That, too, fit with the theory that the Proctor, Meeks, and Reyes cases were connected.
Then the informant added to the intrigue. Penton, he said, also described murdering a fourth child in Van Zandt County in northeast Texas. The Van Zandt County case didn’t ring a bell with Sweet, but he didn’t doubt that when he got a chance to look it up, he’d find it.
Sunnycalb had not missed yet. The question was whether the informant or Penton was making it all up—that one or the other had somehow learned these details through the media or someone on the outside and was using them for his own ends.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to get much more out of Sunnycalb. An automated voice broke into their conversation noting that the call would be terminated in one minute. Sweet gave Sunnycalb his telephone number at the Garland Police Department and asked him to call the next day. The automated voice noted that there were ten seconds left, and then the line went dead.
Placing the receiver down, Sweet turned to the others. “I’m pretty excited,” he admitted. “He knows details about the case that weren’t released to the public.”
Sweet’s enthusiasm rubbed off on Teft; after all, if Sunnycalb was right about the Reyes case, it boded well for her own. She noted that she had DNA evidence taken from her victim that had just been sent off to a laboratory for comparison to Penton’s DNA. If it came back positive, it could break all of the cases wide open.
In the meantime, her agency was sponsoring a meeting among any Texas law enforcement agencies with unsolved cases of missing or murdered children during the period of time Penton might have been in the area. Sweet said he’d be there.
A month later, on July 6, Sweet and Capt. Jody Lay, who headed the Garland PD Criminal Investigations Department, drove back to Fort Worth for the meeting at the Fort Worth Police Academy. Since that first conversation, Sweet had spoken to Sunnycalb a couple of times to clear up a few items. He’d also looked into Sunnycalb’s background, and what he found out nauseated him.
Teft had told him that Sunnycalb was a sex offender, but she hadn’t told him the details. He’d since learned that the would-be informant had “purchased” an eight-year-old girl from her parents for a case of beer and carton of cigarettes. He then brought her to his mobile home and made her his “wife,” even creating a marriage license on his computer. Sunnycalb was eventually caught and convicted for sexual assault on a minor and did a short stint in prison. When he got out, he located the girl again and moved her back in with him. He was caught and convicted again, and this time the judge sentenced him to twenty years.
Knowing that Sunnycalb was a pedophile made Sweet’s skin crawl. But as he’d learned from dealing with the likes of Michael Giles and a long list of other criminals, he had to put aside his true feelings and pretend to be a friend to gain Sunnycalb’s trust and find out what he needed to know.
Walking into an auditorium at the police academy, Sweet wasn’t sure what to expect. He knew that Teft had sent out a teletype to Texas law enforcement agencies regarding the purpose of the meeting, as well as information about Sunnycalb and a timeline of Penton’s known whereabouts as best as could be determined. But he was surprised at the large turnout of lawmen representing city police departments, county sheriff’s offices, and even the Texas Rangers.
Among those attending was Sgt. Mike Bradshaw of the Mesquite Police Department, an experienced detective and someone Sweet considered a friend. He was representing his agency’s interest in the Christi Meeks case. However, as far as Sweet could tell, no one was present from the Plano Police Department regarding the Christie Proctor abduction and murder. He wondered why but thought that perhaps the investigators there knew something he didn’t.
One by one, the officers present stood
Then the informant added to the intrigue. Penton, he said, also described murdering a fourth child in Van Zandt County in northeast Texas. The Van Zandt County case didn’t ring a bell with Sweet, but he didn’t doubt that when he got a chance to look it up, he’d find it.
Sunnycalb had not missed yet. The question was whether the informant or Penton was making it all up—that one or the other had somehow learned these details through the media or someone on the outside and was using them for his own ends.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to get much more out of Sunnycalb. An automated voice broke into their conversation noting that the call would be terminated in one minute. Sweet gave Sunnycalb his telephone number at the Garland Police Department and asked him to call the next day. The automated voice noted that there were ten seconds left, and then the line went dead.
Placing the receiver down, Sweet turned to the others. “I’m pretty excited,” he admitted. “He knows details about the case that weren’t released to the public.”
Sweet’s enthusiasm rubbed off on Teft; after all, if Sunnycalb was right about the Reyes case, it boded well for her own. She noted that she had DNA evidence taken from her victim that had just been sent off to a laboratory for comparison to Penton’s DNA. If it came back positive, it could break all of the cases wide open.
In the meantime, her agency was sponsoring a meeting among any Texas law enforcement agencies with unsolved cases of missing or murdered children during the period of time Penton might have been in the area. Sweet said he’d be there.
A month later, on July 6, Sweet and Capt. Jody Lay, who headed the Garland PD Criminal Investigations Department, drove back to Fort Worth for the meeting at the Fort Worth Police Academy. Since that first conversation, Sweet had spoken to Sunnycalb a couple of times to clear up a few items. He’d also looked into Sunnycalb’s background, and what he found out nauseated him.
Teft had told him that Sunnycalb was a sex offender, but she hadn’t told him the details. He’d since learned that the would-be informant had “purchased” an eight-year-old girl from her parents for a case of beer and carton of cigarettes. He then brought her to his mobile home and made her his “wife,” even creating a marriage license on his computer. Sunnycalb was eventually caught and convicted for sexual assault on a minor and did a short stint in prison. When he got out, he located the girl again and moved her back in with him. He was caught and convicted again, and this time the judge sentenced him to twenty years.
Knowing that Sunnycalb was a pedophile made Sweet’s skin crawl. But as he’d learned from dealing with the likes of Michael Giles and a long list of other criminals, he had to put aside his true feelings and pretend to be a friend to gain Sunnycalb’s trust and find out what he needed to know.
Walking into an auditorium at the police academy, Sweet wasn’t sure what to expect. He knew that Teft had sent out a teletype to Texas law enforcement agencies regarding the purpose of the meeting, as well as information about Sunnycalb and a timeline of Penton’s known whereabouts as best as could be determined. But he was surprised at the large turnout of lawmen representing city police departments, county sheriff’s offices, and even the Texas Rangers.
Among those attending was Sgt. Mike Bradshaw of the Mesquite Police Department, an experienced detective and someone Sweet considered a friend. He was representing his agency’s interest in the Christi Meeks case. However, as far as Sweet could tell, no one was present from the Plano Police Department regarding the Christie Proctor abduction and murder. He wondered why but thought that perhaps the investigators there knew something he didn’t.
One by one, the officers present stood
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