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Pregnant Belynda Tillery murdered by ex Troy Armstrong

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

After their separation, Troy Armstrong learned his ex Belynda Tillery was pregnant. They took a camping trip to talk about it, and Belynda never returned.

Original air date: July 13, 2005

Posted: July 28, 2023
By: Robert S.

Season 10, Episode 6

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Youth and inexperience often lead to poor decisions, and 17-year-old Belynda Tillery was no exception. Instead of looking forward to typical end-of-high-school events like prom and graduation, Belynda worked as an exotic dancer, recently ended an abusive relationship, and was pregnant. But when she discovered that she was to become a mother, Belynda sought to turn her life around. With her family's support, Blynda's plans included returning to school, finding legitimate employment, and being the best mom she could be.

It was unknown whether Belynda's abusive ex-boyfriend, Troy Armstrong, was the father of her baby. When Armstrong's new girlfriend found out about his potential fatherhood, she called their relationship quits. Angela Allen wanted Troy to find out whether or not he was the baby's father, and to step up accordingly. But Troy became disgruntled by the turn of events, and he had other plans.

Using her experience and talent, forensic artist Karen Taylor was able to provide a face for the victim's skull
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

He suggested Belynda could go camping with him, and they could discuss the pregnancy situation. Troy borrowed camping gear from a friend, and on a warm night in July 1992, the two set out to Yellow House Canyon, about 30 minutes southeast of Lubbock, Texas. From that night on, no one heard from nor saw Belynda Tillery again.

Nearly a year later, hunters found a human skull in Yellow House Canyon. Authorities scoured the scene and found smaller bones, a strand of hair, bits of clothing and a woman's shoe. Initial attempts to match the skull to a victim turned up nothing. Forensic artist Karen Taylor was brought in to attempt putting a face to the skull – perhaps a person's likeness could lead to an identification. And in 1996, after seeing Taylor's rendition in the newspaper one morning, Beverly Tillery, Belynda's mother, thought the drawing looked like her missing daughter.

The circumstantial clues pointed to Troy Armstrong as Belynda's killer, but authorities lacked any physical evidence. Despite this, a warrant was issued for Armstrong's arrest. But instead of securing Troy Armstrong for an interrogation, police discovered he'd gone on the run. They use technology and good old-fashioned policework to find Armstrong and convict him of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend during their fateful camping trip in 1992.

The Facts

Case Type: Crime

Crime

  • Murder

Date & Location

  • July, 1992
  • Yellow House Canyon, Texas

Victim

  • Belynda Tillery (Age: 17)

Perpetrator

  • Troy Armstrong (Age: 27)

Weapon

  • Knife

Watch Forensic Files: Season 10, Episode 6
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The Evidence

Forensic Evidence

  • Property: Victim's

Forensic Tools/Techniques

  • Facial reconstruction

Usual Suspects

No Evil Geniuses Here
?

  • Told another about involvement in crime

Cringeworthy Crime Jargon
?

  • "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's probably a duck"

File This Under...
?

  • Stripper / Strip club

The Experts

Forensic Experts

  • Karen T. Taylor: Forensic Artist

Quotable Quotes

Angela noticed an injury on Troy's hand and blood on his clothes when he returned from his camping trip with Belynda
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files
  • "One woman came up and said that she knew her husband had done it because he was a knife freak, and said, ‘Oh by the way, we’re having a custody battle tomorrow – can you give me a copy of this report for my lawyer?’ (laughs) So…" - Capt. Tom Watson: Lead Investigator
  • "I told him that he needed to go talk to her. If she wanted an abortion, he needed to pay for it. If she wanted to have the baby, he needed to support her in that. Ya know, no matter what her decision was that he needed to be part of it and help her take care of, ya know, the problem that he was involved in. Or else I really didn’t want anything to do him – he needed to get the hell out of my life." - Angela Allen: Troy Armstrong’s ex-girlfriend
  • "In my experience, people who attempt to match a particular knife to an injury venture a little too far from the shores of sanity. " - Dr. Harrell Gill-King, Ph.D.: Forensic Anthropologist
  • "He showed up on my doorstep on his return trip, and he had blood on his hands, and there was a cut on his hand … There was no reason for me not to believe it, ya know?" - Angela Allen: Troy Armstrong’s ex-girlfriend
  • "He’s got these beady little eyes that makes you feel uneasy. Looks like a rat, smells like a rat, ya know, pretty much gonna be a rat – and he had ‘rat’ written on him from the beginning. " - Walter Tillery: Belynda's Brother
  • "My final argument was, ‘Give him a life sentence unless you can find anything decent about him.’ You know, in less than an hour they came back with a life sentence. I think that says a lot about Troy Armstrong." - Frank Webb: Prosecutor

TV Show About This Case

  • The New Detectives: Faces of Tragedy (s02e05)

Book About This Case

Last Words

This episode afforded me the opportunity to introduce a new forensic "Tool" to the collection: Two-dimensional facial reconstruction. Having watched endless true crime content, the concept was not foreign to me. Of course, one of my clearest recollections of this technique's use was from Forensic Files itself – a popular season one episode: The List Murders (s01e12).

The forensic artistry used by expert Frank Bender in this early episode wasn't two-dimensional. Instead, the series America's Most Wanted asked Bender to create a bust of murderer John List and to age him appropriately. The images police had of list were nearly 20 years old, and the John List they now sought in 1989 would look quite different. But in describing Bender's techniques, it's learned that his specialty is three-dimensional facial reconstruction. This art attempts to approximate a person's appearance using their skull and very little else. The mix of talent, science, and intuition can spark renewed awareness of what's often become a cold case.

The thickness of skin on various parts of a person's face is consistent, so depth markers are placed to begin approximating flesh
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Our episode began with a skull found in Yellow House Canyon, and authorities' need to match it to a victim. Other bones told investigators that the deceased had been a young female, and a single hair provided additional clues. When dozens of missing women's dental records failed to match the skull, police believed facial reconstruction might allow someone to identify the victim. Forensic artist Karen Taylor recreated the steps she took to develop a face for Belynda's skull.

Unlike Bender's sculpting, Taylor reworked Belynda's likeness in two dimensions. Our episode claimed that Karen Taylor pioneered some of the techniques used in this practice – I wonder if Frank Bender also worked in two-dimensional reconstruction. The picture developed by Taylor was distributed by the media, and it didn't take long for Belynda's mother to zero in on the likeness of her missing daughter.

Belynda, Troy, Angela, and Lubbock

It was stated that Belynda Tillery worked at a "local night club" as a dancer. This is a gentle turn of phrase to describe what was more likely a gentleman's club owned by the outlaw biker gang, the Bandidos. How long Belynda worked there was not shared, but she was under the age of 18 at the time of her disappearance. Basically, her family condoned their underage daughter dancing in a sleazy bar owned by career criminals. One would think that Belynda would be in more danger at such a place, but on the night of her disappearance, her brother Walter had given her a ride home.

It was after her shift that Belynda accompanied Troy Armstrong on a camping trip to Yellow House Canyon, about a half hour drive from Lubbock. Their trip was ostensibly so the ex-partners could discuss Belynda's recent pregnancy. It was unknown if the child belonged to Armstrong or a more recent partner of Belynda's. Either way, it was felt the situation led to Angela Allen ending her relationship with Troy – or at least this might've been how Troy felt. Allen used a poorer choice of words when she called Belynda's pregnancy "the problem that he was involved in."

Never go camping with your ex

While investigators never recovered a murder weapon, Belynda's remains indicated she'd been stabbed at least 12 times
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

If Forensic Files has taught me one thing, it's to never go camping with your partner – current or prior. No good has come from one of these camping trips in the few episodes this occurs.

Start with Muddy Waters (s09e20) which sees Bruce Dodson go camping with new wife Janice in western Colorado. After only three months of marriage, Janice Dodson shoots and kills her husband Bruce and attempts to make it look like a hunting accident. She also has Bruce's dog put to sleep and may have attempted to frame her ex-husband, JC Lee.

Head Games (s09e10) finds Candra Torres celebrating her first wedding anniversary to husband Julio with a camping trip to Mount Hood. They meet fellow camper Tom Brown who murders Julio and repeatedly assaults Candra. The episode Crime Seen (s03e10) starts off with a young couple camping in rural Virginia. They're awoken by a stranger pretending to be a policeman. The stranger then pulls a gun and orders the man to run into the woods. He assaults the 22-year-old female, but fortunately he lets both victims survive. Poor policework leads to the wrong man, Edward Honaker being convicted.

Troy Armstrong on the run

Once the skull found in Yellow House Canyon was identified as Belynda's in 1996, Angela Allen had no doubts Troy Armstrong had killed his ex. Despite Troy's threats to harm her family, Allen told police about Armstrong's trucker friend living out in California. Little was understood about global positioning satellite technology in the mid-90s, but GPS was used to locate Armstrong's friend in Nebraska.

Once the warrant for Troy Armstrong's arrest had been issued, he knew he needed to hide out. Armstrong probably believed Angela Allen either wouldn't think of his trucker friend, or would be scared to share her knowledge with police. If I was hiding out, I'd likely choose a person or location less known to anyone. And how long did Troy hope his friend would let him stay in his truck's sleeper compartment? The trucker's vocation (and even his freedom) was already at risk by harboring the fugitive. Did Troy's friend receive any punishment for aiding and abetting the murderer? How much about Troy's crime was his friend aware of?

A fitting end for Troy Armstrong

One of many court appearances for Troy Armstrong leading up to his trial for Belynda's Tillery's murder
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The technology used to share photographs over phone lines was still lacking in 1996. This is evident by the version of Karen Taylor's drawing that's shown in a newspaper at the beginning of the show's second segment. The reenactment has Belynda's mother Beverly skimming the newspaper before work and seeing the artist's rendition. When compared to the high-quality version developed by Taylor, it's somewhat surprising that Beverly recognized the image potentially resembling her missing daughter.

The best physical evidence against Troy Armstrong was the collection of Belynda's personal items recovered from his storage locker. This was said to include her license, and "items she would have had with her after leaving her job at the nightclub." But the sequence of events doesn't align with this. It was stated her brother had given her a ride home on the evening in question – so she should've been able to drop off her things before camping. Adding more confusion to this, multiple articles found on the internet indicated Belynda had supposedly gone camping with white high-heeled shoes.

Before Karen Taylor's talents were recruited for a two-dimensional facial reconstruction, the skull was matched against the dental records of 64 missing women of a similar age range. If these potential victims were also organized in respect to how long they'd been missing, why didn't this pool include Belynda? Lubbock was only 30 minutes from Yellow House Canyon – it seems Belynda should've been among the first missing persons to be considered.

Where is Troy Armstrong now in 2024?

Troy Armstrong's evasion from law enforcement ended when Nebraska Highway Patrol stopped him with a roadblock
Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

After a four-day trial, a jury deliberated for just two hours before finding Troy Armstrong guilty of the first-degree murder of Belynda Tillery in December 1996. He was sentenced to life in prison, and according to Rebecca at Forensic Files Now, Armstrong resides in the Alfred Hughes facility in Gatesville, Texas. A 1997 appeal by Armstrong's defense was overruled by the Court of Appeals of Texas.  Decades later, a parole board also elected to not grant Armstrong's release in 2021.

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Author Robert S. profile image
Robert S.
I've been a fan of Forensic Files since the show's inception, and it is still my favorite true crime series. I have seen every episode several times, and I am considered an expert on the series and the cases it covers.