Texas Man Charged in Kidnapping, Torture of Woman May Have Kidnapped Before

March 15, 2011 — -- The arrest of a man in the kidnapping of a 62-year-old Texas woman has led investigators to re-examine the disappearance of two other women, one of them the suspect's former wife who vanished 19 years ago.

Jeffrey Allan Maxwell, 58, was arrested Saturday after Parker County Police visited his Corsicana, Texas home to follow up on a tip about Maxwell's car. The suspect's car had been spotted at the missing woman's home when it mysteriously burned down March 3. Her car was also burned.

Police discovered the 62-year-old woman in the midst of interviewing Maxwell when she "burst out of the residence yelling, 'I'm here,'" according to a court affidavit.

She told police that Maxwell had "forced his way into her residence, assaulted her, tied her up and got her into his vehicle," according to the affidavit. Two days later, Maxwell allegedly returned to the woman's home and burned it down, she told police.

Maxwell admitted that he had hit the woman several times with his fist and a rolling pin, according to court records. He told police that he bound the woman with handcuffs and "strung her up in a homemade device used for skinning deer," according to court documents.

Police swept the home, finding handcuffs, ankle restraints, sex toys and a leather gag.

"I hope I never see it again," Parker County Sheriff Randy Fowler told ABC Affiliate WFAA. "To me, it was a house of horrors."

The woman was sexually assaulted, Maxwell told police.

Badly beaten, she was taken to the hospital. Her brother had reported her missing after a search of her burned home turned up no human remains.

The woman was described by neighbors as a recluse who typically never left her home, according to court documents.

This is not the first time Maxwell has been accused of assaulting a woman.

The arrest of Maxwell has shed new light on the cold cases of two other missing women. The Parker County Sheriff's Office, with the help of the Texas Rangers, are re-examining the disappearance of Amelia Smith.

Kidnapping Suspect Previously Arrested for Slitting Wife's Throat

Smith, 51, disappeared in 2000 under similar circumstances to the current case. Her home was burned to the ground the day she vanished.

"We're hoping that everything that would kind of come to a head and give us some closure," said Marie Jones, Smith's sister-in-law. "It's bringing back a lot of bad memories."

Smith disappeared after returning home late from working as a taxi dispatcher. Her home and car were torched.

The married mother of two was home alone. Her two children were staying with Jones and her husband was at his mother's house, Jones said.

The family of Smith said that they had never heard of Maxwell and don't believe the missing woman knew him.

When Jones heard about the discovery of the kidnapped and tortured 62-year-old woman, it sounded too familiar.

"Everything about her disappearance kind of mirrored Amy's [Amelia's] disappearance," she said.

Fort Worth police are re-examining the 1992 disappearance of Maxwell's wife, Martha Martinez Maxwell. Jeffrey Maxwell had previously been accused of assaulting her in 1987.

Watauga police arrested Maxwell for aggravated assault in 1987 after Martha Maxwell was found bound with duct tape, drugged and with her throat slashed.

A former detective who investigated the case told the Dallas Morning News that Martha Maxwell dropped the charges against her husband.

Five years later, she disappeared. Jeffrey Maxwell said that his wife had left him and his son. Eventually, he filed and was granted a divorce from Martha Maxwell.

"He said it's just her tough luck," former Detective W.S. "Sonny" Byington told the Dallas Morning News. "He would never admit she did anything but run away."

Byington told the paper that neighbors at the time described Maxwell as a "pervert" and a "bully."

The neighbors of the 62-year-old woman recently found said the same thing. Maxwell had known the alleged victim because he once lived in her Whitt, Texas neighborhood.

Mayann Blakely, a friend of the woman, said that Maxwell constantly harassed the woman before leaving the neighborhood in 2007.

"She even would call him the 'bad man,'" Blakely told WFAA. "She wouldn't call him by his name, 'Jeff Maxwell.' She'd call...and say, 'The bad man was over here today.'"