James Otto Earhart

James Otto Earhart (April 29, 1943 – August 11, 1999) was an American murderer, kidnapper and suspected serial killer executed for the 1987 kidnap-murder of 9-year-old Kandy Janell Kirtland in Bryan, Texas. Suspected in at least one more murder during his lifetime, Earhart was posthumously linked to a 1981 murder via DNA conducted by Parabon NanoLabs in 2019, and authorities are investigating whether he can be linked to any other violent crimes committed in Brazos County.

Kirtland case On May 12, 1987, 9-year-old Kandy Janell Kirtland, a fourth-grade student at Crockett Elementary School in Bryan, Texas was dropped off by bus at an intersection steps away from her house. Reportedly, she left her backpack at the front door as she used her key to open the door. She put her key down in the kitchen and went back to retrieve her backpack. At around 3:40 PM, the girl was seen talking to a man who had parked his car in front of the driveway. When her parents returned home, Kirtland was not at home but her key was next to the stove and her backpack was still at the front door and they quickly reported her missing.

Authorities interviewed witnesses, who described the man as a heavyset white male with either dishwater blond or brown hair, weighing approximately 400 pounds and driving a brown/burnt orange 1976 model Chevrolet Impala. They also claimed that he had stopped by the house on the previous day, inquiring whether he could buy a paint gun from the Kirtlands. Soon after, the FBI became involved in the case, and an identikit was distributed to help locate the suspect. On May 22, the Bryan Police Department issued an arrest warrant for James Otto Earhart, a 44-year-old local junk dealer who lived in a house shared with his mother and siblings, who matched the description of Kirtland's abductor. The respective victims were 51-year-old Ruth Richardson Green, who was abducted from a Bryan bakery on February 8, 1986, and found shot to death near Huntsville, while the other was 71-year-old Alice Martin, a retired Normangee postmistress who was found stabbed to death on February 14, 1987.

On May 28, the autopsy confirmed that the body indeed belonged to Kirtland, resulting in Earhart being charged with capital murder and first-degree kidnapping. Due to the severity of the crime, the trial venue was moved to Giddings and Earhart was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation at the Memorial City Hospital in Houston. Earhart made no final statement, and was executed via lethal injection in the Huntsville Unit on the designated date. An examination of DNA extracted from underneath her fingernails led to a familial match to Earhart's son, and with this, the company brought their findings to the authorities.