Accused Serial Killer Appears In Court, Waives Right To Speedy Trial

On Thursday, accused killer William Reece, 57, waived his right to a speedy trial and a judge set his preliminary hearing for October 10.

For the past several years, Reece has been in a Texas prison, serving time for kidnapping a woman there who was able to escape and testify against him. He is now facing First-Degree Murder and kidnapping charges in the 1997 death and disappearance of Tiffany Johnston of Oklahoma.

On Thursday morning, he came face to face with her husband and mother inside an Oklahoma County courtroom.

“He wouldn't look at me he wouldn't look at any of us,” said Kathy Dobry, Tiffany’s mother. “He was looking down at the ground.”

Dobry says she fought tirelessly to keep her daughter's case from growing cold. And credits the OSBI for taking a closer look at the case when Stan Florence took over as director of the agency.

She says her 19-year-old daughter had just married her high school sweetheart when she disappeared from a Bethany car wash back on July 26, 1997. Her body was found the next day, dumped in a field in Yukon.

On Tuesday, her husband made sure he was here to see Tiffany's accused killer for himself.

“I loved her beyond anything,” said Ryan Johnston, but that’s all he would say.

Reece also stands accused of killing a 12-year-old girl in Texas as well as two grown women. This spring he led Texas authorities to two bodies he buried near the Houston area. He is yet to be charged in those murders, but DNA evidence helped Oklahoma prosecutors file capital murder charges in Tiffany's case.

“And she's with me today saying okay mom, you got this,” said Dobry. “We made it this far we're going to see it to the end.”

Court records show Reece had also spent time in an Oklahoma prison in the late 1980s for kidnapping and woman in Cleveland County and for raping a woman in Caddo County. He was sentenced to a total of 28 years, but served only 6 years. He was released in the summer of 1993.

“We always hoped but in my lifetime I really didn't think I'd see this day,” said Dobry.