Since its debut in 1992, NBC’s “Dateline” has delved deeply into a series of horrifying true-crime stories to truly shed light on the nefarious, repulsive side of human nature. Therefore, it stands to reason that its season 31 episode 35, “Secrets in the Ozarks,” which details the horrific murder of Rebekah Christian Gould by an unknown assailant in the autumn of 2004, is in no way different. Now that you know more about the case, we can help you if you just want to read about the events that happened, the investigations that followed, and the overall impact.
How Did Rebekah Gould Die?
Rebekah, a Mountain View resident, was honestly well on her way to creating a happy, stable life for herself at the age of 22 when everything was abruptly taken from her. The truth is that she attended Northwest Arkansas Community College, participated in social activities, and had a strong support network of family and friends who were equally protective of her as she was of them. It is therefore not surprising that she was reported missing the day after she failed to attend class or call friends and family after spending the weekend with her ex-boyfriend Casey McCullough.
Rebekah was supposed to leave Casey’s caravan in the small hamlet of Guion on Monday, September 20, 2004, and meet a sister for the drive back to college, according to accounts, but she never did. She didn’t answer any texts or phone calls, either, which prompted her devoted mother Shirley Ballard to urgently call the Izard County, Arkansas police to do a welfare check the following morning. At that point, it was discovered that her beloved dog Lady, as well as her car keys, wallet, and pocketbook, were still at his house. In addition, a mattress had been turned over to cover a deep but recent bloodstain.
Rebekah was actually found to have driven Casey to work the morning she vanished before being last seen alive at a convenience store in nearby Melbourne, according to the swiftly conducted investigations that followed. A thorough search for the young woman was launched at that point, and a week later her bones were tragically found off a 35-foot embankment next to Arkansas Highway 9 south of Melbourne. Even though she was brought in for an autopsy on September 27, it wasn’t until a 2020 confession that it was determined she had actually been killed by being strangled with a tie after being struck twice by a piano leg.
Who Killed Rebekah Gould?
Rebekah’s then-boyfriend Casey McCullough was quickly recognised as a potential person of interest due to the circumstances surrounding her unexpected abduction and death. In addition, he made a few inconsistent public remarks during the coming months, and the fact that he hadn’t even gone home that night first looked more convenient than anything more. While his pals supported him by telling authorities that they had in fact planned to go out for a movie and dinner, he ultimately chose to stay at one of their homes.
Regarding Casey’s contradictions, he allegedly told a reporter in June 2005 that he hadn’t returned at all but had instead gone straight to his job, where the police eventually contacted him. On the morning of September 21, he claimed to have popped into his home for a moment to grab a change of clothes but had failed to notice the bloody signs. The young man has now claimed that although he did enter his caravan, he had not noticed the bloody mattress, the dirty sheets, the blood on the floor, the missing piano leg or the bleach odour.
Rebekah’s suitcase (the actual case, not her possessions) was also gone, so due to the complete lack of tangible evidence as well as this, the police also investigated into other potential leads but to no effect. Before this case went cold, they appeared to have used almost all of their resources, only for a State Investigator to make a breakthrough after being given a lead more than 15 years later. They actually looked through Casey’s family as well, sorting them by closeness, and discovered that Casey’s first cousin William “Billy” Alama Miller had spent the previous night there.
In accordance with both of their initial accounts from 2004, William had come to the city that day from his native Aransas Pass, Texas, to assist his mother and younger brother in returning home. However, he chose to stop in his cousin’s driveway before beginning the shifting procedure just to say hello, which caused them to talk for about 15 minutes while standing outdoors. The former was previously interviewed in the days following Rebekah’s disappearance, but ostensibly no attention was paid to the fact that he appeared to have left Arkansas quickly a little more than 24 hours after the crucial day.
Because of William’s peculiar behaviour and admission that he had attentively followed the case, authorities decided to interrogate him again in 2020, but this time they were considerably more thorough. In fact, they blatantly asserted that DNA evidence had linked this former resident of Oregon to the crime after asking him to take a polygraph test within two hours, which he later failed. The oil rig worker/plantation owner didn’t know this was a ruse, so he ended up confessing to everything — he had killed Rebekah for no reason at all, despite their being no such evidence anywhere.
William eventually admitted throughout the course of the 10-hour interrogation that he had been out hunting on the next piece of property to the caravan on September 20, 2004, when he had first seen Rebekah’s car. He became interested and made the decision to visit her under the pretext that he needed to use the home phone in an emergency. She definitely gave him permission after learning that he was Casey’s close cousin. The 44-year-old informed investigators that this was their first encounter, but as soon as she entered the bedroom and lay down in her t-shirt and knickers, his want to kill her overpowered him.
According to William, he then started pacing the caravan before a piano leg that was loose in the living room fell to the floor and immediately gave him a direction to go in. He claimed that after killing her, placing her body next to the bed, wrapping it in a sheet, and starting to tidy up the area as best he could, he made the decision to transport her body using her luggage. He claims his motivations weren’t sexually motivated, but since it was too small, he simply grabbed her and the case, stuffed them into his truck, and started driving to get rid of them.
Thus, on November 7, 2020, William was detained in Lane County, Oregon after having returned from what the police have referred to as “an extended stay in the Philippines.” After being officially charged with first-degree murder and extradited to Arkansas, he ultimately waived his right to a trial and entered a guilty plea on October 18, 2022.
