to be strong.

And I just remember looking at him and I said, “Yeah, I see her in my dreams.

” It was so odd to ask me if I remembered him just three years after I lost my mom.

and I’d lived in this man’s house for five years.

>> Tiffany said she felt like he was taunting her >> knowing the entire time >> that he had her mother’s remains.

>> So awful.

Um, so here we are with this case though.

Back then there’s no physical evidence.

So the case goes cold and it’s decades later when Bowmont police decide that they want to reinvestigate.

But I wonder why.

Why did they think that this was a case worth taking a second look at? >> The TV program Cold Justice reached out to the department asking about unsolved cases that that they might feature on their show.

And then Bumont PD suggested Kim’s case.

Cole Justice chose to investigate and the Bowont PD appointed detectives to work alongside them and reinter old suspects and that was key.

So then we have a new team led by new detective, Detective Heather Wilson.

They have fresh eyes.

They take a closer look at Terry Rose.

It’s 2023 now.

He is 66 years old.

His health isn’t the best.

What story does he tell police all these years later about what happened? >> Just kind of rewinding the tape.

Police approached him in 2023 and Rose was still adamant he had nothing to do with Kim’s disappearance.

Investigators did interview him again in 2024.

Our team watched that interview and investigators asked Rose direct comments about Kim.

Yet, he had a way of constantly changing the conversation.

Uh Rose was obsessed.

Remember, he’s an old guy now.

He’s obsessed with his cats.

He was asking cops to go feed his cats.

He knew they were going to visit his house with a search warrant.

Uh but what was he concerned about? His kitty cats.

And also, you know, by this point, he doesn’t look like a murderer.

He looks like a grandpa.

>> In 2001, when the FBI assisted the police in interviewing Terry Rose, he acknowledged that he didn’t have an alibi for the crucial hours around 5:30.

And that’s when investigators believe Kim went missing.

But Rose did tell them that he met up with a friend, David Wy.

They shot pool in that that evening from around 9:30 pm to midnight.

At the time, David cooperated his story, but after all these years, did investigators believe that they could get perhaps more information out of David, more than they could get out of Terry? >> Well, investigators felt that David Wy was the weakest link in that original investigation.

So, they decided to really put some pressure on him.

>> Prosecutors convened a grand jury.

You if you lie, it’s perjury.

They both stuck to their stories.

But investigators kept pressing Wy and after striking an immunity deal with him.

>> He spilled the beans and he agreed to take a polygraph test and he made this confession.

He said Rose told him that Kim was at his house.

They got into an argument and then he shot her.

According to Wy, Rose told him that he quote put her under the slab in one of the bedrooms.

So, this is a huge break in the case, right? Investigators want to arrest Harry Rose, but they can’t, not yet.

Because the DA insist that they have to get physical evidence to back up David Wley’s story.

Detectives are worried that if Rose finds out about this, that David Wy and Rose’s common law wife, Violet, could be in danger.

So, they set up this really interesting ruse.

On June 10th, 2024, they called Terry Rose and Violet to the police station under the pretense that they want to discuss his father’s homicide, which had occurred 5 years after Kim’s disappearance.

Once they’re there, investigators serve Rose with a warrant.

Can you talk a little bit about this bait and switch and how it worked? >> Ah, very clever move.

The ever obsessive Terry Rose was no longer in control and investigators were at his house.

while Rose talked with cops back at the station.

It was brilliant.

>> I’m I’m curious about the technology that they use to search for the body.

You don’t really hear about ground penetrating radar very often, >> right? But these radars work like a submarine sonar.

It sends down waves that bounce back and it reveals images.

And the FBI was there first with their experts.

Investigators knew the body was under a bedroom based on what David Wy had told them.

So, the FBI focused on one of the two bedrooms there, but after 3 days of searching, uh, the equipment had to be pulled out and they hadn’t yet found anything significant.

>> That’s where this case takes a fascinating turn because that’s where a man named Tim Miller comes in.

After his own daughter was abducted and murdered, he formed a nonprofit called Texas Equisarch.

>> He has since found so many missing people through his company.

>> Wow.

He’s it’s a true labor of love what he does honoring his his daughter Laura’s memory and Miller believes his daughter just as a quick aside was killed by a man named Clyde Edwin Hedrickk the longtime suspect in the Texas killing fields case and 48 hours covered this case and in 1984 16-year-old Laura Miller was found in the same field not far from where another victim had been found.

Hedrickk wasn’t charged or sentenced in connection to her death and recently died in March 2026.

>> Uh it’s a shame that someone who’s doing so so much good work for other families can never really get the closure that you know he was seeking.

All right, so let’s get back to Terry Rose’s house.

So where does the investigation go from there? >> Well, so Tim Miller looked in the other bedroom that had not yet been checked.

Uh, and that’s where his team found the location of Kim’s body in a matter of minutes.

>> And it’s not in the show, but I interviewed the ground penetrating radar operator who showed me how it worked.

He put the machine down.

It senses a disturbance, what they call, in the space under the floor, and then Tim knocks and and and hears it.

It has a hollow sound.

So Kim’s body was found completely skeletonized and wrapped in a blanket with a gunshot wound to the back of her head.

Welcome back.

On June 13th, 2024, this is more than two decades after Kim Langwell went missing, Terry Rose was arrested for her murder.

And detectives also brought Terry’s wife, Violet, into the interrogation room.

Her reaction to finding out where Kim’s body had been found was one of the most intense parts of this episode.

>> Absolutely.

It was like uh an electrical current ran through her when she found out.

It was very powerful, even devastating.

And Violet was working for Terry Rose around the time that Kim disappeared way back then.

And she knew Kim.

We reached out uh to Violet for an interview, but she declined.

I mean, this was such a traumatic incident for her, but authorities came away feeling very comfortable that she had nothing to do with this and no knowledge of it.

>> I mean, it’s it’s more than shocking.

Um, it it’s sickening to think that, you know, they are living in this house and this body has been decomposing for decades just below their feet.

>> Yeah.

Just try to imagine that.

He had two kids with his first wife and it was the kid’s bedroom.

So, his children were walking around and he knew right below their feet was this corpse.

>> GH, >> it’s so eerie.

So, next thing up is the trial.

But then just a week before the trial is set to begin, Rose’s defense attorney approached prosecutor Luke Nichols about a plea deal.

So, Nicholls offered a maximum sentence of 40 years without the ability to appeal in exchange for a guilty plea from Rose.

I mean, it’s been decades now.

This reckoning has been coming for a long time.

I wonder how Tiffany felt about not going to trial.

>> Well, initially Tiffany wasn’t happy about the deal.

She wanted to go to trial because if convicted, Rose would have faced the possibility of life in prison.

But then she realized that with the uncertainty of what a jury might decide, it was best to take the deal.

And Tiffany understands that since Rose was going to be going into prison at age 68, a 40-year sentence would put him over 100, which is why this, in her mind, is a life sentence.

>> Was anyone there to support Terry Rose at the sentencing? >> Investigators believe that he had absolutely no supporters.

>> Violet and his kids were not in the courtroom.

David Wy.

He entered the courtroom quickly.

He testified and then he quickly left.

He looked very nervous and paranoid in the hallway outside of the court.

>> He declined our request for an interview.

But on the stand, he said that he had come forward because he didn’t want this on his conscience anymore.

Easy to say now.

I mean, if only he’d come forward a couple decades earlier, right? >> Yes.

And then prosecutors played a pretty damning recorded jail call between Terry Rose and his son who is also named Terry.

>> Right.

Rose said um he wasn’t a psychopath.

He just had a bad day and he dealt with it wrong.

That’s the way he said it.

His son joked about Tiffany dying.

And Terry Rose says he would pee in a cup and send it to his son to pour on Tiffany’s grave.

That tape is being played in court.

Tiffany is hearing this.

This is >> one last final dig.

And the judge uh heard this tape and boy did she have something to say.

Let’s take a listen.

>> There’s just certain things that I can’t even look past to not point out.

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.

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