Cold case solved; 15 year old murder

Arrests made in 1994 murder of two year old son of local couple

By ART LAWLER

More than 15 years ago, a 23-month-old toddler and his grandmother from Mabank were found dead.

The grandmother was savagely beaten and shot..

A little Mabank boy, Kasey Wyatt Roberts, bound to his safety seat in a stolen car in Red Oak, waited for two days for his grandmother to come back.

Hypothemia and dehydration, ended his wait.

Kevin Roberts, the child’s father, was a Mabank police officer at the time. He and his wife, Cheryl have lived “through mortal hell for the last 15 years,” waiting for justice; justice they’d all but given up on ever seeing.

It was Cheryl’s mother, then 53-year-old Robbie Jean Biggar, of Lancaster, who had picked up the child from a daycare center to come over and the spend the night with her.

Now comes word from the Ellis County Sheriff’s Department that one of two prime suspects couldn’t keep his mouth shut about his roll in the crimes.

Two girlfriends became ex-girlfriends and told on him, according to Ellis County Sheriff’s Investigators, Lt. Jason Westmoreland, along with Sgt. Sims.

“This is the best we’ve felt in 15 years,” Roberts told the Pilot Tuesday

Boyd’s words, or boasts, to his girlfriends, authorities say, represented the break the investigators needed.

The prime suspect who couldn’t keep quiet about his roll in the crimes was Galen Boyd.

Boyd is reported to be a longtime friend of Larry Samples, 61, boyfriend of the slain woman.

Boyd, 48, of Katy is being held on a $1 million bond and Sample, 61, is being held on a $2 million bond.

Samples had been out on parole on forgery convictions relating to the case, until his recent arrest.

Samples, from Arlington, was a prime suspect in the case from the beginning, authorities said.

Westmoreland said Boyd confided in “numerous” persons that he was responsible.”

This cold case dated all the way back to March of 1994, until Westmoreland ordered it reopened earlier this year.

With the testimony of the former girlfriends, the case has thawed considerably.

Neveretheless, investigators had not been able to charge Samples with murder until the recent break in the case.

Samples had even gone to prison nevertheless after being found guilty of forging his former girlfriend (Mrs. Biggar’s) name on documents when he alleged she had sold him her home for $10,000 — roughly one tenth of its assessed value at the time.

A year after Mrs. Biggar’s death, Samples was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defrauding the woman’s bank and insurance company of more than $11,000.

Samples had forged her signature on an insurance company check reimbursing her for $4,700 in home repair costs.

A jury also found him guilty of stealing a portion of a home improvement loan by forging her signature on a $6,500 check, according to a Dallas Morning News story.

Until Boyd’s alleged former girlfriends talked earlier this year, though, law enforcement officials had not been able to connect the two to the crimes.

The Roberts’ said they received two messages the next day (Saturday) from Samples wanting to know what had happened to the woman and her grandson.

Samples told Mrs. Roberts that he had last seen her mother at 10 p.m. Friday on the weekend of her death. The two were supposed to meet at Lake Whitney, he is said to have told her.

Samples told Mrs. Roberts when Mrs. Biggar didn’t show up, he called her.

According to clips from the Cedar Creek Pilot at the time, Mrs. Roberts said it struck her as unusual because her mother called her four or five times a day.

Mrs. Biggar, according to her daughter, did call that Friday night to tell her daughter good night. Kasey had also spoken to her.

“Good night, Mom. I love you. Sweet dreams,” she remembered her child saying at the time.

Mr. Roberts told the Dallas Morning News for it’s Sunday edition at the time, that whoever left Kasey in the car, ‘killed the most awesome child in the world.”

Now, after the long wait, the family has renewed hope that justice might be served.

The toddler who was left to die that weekend, would most likely have been starting his senior year of high school this fall, so the pain

lingers with acquaintances like Ann Gipson, who was Robbie Biggar’s best friend.

This has been a long time coming,” she told a Dallas Morning News reporter.

“You can’t bring them back, but you want justice served.”

County Sheriff Ray Nutt who had helped the family as a Texas Ranger in the early days of the investigation.

Much of this story came from 1994 files of the Cedar Creek Pilot, and clips from the Dallas Morning News.