6: Sticky Rancher — Show Notes

My case takes place in Rockdale, Texas, which is way south of Dallas sort of in between Temple and College Station. Our victim is Sonya Wallace, a 15 year old girl at Rockdale High School.

This all happened in 1999, so unfortunately there's not really anything about Sonya that I could tell you about her. But in all honesty, it seemed like she was just an average kid, and this tragic thing just so happened to happen to her.

On February 19th, 1999, Sonya left her house that afternoon, telling her family she was going to walk to the post office to deliver a letter. They all expected her back after a while, the house was just four blocks away after all, but she never came home.

Her family reported her missing the next day. And I think that they waited so long because at the time, Sonya’s mother wasn’t home, in my head I’m assuming it just her dad and some siblings running around, and it’d be such an easy thing to just nod off as “Oh well, she must have gone to a friend’s house after.”

Her mother (Linda Gonzalez) is quoted in Dateline saying,

I will regret this till the day I die – that was supposed to be my day off. But they called me in to work, and so I went to work...I didn’t find out until I got back that night at 10:00 p.m

So assuming she did leave right at noon, that's 10 hours gone for a trip that's maybe 20 minutes all together? I know its the 90s, but you’d still call your parents as SOON as you got to a friend’s house and let them know where you are.

The following day the Rockdale Police Department began investigations where she was last seen. They interviewed friends, family, students at the school she went to but as far as I can tell nothing came from it at all and slowly the case just fizzled out.

A week goes by, then two, and finally on March 14th 1999, a man driving near the area by Structure and Coupland, TX (about a 35-45 minute drive) saw vultures circling. Now this area is very rural, mostly a farming and ranching kinda place, and its mentioned that the man is a rancher and had cattle in the area. He gets to where they’re at and its by this bridge, and when he does he discovers the body of Sonya Wallace.

She's severely decomposed and from what they gather she had also been bludgeoned to death.

“It was obvious that foul play was involved,” Det. Miller told Dateline. “We have no evidence of where the actual murder occurred. My belief is that she was killed elsewhere and brought under the bridge.”

At that point the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office took hold of the investigation because it was in their jurisdiction to do so. According to Sergeant John Pokorny the team gathered evidence that included Sonya’s clothes and some soda bottles.

Sgt. Pokorny believes that her friends might have some valuable information.

"At the time they might have been 16,17,18 but now they're well into their life they have kids of their own their lifestyle has changed their mentality has changed and somebody out there they know something,"

Sonya’s mother believes that it was somebody who knew her that did this, but the unfortunate reality is that, right in front of the post office is a farmed market road that heads right in the direction of where her body was found. ( There's a few turns, but the point stands.)

The Cold Case Unit had said they there have been over 100 people interviewed and that they are in the process of extracting DNA as of September 17th, 2018. There hasn’t been any updates to the case since then, but DNA depending on the amount provided can take quite a long time to process and then match.

If you have any information on the circumstances surrounding Sonya Wallace’s disappearance and murder, please call the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit at 512-943-5204 or email coldcasetips@wilco.org. Tips may remain anonymous.

You can also contact the Milam County Crime Stoppers at 1-888-697-TIPS, or from their website.

Sources: NBC, Fox7 Austin, Milam County Crime Stoppers.

On January 15, 1919 around 12:30pm in Boston’s North End residents suddenly heard the sound of an elevated train passing by, followed by the sound of machine gun fire, or something like a loud thunder clap before a 25 foot wave of molasses came rushing out onto the city as the rivets and metal walls from the Purity Distillery Company’s 50 ft tall (and 90 ft and diameter) molasses storage tank exploded. 2,300,000 gallons of molasses filled the streets, reaching speeds up to 35 mph. The wave of molasses was strong enough to sweep buildings off of their foundations and crush them, a streetcar was momentarily moved off of its tracks, and streets were filled with 2-5 feet of molasses. People were picked up and hurled many feet and many people became trapped when the molasses started to cool.

Puleo quotes a Boston Post report:

Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage …. Here and there struggled a form—whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was …. Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings—men and women—suffered likewise.

Cleaning crews took weeks to clean up the mess and even longer to clean up the rest of Boston because site seers and cleaning crews tracked molasses everywhere.

“An inquiry after the disaster revealed that Arthur Jell, USIA's treasurer, neglected basic safety tests while overseeing construction of the tank, such as filling it with water insufficient to check for leaks, and ignored warning signs such as groaning noises each time the tank was filled. He had no architectural or engineering experience. When filled with molasses, the tank leaked so badly that it was painted brown to hide them. Local residents collected leaked molasses for their homes. A 2014 investigation applied modern engineering analysis and found that the steel was half as thick as it should have been for a tank of its size, even with the lax standards of the day, and it also lacked manganese and was made more brittle as a result. The tank's rivets were also apparently flawed, and cracks first formed at the rivet holes”

Residents of the area filed what is thought to be one of the first class action lawsuits against the company, who claimed anarchists blew up the tank, but after three years if hearings the company paid out $628,000 (9.26 mil for inflation), thus relatives receiving 7,000 (103,000) for each victim.

Pasquale Iantosca, 10 years old was outside collecting firewood when he was swept up by a wave- his body wasn’t identified until mid January.
Flaminio Gallerani, 37 was said to be sitting on his truck when the flood hit, he was reported missing soon after the carnage but wasn’t found until 11 days after the flood.
Cesare Nicolo, 32, a wagon driver who wasn’t found until 4 months after the flood.
William Brogan, 61, a teamster who was caught in the flood.
Bridget Clougherty, 65, the rush of molasses caused a vacuum and ripped her house from its foundation, which was then crushed by fallen buildings and rubble.
John Callahan, 43, worked as a paver in the North End Paving yard.
Maria Distasio, 10, found at the base of the molasses tank.
William Duffy, 58, worked a paver in the North End Paving yard, survived by his wife of 35 years and 19-year old daughter.

Peter Francis, 64, worked as a blacksmith in the North End Paving yard

James H. Kinneally, ?, worked in the North End Paving yard

Eric Laird, 17, was delivering a shipment when the flood hit, his body was found under “molasses-coated mass of wrecked auto trucks, express boxes and packages in the freight shed of the Bay State Electric Freight Railway,” according to the Globe.

George Layhe, 38, a firefighter crushed by the wreckage of the firehouse

James Lennon, 64, a foreman with the North End Paving Yard

Ralph Martin, 21, working with the Blackstone Supply Company

Michael Sinnott, 74, working as a messenger for the Public Works Department, “He had returned to work 20 minutes before the explosion and was thrown several feet against a pile of paving stones and suffered a fractured skull, both legs broken, contusions and internal injuries,” the Post reported.

James McMullen, 46, foreman for the Bay State Express

Thomas Noonan, 43, longshoreman “He and his son, Carthage Noonan, were returning home from South Boston and when on Commercial st were caught in the flood of molasses and wreckage,” the Globe reported.

Peter Shaughnessy, 18, teamster “His horse, covered with molasses, was found dead yesterday, near North End Park, and the wagon was found wrecked,” the Globe reported on Jan. 17. “No trace of the young man was found.” the day of the flood was his first day on the job

John Sieberlich, 69, worked in the North End Paving Yard

Sources: Wikipedia, History, Boston