Railroad Killer Helps Find Girl's Corpse

O X F O R D, Fla., July 16, 2000 -- Convicted serial killer Angel MaturinoResendiz led authorities Saturday to the skeletal remains of ateen-age girl, a day after admitting to authorities he killed herand her traveling companion three years ago.

Resendiz, 39, told Marion County Sheriff’s detectives during aninterview in Texas that he killed Jesse Howell, 19, with a railroadair brake coupling and that he strangled Wendy Von Huben, 16, abouteight hours later.

Howell’s body was found on March 23, 1997, on tracks runningthrough Belleview — a central Florida town about halfway betweenTampa and Jacksonville.

Gives Directions

Saturday, a search team following Resendiz’s directions foundskeletal remains wrapped in a blanket and camouflage jacket about15 miles to the south.

DNA taken from Von Huben’s family will be compared to theremains to help identify the body, Major Patti Lumpkin said.

Resendiz told Lumpkin and Detective Jeff Owens that the twoteen-agers were the first of 11 people he has admitted to killingin Florida, Texas, Illinois and Kentucky. Most of the killings tookplace on or near railroad tracks.

Resendiz was sentenced to death in Texas two months ago for the1998 murder of a Houston-area physician.

The Mexican drifter became the prime suspect in the Floridaslayings early this year after Owens sent him a letter inquiringabout Howell’s death and Von Huben’s disappearance. In a returnletter, Resendiz said he killed a man and teen-age girl and gaveinvestigators information about the slayings.

Resendiz told investigators he believed the couple wereanti-Christians, Lumpkin said.