On October 8, 1974, Laura Louise McClendon, 22, was murdered in her Fort Worth, Texas apartment. The attacker, Kenneth Granviel, was a family acquaintance who had known the McClendon family for about three years. Granviel entered that evening asking for a glass of water, then produced a knife and bound and gagged Laura and her two-year-old son Steven with torn bedsheets.

Other family members arrived during the attack: Laura’s sister Martha, cousin Linda, and Martha’s daughter Natasha. Granviel bound and gagged them as well, raped Laura, and fatally stabbed Natasha when she began to cry. He strangled Linda, stabbed Steven multiple times until the knife broke, then used another knife to stab Laura to death. After speaking with Martha he also stabbed her to death, took money and valuables from purses, and fled. The bodies were found when the family’s stepfather arrived to take the women to work.

Two Mexican nationals were initially arrested but later proved not to be the perpetrator. Granviel was not first suspected; he discussed the murders with acquaintances and later, after committing additional killings, was arrested in February 1975, confessed, and was convicted of capital murder. He was executed by lethal injection in February 1996.