Jurors in the Texas Killing Fields trial heard a recorded police interview Tuesday, Sept. 1, in which James Dolphs Elmore Jr. admitted he helped dump a teenage girl's body. The body ended up in a League City oil field off Calder Road, where Laura Lynn Miller's remains were found in February 1986.

Elmore, 61, is charged with manslaughter in the 1984 death of Miller, a 16-year-old Clear Creek High School sophomore who disappeared Sept. 10, 1984. Her remains were found near the remains of three other women. The site became known as the Texas Killing Fields.

As we reported Tuesday, jury selection wrapped up Monday. Testimony began Tuesday at the Galveston County courthouse.

Galveston County Chief Assistant District Attorney Katelyn Willis opened the case by telling jurors that Elmore "knew things that had never been made public, things that no one should know unless they were there," the Houston Chronicle reported. Defense attorney William Agnew did not offer an opening statement.

Prosecutors then played the recorded interview. In it, Elmore described himself as a heavy drug user and said he knew a body was in a load of trash that co-suspect Clyde Hedrick dumped in the oil field where Miller's remains were later found. Elmore also said he did not directly see Hedrick inject Laura with cocaine, according to the Chronicle.

Stephen Cox, a retired League City Police Department evidence technician, was the first witness called. Cox took photos and video of the bodies found in the Killing Fields in 1986. Prosecutors showed jurors a silent video Cox shot of the overgrown field, with police and firefighters near a metal wellhead guard marking the spot where the remains were discovered.

Tim Miller, 79, Laura's father and Texas EquuSearch founder, took the stand later Tuesday. He told the jury he last saw his daughter on Sept. 10, 1984. She was wearing a blue one-piece jumpsuit, flip-flops and a gold cross necklace, KPRC 2 reported.

Willis said in her opening statement that Elmore first contacted Texas EquuSearch in 2022 seeking help finding his own missing daughter. After that daughter called, Elmore opened up about Laura Miller's death. Over the next several years, Elmore directed Tim Miller to locations and described details the elder Miller believed were not public knowledge, including pointing out Hedrick's former Dickinson home two houses from a home where the Miller family once lived.

Tim Miller testified that Elmore described being inside Hedrick's home the night Laura died. According to Miller, Elmore said the group had been using drugs, that Elmore mixed cocaine in a syringe and injected himself, then prepared a second syringe and handed it to Hedrick. Miller said Elmore told him Hedrick injected Laura despite a warning the dose was too large.

"Mr. Elmore said he'd seen Laura shaking and shaking, laying back down, taking her last breath," Tim Miller testified, according to KPRC 2.

Tim Miller acknowledged under cross-examination that he paid Elmore nearly $33,000 over several years. That included $25,000 in reward money and about $8,000 more because Elmore was facing financial and medical problems. Miller said he wanted to keep Elmore close as a source of information about other missing women.

At a pretrial hearing in August, Tim Miller told KHOU that seeing Elmore in court for the first time caught him off guard: "I thought I was prepared … I wasn't when I seen him, I wasn't."

Hedrick, the longtime prime suspect in the Killing Fields cases, died by suicide in March 2026. A detective testified Tuesday that she had confronted Hedrick at a Houston hospital and told him she intended to return with an indictment. He died the following morning.

Galveston County Medical Examiner Erin Barnhart testified that an autopsy found a bullet inside the body later identified as Audrey Lee Cook's. Laura Miller's remains showed no signs of fatal trauma, and Barnhart said it would have been impossible to test for an overdose.

Elmore also faces two counts of felony evidence tampering tied to the deaths of Laura Miller and Cook, one count of possession of visual material depicting sexual assault and one count of possession of child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted of manslaughter, he faces two to 20 years in prison. Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday at the Galveston County courthouse.