When police began to investigate the murder of Kimberly Langwell, there was no way of knowing the horrors that would unfold next. Her disappearance was just the beginning…
It was a fresh start for Kimberly Langwell and her teenage daughter Tiffani, 15. Kimberly, 34, was six months out of a difficult relationship and was building a new future for her and her child. Being cheated on had finally given her the strength to walk away from her ex. She had even started dating someone new. It was July 1999 and Kimberly lived in Beaumont, Texas and worked at the local chemical plant.
Six months earlier, she had broken up with her ex-boyfriend, Terry Rose. They’d been together over six years but, during that time, Rose had been controlling and had even admitted to slapping Kimberly. Kimberly had confided in friends that she was frightened about what he might do if she left him, but when she discovered that Rose was having an affair with her friend, Kimberly had ended it, taking her daughter from a previous relationship with her.
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Kimberly had moved on. She was dating a colleague from work, Ken Weatherford, and they had been together three months. It seemed that Rose was still keen to make it work as he messaged Kimberly constantly. He would send her gifts and even $500 to go towards a holiday in Mexico that Kimberly said she was taking with her female friends. In fact, Kimberly went with her new boyfriend. When Rose found out, he was displeased.
A few weeks after the holiday, on 9 July 1999, Kimberly left work around 5pm and was due to meet her daughter at home for dinner with her and Ken. Kimberly called Tiffani to confirm that she’d be home around 6.30pm and said she was dropping in to see Rose on the way as he needed help hanging some boards as part of some remodelling plans.
Ken appeared for dinner, but Kimberly didn’t return home. At 10.30pm Kimberly’s car was found abandoned in a car park in front of a pharmacy. Her keys and handbag were inside but not her mobile phone. She was reported missing. It was clear to anyone who knew the devoted mum that Kimberly would never have left her daughter.
Had she been kidnapped from the car park? There were no signs of a struggle, and no witnesses had seen her get in or out of the car. Investigators spoke to Rose. He admitted that his ex-girlfriend had stopped by his house but hadn’t stayed long. Afterwards, he’d met his friend and former employee, David Wiley, and they’d played pool together from 9.30pm until after midnight. Wiley confirmed this.
Police searched Rose’s home and while it was untidy from the renovations, there were no signs of violence. They followed all leads, including questioning a married supervisor who liked Kimberly and had given her gifts and love letters, but he had an alibi. All lines of enquiry ran cold. Kimberly’s family and the police believed that Rose knew more than he was saying but there was no evidence. In April 2024, the case was still unsolved and Kimberly was still missing, presumed dead. Rose was still the prime suspect and the police refused to give up. They started to put pressure on David Wiley. Suddenly, Wiley told them he was willing to talk in return for full immunity. The police were unsure – if he’d helped Rose kill Kimberly, that would make him an accomplice. But Wiley said he just had information, so they agreed.
Wiley said that on the day Kimberly vanished, Rose called him at 6.15pm and asked him to pick him up from a car park. When Wiley arrived, Rose was in Kimberly’s car. Wiley then dropped him off home. Later that night, they met to play pool and met again the next day, when Rose confessed that he’d had an argument with Kimberly and he’d shot her in the head. Wiley told detectives Rose admitted to hiding her body in a gap underneath a bedroom.
By now, 24 years later, Rose still lived in the same house with his common-law wife Violet, who had been with him for 20 years. Police got a search warrant. They used ground penetrating radar to scan all the rooms and discovered the floor in the bedroom that Rose and Violet shared, sounded hollow. Police broke open the tiled floor and found a cavity that contained human bones.
Kimberly had never left that house. Rose had been sleeping above her body, with his new partner, for two decades. When Violet was told, she was in shocked disbelief. Rose was charged with murder and Kimberly was carefully excavated. She had been wrapped in a blanket and had a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Finally Tiffani had her mum’s body and some answers – even if it broke her heart.
A week before the trial in 2025, Rose was offered a plea deal that he accepted. In return for pleading guilty, he would get a maximum of 40 years without the chance to appeal. There would be no trial, the judge would determine the length of sentence.
In December 2025, the prosecution said Rose had realised he’d lost Kimberly as she’d moved on with someone new. Wiley took the stand and finally told the truth. He described how Rose had confessed to shooting his ex in the back of the head. Wiley said he’d confessed because he couldn’t live with the guilt. It was small consolation for the family, including Tiffani who had suffered years of grief.
A recording of a phone conversation by Rose in jail to his son was played in court and he could be heard describing the night he’d shot Kimberly. “Uh, you know, I’m not like a psychopath, sociopath, crazy ass, you know I’m not none of that… I had a bad day, I dealt with it wrong.” Rose could then be heard talking about harming Tiffani and how he would “pee in a cup” to send his son to pour over her grave. Tiffani gave her victim impact statement and described her mum as “vibrant, witty, and fiercely protective”. “Milestones that should have been shared with my mom; my 16th birthday, my 18th birthday, my high school graduation. The day I found out I was pregnant. The births of my two children. Each of their birthdays… have all been shadowed by her absence. “Knowing what my mother’s final moments must have been like is terrifying. The reality that she was buried beneath this man’s house all of these years, held captive even in death, is unbearable.”
The judge spoke directly to Rose: “The fact on that phone call that you said you’re not a psychopath… Who isn’t a psychopath that kills someone that they once cared about and buries them in their house and lives on top of them for 25 years? I would think that’s the definition in Webster’s dictionary of a psychopath.”
As the judge sentenced him to 40 years, she added that there was part of her that wished she hadn’t accepted the plea and they’d gone to trial, as she believed a jury would have given him a life sentence. Rose, now 68, will serve half his sentence before being eligible for parole.
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