Today, I will analyze the case of Kimberly Langwell. First, I’ll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis. Kimberly Langwell was born on February 24, 1965 in Houston, Texas. Eventually, she moved to Beaumont, Texas, 84 miles to the east. She worked at the Mobile Oil Refinery there and had a daughter named Tiffany.
In 1993, Kimberly became romantically involved with a man named Terry We Rose. Terry owned a local towing company and lived in a 1,200 square foot house at 1655 Lindbergh Drive. In early 1999, Kimberly broke up with Terry and found a new boyfriend named Ken Weatherford. It appeared as though Terry was unhappy about this development.
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Now moving to the timeline of the crime. On Friday, July 9, 1999 at 5:13 p.m., 34-year-old Kimberly Langwell left work at the Mobil oil refinery. She called her daughter Tiffany at 5:30 p.m. and said that she was going to stop by Terry’s house and help him hang up boards as part of a home remodeling project he was working on. Even though she had separated from Terry, the two remained in contact. She expected to arrive home at about 6:30 p.m. Kimberly had planned to meet her new boyfriend Ken and her daughter Tiffany that night for dinner.
When Kimberly failed to show up for dinner, Tiffany called Terry, who told her that Kimberly left his house and he did not know where she went. Later that night, Ken found Kimberly’s silver 1994 Nissan Altima in the parking lot of the Colonnade Shopping Center at Dolan Road and Faelan Boulevard. The vehicle was parked not far from an Eckerd pharmacy. Her cell phone was in the vehicle, but her purse and keys were not. Ken did not tell anybody about his discovery until the next day, July 10th, 1999.
The police were contacted and started investigating Kimberly’s disappearance. Right away, the police were able to rule out Ken Weatherford as a potential suspect because he had an alibi. He was with Kimberly’s daughter, Tiffany. When the police spoke to Terry Rose, he said that Kimberly came by his house after work, but she only stayed for a few minutes. Terry did not have an alibi from the time he saw Kimberly until 9:30 p.m. when he went to play pool with a friend of his named David Wayne Wiley. When investigators questioned David, he confirmed that he met Terry at 9:30 p.m. Terry gave the police permission to search his house, but they did not find any evidence of a crime, only a poorly maintained living environment.
At this point, the police were out of leads in the case. The investigation into Kimberly’s disappearance went cold. They suspected that she was dead, but they did not know where she was and they could not prove who killed her. Terry Rose went on with his wife. He became romantically involved with a woman named Violet. She eventually became his common-law wife and lived in his house on Winburg Drive.
In the spring of 2023, almost 24 years after Kimberly Langwell disappeared, the investigation into her disappearance was reopened. In 2024, Terry’s long-time friend, David Wiley, was interviewed by the police again, but he did not change his original story from 1999. Not long after the interview, however, he hired an attorney who contacted the police and told them that David had information about the case but wanted immunity. Investigators didn’t really have much of a choice. The case was dead in the water without something new. They were not thrilled with David only doing the right thing after first taking the scenic route through decades of silence, but immunity was granted to him. David was interviewed again. Here is the story that he provided to the police.
On Friday, July 9, 1999 at 6:15 p.m. This is the night that Kimberly disappeared. David received a telephone call from Terry asking to meet at a Walmart store in Beaumont. When they arrived, David noticed that Terry was driving Kimberly’s Nissan Altima. This seemed unusual considering that Terry and Kimberly were no longer romantically involved. Again, Kimberly had rejected Terry. Unhappy with that parking lot, Terry told David to follow him to the Colonnade Shopping Center. After arriving there, Terry parked Kimberly’s vehicle and entered David’s truck. David took Terry home to his house on Lindberg Drive, and David returned to his trailer. Later that night, the men met for the second time and played pool.
Sometime during that weekend, Terry confessed to David that he shot Kimberly in the back of the head. He dug a hole under the slab in his house and buried her there. David lied to the police initially because he was afraid that he was involved in something that was going to have him in deep trouble. He changed his story later because he was tired of having it on his conscience and could not live with it any longer.
Using David’s statement, the police obtained a search warrant for Terry’s house on Lindberg Drive. With the help of ground-penetrating radar, they identified a 3-ft by 5-ft area in the front bedroom that was missing a piece of rebar. During the subsequent excavation, the police found a broken pair of sunglasses, a lighter, and a keychain. Not long after this, they found human remains wrapped in a blanket. An autopsy confirmed that the remains belonged to Kimberly Langwell. She had sustained a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
On June 13th, 2024, Terry Rose was arrested and charged with murder. In August 2025, he was offered a plea deal that came with a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Terry rejected this plea deal and was scheduled to go to trial on December 8th, 2025. Six days before his trial, 68-year-old Terry Rose changed course. He accepted the plea deal and pleaded guilty to murder. On December 16th, 2025, he received the maximum sentence under the agreement, 40 years in prison. The judge indicated that she wished she could sentence him to a longer term. Terry will first become eligible for parole in 2044, when he will be 88 years old.
Now, moving to my analysis. Here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case. Item number one. There were a few signs that Terry was a troublemaker prior to Kimberly’s disappearance. He was described as controlling and demanding in the relationship. He frequently called Kimberly after she rejected him romantically. And he was allegedly caught lurking outside her house. Terry told the authorities that on one occasion, he slapped Kimberly in the face.
Item number two. In a recorded phone call from jail, Terry complained to his son that the plea deal involving 40 years in prison was an insult. He would be 88 years old before he could go before the parole board. Terry felt as though this was unacceptable. As far as why he murdered Kimberly, Terry veered away from any type of mental health explanation, saying:
“I’m not like a psychopath, sociopath, or a crazy blank. You know, I’m none of that. I had a bad day. I dealt with it wrong. I blanked up. and I’m going to deal with it.”
Terry had a very liberal interpretation of a bad day. Most people would view a bad day as locking one’s keys in a vehicle, spilling coffee, or getting stuck in traffic. Not shooting someone in the back of the head and burying their body under a bedroom floor. Terry maintained a very low opinion of his murder victim, Kimberly, saying that if she:
“would have just been honest and said, ‘Look, I was out messing around on you,’ I could have just walked away, not had a problem, and none of this blank would have been a problem.”
It’s not really that surprising that Terry would blame Kimberly. This is pretty common among killers. However, he also had an unkind attitude toward Kimberly’s daughter, Tiffany. Terry thought it would be sweet if Tiffany died in her 40s or 50s, and he offered to urinate in a cup so that the urine could be poured on her grave.
Item number three, what do I think happened in this case? This is just a theory, my opinion. Terry Rose was self-centered, impulsive, reckless, irresponsible, arrogant, cold, callous, remorseless, vindictive, controlling, manipulative, obsessive, had low frustration tolerance, had a sense of entitlement, and was exceedingly creepy.
It is not exactly clear why he murdered Kimberly. He claimed it was because she cheated on him. Whatever his motive, after Terry shot her in the head, he knew that he needed to get rid of her body. He decided to bury her under the concrete slab of one of his bedrooms. This is not an advisable tactic to escape justice, but the body disposal was not initially his biggest problem. Terry also needed to get rid of her car. If her vehicle was found at his house, then the police would have a strong suspicion that Terry killed her. Terry needed to get that car away from the area of his home. He owned a towing company. This meant an obvious solution was available to him. Tow Kimberly’s car several miles away and leave it there.
Inexplicably, Terry went in a completely different direction. He personally drove Kimberly’s vehicle and had his friend David give him a ride back home. He made a living from moving vehicles to different places, yet dealing with the Nissan Altima still became the weakest part of Terry’s plan.
David must have suspected that Terry did something to Kimberly after seeing him driving her Nissan Altima. Terry could have just refused to offer any explanation or fabricated a non-homicidal story, but he confessed to murder. He supplied details about how he killed Kimberly and where he placed her body.
This was a risky move, but David kept Terry’s secret. Terry probably had a sense that David would be inclined to do this, perhaps based on their friendship. At this point, Terry found himself in an unusual situation. He had successfully escaped responsibility for the murder, but at any moment, David could change his mind and tell the police where the body was located.
Terry could have greatly minimized his risk of being caught if he had simply moved the body. There was no pressure to do this quickly. Kimberly’s case had gone cold. There was no intense interest in finding her. It was not being frequently covered in the media. Terry had all the time in the world.
He could have removed Kimberly’s body and disposed of it in a remote area or used any number of other methods to eliminate any evidence of her existence. Terry had many options available to him. If he no longer had the body in his house, he would have been reasonably safe from prosecution. Even if David decided to tell the truth later, as he ultimately did, the police would not have found anything in Terry’s house.
It would have looked like David was lying or maybe even like he was trying to deflect attention away from himself. Amazingly, Terry chose to do nothing. He never bothered to move Kimberly’s body out of his house. Day after day for years, he lived there with her body under the bedroom floor. This continued even as Terry’s common-law wife, Violet, lived in the same house.
There’s no way to know why Terry did not move the body. Maybe he was lazy. Perhaps he believed David would never say anything no matter what. Or it’s possible that Terry liked the idea of Kimberly being so close. The homicide was born out of a desire to dominate. Terry controlled Kimberly when she was alive, but she escaped his grasp.
Therefore, he imposed the most extreme form of control possible by killing her. He insisted on maintaining control over her even after her death, keeping her close by so he could bask in the glory of his victory. He did not view Kimberly’s body as a liability. Rather, it was a trophy.
Every time he ruminated on the perceived injustices he suffered at Kimberly’s hands, like being rejected or maybe being cheated on, Terry could celebrate how in the end he had complete revenge. The murder wasn’t a regrettable event Terry wanted to forget, rather a symbol of success he was determined to remember forever. Those are my thoughts on the case of Kimberly Langwell.
Thank you so much for watching. I’ll talk to you soon.
