You've probably seen countless crime TV shows and movies about serial killers driving miles out to the nearest desolate stretch of land to dump the bodies of their victims. You probably thought situations like that only occur in movies, or at the very least, not anywhere near you. What if I told you that a place like that exists right here in Texas - maybe right in your backyard?

If there's a place where getting away with murder is easy, it's here. The 25 mile area is comprised of marshes, overgrown vegetation, abandoned oil fields, and wildlife and ferocious natural elements that destroy evidence in the blink of an eye.

There's such ease of access, too, making it even more enticing to murderers. All it takes is exiting I-45 and turning down a dirt road to find yourself face-to-face with the fields.

Laura Miller was one of the young women murdered in the fields. Law enforcement didn't do an adequate job of trying to locate her body and bring justice to her killer, so her family decided to take matters into their own hands.

Their efforts were in vain but they kept their hope alive - and it paid off. 9 years after Laura's disappearance, a suspect emerged: Robert Abel. He was a brilliant scientists who helped get the Saturn rocket to the moon, and he leased a horse stable adjacent to the killing fields. He may sound innocent enough, but he has a dark side.

Intelligent, methodical...sounds exactly like how a scientist would be described. Not to mention two of his ex-wives told investigators that he became violent when they refused to be intimate with him and that he regularly beat his horses.

For 6 years, Abel was believed to be a murderer and viewed as scum of society. Laura's father, Tim Miller, tried as hard as possible to put him behind bars - but there was no evidence apart from Abel fitting the FBI profile of the killer. Abel couldn't bear the hate anymore, so one day, he drove his golf cart onto a set of railroad tracks and let an oncoming train take his life.

Five months after Abel died, Tim Miller received this chilling letter that resembles a classic mystery novel. Nothing ever came of it, but it definitely added to the eerie, haunting air about the whole situation.

That wasn't the first message from someone claiming to be the killer - over the years, investigators were teased with many confession letters and phone calls (one of which inspired this scene in a film made about the killing fields.)

The killer behind the phone call was caught and convicted, and his victim lived. The same can't be said for the numerous other young women who were found in the fields, sadly.

It was once believed that the murders were all connected and could be traced back to one killer, but due to the time span between them, investigators now believe many different people were responsible. Although coincidental, it isn't all that far-fetched of a notion considering the killing fields are an ideal place to commit "the perfect crime" so to speak.

This man, Kevin Smith, was arrested on a drug charge in Louisiana. His DNA was taken as part of a routine drug test - nobody had any idea the breakthrough this would lead to. When the blouse of Krystal Jean Baker, a young women whose body was found in the fields, was submitted for DNA testing, there was a match - and it was Smith.

Unfortunately, that was the only conviction that was able to be made in regards to the killing field murders. However, there is a bright side to everything, even events as morbid as these. Tim Miller is now a nationally known search-and-rescuer, helping recover bodies of tragically slain victims. Luckily, the murders seem to have come to an end - no bodies have been found in the fields in the past few years.

I had no idea such evil resided in the state of Texas. Have you heard of the Texas Killing Fields? What are your thoughts on the countless unsolved murders of young women whose bodies were found there? Share your comments below.