CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It's a case that rattled the Coastal Bend in December of 1985. A loving couple, Gary and Stephanie Gillette, were found murdered in their bedroom on December 15, 1985.
Decades later, their loved ones, including Gary's daughters, still feel the sadness that surrounds the murder, especially because it was never solved.
"I was terrified to leave the house, I was scared to do anything, and every time I would close my eyes, that's all I saw, was my dad's face," Candice Curtis, the youngest of the Gillette daughters, said.
"I'm scared again, but instead of just being scared, and just feeling like a victim, I'm mad, like I want to know," Kristie, the middle daughter, said.
It was the most wonderful time of the year, December 13th, 1985. Shae, 14, Kristie 11, and Candice, 9, were about to go to their father Gary and stepmother Stephanie's home to decorate.
"I loved going over to dad's house Like I always got to sit and brush Stephanie's hair, and I learned how to french braid on her hair," Kristie said.
"She's just absolutely beautiful, she was, inside and out, her personality," Candice added.
Shae, the oldest daughter, said she hoped to go out with her friends that night but, it was her dad's turn to watch the girls. However, they got a call from Gary, the last time the daughters would hear from him.
"Said, 'hey listen, we had some Christmas parties pop up, don't think we're gonna be able to make it tonight, we'll come to get you tomorrow,'" Shae recalled the conversation with her dad.
The next day, December 14th, the daughters anxiously awaited a call from either Gary or Stephanie, but they never called. Shae, who was headed to a movie in Corpus Christi with her friends, stopped by the house to see if they were home.
"When I noticed all the lights in the house, everybody that was with me, just walking around the house, the garage door was wide open," Shae said.
Shae said she had a clear view from the window she was looking into, of the whole house, but what she didn't see, was Stephanie and Gary.
"They were in there, and I had no vision of that whatsoever," she said.
Shae returned home to Portland that evening. As she went over the Harbor Bridge, a gruesome scene of blood and violence flashed through her head.
"Something in my stomach told me right there that something wasn't, I mean besides the scene itself, something wasn't right," she said.
On December 15th, Shae and her mother, Debbie, went back to Corpus Christi to swing by the house off of Sweet Briar Circle near Everhart Road and Snowgoose Lane.
"Once we rounded this corner right here there were cars all the way, all the way probably to right around here, just packed, and I think we had to park somewhere, right around here on this corner, and we had to run, from where we parked down here," the mother and daughter explained.
It was a horrific scene: cop cars, first responders, bystanders, and news vehicles swarmed Gary and Stephanie's home. They would soon learn the couple had been stabbed to death in their bedroom.
Eventually, Shae and Debbie returned to Kristie and Candice in Portland to deliver the news.
"My mom walks into the like doorway of the kitchen, and she lifts her sunglasses, and her face is just like tear stains, blotchy, swollen, and I'm like 'he's dead isn't' he?' and she was like 'yeah' and that's- I just knew,'" Kristie said.
Autopsy results reported the couple had multiple stab wounds to their bodies from a knife and hatchet.
On December 17th, the beloved couple was laid to rest. The daughters, Gary's ex-wife Debbie and family members continued to mourn the loss as police began an investigation that would last decades.
The sisters recalled reading details about the slaying and what was found at the scene. Hundreds of fingerprints were reportedly found in the house, but one always stuck out.
When officials arrived on the scene, Gary's car was gone. The sisters said it was eventually found blocks away from home, on Wimbledon Drive. Reports say a fingerprint was found on the rearview window, but when it was tested years later, a match didn't come up.
Who could have committed such a heinous crime? The sisters say there was only one person who was suspected of the crime: a man who claimed to be a close friend of Gary's.
"I could not tell you what the man looked like. I don't remember him being a pallbearer at the funeral, I don't remember ever speaking to this man," Kristie said.
The sisters agreed to anyone who was a close friend of their parents' was someone they would have met, and they did not know who this man was.
The case was thrown out due to a lack of evidence, but the sisters still have questions and doubts.
"I just think that he had jealousy overall of my dad, I think he wanted everything that he had," Candice said.
"I want him to sit down and tell me how you can live for 34 years, with that in your head, how do you not close your eyes and see that scene, every single time?" Kristie said.
In the past decades, the daughters have become advocates and investigators; they want the truth.
"I'm gonna find out who killed my dad," Candice said.
"The more people we get this out there too, the better the possibilities that we're gonna find someone to help us out," Kristie added.
The sisters have spoken on numerous like Gone Cold Podcast, which covers crime in Texas and Southern Fried True Crime. They've also worked to spread awareness on the case.
3News chose not to name the only man suspected of the murder because he was never charged. When we called him, the man declined to answer any questions.
A lot has changed since 1985. Shae, Kristie, and Candice have their families, their careers, and lives, but they remain close. If anything has stayed the same, it's their ambition to uncover who killed Gary and Stephanie.
"Somebody will be responsible," Shae said.
If you have any information on this case that could lead to an arrest, please contact the Corpus Christi Police Department at (361) 886-2600.
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