June Ward: The February Slayings Part 3

Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Vincent Strange

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ten years after the first so-called February Slaying took place, that of Mildred May, another young woman was taken. The fourth victim in this series of crimes, 26-year-old June Ward, presumably had car trouble. It isn’t known if someone posing as a “Good Samaritan” came along, or if June set out on foot looking for help and met with foul play. It is known that her murder was, perhaps, the most brutal out of the February Slayings. June left behind a family who loved her, including an 8-year-old son, and friends who adored her. Over the years, and although the Fort Worth Police Department kept quiet about a majority of the goings-on in June Ward’s case, new possibilities have arisen, from stranger to someone close to her.

If you have any information about the murder of June Ward, please contact Fort Worth police department cold case unit at 817-392-4307.

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Sources: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Cleburne Times-Review, The Brownsville Herald, and The Tyler Morning Telegraph.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Gone Cold Podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.
0:08.9	After the homicides of Mildred May in 1967, Becky Martin in 1973, and Carla Walker in 1974,
0:19.1	all in the month of February. Another homicide took place in 1977, again on that month.
0:26.8	It was the least reported on of the cases that took place in the 1970s, but perhaps the most senselessly
0:34.0	violent and brutal. The original investigation turned up few leads, and as it went on,
0:40.7	the cops had less and less progress to report. Daryl Thompson, a Fort Worth police detective at the
0:47.5	time, said that there just wasn't anything there in terms of solid evidence. In a time before DNA was used in law enforcement investigations,
0:57.2	and long before investigative genetic genealogy was even dreamt of, the clues found on the
1:03.5	scene of the body meant little in terms of evidence. All they really knew was that the victim
1:09.8	had been having issues with her vehicle,
1:12.3	leading Thompson and other detectives to theorize the perpetrator was an opportunist, a transient
1:18.1	or migrant worker. Fort Worth was undergoing a growth spurt at the time, and there was an abundance
1:24.7	of shopping center, home, and apartment construction all around the city.
1:29.7	There were plenty of new faces and temporary residents. The case, perhaps as the result of the
1:37.0	opportunistic nature, went cold almost as soon as it happened, some detectives have remarked.
1:43.5	But there were other theories as well.
1:46.2	The fourth victim in what the press referred to as the February slings was June Ward.
1:56.2	Music When this happened, I don't know what it was in me, but very, very early on, I remember trying to come to grips and the terms with it and just never thinking I was going to figure out who did that to her. And then also very scared of what would happen if I tried to figure
2:22.8	it out, you know, in the fact that it would consume me and that in some ways would give
2:26.8	whoever killed her even more, you know, than they'd already taken.
3:03.6	Yeah. You know, Johnson County, Texas, sits due south of Tarrant County. The county seat, Cleburne is virtually in its direct center.
3:09.0	The heart of the city is about 32 miles directly south of Fort Worth.
	...

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