Nicki Myers-Bates misplaced her mom practically 20 years in the past, when she was simply 7 years previous, however she says no period of time will heal this wound.
Nicki Bates: You all the time hear that point heals. It’s going to get higher. It’s going to get simpler. That’s not true. … I feel it is tougher as an grownup with out a mother than it was … as a child. … You might have graduations that she misses. … She missed my marriage ceremony. She has eight grandchildren that she is going to by no means meet.
Now a mom of three herself, Bates remains to be trying to find her mom and combating to deliver the person who killed her to justice.
Nicki Bates: Just about once I grew to become a young person and bought my cellphone, , I learn each article … each information … video. … I seen it, I learn it.
Peter Van Sant: Ryan, even once you speak about her right this moment, you get emotional about it. Why is that?
Ryan Myers: I nonetheless love h — (cries).
Peter Van Sant: You continue to love her.
Ryan Myers: (shakes his head sure)
Ryan Myers says he and Tammy have been simply youngsters once they first fell in love; he was 20 when he requested her to marry him.
Ryan Myers: The primary yr we have been collectively, we had a child … after which … following yr had one other child. … A couple of later years later we had Nicki.
Bates says there wasn’t a lot cash to go round, however there was all the time greater than sufficient love. Particularly between mom and daughter.
Nicki Bates: She was very loving … she was made to be a woman mother, despite the fact that she had two — two boys … she was very girly, lively, enjoyable, energetic.
Ryan Myers labored lengthy hours as a window installer so Tammy Myers may very well be a fulltime mother. Then, destiny dealt the household a devastating blow.
Nicki Bates: My dad was working … on prime of a three-story constructing. He bought electrocuted and fell off and hit the concrete.
Ryan Myers: I fell three flooring, broke my again and legs. And, uh, sadly, the corporate I labored for did not have insurance coverage.
Peter Van Sant: How did you pay for all this?
Ryan Myers: Nicely, I imply, primarily, Tammy needed to work and — and attempt to pay a few of the payments whereas I used to be down.
Nicki Bates: And she or he had no expertise. So, she did what she thought was best and have become a — stripper? Am I allowed to say that?
Peter Van Sant: Certain you possibly can say that.
Nicki Bates: She grew to become … a feminine dancer.
Peter Van Sant: How did your dad take all of this?
Nicki Bates: Um, I do not assume he cherished it. I feel he needed her to search out one other job, however … she was like, it is tremendous, nothing’s taking place right here. I am simply getting the cash.
And so it was, till Tammy Myers met an enormous spender named William Greer.
Nicki Bates: He was — so far as I do know, an everyday on the membership. … he … threw some huge cash round …
Peter Van Sant: The place’d he get his cash?
Nicki Bates: He owned a merchandising machine firm. … So, her and my dad break up up and he or she will get with him.
Someday in 2006, Tammy Myers moved about an hour away, to a home in Spring, Texas, with Greer and two sons from his first marriage. Bates and her brothers would spend the weekends there.
Peter Van Sant: Was he variety to you?
Nicki Bates: So far as I keep in mind, sure. Uh, all the time giving us cash, attempting to take us on journeys.
Peter Van Sant: Did your mother cease working as a stripper?
Nicki Bates: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Did you sense … that William Greer was good to your mom?
Nicki Bates: After I first met him, sure.
However issues would flip ugly over time, says Bates. Not lengthy earlier than her mom went lacking, Bates says there have been clear indicators of bodily abuse, which Tammy Myers documented in photographs.
Nicki Bates: She stole his truck and got here all the way in which to Cleveland (Texas) from Spring, and he or she may barely get out of the automotive, and he or she was bleeding, she was bruised.
Bates says her mother tried to cowl it up.
Nicki Bates: She advised us that it was a mud bike accident, however she had advised my stepmother that he had hit her with numchucks (sic).
Peter Van Sant: What’s numchuck?
Nicki Bates: You see karate, the um, the picket stuff you swing round.
Peter Van Sant: He hit her with that?
Nicki Bates: Sure.
Bates says Greer got here in search of his truck — and her mom.
Nicki Bates: My dad was like you should get off my property. And he was arguing, saying, nicely, she stole my truck and my dad’s like, I do not care. You have to get off my property.
Nicki Bates: , my dad all the time says … I want I’d’ve simply shot him as a result of your mother would nonetheless be right here.
Bates says she has since realized that her mom had been warned about Greer’s propensity for violence by somebody who knew him nicely: his ex-wife.
Nicki Bates: She would inform my mother that, , you should go away him, he is harmful.
Sadly, it looks as if Tammy Myers might have been eager about doing simply that however ran out of time.
Peter Van Sant: And is it true that the 2 of you have been … speaking about getting again collectively earlier than she disappeared?
Ryan Myers: Sure, sir.
TAMMY MYERS DISAPPEARS
Then, as Christmas 2006 approached, Tammy Myers mysteriously vanished.
Ryan Myers: I had a missed name from her. And I attempted to name her again and I did not get a response.
Nicki Bates: I keep in mind crying quite a bit. Um, simply being devastated, not just for me, however seeing my dad the way in which — that manner was simply devastating.
And that is when this case took the primary of many weird turns. Simply eight days earlier than Tammy Myers was reported lacking, Greer was arrested for public intoxication.
Greer was recorded on dashcam video confessing to 2 sheriff’s deputies that he had shot Tammy Myers.
WILLIAM GREER (dashcam video): The gun simply went off… Oh my God, it is the worst factor I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die.
Peter Van Sant: Have been you conscious that William Greer had been arrested by sheriff’s deputies at the moment?
Ryan Myers: No, sir.
And within the subsequent unusual twist, Greer was launched.
Ryan Myers: I am nonetheless … misplaced to why when any person sits there and admitted to one thing, why you’ll simply flip them free so simply?
WILLIAM GREER’S DASHCAM CONFESSION
Again in 2006, Paul Lasco was a deputy for the Liberty County Sheriff’s Workplace. Within the early morning hours of December 22, Lasco and his companion bought a name about suspicious exercise, on a highway in Cleveland, Texas.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: There was a car, a truck within the ditch right here. And there was no one round it. The truck was working. The lights have been on. Door was open.
The complete factor was captured on dashcam video. Lasco says that on the time, there was a fenced-in discipline bordered by a big, wooded space.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: My companion went down … the driveway right here … subsequent to the driveway was like a brush pile that was pulled up.
That is the place Lasco’s companion discovered the lacking driver — a extremely intoxicated, William Greer.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: It appeared that he had been utilizing some kind of … medication.
DET. KLOPTON (dashcam video): That is what he acts like, he acts like he is on meth.
He was additionally half bare.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: He had a — a button-up shirt on and no pants. … No underwear. He was bare from the waist down.
Peter Van Sant: Now you’ve got seen a variety of issues, how unusual was this?
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: This was fairly unusual.
DET. CLOPTON (dashcam video): The place do you assume your footwear, or your boots are at?
WILLIAM GREER: All them issues … Bought too muddy and slowed down. Trigger it is a swamp on the market.
Greer’s clothes was by no means recovered, however way more alarming than his bodily state was what Greer freely mentioned to 2 detectives.
WILLIAM GREER (dashcam video): It was an accident and I like her with all my coronary heart …
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: He mentioned that he unintentionally shot … Tammy … uh within the chest. And that he, he watched her die.
WILLIAM GREER (dashcam video): The gun simply went off … I could not consider what occurred … Oh, my God, it is the worst factor I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die.
Greer advised them the capturing had taken place at his residence in Spring, about 40 miles southwest of Cleveland — a special county with a special sheriff. Again then, Sid Miller was a murder detective within the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace. He would later be taught that Harris County had been contacted by a Liberty County dispatcher— and requested to ship two deputies to Greer’s residence for a welfare test.
Det. Sid Miller: They peered by means of the home windows, appeared inside the home. … and so they did not see something that was out of the bizarre, of their opinion.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: Our dispatch notified us that Harris County went on the market and every part appeared tremendous.
Lasco says they tried to query Greer some extra, however by then he had sobered up, and stopped speaking.
SHERIFF’S DEPUTY (dashcam video): You confessed to killing her.
WILLIAM GREER: Oh no … I do not keep in mind that companion …
With out possible trigger to consider {that a} homicide had occurred, all Greer may very well be charged with was public intoxication. So, Lasco and his companion took him to the Liberty County Jail, the place he was booked, launched on bond the subsequent day — and disappeared.
Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Lasco: It is irritating as a result of we had him. … And … now he is — he is gone.
Bates says nobody realized simply how “gone” Greer was, till days later when Greer’s sons from his first marriage returned from Christmas trip with their mom.
Nicki Bates: And when their mother goes to drop them off, they begin freaking out. We do not need to go residence.
The boys had been with their mom because the day Tammy Myers disappeared. Now, 11 days later, they have been telling their mom that the morning she picked them up, they heard their father shoot Tammy Myers. Their mom took the boys straight all the way down to the sheriff’s workplace, for an interview. That is when Detective Miller bought concerned.
Det. Sid Miller: They indicated that someday the morning of December the nineteenth, between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., they heard Greer and Tammy arguing … one among them described, uh, listening to what appeared like Tammy working down the hallway and being thrown in opposition to the wall. He additionally described listening to a gunshot and he heard William Greer make the remark about, “Are you lifeless? Are you continue to alive?”
Nicki Bates: At this level, they acquire a search warrant, and so they go into his home.
When Miller arrived on the home, he found Greer’s brother-in-law.
Det. Sid Miller: He was really there cleansing out the home.
He advised the detectives he did not know the home was a criminal offense scene.
Peter Van Sant: And what was he cleansing up?
Det. Sid Miller: He was taking, uh, property out of the home. Uh, we realized that he had taken some weapons out of there, on the path of Mister Greer.
Nonetheless, says Miller, the home was clearly a criminal offense scene.
Det. Sid Miller: I seen that there was like blood smear, uh, on a few of the partitions. … I walked into the bed room, , you had a mattress … soaked blood on the aspect of the mattress. There have been bullet holes … within the bed room.
Peter Van Sant: And so what William Greer had really advised these Liberty County deputies turned out to be true?
Det. Sid Miller: It turned — sure.
Another factor you must learn about that night time. Deputies discovered Tammy Myers’ cellphone on the entrance seat of Greer’s truck. They used it to name Tammy’s mom, who Bates says advised deputies that Greer had been bodily abusing her daughter.
Nicki Bates: The … older I get … the extra offended I get. They — they actually failed, not solely her, however simply everybody on this state of affairs.
Bates says it nonetheless infuriates her that on the night time Greer confessed, a search warrant would have made all of the distinction.
Peter Van Sant: Why did not they search a search warrant to get into the home that night?
Det. Sid Miller: I feel at that specific time, primarily based on what Greer had advised Liberty County, um, due to his intoxicated state, they — they could not confirm, substantiate whether or not that was credible info.
Miller says that night time there simply wasn’t sufficient possible trigger for a search warrant. And even after looking out Greer’s residence, they nonetheless could not discover Tammy Myers.
Det. Sid Miller: We really did a, uh, search of the home … and we had the cadaver canine … do a search of the property, and we did not discover something.
Miller says in addition they searched the woods the place Greer had been arrested. Nonetheless, even with out Tammy Myers’ physique, the Harris County District Legal professional’s Workplace felt that they had sufficient to cost Greer with first-degree homicide. On March 16, 2007, practically three months after Greer’s drunken confession, a grand jury voted to indict him. There was only one drawback, says former Deputy US Marshal Leslie Ramin.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: He was within the wind. … By the point they found out a homicide had occurred, William Greer was gone.
“OPERATION CATCH A TOE”
Nicki Bates was simply 9 years previous when she and her brothers shared recollections of their mom with the tv present, “America’s Most Wished.”
NICKI MYERS (studying a poem on “America’s Most Wished”): Our beloved Tammy, a daughter taken, lives shaken …
Bates hoped that viewers would possibly acknowledge the person who had allegedly killed her mom after which disappeared: William Greer.
Peter Van Sant: Did it offer you some hope?
Nicki Bates: It did.
Det. Sid Miller: As soon as we bought him on “America’s Most Wished,” we began getting suggestions.
Miller says that after the primary point out of Greer on the present, he and his companion have been lastly starting to be taught concerning the fugitive’s first few days on the run.
Det. Sid Miller: The day after Greer … bought out of jail … he went to his sister’s home … and mainly mentioned that he had accomplished one thing unhealthy. … and he needed to alter his life and he was leaving city. So, the sister had given him some cash for that goal.
From there, Greer had gone to Savannah, Georgia, to see his half-brother, Daniel Dobson. So, Miller and his companion did the identical.
Dobson’s interview with detectives was recorded:
DANIEL DOBSON (interview with detectives): He simply mentioned that he hit her with the gun, and it went off … He mentioned she died in his arms, and … he freaked out, went out and buried her.
Det. Sid Miller: And buried her to the place no one would discover her.
Peter Van Sant: That is the phrase he used, the place no one would discover —
Det. Sid Miller: — the place no one would discover her.
DANIEL DOBSON (interview with detectives): When he lastly admitted what he did, I did every part I may to get him off this property that day.
Det. Sid Miller: He had taken Greer to … a truck cease … and simply dropped him off there, and he hadn’t seen him since.
In July 2007, Greer had been on the run for six months, when he bought a job as a cook dinner at a deli in New Orleans, working alongside John Morales.
John Morales: He advised me that his identify was Billy. … once I tried to ask him what his final identify was, he would not inform me what his final identify was.
Morales says he and the person he knew as Billy bought alongside so nicely they determined to room collectively. And Billy started to open up about his previous.
John Morales: Billy advised me that he had youngsters. He advised me that he, that he had an ex-wife … and that his ex-wife wasn’t permitting him to see the children and that, and that is why he was touring.
Morales says it wasn’t lengthy earlier than his new roommate started to drink closely and have become progressively stranger.
John Morales: He would begin crying and say that he did not need to wind up in hell.
Much more disturbing says Morales, have been Greer’s plans for the long run.
John Morales: He, uh, would say that he needed to stay off grid … that he needed to um discover one other spouse, , sooner or later and, and have extra youngsters. … after which he would take the downward spiral once more… say if I ever discover out she’s dishonest on me, I am going to kill her.
Then, says Morales, Greer started utilizing medication. The lads parted methods and Morales moved to Florida. Weeks later, a good friend from the deli referred to as to say that the person they knew as “Billy” had simply been featured on “America’s Most Wished.” Morales was one among 5 tipsters who referred to as police. However by the point detectives arrived to analyze, Greer was gone.
Left behind was his signature cowboy hat — a attainable taunt geared toward his pursuers. It will take two extra months earlier than there was one other credible tip. This time from Georgetown, Kentucky, the place Greer had discovered God.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne: He simply got here into the service one Sunday morning.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne of the Victory Tabernacle Church says she knew Greer as “Billy Leslie.” He mentioned he was new to the world and was in search of handyman work. He provided to assist across the church.
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne: He appeared very good, very personable. He bought proper in with completely different ones within the congregation, participated.
“Billy” even requested to be baptized. However when he realized that his {photograph} can be taken for posterity, Pastor Connie says he practically backed out. However Greer modified his thoughts and allowed a photograph to be taken of his baptism on Aug. 26, 2007.
One month later, a member of the congregation would see the now baptized “Billy” on “America’s Most Wished.”
Peter Van Sant: And if I’ll quote one little passage from the Bible to you as a Pastor, “Even Devil disguises himself as an angel of sunshine.”
Pastor Connie Jackson-Osborne: Sure, he does and … It was humorous once I discovered he was needed, ‘trigger he was dwelling proper throughout the road from the police station.
Hiding in plain sight. However by the point investigators arrived, Greer had taken off once more.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: This man actually thought that he may victimize not solely Tammy, however everyone else that he encountered whereas he was on the run, and type of simply thumbing his nostril in our face.
Greater than three years had passed by with no credible leads, when Cameron Welch – a deputy Marshal with the Southern District of Texas U.S. Marshals Service — joined the case. Welch adopted up previous leads, hoping for brand new info, dug deeper into Greer’s previous, and located yet one more ex-wife, who advised detectives that Greer had abused her as nicely.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: He was capable of, um, persuade these ladies … that he was only a nice man … and he would use them for every part that — that he wanted, after which he would transfer on to the subsequent one.
Welch spent two years chasing down new leads, however Greer was nowhere to be discovered.
Peter Van Sant: So the place do you go from there?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: Again to sq. one. Simply retaining the strain.
In 2012, Welch was assigned to a different case. Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin took over the now 5-year-long hunt for Greer — and named it “Operation Catch a Toe.”
Peter Van Sant: And why’d you identify it that?
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: William Greer was lacking a toe.
Peter Van Sant: And the way’d he lose that?
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: I feel it was a bicycling accident when he was youthful.
Peter Van Sant (taking a look at a photograph of Greer’s foot): That is the — that is the well-known lacking toe.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: It is the well-known lacking toe.
Peter Van Sant: Wow.
The Marshals believed that distinctive characteristic would ultimately tip individuals off to Greer’s true identification.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: If in case you have a assassin in your home and … this assassin is lacking a toe … they are going to simply put two and two collectively.
A FUGITIVE’S TRAIL LEADS U.S. MARSHALS TO MEXICO
In late 2012, when Deputy U.S. Marshal Leslie Ramin took over the hunt for William Greer, he studied the case and investigated new leads with no luck. Then, in 2016, Ramin and his now affiliate investigator, Deputy Josh Wright, returned to the final place Greer had been seen. This time, the TV present “Crime Watch Every day” was serving to maintain the warmth on the fugitive.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: We spent a while in Kentucky touring, interviewing individuals following up on leads. … I just about was certain that he was utilizing the railways to maneuver round, hopping trains. And the final … good strong supply, put him on a practice going southbound. … And I mentioned, “this man’s in Mexico.”
Ramin requested to have the outlaw positioned on the U.S. Marshal’s 15 Most Wished checklist, which alerts legislation enforcement businesses worldwide to be looking out for Greer. A $25,000 reward was additionally provided for his arrest.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: And cash helps loosen lips.
And it wasn’t lengthy earlier than that reward — and Ramin’s instincts — gave the impression to be paying off.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: We obtained info from a … dependable supply that William Greer had arrange a brand new life south of the border in Mexico.
The deputies wouldn’t inform “48 Hours” who that dependable supply was, however somebody in Mexico had referred to as in a tip, telling investigators that they knew the place Greer was hiding out.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: We investigated a whole bunch of suggestions over the course of this fugitive investigation. And so, we knew that it needed to be verified.
However U.S. Marshals haven’t got jurisdiction in Mexico, so “Operation Catch a Toe” was now within the palms of Mexican authorities, who checked out the tip. Whereas the Marshal’s workplace was saved knowledgeable at each flip, Mexican police have been now surveilling the person all of them hoped was William Greer.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: I can inform you … I didn’t sleep. Josh and I have been anxiously awaiting … to search out out what the outcomes have been.
The subsequent morning, they bought the affirmation they hoped for. The person noticed in Mexico was certainly William Greer. Now, he needed to be captured.
Mexican authorities realized that Greer was dwelling virtually off the grid, down a mud highway, within the tiny southern city of Taxco. He had a spouse and two younger kids.
Paulina Gomez: Individuals inform me he was very reserved. He was a really good, very well mannered, hardworking man, however very reserved.
Paulina Gomez, a producer primarily based in Mexico Metropolis lately traveled to Taxco for “48 Hours,” and realized that Greer had probably been in Mexico for about six to seven years. He met his new spouse whereas dwelling within the Mexican state of Chiapas. By the point they moved to Taxco, that they had an toddler daughter and toddler son named William.
Peter Van Sant: He is the organic father?
Paulina Gomez: Sure. Of those two youngsters.
By 2017, locals say Greer had been dwelling in Taxco for about three years.
Tilo Perez: We referred to as him “El Gringo.”
Paulina Gomez: You did not know his identify?
Tilo Perez: No.
Tilo Perez lived subsequent door to the fugitive and says he was an excellent neighbor.
Tilo Perez: He was calm, he … did not mess with anybody.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: We realized that he had a carpentry firm. He was constructing furnishings, and he employed a pair workers.
Greer had been a grasp of avoiding arrest, however on the morning of Nov. 28, 2017, his days on the run lastly got here to an finish when Greer was taken abruptly by a swarm of undercover police.
U.S MARSHALS: (to reporters): U.S. Marshals Service want to announce the arrest of William Joseph Greer.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: He fully denied that it was him. I simply want I may have been there to see his face once they eliminated his shoe.
Peter Van Sant: They did take away the shoe?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: Oh yeah.
Peter Van Sant: And what did they see?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: The lacking toe.
Peter Van Sant: Operation Catch a Toe —
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: Appropriate (laughs).
Peter Van Sant: — had lastly succeeded.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: That is proper.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: It was an excellent feeling.
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: And I wasn’t crying. He was crying (laughs). … We each teared up just a little bit.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: I may need teared up.
Nicki Bates was 18 years previous when she bought the information that her mom’s killer had lastly been captured.
Nicki Bates: I simply cried. I simply keep in mind crying as a result of it was not anticipated. It was simply over — an amazing feeling.
Greer was promptly flown to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the place he was arrested on U.S. soil.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright (displaying handcuffs) These have been {the handcuffs} used on William Greer.
Peter Van Sant: And the way satisfying was that?
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: Extraordinarily satisfying.
Leslie Ramin says Greer really acknowledged him from all of the TV protection.
Deputy Marshal Leslie Ramin: He noticed me and mentioned, hey, “I do know who you might be. I am your greatest fan” (laughs).
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: He was precisely how I imagined he’d be, very smug, very keen to inform us how he alluded us.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: And that is actually what we have been fascinated by. As fugitive investigators, we needed to understand how, how did he get away for therefore lengthy, and the way did he get to Mexico?
The deputy Marshals say they all the time suspected that Greer had been getting round on 18-wheelers and trains.
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: Greer confirmed that he did find yourself taking a practice from Kentucky and he headed west, till he discovered one other practice heading south, and that is how he ended up crossing into Mexico.
Ramin and Wright delivered Greer to the Sheriff’s workplace, the place Sid Miller, now a Sergeant Investigator, tried to interrogate him.
SGT. SID MILLER (interrogation): We’re looking for Tammy, . … that is actually why you are right here, OK?
Miller tried to push Greer to inform him the place he had buried Tammy Myers.
SGT. SID MILLER (interrogation): I hoped I — I might be capable of name the household tonight and provides them the excellent news…
Greer recommended that he would cooperate.
WILLIAM GREER (interrogation): We’re gonna get this accomplished, man. Uh, I am not right here to mess around.
As an alternative, Greer requested for an lawyer and shut down the interview.
WILLIAM GREER (interrogation): Now, whether or not you guys are prepared to work with me or not, that is but to be seen. However I am right here to work with you guys. … However I would like to speak to a lawyer.
With Greer now behind bars, it was now as much as the Harris County District Legal professional’s Workplace to strive the case.
Nicki Bates: I used to be like, OK, we’re lastly going to have some closure.
However what ended up taking place surprised nearly everybody.
A DAUGHTER’S DETERMINATION
It was now 2023, practically six years since William Greer had been captured, and the now 58-year-old was nonetheless sitting on this jail awaiting trial. COVID and the authorized course of had slowed the proceedings to a crawl. Painful says Bates, who longed for justice, and at last finding her mom’s lacking stays.
Nicki Bates: Lately, across the trial date … I’d have desires that … I used to be digging and I’d simply discover her in probably the most random locations.”
Sid Miller was ready to testify at trial.
Peter Van Sant: What is the strongest proof you’ve got in opposition to William Greer?
Sgt. Sid Miller: The 2 kids. … listening to what they heard.
Each of Greer’s sons, who consider they heard their father shoot and kill Tammy Myers, have been on the witness checklist. And whereas Greer’s brother was now deceased, the prosecution had that recording of what he advised detectives again in 2007.
DANIEL DOBSON (recording): He simply mentioned that he hit her with the gun, and it went off.
After which after all, there was Greer’s dashcam confession.
WILLIAM GREEER (dashcam): Oh my God. It is the worst factor I ever did was look in her eyes and watch her die.
Sgt. Sid Miller: Coupled with clearly the proof that we discovered on the home … the blood, the … bullets … looks as if a robust case to me.
However Bates says the prosecution was nervous. Anxious that they have been lacking a vital piece of proof: Tammy Myers’ physique. Solely days earlier than trial, Bates says she and her household have been contacted by Assistant D.A. Stephany Abner a couple of potential plea deal to keep away from a trial.
Nicki Bates: She mentioned, would you all take into account manslaughter if he tells you the place she’s at? And I mentioned, what, sure, we’ll. We simply need to know the place our mother’s at. … We wish a resting place the place we are able to go to, the place our kids can go to. … So, we took the deal as a result of in addition they made it look like there was not one other selection, that he would most likely stroll free if we went to trial.
As a situation of the deal, Greer was now required to indicate detectives the place he had buried Tammy Myers’ physique.
Sgt. Sid Miller: I needed to … test him out of the jail. … I had … our warrant crew with us as a result of … he was such a … flight danger.
Bates says when she heard the place all of them ended up, she was crushed. They have been trying to find her mom not removed from the place Greer first confessed to killing her, and manner too near the house Bates grew up in.
Nicki Bates: He walked up and down, um, the highway in cuffs proper subsequent to my dad’s home.
That went on for 3 days, says Miller. Nothing was discovered. Investigators then referred to as off the search. Greer nonetheless bought his deal.
Nicki Bates: We have been advised he’ll get his deal provided that he tells us the place he buried her. … I feel it is bull crap. … and I feel that he simply, as soon as once more, is getting off for murdering her.
The District Legal professional’s workplace declined “48 Hours”‘ requests for an interview however gave us this assertion: “We consider Greer was performing in good religion and tried to steer legislation enforcement … to her physique. A lot time has handed, and the terrain has modified, however we consider he tried.”
On Jan. 22, 2024, Greer appeared in courtroom for sentencing. It had been 17 years since Bates laid eyes on him.
Nicki Bates: , everybody saved telling me he is not going to even take a look at you. … He’ll be ashamed. … And … he walked into courtroom, and he stared proper at us.
Peter Van Sant: Have been you staring again?
Nicki Bates: Sure.
Peter Van Sant: Did you make eye contact with him?
Nicki Bates: Sure. … I used to be simply attempting to let him know like, we’re not giving up. We aren’t backing down. We aren’t afraid of him.
Annoyed and offended, Bates gave a sufferer influence assertion on behalf of her household.
NICKI BATES (addressing Greer in courtroom): She trusted you. We trusted you. … We had to have a look at the person who murdered our mother, stroll round our neighborhood, attempting to recollect the place he put her physique. How do you not keep in mind? How has that not eaten at you day-after-day since?
Nicki Bates: I do not know what I used to be anticipating. Perhaps him to speak again. I do not know, however I ended, and I mentioned, “do you? Do you keep in mind?” And he simply stared at me.
NICKI BATES (addressing Greer in courtroom): You say you are a modified man, that you are a Christian, and if that is the case, you will proceed to speak and assist us attempt to discover her. You need forgiveness? That is what I would like. I must know, and I would like to search out her.”
Greer’s sentence for killing Tammy Myers and fleeing is 10 years.
With time served, he can be free in three years; even perhaps sooner.
Nicki Bates: Ten years for taking somebody’s life away after which simply disposing of them like rubbish. That is not sufficient.
Leslie Ramin: In case you ask me, he needs to be in jail without end.
Ramin, now retired, says Greer higher behave.
Leslie Ramin: If he does something, I am going to come again out of retirement. I am going to discover him once more.
Peter Van Sant: Are you frightened that if he will get out and it may very well be as we’re talking now in as little as three years, there could also be extra victims?
Deputy Marshal Josh Wright: I am involved about that.
Peter Van Sant: Are you as nicely, Cameron?
Deputy Marshal Cameron Welch: Sure, sir.
THE SEARCH FOR TAMMY MYERS CONTINUES
In the meantime, the seek for Tammy Myers continues with out legislation enforcement.
Texas EquuSearch is a nonprofit, volunteer, search and restoration group, that provides their companies to legislation enforcement and households without cost.
Nicki Bates: Seeing all of the volunteers out right here … I do not know any of them, and so they have saved me up to date and simply, , made me really feel so cherished.
Nicki Bates: They prayed over us.
They’ve dedicated to serving to a daughter on a mission.
Nicki Bates: However being out right here, so near residence and presumably near discovering her is just a little overwhelming.
It will not be straightforward, says canine handler Brenda Peak.
Peter Van Sant: How giant an space are you looking out right this moment?
Brenda Peak: Complete, about 4 acres.
Peak says even extremely educated canine can have hassle detecting the scent of bones buried practically 20 years in the past.
Brenda Peak: Lots of people will not take this activity as a result of it’s, it is a tough one, it is difficult.
On at the present time in February 2024, there have been three cadaver canine with handlers and greater than 30 volunteers protecting the 4 acres, and a spot that Bates and her dad requested to be searched
Nicki Bates: It takes quite a bit to not let it eat me. I attempt to concentrate on my youngsters and my husband, however they’ll inform you I am very decided … if I simply have free time at residence, I am on my pc, taking a look at maps, taking a look at … previous, , areas, what they appeared like then, what they appear like now.
After trying to find about 5 hours, the crew referred to as it quits for the day. However there was a glimmer of hope. All three canines had reacted to one thing in the identical space.
Nicki Bates: They assume that it is attainable that he drove into this space … and that possibly he buried her someplace over right here since there are, all three canine have picked up on this space.
However Texas Equusearch did not have the proper instruments to dig correctly, in order that they dedicated to attempting once more. Till then, Bates can be out looking out on her personal.
Peter Van Sant: Do you consider she is going to in the future be discovered?
Nicki Bates: I am unsure. … I’m attempting to remain hopeful, however … between climate and animals and — if he is telling the reality or not, that it is — , it may very well be exhausting.
Ryan Myers: I am hoping we are able to — we are able to put this to relaxation and — and provides Tammy a spot and get these youngsters some closure of their life, someplace they will pay their respects.
Nicki Bates: My youngsters are, they’re younger, however they’re absolutely conscious of what is taking place. And … they simply need so badly for her to be discovered. So, I am simply attempting to remain looking forward to myself, but in addition for my kids and, , simply maintain wanting ‘trigger I do not need to hand over.
Instantly after being sentenced, Greer grew to become eligible for parole. It was denied.
His subsequent parole assessment is in 2026.
Produced by Judy Rybak. Michelle Sigona and Jenna Jackson are the event producers. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Doreen Schechter is the producer-editor. Emily Wichick Hourihane is the sphere producer. Jud Johnston and Ken Blum are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is he government story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.