Cammy Keleman and Dana Feazell murdered by Jose Castillon

This season 12 episode opens with the jarring narration, "A serial killer was loose!" But by a strict definition of "serial killer", this wasn't true. I used to think that anyone who killed more than one victim was considered a serial killer. But many times since, I've heard the formal description include a "cooling off" period between murders. Jose Castillon was not known to have committed murder before his two victims on May 16, 2001. Someone who commits multiple murders in a brief span without this cooling off period is better known as a "spree killer". Later in the episode, after the second break, Castillon is referred to as a "potential serial killer". This is far more accurate – it's likely he would have continued to victimize vulnerable women until he was caught.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

By 2001, the work of FBI pioneers like Roy Hazelwood and John Douglas had made criminal profiling part of standard police investigation. Before the double murder had a suspect, profilers in Texas guessed that the perpetrator had never murdered before. He was criminally unsophisticated and left a "sloppy" scene for investigators. The combination of his empty beer cans, white wash cloths, and tire tracks were a wealth of physical evidence for the police.

Jose Castillon's step father was a Texas policeman, and he had only a minor offence on his record. It was a simple misdemeanor, and Jose served no time in jail. I share this part of Castillon's criminal history. In the 1990s, I was charged with a misdemeanor and offered Florida's "pretrial diversion" (now more commonly called PTI or Pretrial Intervention) which allows minor crimes to be expunged. With the equivalent of six months of probation, 40 hours of community service, and counselling, I was able to essentially earn a clean slate. I wonder if Castillon's misdemeanor was similar to mine. And how then does a 30-year-old with no felony charges, let alone convictions, go on to commit a double homicide?

Jose Castillon versus forensic technology

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The variety of physical evidence at the scene of Cammy Keleman's and Dana Feazell's murder was rare. Often, detectives must scour a scene for even the vaguest of clues. But to maximize the utility of these clues, investigators had to rely on various tools and techniques. Castillon's "Commander" snow tire left a near-perfect impression in the soft sand of the marsh. Forensic investigators used a standard method of preserving this imprint by making a plaster cast. Additionally, the physical characteristics of the glass from Castillon's car's rear window and glass found on one victim's leg were matched by comparing the samples' refractive indexes.

The greatest evidentiary value was possibly found with the bloody fingerprint on Cammy Keleman's thigh. First, technicians applied amido black to the patent print. This chemical reacted with the protein in the blood and enhanced the visibility and clarity of the print. Then a detailed photograph was taken of the fingerprint. But the characteristics of human skin (the victim's thigh) posed problems. Additional technology resolved these issues as well. The texture of the victim's skin made the details of the print difficult to discern. So FBI image analyst Richard Vorder Bruegge used computer enhancement to subtract the skin's surface texture. What was left was a clear print which matched Jose Castillon.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Similar technology was applied to reveal a fingerprint in the case where Robert Knight murdered 22-year-old Dawn Bruce in Virginia. The episode Soft Touch (s06e09) described Knight's fingerprint in Dawn's blood located on a pillowcase. The weave texture of the pillowcase obscured the ridge detail of the killer's print. But a computer was able to identify and remove the pattern of the pillowcase weave, and an obvious fingerprint remained. This was in 1990, and computers were still fairly novel. It took some legal wrangling and detailed demonstrations to validate this technology in a murder case.

Going back another ten years, we also found image enhancement technology at work, this time to reveal a bitemark. In Body of Evidence (s04e08), Karla Brown was murdered by John Prante in her own home. Images of the victim's injuries were shared with Dr. Homer Campbell, a forensic odontologist. Without the sophisticated imaging software of modern computers, Campbell's techniques could be considered rudimentary by comparison. But he mentioned his system of "cameras, monitors, and computers" had been in use for years by engineers and archeologists.

While making episode comparisons, I find it impossible to ignore Sergeant Joe W. Haralson, Texas Ranger. I'm not sure if Joe Haralson's and David Maxwell's service in the Rangers overlapped, but it seems both men were cut from the same cloth. In 1969, David's sister Diane Maxwell was sexually assaulted and murdered in Houston. The episode Brotherly Love (s12e22) covered David Maxwell's career through law enforcement and ascension to the Texas Rangers at age 37. His pursuit of his sister's killer hit several stumbling blocks – evidence was destroyed, the only witness died, and latent fingerprints went missing from the case file. Despite these setbacks, Maxwell's hunt finally culminated after 34 years with a cold hit in the national fingerprint database (IAFIS) in 2003.

Jose Castillon versus Jose Castillon

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Jose might have been his own worst enemy when it came to covering his tracks. Besides the literal tire tracks he left at the scene, the criminally clumsy perpetrator seemed to almost offer detective clues to help find him. He didn't consider the correlatability of the white wash cloths he left at the scene, nor the discarded beer cans. He kept very distinctive tires on his car – snow tires that had no place on a car in Texas. And don't forget the glass from his car's rear window that remained on the victim. And of course, his fingerprint on the victim's leg in her own blood is about as damning as evidence can be.

All the evidence would make convicting their culprit fairly easy at trial, but police needed to identify their suspect first. This was aided immensely by Castillon's failed abduction just three days prior (the official charges show this was 11 days prior). A street-savvy prostitute had been targeted by Jose Castillon and taken out to the marshlands. He attempted to restrain her and used a wash cloth to gag her. But it seems he used medical tape, and his potential victim managed to wriggle free. The medical tape I imagine is a thin, papery tape used to bind wounds – one of its key properties is that it's not overly sticky, as to not damage a patient's skin. Probably not a great choice for binding a victim.

And if this victim managed to free herself and escape from Castillon, did he not attempt to pursue her? If they were in a remote marshy area, couldn't he have chased her down either on foot or in his car? Instead it seems he just decided to her go, despite knowing she'd clearly seen him and his car. Part of her description to the police was Castillon's distinctive (if not of the greatest quality) tattoo of a dagger on his forearm. And the key to finding Castillon just three days after the double murder was his abductee's description of his car, including half of his tag number. If this victim-turned-informant isn't the definition of street-smart, I don't know who is.

Cammy Keleman and Dana Feazell

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

When Jose took Cammy Keleman and Dana Feazell out to the marshlands, were they all drinking or just Castillon? How did Castillon overpower both women? Is it possible one of them let themselves be bound, possibly as sex-play, and then he overpowered the other? Or was one of the women possibly impaired?

It seems Jose Castillon had been able to restrain one of his victims in the backseat of his car. Our episode doesn't reveal which of the women kicked and shattered the rear window of white Nissan. The episode also didn't mention the distinct causes of death or describe a murder weapon. A 2004 article from chron.com indicates that Castillon used a knife during the commission of his crimes.

The overwhelming evidence led Castillon to plea guilty to aggravated kidnapping of his first victim (who survived), and guilty to two counts of capital murder. Each of these three crimes came with a 99-year sentence, and it seems these are to be served consecutively. Since he'll be over 100 years old by the time he's first eligible for parole, it's highly unlikely that Jose Castillon will see the outside of a prison again.

Where is Jose Castillon now in 2024?

After his guilty pleas in 2001, Jose Castillon was sentenced and incarcerated in Texas Department of Criminal Justice's William P. Clements state prison unit in Amarillo, Texas. He'll receive initial consideration for parole in 2074.