Texas killer dies, leaving open questions about 11 slayings

A convicted murderer serving 70 years for a 1978 slaying near Houston who was also under investigation in the unsolved killings of 11 missing girls has died in a Texas prison.

Jeremy Desel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said that inmate Edward Harold Bell, 79, collapsed Saturday at the Wallace Pack Unit in Navasota.

The facility located about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of Houston holds several elderly prisoners.

"There did not appear to be any signs of foul play," Desel told The Associated Press on Monday. Desel declined to discuss Bell's medical history, citing privacy laws.

All in-custody deaths are investigated by the independent Office of Inspector General, according to Desel. Bell's death leaves unanswered questions about the unsolved murders of 11 girls he claimed to have killed, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Bell was already serving time for killing Larry Dickens, an ex-Marine from Pasadena, when he admitted in 2011 to kidnapping and killing several girls who had disappeared from Galveston, Dickinson, Houston, Clear Lake and Alvin in the 1970s.

In one of several letters sent, Bell called the girls the "Eleven who went to Heaven."
Rita Brestrup, who lost her sister Maria Johnson in 1971, said she had no words for Bell but was happy that he "no longer walks this earth and will never be paroled."