This story initially aired on Might 11, 2024.
Nicki Myers-Bates misplaced her mom almost twenty years in the past, when she was simply 7 years previous, however she says no period of time will heal this wound.
Nicki Bates: You at all times hear that point heals. It’ll get higher. It’ll get simpler. That isn’t true. … I believe it’s tougher as an grownup with out a mother than it was … as a child. … You have got graduations that she misses. … She missed my wedding ceremony. She has eight grandchildren that she’s going to by no means meet.
Now a mom of three herself, Bates remains to be trying to find her mom and combating to convey the person who killed her to justice.
Peter Van Sant: Ryan, even whenever you speak about her right this moment, you get emotional about it. Why is that?
Ryan Myers: I nonetheless love h — (cries).
Peter Van Sant: You continue to love her.
Ryan Myers: (shakes his head sure)
Ryan Myers says he and Tammy have been simply youngsters once they first fell in love; he was 20 when he requested her to marry him.
Ryan Myers: The primary 12 months we have been collectively, we had a child … after which … following 12 months had one other child. … Just a few later years later we had Nicki.
Bates says there wasn’t a lot cash to go round, however there was at all times greater than sufficient love. Particularly between mom and daughter.
Tammy Myers together with her daughter Nicki.
Nicki Bates
Nicki Bates: She was very loving … she was made to be a lady mother, though she had two — two boys … she was very girly, vigorous, enjoyable, energetic.
Ryan Myers labored lengthy hours as a window installer so Tammy Myers might be a fulltime mother. Then, destiny dealt the household a devastating blow.
Nicki Bates: My dad was working … on high of a three-story constructing. He received electrocuted and fell off and hit the concrete.
Ryan Myers: I fell three flooring, broke my again and legs. And, uh, sadly, the corporate I labored for didn’t have insurance coverage.
Peter Van Sant: How did you pay for all this?
Ryan Myers: Nicely, I imply, primarily, Tammy needed to work and — and attempt to pay a few of the payments whereas I used to be down.
Nicki Bates: And he or she had no expertise. So, she did what she thought was best and have become a — stripper? Am I allowed to say that?
Peter Van Sant: Positive you possibly can say that.
Nicki Bates: She turned … a feminine dancer.
Peter Van Sant: How did your dad take all of this?
Nicki Bates: Um, I don’t suppose he cherished it. I believe he wished her to seek out one other job, however … she was like, it’s high quality, nothing’s occurring right here. I’m simply getting the cash.
And so it was, till Tammy Myers met an enormous spender named William Greer.
Nicki Bates: He was — so far as I do know, an everyday on the membership. … he … threw some huge cash round …
Peter Van Sant: The place’d he get his cash?
Nicki Bates: He owned a merchandising machine firm. … So, her and my dad break up up and he or she will get with him.
Someday in 2006, Tammy Myers moved about an hour away, to a home in Spring, Texas, with Greer and two sons from his first marriage. Bates and her brothers would spend the weekends there.
Peter Van Sant: Was he sort to you?
Nicki Bates: So far as I bear in mind, sure. Uh, at all times giving us cash, attempting to take us on journeys.
Peter Van Sant: Did your mother cease working as a stripper?
Nicki Bates: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Did you sense … that William Greer was good on your mom?
Nicki Bates: Once I first met him, sure.
“When they were together, he was very abusive,” Nicki Bates mentioned of William Greer’s relationship together with her mom, Tammy Myers (pictured).
Nicki Bates
However issues would flip ugly over time, says Bates. Not lengthy earlier than her mom went lacking, Bates says there have been clear indicators of bodily abuse, which Tammy Myers documented in images.
Nicki Bates: She stole his truck and got here all the best way to Cleveland (Texas) from Spring, and he or she may barely get out of the automotive, and he or she was bleeding, she was bruised.
Bates says her mother tried to cowl it up.
Nicki Bates: She informed us that it was a mud bike accident, however she had informed my stepmother that he had hit her with numchucks (sic).
Peter Van Sant: What’s numchuck?
Nicki Bates: You see karate, the um, the wood belongings you swing round.
Peter Van Sant: He hit her with that?
Nicki Bates: Sure.
Bates says Greer got here searching for his truck — and her mom.
Nicki Bates: My dad was like you want to get off my property. And he was arguing, saying, effectively, she stole my truck and my dad’s like, I don’t care. That you must get off my property.
Nicki Bates: You understand, my dad at all times says … I want I might’ve simply shot him as a result of your mother would nonetheless be right here.
Bates says she has since realized that her mom had been warned about Greer’s propensity for violence by somebody who knew him effectively: his ex-wife.
Nicki Bates: She would inform my mother that, you already know, you want to go away him, he’s harmful.
Sadly, it looks as if Tammy Myers could have been interested by doing simply that however ran out of time.
Peter Van Sant: And is it true that the 2 of you have been … speaking about getting again collectively earlier than she disappeared?
Ryan Myers: Sure, sir.
TAMMY MYERS DISAPPEARS
Then, as Christmas 2006 approached, Tammy Myers mysteriously vanished.
Ryan Myers: I had a missed name from her. And I attempted to name her again and I didn’t get a response.
Nicki Bates: I bear in mind crying quite a bit. Um, simply being devastated, not just for me, however seeing my dad the best way — that method was simply devastating.
And that’s when this case took the primary of many weird turns. Simply eight days earlier than Tammy Myers was reported lacking, Greer was arrested for public intoxication.
Greer was recorded on dashcam video confessing to 2 sheriff’s deputies that he had shot Tammy Myers.
WILLIAM GREER (dashcam video): The gun simply went off… Oh my God, it’s the worst factor I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die.
Peter Van Sant: Have been you conscious that William Greer had been arrested by sheriff’s deputies at the moment?
Ryan Myers: No, sir.
And within the subsequent unusual twist, Greer was launched.
Ryan Myers: I’m nonetheless … misplaced to why when someone sits there and admitted to one thing, why you’ll simply flip them unfastened so simply?
WILLIAM GREER’S DASHCAM CONFESSION
Again in 2006, Paul Lasco was a deputy for the Liberty County Sheriff’s Workplace. Within the early morning hours of December 22, Lasco and his companion received a name about suspicious exercise, on a street in Cleveland, Texas.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: There was a car, a truck within the ditch right here. And there was no person round it. The truck was operating. The lights have been on. Door was open.
The entire thing was captured on dashcam video. Lasco says that on the time, there was a fenced-in discipline bordered by a big, wooded space.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: My companion went down … the driveway right here … subsequent to the driveway was like a brush pile that was pulled up.
That’s the place Lasco’s companion discovered the lacking driver — a extremely intoxicated, William Greer.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: It appeared that he had been utilizing some type of … medication.
DET. KLOPTON (dashcam video): That’s what he acts like, he acts like he’s on meth.
He was additionally half bare.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: He had a — a button-up shirt on and no pants. … No underwear. He was bare from the waist down.
Peter Van Sant: Now you’ve seen numerous issues, how unusual was this?
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: This was fairly unusual.
DET. CLOPTON (dashcam video): The place do you suppose your sneakers, or your boots are at?
WILLIAM GREER: All them issues … Obtained too muddy and slowed down. Trigger it’s a swamp on the market.
Greer’s clothes was by no means recovered, however far more alarming than his bodily state was what Greer freely mentioned to 2 detectives.
WILLIAM GREER (dashcam video): It was an accident and I like her with all my coronary heart …
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: He mentioned that he by chance shot … Tammy … uh within the chest. And that he, he watched her die.
William Greer throughout his dashcam confession. “The gun just went off … I couldn’t believe what happened … Oh, my God, it’s the worst thing I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die,” he informed investigators of taking pictures Tammy Myers within the chest.
Liberty County Sheriff’s Workplace
WILLIAM GREER (dashcam video): The gun simply went off … I couldn’t imagine what occurred … Oh, my God, it’s the worst factor I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die.
Greer informed them the taking pictures had taken place at his residence in Spring, about 40 miles southwest of Cleveland — a distinct county with a distinct sheriff. Again then, Sid Miller was a murder detective within the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace. He would later be taught that Harris County had been contacted by a Liberty County dispatcher— and requested to ship two deputies to Greer’s residence for a welfare verify.
Det. Sid Miller: They peered by way of the home windows, regarded inside the home. … they usually didn’t see something that was out of the peculiar, of their opinion.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: Our dispatch notified us that Harris County went on the market and every part regarded high quality.
Lasco says they tried to query Greer some extra, however by then he had sobered up, and stopped speaking.
SHERIFF’S DEPUTY (dashcam video): You confessed to killing her.
WILLIAM GREER: Oh no … I don’t do not forget that companion …
With out possible trigger to imagine {that a} homicide had occurred, all Greer might be charged with was public intoxication. So, Lasco and his companion took him to the Liberty County Jail, the place he was booked, launched on bond the following day — and disappeared.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: It’s irritating as a result of we had him. … And … now he’s — he’s gone.
Bates says nobody realized simply how “gone” Greer was, till days later when Greer’s sons from his first marriage returned from Christmas trip with their mom.
Nicki Bates: And when their mother goes to drop them off, they begin freaking out. We don’t wish to go residence.
The boys had been with their mom for the reason that day Tammy Myers disappeared. Now, 11 days later, they have been telling their mom that the morning she picked them up, they heard their father shoot Tammy Myers. Their mom took the boys straight all the way down to the sheriff’s workplace, for an interview. That’s when Detective Miller received concerned.
Det. Sid Miller: They indicated that someday the morning of December the nineteenth, between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., they heard Greer and Tammy arguing … considered one of them described, uh, listening to what gave the impression of Tammy operating down the hallway and being thrown in opposition to the wall. He additionally described listening to a gunshot and he heard William Greer make the remark about, “Are you dead? Are you still alive?”
Nicki Bates: At this level, they receive a search warrant, they usually go into his home.
When Miller arrived on the home, he found Greer’s brother-in-law.
Det. Sid Miller: He was truly there cleansing out the home.
He informed the detectives he didn’t know the home was against the law scene.
Peter Van Sant: And what was he cleansing up?
Det. Sid Miller: He was taking, uh, property out of the home. Uh, we realized that he had taken some weapons out of there, on the course of Mister Greer.
Nonetheless, says Miller, the home was clearly against the law scene.
Det. Sid Miller: I observed that there was like blood smear, uh, on a few of the partitions. … I walked into the bed room, you already know, you had a mattress … soaked blood on the facet of the mattress. There have been bullet holes … within the bed room.
Peter Van Sant: And so what William Greer had truly informed these Liberty County deputies turned out to be true?
Det. Sid Miller: It turned — sure.
Yet one more factor you need to find out about that night time. Deputies discovered Tammy Myers’ cellphone on the entrance seat of Greer’s truck. They used it to name Tammy’s mom, who Bates says informed deputies that Greer had been bodily abusing her daughter.
Nicki Bates: The … older I get … the extra indignant I get. They — they actually failed, not solely her, however simply everybody on this state of affairs.
Bates says it nonetheless infuriates her that on the night time Greer confessed, a search warrant would have made all of the distinction.
Peter Van Sant: Why didn’t they search a search warrant to get into the home that night?
Det. Sid Miller: I believe at that individual time, primarily based on what Greer had informed Liberty County, um, due to his intoxicated state, they — they couldn’t confirm, substantiate whether or not that was credible info.
Miller says that night time there simply wasn’t sufficient possible trigger for a search warrant. And even after looking out Greer’s residence, they nonetheless couldn’t discover Tammy Myers.
Det. Sid Miller: We truly did a, uh, search of the home … and we had the cadaver canine … do a search of the property, and we didn’t discover something.
Miller says in addition they searched the woods the place Greer had been arrested. Nonetheless, even with out Tammy Myers’ physique, the Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace felt that they had sufficient to cost Greer with first-degree homicide. On March 16, 2007, almost three months after Greer’s drunken confession, a grand jury voted to indict him. There was only one downside, says former Deputy US Marshal Leslie Ramin.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: He was within the wind. … By the point they found out a homicide had occurred, William Greer was gone.
“OPERATION CATCH A TOE”
Nicki Bates was simply 9 years previous when she and her brothers shared recollections of their mom with the tv present, “America’s Most Wanted.”
NICKI MYERS (studying a poem on “America’s Most Wanted”): Our beloved Tammy, a daughter taken, lives shaken …
Bates hoped that viewers may acknowledge the person who had allegedly killed her mom after which disappeared: William Greer.
Peter Van Sant: Did it provide you with some hope?
Nicki Bates: It did.
Det. Sid Miller: As soon as we received him on “America’s Most Wanted,” we began getting suggestions.
Miller says that after the primary point out of Greer on the present, he and his companion have been lastly starting to be taught in regards to the fugitive’s first few days on the run.
Det. Sid Miller: The day after Greer … received out of jail … he went to his sister’s home … and principally mentioned that he had carried out one thing dangerous. … and he wished to alter his life and he was leaving city. So, the sister had given him some cash for that function.
From there, Greer had gone to Savannah, Georgia, to see his half-brother, Daniel Dobson. So, Miller and his companion did the identical.
Dobson’s interview with detectives was recorded:
DANIEL DOBSON (interview with detectives): He simply mentioned that he hit her with the gun, and it went off … He mentioned she died in his arms, and … he freaked out, went out and buried her.
Det. Sid Miller: And buried her to the place no person would discover her.
Peter Van Sant: That’s the phrase he used, the place no person would discover —
Det. Sid Miller: — the place no person would discover her.
DANIEL DOBSON (interview with detectives): When he lastly admitted what he did, I did every part I may to get him off this property that day.
Det. Sid Miller: He had taken Greer to … a truck cease … and simply dropped him off there, and he hadn’t seen him since.
William Joseph Greer
Nicki Bates
In July 2007, Greer had been on the run for six months, when he received a job as a prepare dinner at a deli in New Orleans, working alongside John Morales.
John Morales: He informed me that his title was Billy. … after I tried to ask him what his final title was, he wouldn’t inform me what his final title was.
Morales says he and the person he knew as Billy received alongside so effectively they determined to room collectively. And Billy started to open up about his previous.
John Morales: Billy informed me that he had children. He informed me that he, that he had an ex-wife … and that his ex-wife wasn’t permitting him to see the children and that, and that’s why he was touring.
Morales says it wasn’t lengthy earlier than his new roommate started to drink closely and have become progressively stranger.
John Morales: He would begin crying and say that he didn’t wish to wind up in hell.
Much more disturbing says Morales, have been Greer’s plans for the longer term.
John Morales: He, uh, would say that he wished to dwell off grid … that he wished to um discover one other spouse, you already know, sooner or later and, and have extra children. … after which he would take the downward spiral once more… say if I ever discover out she’s dishonest on me, I’ll kill her.
Then, says Morales, Greer started utilizing medication. The lads parted methods and Morales moved to Florida. Weeks later, a buddy from the deli referred to as to say that the person they knew as “Billy” had simply been featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” Morales was considered one of 5 tipsters who referred to as police. However by the point detectives arrived to research, Greer was gone.
Left behind was his signature cowboy hat — a potential taunt aimed toward his pursuers. It could take two extra months earlier than there was one other credible tip. This time from Georgetown, Kentucky, the place Greer had discovered God.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne: He simply got here into the service one Sunday morning.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne of the Victory Tabernacle Church says she knew Greer as “Billy Leslie.” He mentioned he was new to the realm and was searching for handyman work. He supplied to assist across the church.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne: He appeared very good, very personable. He received proper in with completely different ones within the congregation, participated.
“Billy” even requested to be baptized. However when he realized that his {photograph} can be taken for posterity, Pastor Connie says he almost backed out. However Greer modified his thoughts and allowed a photograph to be taken of his baptism on Aug. 26, 2007.
William Greer aka “Billy Leslie” was photographed throughout his baptism in Georgetown, Kentucky, on Aug. 26, 2007.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne, Victory Tabernacle Church
One month later, a member of the congregation would see the now baptized “Billy” on “America’s Most Wanted.”
Peter Van Sant: And if I could quote one little passage from the Bible to you as a Pastor, “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne: Sure, he does and … It was humorous after I came upon he was wished, ’trigger he was dwelling proper throughout the road from the police station.
Hiding in plain sight. However by the point investigators arrived, Greer had taken off once more.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: This man actually thought that he may victimize not solely Tammy, however everyone else that he encountered whereas he was on the run, and sort of simply thumbing his nostril in our face.
Greater than three years had passed by with no credible leads, when Cameron Welch – a deputy Marshal with the Southern District of Texas U.S. Marshals Service — joined the case. Welch adopted up previous leads, hoping for brand spanking new info, dug deeper into Greer’s previous, and located one more ex-wife, who informed detectives that Greer had abused her as effectively.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: He was in a position to, um, persuade these girls … that he was only a nice man … and he would use them for every part that — that he wanted, after which he would transfer on to the following one.
Welch spent two years chasing down new leads, however Greer was nowhere to be discovered.
Peter Van Sant: So the place do you go from there?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: Again to sq. one. Simply retaining the stress.
In 2012, Welch was assigned to a different case. Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin took over the now 5-year-long hunt for Greer — and named it “Operation Catch a Toe.”
Peter Van Sant: And why’d you title it that?
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: William Greer was lacking a toe.
Peter Van Sant: And the way’d he lose that?
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: I believe it was a bicycling accident when he was youthful.
Peter Van Sant ( a photograph of Greer’s foot): That is the — that is the well-known lacking toe.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: It’s the well-known lacking toe.
Peter Van Sant: Wow.
The Marshals believed that distinctive function would ultimately tip folks off to Greer’s true id.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: If in case you have a assassin in your own home and … this assassin is lacking a toe … they’re going to simply put two and two collectively.
A FUGITIVE’S TRAIL LEADS U.S. MARSHALS TO MEXICO
In late 2012, when Deputy U.S. Marshal Leslie Ramin took over the hunt for William Greer, he studied the case and investigated new leads with no luck. Then, in 2016, Ramin and his now affiliate investigator, Deputy Josh Wright, returned to the final place Greer had been seen. This time, the TV present “Crime Watch Daily” was serving to hold the warmth on the fugitive.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: We spent a while in Kentucky touring, interviewing folks following up on leads. … I just about was positive that he was utilizing the railways to maneuver round, hopping trains. And the final … good stable supply, put him on a prepare going southbound. … And I mentioned, “this guy’s in Mexico.”
Ramin requested to have the outlaw positioned on the U.S. Marshal’s 15 Most Needed listing, which alerts legislation enforcement companies worldwide to be looking out for Greer. A $25,000 reward was additionally supplied for his arrest.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: And cash helps loosen lips.
And it wasn’t lengthy earlier than that reward — and Ramin’s instincts — gave the impression to be paying off.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: We obtained info from a … dependable supply that William Greer had arrange a brand new life south of the border in Mexico.
The deputies wouldn’t inform “48 Hours” who that dependable supply was, however somebody in Mexico had referred to as in a tip, telling investigators that they knew the place Greer was hiding out.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: We investigated a whole bunch of suggestions over the course of this fugitive investigation. And so, we knew that it needed to be verified.
However U.S. Marshals don’t have jurisdiction in Mexico, so “Operation Catch a Toe” was now within the fingers of Mexican authorities, who checked out the tip. Whereas the Marshal’s workplace was saved knowledgeable at each flip, Mexican police have been now surveilling the person all of them hoped was William Greer.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: I can inform you … I didn’t sleep. Josh and I have been anxiously awaiting … to seek out out what the outcomes have been.
The subsequent morning, they received the affirmation they hoped for. The person noticed in Mexico was certainly William Greer. Now, he needed to be captured.
Mexican authorities realized that Greer was dwelling virtually off the grid, down a mud street, within the tiny southern city of Taxco. He had a spouse and two younger kids.
Paulina Gomez: Folks inform me he was very reserved. He was a really good, very well mannered, hardworking man, however very reserved.
Paulina Gomez, a producer primarily based in Mexico Metropolis just lately traveled to Taxco for “48 Hours,” and realized that Greer had most certainly been in Mexico for about six to seven years. He met his new spouse whereas dwelling within the Mexican state of Chiapas. By the point they moved to Taxco, that they had an toddler daughter and toddler son named William.
Peter Van Sant: He’s the organic father?
Paulina Gomez: Sure. Of those two children.
By 2017, locals say Greer had been dwelling in Taxco for about three years.
Tilo Perez: We referred to as him “El Gringo.”
Paulina Gomez: You didn’t know his title?
Tilo Perez: No.
Tilo Perez lived subsequent door to the fugitive and says he was a superb neighbor.
Tilo Perez: He was calm, he … didn’t mess with anybody.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: We realized that he had a carpentry firm. He was constructing furnishings, and he employed a pair staff.
Greer had been a grasp of avoiding arrest, however on the morning of Nov. 28, 2017, his days on the run lastly got here to an finish when Greer was taken unexpectedly by a swarm of undercover police.
U.S MARSHALS: (to reporters): U.S. Marshals Service wish to announce the arrest of William Joseph Greer.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: He fully denied that it was him. I simply want I may have been there to see his face once they eliminated his shoe.
Peter Van Sant: They did take away the shoe?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: Oh yeah.
Peter Van Sant: And what did they see?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: The lacking toe.
Peter Van Sant: Operation Catch a Toe —
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: Appropriate (laughs).
Peter Van Sant: — had lastly succeeded.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: That’s proper.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: It was a superb feeling.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: And I wasn’t crying. He was crying (laughs). … We each teared up a little bit bit.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: I may need teared up.
Nicki Bates: I simply cried. I simply bear in mind crying as a result of it was not anticipated. It was simply over — an awesome feeling.
Members of the U.S. Marshals Service, Southern District Texas, with William Greer.
U.S. Marshals Service, Southern District of Texas
Greer was promptly flown to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the place he was arrested on U.S. soil.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright (displaying handcuffs) These have been {the handcuffs} used on William Greer.
Peter Van Sant: And the way satisfying was that?
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: Extraordinarily satisfying.
Leslie Ramin says Greer truly acknowledged him from all of the TV protection.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: He noticed me and mentioned, hey, “I know who you are. I’m your biggest fan” (laughs).
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: He was precisely how I imagined he’d be, very boastful, very keen to inform us how he alluded us.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: And that’s actually what we have been keen on. As fugitive investigators, we wished to know the way, how did he get away for thus lengthy, and the way did he get to Mexico?
The deputy Marshals say they at all times suspected that Greer had been getting round on 18-wheelers and trains.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: Greer confirmed that he did find yourself taking a prepare from Kentucky and he headed west, till he discovered one other prepare heading south, and that’s how he ended up crossing into Mexico.
Ramin and Wright delivered Greer to the Sheriff’s workplace, the place Sid Miller, now a Sergeant Investigator, tried to interrogate him.
SGT. SID MILLER (interrogation): We’re looking for Tammy, you already know. … that’s actually why you’re right here, OK?
Miller tried to push Greer to inform him the place he had buried Tammy Myers.
Greer instructed that he would cooperate.
WILLIAM GREER (interrogation): We’re gonna get this carried out, man. Uh, I’m not right here to mess around.
As a substitute, Greer requested for an lawyer and shut down the interview.
WILLIAM GREER (interrogation): Now, whether or not you guys are prepared to work with me or not, that’s but to be seen. However I’m right here to work with you guys. … However I would like to speak to a lawyer.
With Greer now behind bars, it was now as much as the Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace to strive the case.
Nicki Bates: I used to be like, OK, we’re lastly going to have some closure.
However what ended up occurring shocked nearly everybody.
A DAUGHTER’S DETERMINATION
It was now 2023, almost six years since William Greer had been captured, and the now 58-year-old was nonetheless sitting on this jail awaiting trial. COVID and the authorized course of had slowed the proceedings to a crawl. Painful says Bates, who longed for justice, and at last finding her mom’s lacking stays.
Nicki Bates: Just lately, across the trial date … I might have goals that … I used to be digging and I might simply discover her in essentially the most random locations.”
Sid Miller was ready to testify at trial.
Peter Van Sant: What’s the strongest proof you’ve gotten in opposition to William Greer?
Sgt. Sid Miller: The 2 kids. … listening to what they heard.
Each of Greer’s sons, who imagine they heard their father shoot and kill Tammy Myers, have been on the witness listing. And whereas Greer’s brother was now deceased, the prosecution had that recording of what he informed detectives again in 2007.
DANIEL DOBSON (recording): He simply mentioned that he hit her with the gun, and it went off.
After which in fact, there was Greer’s dashcam confession.
WILLIAM GREEER (dashcam): Oh my God. It’s the worst factor I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die.
Sgt. Sid Miller: Coupled with clearly the proof that we discovered on the home … the blood, the … bullets … looks as if a robust case to me.
However Bates says the prosecution was nervous. Anxious that they have been lacking a essential piece of proof: Tammy Myers’ physique. Solely days earlier than trial, Bates says she and her household have been contacted by Assistant D.A. Stephany Abner a few potential plea deal to keep away from a trial.
Nicki Bates: She mentioned, would you all contemplate manslaughter if he tells you the place she’s at? And I mentioned, you already know what, sure, we are going to. We simply wish to know the place our mother’s at. … We wish a resting place the place we will go to, the place our youngsters can go to. … So, we took the deal as a result of in addition they made it look like there was not one other selection, that he would most likely stroll free if we went to trial.
As a situation of the deal, Greer was now required to point out detectives the place he had buried Tammy Myers’ physique.
Sgt. Sid Miller: I needed to … verify him out of the jail. … I had … our warrant staff with us as a result of … he was such a … flight threat.
Bates says when she heard the place all of them ended up, she was crushed. They have been trying to find her mom not removed from the place Greer first confessed to killing her, and method too near the house Bates grew up in.
Nicki Bates: He walked up and down, um, the street in cuffs proper subsequent to my dad’s home.
That went on for 3 days, says Miller. Nothing was discovered. Investigators then referred to as off the search. Greer nonetheless received his deal.
Nicki Bates: We have been informed he’ll get his deal provided that he tells us the place he buried her. … I believe it’s bull crap. … and I believe that he simply, as soon as once more, is getting off for murdering her.
The District Lawyer’s workplace declined “48 Hours”‘ requests for an interview however gave us this assertion: “We believe Greer was acting in good faith and tried to lead law enforcement … to her body. So much time has passed, and the terrain has changed, but we believe he tried.”
On Jan. 22, 2024, Greer appeared in court docket for sentencing. It had been 17 years since Bates laid eyes on him.
Nicki Bates: You understand, everybody saved telling me he’s not going to even have a look at you. … He’ll be ashamed. … And … he walked into court docket, and he stared proper at us.
Peter Van Sant: Have been you staring again?
Nicki Bates: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Did you make eye contact with him?
Nicki Bates: Sure. … I used to be simply attempting to let him know like, we aren’t giving up. We aren’t backing down. We aren’t fearful of him.
Pissed off and indignant, Bates gave a sufferer influence assertion on behalf of her household.
NICKI BATES (addressing Greer in court docket): She trusted you. We trusted you. … We had to have a look at the person who murdered our mother, stroll round our neighborhood, attempting to recollect the place he put her physique. How do you not bear in mind? How has that not eaten at you on daily basis since?
Nicki Bates: I don’t know what I used to be anticipating. Possibly him to speak again. I don’t know, however I finished, and I mentioned, “do you? Do you remember?” And he simply stared at me.
NICKI BATES (addressing Greer in court docket): You say you’re a modified man, that you simply’re a Christian, and if that’s the case, you’ll proceed to speak and assist us attempt to discover her. You need forgiveness? That’s what I would like. I must know, and I would like to seek out her.”
Greer’s sentence for killing Tammy Myers and fleeing is 10 years.
With time served, he can be free in three years; maybe even sooner.
Nicki Bates: Ten years for taking somebody’s life away after which simply disposing of them like rubbish. That’s not sufficient.
Leslie Ramin: In case you ask me, he ought to be in jail perpetually.
Ramin, now retired, says Greer higher behave.
Leslie Ramin: If he does something, I’ll come again out of retirement. I’ll discover him once more.
Peter Van Sant: Are you nervous that if he will get out and it might be as we’re talking now in as little as three years, there could also be extra victims?
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: I’m involved about that.
Peter Van Sant: Are you as effectively, Cameron?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: Sure, sir.
THE SEARCH FOR TAMMY MYERS CONTINUES
In the meantime, the seek for Tammy Myers continues with out legislation enforcement.
Texas EquuSearch is a nonprofit, volunteer, search and restoration group, that gives their companies to legislation enforcement and households without cost.
Nicki Bates: Seeing all of the volunteers out right here … I don’t know any of them, they usually have saved me up to date and simply, you already know, made me really feel so cherished.
Nicki Bates: They prayed over us.
They’ve dedicated to serving to a daughter on a mission.
Nicki Bates: However being out right here, so near residence and presumably near discovering her is a little bit overwhelming.
It received’t be simple, says canine handler Brenda Peak.
Peter Van Sant: How giant an space are you looking out right this moment?
Brenda Peak: Complete, about 4 acres.
Peak says even extremely educated canine could have hassle detecting the scent of bones buried almost twenty years in the past.
Brenda Peak: Lots of people received’t take this activity as a result of it’s, it’s a tough one, it’s difficult.
On at the present time in February 2024, there have been three cadaver canine with handlers and greater than 30 volunteers protecting the 4 acres, and a spot that Bates and her dad requested to be searched
Nicki Bates: It takes quite a bit to not let it devour me. I attempt to concentrate on my children and my husband, however they’ll inform you I’m very decided … if I simply have free time at residence, I’m on my laptop, maps, … previous, you already know, areas, what they regarded like then, what they appear to be now.
After trying to find about 5 hours, the staff referred to as it quits for the day. However there was a glimmer of hope. All three canines had reacted to one thing in the identical space.
Nicki Bates: They suppose that it’s potential that he drove into this space … and that perhaps he buried her someplace over right here since there are, all three canine have picked up on this space.
However Texas Equusearch didn’t have the appropriate instruments to dig correctly, in order that they dedicated to attempting once more. Till then, Bates can be out looking out on her personal.
Peter Van Sant: Do you imagine she’s going to sooner or later be discovered?
Nicki Bates: I’m unsure. … I’m attempting to remain hopeful, however … between climate and animals and — if he’s telling the reality or not, that it’s — you already know, it might be arduous.
Ryan Myers: I’m hoping we will — we will put this to relaxation and — and provides Tammy a spot and get these children some closure of their life, someplace they will pay their respects.
Nicki Bates: My children are, they’re younger, however they’re totally conscious of what’s occurring. And … they simply need so badly for her to be discovered. So, I’m simply attempting to remain longing for myself, but in addition for my kids and, you already know, simply hold wanting ’trigger I don’t wish to surrender.
Instantly after being sentenced, Greer turned eligible for parole. It was denied.
His subsequent parole assessment is in 2026.
“48 HOURS” POST MORTEM PODCAST
Peter Van Sant and “48 Hours” producer Judy Rybak take you behind the scenes as they focus on the a long time lengthy manhunt for William Greer. Hear about what it was like interviewing U.S. Marshals and their intelligent title for his or her pursuit.
Produced by Judy Rybak. Michelle Sigona and Jenna Jackson are the event producers. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Doreen Schechter is the producer-editor. Emily Wichick Hourihane is the sphere producer. Jud Johnston and Ken Blum are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is he government story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
Extra from CBS Information
