Claudia Benton, 39, a pediatric geneticist and researcher of Peruvian descent, was murdered in her West University Place, Texas, home on December 16, 1998. Her husband and their twin daughters were visiting relatives in Arizona; Claudia had stayed behind to prepare a Baylor University presentation and fell asleep while watching television. An intruder entered the house near the train tracks, stabbed and bludgeoned her and sexually assaulted her; the autopsy listed multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma as the cause of death. She suffered repeated stab wounds through the back that pierced to the front, broken ribs, collapsed lungs, 19 blunt force injuries to the head including three depression fractures, bruises and two broken bones in her right arm consistent with a defensive struggle.

Investigators recovered a bloody butcher knife and a blood-covered statuette at the scene; items taken included a banjo, a guitar, a stereo and jewelry, and her Jeep was stolen from the garage. The stolen Jeep was recovered December 18, 1998, in a motel parking lot near railroad tracks; fingerprints from the vehicle matched Ángel Reséndiz-Ramírez, known as the Railroad Killer, tying him to the crime. Reséndiz-Ramírez was later prosecuted in connection with Claudia’s death and a civil wrongful death judgment was filed by her husband.

Did anyone in West University Place at the time recall unusual activity near the tracks or anyone asking about that household in mid-December 1998?