Cold cases solved: 'Bogeyman' tells girls' murder tale

DALLAS — The work to solve three cold case murders in North Texas is the subject of a new true crime book released Wednesday.

Steve Jackson's Bogeyman tells the stories of Christi Meeks, 5, from Mesquite; Christie Proctor, 9, from Dallas, and Roxann Reyes of Garland, who was days away from her fourth birthday.

All three girls were grabbed, assaulted and strangled by a stranger in the mid- and late-1980s in North Texas. Their murderer was charged with the crimes almost 20 years later, thanks to determined detectives.

The investigation into and ultimate solving of the girls' killings sounded like something from a whodunit. So Jackson, a New York Times best-selling writer, turned the true story into his latest crime novel.

"I could see it as an author that it fit all the requirements for a good story," he said.

The book focuses on the work of a team of police detectives, starting with Garland Police Detective Gary Sweet, who picked up the cases of the three missing girls after they'd gone cold.

"Back then it was a closet — we called it the 'murder closet.' It was files of unsolved cases," Sweet said.

In 1996, years after the murders, he found the girls' files and information on suspect David Elliott Penton. "For some reason, out of all the stuff that was in those two boxes, I pulled out a file and started reading about him," Sweet said.

Penton was in jail in Ohio for killing a 9-year-old girl there. What followed was a series of twists — from reviewing old tips, conducting new interviews, and gathering information shared by Penton's cellmates.

By 2003, Sweet and the team had enough to indict Penton, who pleaded guilty to the girls' murders in 2005.

So how does Sweet feel to see his story on paper?

"I know the ending, and I couldn't put it down," he said. "I thought it was pretty good!"

It's a story the author feels proud to tell.

"For all the evil that's out there in the world, there are guys like Gary Sweet, who wasn't going to let these little girls not have somebody answer for them," Jackson said.

Penton remains behind bars in Ohio. He is up for parole in 2027, but if it's granted, he would be extradited to Texas to serve time for the three murders.