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When this happened, I don't know what it was in me, but very, very early on, I remember trying to come to grips in 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 it out, you know, in the fact that it would consume me, and then in some ways would give whoever children even more, you know, then they'd already taken it.

After the homicides of Mildred May in 1967, Becky Martin in 1973, and Carla Walker in 1974, all in the months of February, another homicide took place in 1977.

On that very month, the fourth and final victim in what the press referred to as the February slangs was June Ward.

June Ward's case was the least covered. Her murder resulted in only a few short stories in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Cleveland Times review newspapers.

The original investigation turned up few leads. Darryl Thompson, a Fort Worth police detective at the time, told us that there just wasn't anything there in terms of solid evidence.

June had been having issues with her vehicle, he told us, and they felt it may have been a micro worker, an opportunist, as there was an abundance of shopping center, home, and apartment construction all around the city at the time.

June's case went cold almost as soon as the murder happened, it said. But the lack of information and evidence does not mean that June or her case deserves less attention.

Johnson County, Texas, sits due south of Tarant County. The county seat, Kleberne, is virtually in the direct center of Johnson County.

The heart of the town is about 32 miles directly south of Fort Worth. Kleberne began as a civil war outpost called Camp Henderson, a place where military units would be dispatched to battle or to perform other military exercises.

The then tiny town wouldn't be officially named Kleberne until 1868. At that time, the population was only 7,500, by the late 1970s the population had slowly grown to about 18,000.

The once agricultural center of Johnson County began to boom into a large town only after Santa Fe Railroads opened major machining operations there in 1898.

June Merleine-Molder was born in Kleberne on July 28, 1951, to Mary Catherine, age 34, and William Othel-Molder, age 52.

William worked in the rail car department at the Santa Fe Railroad and Mary stayed home to care for their child.

June was, essentially, an only child. Her older brother from her father's previous marriage was 29 years older than her. Her nephews were nearer in age and June became very close to them, so close in fact, that their relationships were more akin to that of siblings.

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