The Murder of Sheila Renae Finch

Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

Vincent Strange

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In October of 1989, ten-year-old Sheila Renae Finch left her grandmother’s home in South Waco, Texas, for what should have been a quick trip. She rode her pink-and-white bicycle to a corner grocery store to use the payphone and call her aunt for a ride to school. She made the call, hung up, and started the short ride home.

Sheila never made it back.

Two days later, her body was discovered on the banks of Lake Waco’s Speegleville Park.

The search for Sheila, the discovery of her body, and the haunting details revealed by her autopsy gripped Waco. Investigators pursued every lead, recovering her bicycle from a nearby creek, circulating a composite sketch of a possible suspect, and eventually arresting a man named Anthony Torres. But the case against him collapsed under the weight of shaky eyewitness accounts and the absence of physical evidence.

If you have any information about the murder of Sheila Renae Finch, please contact the Waco Police Department at (254) 750-7500, or search Waco Cold Cases on your web browser, look for Sheila’s case, and fill out the tip form.

Sources: The Waco Citizen, The Waco Tribune-Herald, KCENtv.com, KWTX.com, waco-texas.com/Departments/Police-Department/Cold-Cases/CC80s

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Gone Cold Podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter. Listener discretion is advised.
0:09.2	October 1989, Waco, Texas. A little girl left her grandmother's house, climbed onto her pink and white bicycle, and peddled only a few blocks away.
0:20.4	She stopped at a grocery store pay phone to call
0:22.9	her aunt and ask for a ride to school. It was supposed to be a short trip, a simple phone call.
0:29.7	But within 20 minutes, she vanished. For two long days, the community searched. Neighbors,
0:36.9	police, helicopters, fields and creeks
0:40.0	were scoured, hope dimmed by the hour. The search came to an end in a place where Waco's
0:47.2	nightmares too often seemed to converge, Lake Waco. The girl's death would spark an investigation filled with false leads, public outrage,
0:58.2	an arrest, and decades of unanswered questions.
1:02.4	32 years later, the case still lingers, unsolved.
1:06.7	The case still lingers, unsolved. The I'm going to....and... In 1989, Waco was a city of roughly 104,000 residents, a working-class hub rooted in its railroad
1:40.8	and agricultural legacy. South Waco was known for its modest homes and tight-knit, predominantly Hispanic community,
1:50.4	the kind of place where neighbors watched out for each other.
1:54.4	The summer of that year had brought changes for the Finch family.
1:58.8	Paul and Pamela Finch, working hard to support three children,
2:03.2	moved the family to Fort Worth
2:04.9	to try and find better work.
2:07.3	But for their daughter Sheila,
2:09.1	10 years old and born and raised in Waco,
2:12.0	Fort Worth didn't feel like home.
2:14.4	She didn't like being away from her friends
2:16.6	at Sol Ross Elementary. Most of all,
	...

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