the heights is right where sisters
lily23 and wylene kennedy 33 want to be
eileen was a stained glass artist
and interested in arts and music so it
was a perfect place for her to move
she could walk to
a club and listen to live music
wylene and lily's father jack kennedy
also lives nearby in the heights
my grandfather decided to go ahead and
just walk over to the house which was
right around the corner
something did not appear right
because the front door
was open
wylene was laying on the ground at the
entryway
and lily was laying
at wyling's feet
he found both of his daughters
dead
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he called 9-1-1
asking for medical assistance
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each victim had different injuries
lily the younger one appeared to have a
single gunshot wound to the head
there was not much blood on the carpet
underneath her there were no wounds on
her hands or her feet
i immediately presumed that she was shot
first
wylene had much more obvious much more
severe injuries
she had a gag in her mouth her
undergarments were pulled down
there was more blood under wylene's body
she had knife wounds on her throat
there was a wound on her arm that that
appeared to be
a gunshot
for a father like jack to walk in and
find his children that's beyond
imagination
my uncle was shaking
uncontrollably and and crying
uncontrollably
i don't know how he even stood up seeing
that scene
whoever had taken her life
had spent some significant time harming
wylene
she was abused if not tortured
prior to her death
this crime
is extremely
horrific
you could tell that
this was personal
whoever did this
was definitely concentrated on
harming wylene while her dead sister
laid next to her
i feel like walling was the target
and that's lily was just used as another
way to torture wally by killing her
first
wyline loved dancing
and was very social
she had a vintage clothing store
in the heights area
the vintage cozy store was walling's
passion
that was her goal to find the most
unique pieces of clothing she could
there's no
sign of forced entry it seems to speak
to the idea that they knew the person
and were comfortable enough to let him
in
and then things escalated out of control
from from that point
she was very neat tidy person but the
house was ransacked and things were
missing
that would indicate somebody's looking
for something but there was 500 cash and
there was jewelry left in the house
but the amount of energy expended on
wylene led me to believe that somebody
that wanted something from her
or
she had really really made somebody mad
results for
lily was negative so there was no
seminal fluid identified the sexual
assault kit that was collected from
wylene
the results for semen tested positive
in 1984 types of testing that could be
performed was very limited there was
really no dna testing as we know today
she was just a young beautiful woman
wanting to have fun in many ways and
experimenting in many ways
some of the people in the vintage
clothing business
were really really into some cocaine
dealing not to imply that she was a part
of that but had some associates
that
gave us pause
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we spent some time pursuing leads that
wiley's ex-boyfriend had been involved
with stealing some drugs from some
people
we spent a lot of time searching for it
people that might have been seeking
revenge on him through the girls
it was a lot of dead ends
it scares you because you think the same
thing is going to happen to you
or to your child like my only daughter
could somebody come back and do that to
her it's so hard
to think that a murderer got away
jackie elliott carries on her
grandmother's fight to find justice for
wylene and lily
but decades pass
without a decent lead
there was a cold case unit in the
houston police department when the cold
case detective assumed this case he
checked and they found that there was
still a viable sample of fluids that had
been gathered by the medical examiner at
the autopsy
they had actually developed a dna
profile on it
it turns out we had something
substantial
physical evidence
to connect someone to the crime
they added that dna to a
national database
unfortunately we've never never got any
matches okay we have someone's dna but
we still don't know who it belongs to
but hopefully they will
be incarcerated at one point and then
bam we have a match i mean that's all
you can hope for
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then the case that was cold for 30 years
heats up a defendant who had earned a
very very long sentence said i've got
something to barter with for my freedom
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he mentioned the kennedy sisters
but he right away mentioned who had
committed these murders
the name of the murderer was edmund
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deegan the informant says edmund deegan
came to him back in 1984 in houston
asking for help
so my client and edmund deegan who were
associates
deegan came over and with the duffel bag
with stuff in there
deegan told my client
that he had just killed two people
the cold case investigator began
checking that information out
it turned out deegan was associated to
varying degrees
of activity with
wylene in the vintage clothing business
he was actually a competitor of hers
my uncle the brother of wyline and lily
immediately
recognized the name edmund deegan
being one of wylene's business
associates and had met edmund deacon so
it was a little startling that it was
someone that wyline actually knew
houston police tracked down deegan
and questioned him
well i promise you i did not tell anyone
i don't care what anybody says i was not
involved in that murder of that girl
right
it's not true also i mean i'm serious
you willing to give me a swab
like a buckle swamp sure i guess so all
right i mean i don't have any toys
well
uh just better if you just go along with
yeah i'm going along with the argued
with yeah
to deny taking a swab would mean that
all the other answers were false so
deegan had no choice just rub your
inside of both cheeks together just
leave them together
and the detective got what he needed
all right
on december 26th of 2014 we issued a dna
report the conclusion was edmund deegan
cannot be excluded
when we do get that hit
it is elation it is oh my goodness we
got you
but the prosecutor was very clear to me
that this case was going to be hard
just because someone raped someone
doesn't automatically mean they had
murdered them
unfortunately
other than the dna there's no other
tangible evidence
because prosecutors don't have a strong
hand to play
they're forced to make a devil's bargain
with a killer
the prosecutor was not able to connect
edmond deegan physically to lily's death
whereas
wylene had
the dna evidence on her body from that
rape kid
the plea bargain was only pleading guilt
to the murder of wylene kennedy
it dropped the rape charges and it did
not list lily kennedy
my aunt lily is the unnamed victim in
all of this
i was kind of thrown
back by the
amount of sentence that he received
it's very difficult
a 15-year sentence
was i happy with that no
a human's life to steal one
and deprived one is is worth more than
that
i believe that he went to find cocaine
according to the story that she had some
hidden from her ex-boyfriend
and things did not proceed the way he
anticipated but he did have a weapon
with him he had two weapons with him
and
when things went south he ended up using
those weapons
the news has jackie and her family
reeling
and there is one final injustice ahead
a texas law led him out after serving
less than seven years
of a 15-year sentence
any inmate
it didn't matter if you murdered
somebody if you raped somebody even if
you were a serial killer who committed a
crime in texas between 1977
in 1987
was eligible for automatic
release as long as they maintain
good behavior in prison
i guess they never thought
that the after effects will haunt this
state forever
six years
really
for such a violent disgusting act
the only place he belongs is behind bars
or in a grave
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you