Beoria Simmons

Beoria Abraham Simmons II (born May 17, 1954) is an American serial killer who kidnapped and murdered two women and a teenage girl in Jefferson County, Kentucky, between 1981 and 1983. He was arrested after failing to kidnap a fourth victim, and by the time of his capture, another man had been wrongfully imprisoned for one of his crimes. Simmons was convicted and originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2010.

Early life Simmons was born on May 17, 1954, in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a retired Army sergeant. Although little was reported about his childhood, as a young man he attended Louisville's Spalding College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in social work. Afterwards, a supervisor netted him a date with his sister-in-law. Six months before his 1983 arrest, Simmons was granted a job as a halfway house counselor. He was considered an upstanding citizen by his peers, but a psychiatrist who would later evaluate Simmons before his trial diagnosed him with mild depression.

Murders Robin L. Barnes On May 18, 1981, a fisherman discovered the body of Robin L. Barnes, 15, in a marshy area in southern Jefferson County. Barnes was a middle school cheerleader who had a history of running away and was known to hitchhike. Barnes' body was fully clothed, and police originally began investigating her relatives and acquaintances and reportedly conducted as many as 75 interviews with people with connections to her. Detectives found a singular pubic hair on her coat, which suggested she had been raped. The only thing similar was that both had been raped, but police still had no evidence at the time to suggest that they were connected.

As with Barnes' case, police investigated acquaintances of House, but all were eventually ruled out. During the investigation, detectives uncovered a bullet casing, which was confirmed to have been fired from a .360 caliber pistol, which investigators used to link both cases together. When there, the man got out and ordered her to do the same, but when she did she stabbed him with a pocketknife and ran away. The man attempted to force Downes into his car, which was a lime-green Chevrolet Camaro, but instead of getting in she ran to a nearby bus attempting to get it to stop, and the man drove away. She described her attacker as a black man with large arms, a heavyset build, a big head, and no facial hair. Police began investigating Paul Davis Thomas, a black man with a similar build who owned a dark green vehicle.

Following this, Thomas was given three lie detector tests, all of which proved he was telling the truth when he denied committing the crime. When Downes returned to Kentucky from North Carolina, she was shown Simmons' photo, and identified him as the culprit who she ran into that night. In 2010, his sentence was changed to 6 life terms without parole after a successful appeal. In a deal with prosecutors, Simmons agreed to waive his right to parole.