Christmas was a particularly special time for thirty-year-old Roxann Jeeves of Dallas, Texas. Her five-year-old son, Kristopher, had been born on December 23, and the celebration of the two special days so close together was her favorite time of year. Kristopher’s first four birthdays and Christmases had been excellent, and Mom again had a fun-filled day planned for the birthday boy on December 23, 1981.

Instead, Kristopher’s fifth birthday became a day of horror as investigators believe Roxann had likely seen her little boy shot to death shortly before she herself met the same fate. A man was seen fleeing the scene where the lifeless bodies of mother and son were found. In his haste, he had left behind a literal bag of clues, which, over twenty-one years later, led to his identity.

Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves

Following her divorce, Roxann Korper took back her maiden name of Jeeves and moved from Oklahoma to Dallas in April 1980.  She was engaged to be remarried in June 1982, to a man named Jimmy Hoskins.

Roxann adored Kristopher, described by all who knew him as fun-loving and happy. Some sources list his name as Kristopher Jeeves, others as Kristopher Korper, and still others as Kristopher Korper-Jeeves.

Crazy About Kristopher

Mother and son lived in the Sussex Place complex, a fairly nice set of apartments in the northeast part of Dallas. Roxann worked as an underwriting specialist for the Continental Insurance Company, but she had the Christmas week off and planned to devote the time to her son.

The birthday docket included touring the Kraft food plant in nearby Garland, where Louise Hoskins, Roxann’s mother-in-law-to-be, worked. Afterwards, they planned to have lunch and then see the movie Cinderella. Then, they would hit the road, traveling to visit relatives in Kansas for the usual dual celebration of Kristopher’s birthday and the Christmas holiday.

A Fun Day Planned

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on December 23, Roxann was seen loading Kristopher’s birthday and Christmas presents into her car at her apartment complex. Concerned that her 1978 Ford Thunderbird might have problems during the trip, Roxann had told her friend Daniel Binion that she planned to take her toolbox with her.

At around 10:15 a.m., Roxann’s neighbor, Patricia McAvey, heard a determined Kristopher “dragging” the toolbox down the steps from their second story apartment. Mommy was smiling as her big boy slowly but surely made progress.

Patricia then went inside for a few minutes. When she returned at approximately 10:30 a.m., she saw no sign of Roxann. Oddly, Kristopher was observed in the company of a black man and a woman who appeared to be either Hispanic or Native American. The man was carrying the toolbox in one hand and holding Kristopher’s hand with his other. The three were seen turning a corner and walking in the direction of where Patricia believed Roxann’s car was parked.

Patricia did not recognize the man and woman and described them as rough looking. Both acted nervously.

Who Was Walking Kristopher?

The man was seen again half-an-hour later, this time with Roxann and Kristopher in their car at a gas station off Interstate 635, near the LBJ Freeway, which forms a partial loop around the north, east, and southern sectors of Dallas. Roxann was driving, the man was in the passenger seat and Kristopher was in the back seat. The woman Patricia McAvey had seen earlier was not with them.

Gas station attendant Don Crawford filled Roxann’s tank. He recalled both the man and Roxann appeared nervous. The man never looked at him or spoke to him. Other than telling him to fill the car, Roxann did not speak either. Kristopher appeared unnerved, as he smiled at Don while playing with his toys in the back seat.

Though she did not say anything to him, Roxann stared at Don as he washed the car’s front windshield. In hindsight, Don recalls the look as one of fear, as if she wanted, but was afraid, to ask him for help.

Roxann Was In Trouble

Forty-five minutes later, at 11:45 a.m., Dallas County Deputy Roy Baird was patrolling an area in the southeast part of the county, ten miles outside Dallas city limits. He came upon a 1978 Ford Thunderbird parked on the wrong side of a dirt road. The driver’s front door was open and the hood was still warm. Unwrapped Christmas gifts sat in the back seat while on the front seat were a toboggan hat, a blue sports bag, a pair of woman’s gloves, and a purse.

All indications suggested to Deputy Baird that something was amiss and he cautiously entered a field on the north side of the road. As he made his way across the field, he came upon a horrific scene, even for a seasoned officer. Lying next to each other, he found the lifeless bodies of a young woman and a small boy. Inside the woman’s coat pocket were the keys to the abandoned Thunderbird.

The victims were identified as Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves and the Thunderbird was confirmed as hers. Roxann lay covered in a blanket and had been shot once in the cheek and once in her temple. Kristopher lay beside her, having been killed by a .38 caliber bullet to his forehead. Both were found fully clothed; neither had been sexually assaulted. No signs of a struggle were found.  Authorities believed mother and son were murdered approximately half-an-hour before they were found.

The purse and gloves found in the car were Roxann’s. The toboggan hat and sports bag were not.

 

Mother and Son Murdered

As additional police officers raced to the area, a black man matching the description of the man seen earlier with Roxann and Kristopher at their apartment complex was seen by at least eight people either running away from the scene or hitchhiking along the Interstate.

Approximately half-an-hour later, as investigators were at the crime scene, the man burst into a gas station five miles away, demanding to use the telephone. The cashier, Katie Christian, told him he had to use the pay phone outside. Angered, the man stormed outside and used the pay phone for a few minutes. After he hung up, he lingered at the gas station for nearly half-an-hour and at one point returned inside for a drink of water. Katie last saw him walking toward Interstate 635 toward the LBJ Freeway.

Another witness saw the man running down the hill from the gas station, toward the Interstate. He then saw a 1955 Buick, driven by a heavyset black man, pull alongside him, pick him up, and drive away. The sighting led police to believe the killer may have had an accomplice, whom he had called from the gas station payphone to pick him up.

A composite of the man believed to have murdered Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves was made based on the descriptions of the multiple witnesses. The composite of the female seen with the man at Roxann’s apartment complex was made based on Patricia McAvey’s description.

The witness who saw the man in the 1955 Buick picking up the presumed killer did not get a sufficient look at him to develop a composite sketch.

 

Composites of the Suspects

Dallas County Chief Medical Examiner Charles Petty found bruises around Roxann’s neck and stomach, and an inordinate quantity of blood, one-hundred cubic centimeters, pooled in her abdominal cavity.

Investigators gleaned the killer may have throttled Roxann into submission and pinned her to the ground with his knee as he shot her.

Roxann Was Likely Physically Forced Into Submission

Authorities believe Roxann and Kristopher were abducted from their apartment complex. It is believed the killer, at gunpoint, forced Roxann to drive to the secluded area and then ordered them out of the vehicle. The perpetrator then made them crawl over a barbed-wire fence and then walk roughly seventy-five feet into the field where he ordered them to lie down. He then shot them.

Believed Abducted From Their Apartment

Shot In the Secluded Field

A robbery-gone-wrong was initially thought the motive for the murders but was later ruled out as Roxann was found wearing multiple items of jewelry and her purse containing money and her credit cards sat undisturbed on the car’s front seat.

Keath Korper, Roxann’s former husband and Kristopher’s father, was cleared as a suspect, as was her fiancé, Jimmy Hoskins.

Robbery Ruled Out

The blue sports bag found in Roxann’s car contained a cornucopia of clues. Inside were a pre-World War II holster, a set of burglary tools, duct tape, knives, and, perhaps most significantly, a bottle of formaldehyde, suggesting the murders may have been drug related. Police say drug users at the time often laced marijuana cigarettes with formaldehyde, a practice sometimes referred to as a “Sherman Stick.”

The suggestions of drugs as having involvement in Roxann and Kristopher’s murder led to a prime person of interest: her brother Kurt, who had lived with them for a few months before joining the Army in August 1981, four months before the murders.

Kurt Jeeves

Although Roxann said her brother was good to her and her son, she was relieved when he moved. Kurt had a shady past, as he was known to be dealing in marijuana and owed many of his “associates” substantial amounts of money.

Kurt’s inner circle of friends consisted exclusively of black men. Shortly after he had moved out of Roxann’s apartment, an irate black man pounded on Roxann’s door in the late evening hours. The man was angrily looking for Kurt, saying he owed him money.

A neighbor who saw the man believed he bore a resemblance to the composite sketch of the killer.

Drug Dealer

Kurt insisted he had no involvement in the murders of his sister and nephew and that their murders were not related to his drug activities. He was shipped by the Army to Germany, where he was convicted of dealing drugs. The Army then returned Kurt to the United States in 1984 to serve time in the Louisville, Kentucky, stockade before being dishonorably discharged.

Kurt’s nefarious past caught up with him shortly after his release as he himself was murdered in an attempted drug buy in April 1984. A group of black men were convicted of his murder, but police could not link any of them to the murders of Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves.

No evidence has been found suggesting Kurt had any involvement in his sister and nephew’s murder, or that his murder was related to theirs.

Kurt is Murdered

The toboggan hat and blue sports bag left in the back seat of Roxann’s car ultimately proved to be the killer’s undoing. In 2003, overt twenty-one years after the murders, two hairs found in the toboggan cap were matched to the imprisoned George Hicks. His former wife also identified the items found in the bag as belonging to him. After the matches were made, a witness who saw the man running through the field picked Hicks out of a photo lineup.

Hicks had an extensive criminal record dating back thirty-five years. In 1968, he was given probation for theft, but two years later he received a three-year prison sentence for burglary. Paroled after serving one year, Hicks was convicted of sexual assault in the following year of 1972. He then served seven years in prison.

At the time of Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves’ murders in 1981, Hicks was a working as a janitor in Dallas. In 1984, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for another sexual assault. He was paroled after serving eight years, but he was soon convicted of another sexual assault. The courts had finally had enough, sentencing him to eighty years in prison.

In 2003, at the time Hicks’ DNA was matched to the cap found in Roxann Jeeves’ car, he was imprisoned in Rosharon, Texas. Concurrent with the eighty-year sentence, he was also serving two fifteen-year sentences for aggravated sexual assault and robbery.

George Hicks

In 2007, George Hicks was convicted of the murder of Roxann Jeeves and received an additional life sentence. In 2014, he was convicted of Kristopher’s murder and given another life sentence. The death penalty could not be imposed for crimes committed as far back as 1981.

Hicks has refused to answer any questions about the murder of Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves. Investigators are divided on whether he was the man seen arguing with Roxann about Kurt owing him money in the months before the murders. They have not been able to establish any connection between Hicks and Kurt Jeeves or any of his associates. A few investigators believe Kurt’s murder was connected to Roxann and Kristopher’s, but the majority believe they are separate incidents.

Hicks Convicted

The identity of the man in the 1955 Buick who picked up Hicks along Interstate 635 remains unknown as does that of the woman seen with Hicks at Roxann’s apartment complex on the day of the murders. The woman is still sought for questioning in the murders of Roxann and Kristopher Jeeves, but only as a material witness.

The woman is believed to be of either Hispanic or Native American origin. In 1981, she was approximately five-feet-five inches tall, with long dark hair and a medium build. She was believed to be twenty-five-to-thirty-years-old, making her in her mid-to-late sixties to early seventies today.

If you believe you have any information which may lead to the identity of this woman, please contact the Dallas County, Texas Sheriff’s Office at (214) 749-8641.

Never Identified

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27051768/roxann-jo-jeeves#

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27051769/kristopher-robin-korper-jeeves

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27051770/kurt-robert-jeeves#

SOURCES:

• Dallas Morning News
• Galveston Daily
• “Murderers Among Us” by Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesorth
• Texas Tribune
• Unsolved Mysteries
• UPI