List of possible victims of killer from Coushatta

Local Headlines

Robert Charles Browne, 53, originally of Coushatta, has taken credit for at least 48 murders in nine states, including 17 in Louisiana.


His victims of opportunity included women and men, and methods of death ranged from strangulation to chloroform. Bodies were dismembered or dumped in rivers and bayous.

Investigators are still trying to corroborate all of Browne's claims, but murders detailed in a court affidavit included the following:

_ Heather Dawn Church, 13, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was reported missing on Sept. 11, 1991 in El Paso County, Colo. Her remains were found on Sept. 16, 1993, in Colorado Springs. Browne pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in May 1995, for which he's serving life in prison without parole.

_ Rocio Delpilar Sperry, 15, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was reported missing on Nov. 15, 1987, in El Paso County, Colo. Browne admitted to strangling Sperry and dumping her body in a trash bin. It has never been found. Browne pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

_ Faye Aline Self, 26, of Coushatta, was reported missing March 30, 1983, from Alice's Wagon Wheel on state Highway 1 in Red River Parish. Browne said he found Self in her apartment, which was next to his, and placed a chloroform rag on her face. He left to retrieve a rope to bind her, but found her dead upon his return. Browne said he threw her body from the bridge into the Red River. It has not been found.

_ Wanda Faye Hudson, 21, of Coushatta, was found dead on May 28, 1983, in her apartment, which was in the same complex where Browne and Self lived. Hudson had been stabbed multiple times with a screwdriver. Browne, an apartment maintenance man, said he had a key to Hudson's apartment. Browne was questioned by police in a door-to-door canvass and denied any knowledge of her death.

_ Katherine "Fuzzy" Hayes, 15, was reported missing July 4, 1980, from Uncle Albert's Chicken, now known as Fausto's, in Coushatta. Her remains were found Oct. 16, 1980, in a creek in Winn Parish. Browne said he strangled her and dropped her body into the river.

_ Melody Bush, 22, of Fayette County, Texas, was found dead in a drainage ditch. Her death was attributed to acute acetone poisoning.

_ Nidia Mendoza, 17, of Texas, was reported missing to the Sugar Land Police Department on Feb. 2, 1984. Her body was found on Feb. 6, 1984, in a ditch southwest of Houston. Her body was partially dismembered.

_ Lisa Lowe, 21, of West Memphis, Ark., was reported missing on Nov. 3, 1991. Her body was found Nov. 26, 1991, in the St. Francis River.

_ "Holiday Inn Lady." Browne says killed a woman, who claimed to be from Philadelphia, after meeting her in the Holiday Inn in New Orleans in 1977. New Orleans Police have been unable to locate reports matching Browne's claim.

_ Timothy Warren, of Tulsa, Okla. Browne claims to have picked up Warren at a truck stop, strangled him. He later says he shot him. Tulsa police said Warren's body was found partially submerged in a creek on March 3, 1992. He had been shot in the head.

_ "Cowboy Lady," Colorado Springs, Colo. Browne said he picked up a woman who was hitchhiking and killed her sometime between 1990 and 1994. Boot material was recovered in an area where Browne claims to have disposed of the body.

_ "Scenic Overlook Guy," Interstate 90, Washington. Browne said he murdered a woman in 1986 at a scenic overlook at the location, dropping her body off the cliff. Later he says the victim was a male. No bodies have been found there.

_ "The Couple on the Beach," Pacific Coast Highway, 200 miles north of San Francisco. Brown said he shot a couple on a sandy beach in 1986 and put their bodies underneath some driftwood. Police were unable to identify any cases matching those circumstances.

_ "Soldier in Korea." Browne said he killed a soldier with a knife while serving in the Army in South Korea between 1970 and 1971.

_ "Two Males in Mississippi," Interstate 10 near the Alabama border. Browne said he shot the two men in the chest. Mississippi authorities were unable to locate a report based on Browne's description.

_ "Cajun Lady," Morgan City. Browne said he met the woman in a bar, strangled her and dumped her body off of a bridge into the river. No report of a missing woman from Morgan City was found.

_ "Hilltop Bar Lady," Natchitoches. Browne said he met a woman at the Hilltop bar in the Clarence community during the same period that he says he killed Hudson and Self. The woman, reportedly from Mansfield, was newly married. Browne said she left the bar with him. He claims to have strangled her and then pushed her body off a small cliff into the Red River. So far, no missing person report matches that description.

_ "Northern New Mexico Motorcyclist," Highway 64, New Mexico. Brown said he killed a motorcyclist in 1993, possibly near Chama, N.M. New Mexico State Police said while they did not have any unsolved homicides in the area, they did recover a motorcycle.

Victims' families stunned by news
Confessions bring a haunting relief

By Katie Kerwin Mccrimmon And Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News
July 29, 2006
Across the country, loved ones sat stunned Friday, still absorbing startling revelations about daughters or mothers taken from them a long time ago.
Wanda Faye Hudson's relatives heard the news on television Thursday and immediately began calling one another with the shocking news: Robert Charles Browne, a home-town boy from Coushatta, La., was a self-described serial killer.

And his confession, cops now say, could bring the mystery that had haunted them for 23 years to an end.

The news brought back horrific memories. But, along with the anguish came some vindication. Hudson's uncle, Robert Watson, always felt that the case was bungled. He described his family as "poor white folk" and said the sheriff's office failed to pursue the case.

"It's a terrible situation," Watson said. "They wouldn't tell us nothing at the sheriff's office. They sure wouldn't. They still don't want to talk about it."

Watson recalled the horror of the scene. His 21-year-old niece was naked and had been stabbed repeatedly.

"I put my hands over my face and looked. She was struck with a screwdriver 20 times," Watson said.

Afterward, Watson sat on the porch of his niece's home. Burning up with a fever, he tried to protect her from the many people who were tromping through the crime scene. He said he heard that sheriff's deputies were snapping crime scene photos and showing them around town.

Watson's son, Rusty Watson, said Hudson was a "happy-go-lucky" girl. About six months before her death, she had decided to return to the church.

"She was just being a teenager, running around and having a good time. She had just quit all that and started going to church and was living for the Lord," said Rusty Watson, who now lives in Petal, Miss.

The family had suspected Hudson's boyfriend in the 1983 murder, but investigators said Thursday that Browne has said that as a handyman he changed the lock on her apartment door and used a spare key to get in.

In nearby Provencal, La., Tiffany Self responded with awestruck silence as she struggled to grasp the news she was hearing from a reporter.

Police believe that Faye Aline Self, the mother who'd vanished from Coushatta without a trace when Tiffany was a baby, was murdered by Browne.

"Oh my God," Tiffany Self told a reporter from the Shreveport (La.) Times. "I have been waiting on this day forever."

Faye Self left her 11-month-old daughter with her mother when she went out to the Wagon Wheel nightclub with friends March 30, 1983. The devoted mom later told her pals she had to leave to pick up her baby because she had to work early the next day.

She was never seen again.

Browne, who saw Self at the bar, told investigators he snuck into her apartment, which was next to his, later that night. He covered her mouth with a chloroform-soaked rag to "put her down," according to court records. He left to get a rope so he could tie her up, but when he returned, she was dead.

Browne said he dumped her body from a bridge over the Red River.

In many of the unsolved slayings, victims' families and authorities often suspected the wrong man - boyfriends and husbands.

Years later, Browne's confessions may finally bring answers.

For Shirley Winfrey, of Little Rock, Ark., who lost her daughter, Lisa Lowe, in 1991, the news was bittersweet.

"I've always prayed that they would actually find the man that killed my daughter," she said.

Killer's story leaves doubt
Sister feels no peace despite confession to long-ago slaying

Robert Charles Browne says he dumped the body of Faye Self into a Louisiana river.
By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News
November 24, 2006
When Kathy Cole first found out that a serial killer locked up in Colorado said he murdered her sister more than 23 years ago, she thought it might finally bring her some peace.
Four months later, she has serious doubts about his confession to authorities.

"I'm not saying it wasn't him, but his story has so many holes in it, you could drive an 18-wheeler through it," Cole said. "Do I believe he threw her into the river? No, I do not."

In late July, El Paso County authorities said Robert Charles Browne had provided them enough information in the past four years to link him to 49 murders in nine states and South Korea dating to 1970.

Law enforcement officials from only two states have come to Colorado to talk to Browne, 53.

In September, Louisiana State Police interviewed the confessed serial killer about Cole's younger sister, Faye Aline Self.

Self disappeared from the Wagon Wheel nightclub in Coushatta, La., in 1983, and her body was never found.

Browne said he followed Self from the club to her home. In 2005, he told El Paso County investigators he used a chloroform-soaked rag to knock her unconscious then went next door to his own home to get rope. When he returned, she was dead.

He said he dumped the body off a bridge over the Red River.

"I don't care who killed her," Cole, 58, said. "I'm so sure she's dead, and it happened a long time ago, and I don't even care about the details of how she got dead. I just want to bring her home."

El Paso County Detective Jeff -Nohr, who has conducted the bulk of the interviews with Browne - along with investigator Charlie Hess - said he has "no doubt" in his mind that Browne killed Self.

Michael Allen, a trooper with the Louisiana State Police, is the lead investigator on the Self case. While he said it's impossible to discredit Browne as a suspect, he also acknowledged that there could be other suspects in Self's death.

"Basically, we have at this point an ongoing investigation," Allen said. "We haven't found anything to prove or disprove any of the information he provided. But he was helpful."

Nohr said the only other out-of- state officials to come and interview Browne were the Arkansas State Police, who are trying to wrap up a case involving Lisa Lowe.

However, Nohr said, there are developing complications in that case.

"He told them what he gave us, but they went back to investigate further to determine if it's the right victim," Nohr said.

At one point shortly after the news broke about his links to the string of murders, Browne refused to be interviewed by anyone. He has since lifted that ban, and Nohr said he's been pretty open about talking to law enforcement.

The interviews usually are about 90 minutes long, he said, but Browne hasn't revealed any new information on any cases.

Browne is serving a life sentence for the 1991 murder of 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church in Colorado Springs.

Cole said she wonders whether she'll ever know what happened to her sister.

"Anything that comes up at this point is gravy," Cole said. "But I'll probably never find the answers I'm looking for."

Holy smokes! Thanks for posting these Truthseeker (love that name!) This guy breaks all the molds, doesn't he? OMG!!!!!

denver post
Killer's tales might be just that
By Kirk Mitchell
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/11/2007 12:23:38 AM MST

Robert Charles Browne is serving a life sentence for 2 Colorado murders. (The Denver Post)

Convicted Colorado killer Robert Charles Browne's boasts of leaving four dozen victims strewn across the nation have never been proved, say police officials in several states, and some have concluded he's lying.

Browne, serving life in prison for two murders in El Paso County, has told investigators of 47 more killings in nine states and overseas.

His claims, news of which broke last July, sparked fresh hope among families and friends that the long-unsolved murders of their loved ones might finally be resolved. And Browne's willingness to talk about other killings was a key factor in sparing him from a death sentence.

But after detectives scurried from Arkansas to California to find body dump sites and pored over dusty case files, some say they now disbelieve Browne's claims. And in most of the killings claimed by Browne, authorities have no proof that a murder ever took place.

"Some of the things he said are not panning out," said Tela Mange of the Department of Public Safety in Texas, where Browne claims seven murders. "It's not uncommon. People will admit to things they didn't do."

Browne boasted that New Orleans was fertile ground for his murders, but "we haven't found any evidence to support any of the alleged murders he claims to have committed," said Officer Sabrina Richardson, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department.

Too soon to decide?

That inability to verify Browne's claims is echoed by investigators in several states who were interviewed by The Denver Post in recent weeks.

El Paso County authorities, who first called attention to Browne's murder claims last year, say it's too soon to dismiss them as fabrications.

Although El Paso County Sheriff's investigator Jeff Nohr admits the hunt for Browne's victims has been slow and discouraging, he said Browne has been proven to be truthful in at least one murder.

"I think it would
Thirteen- year-old Heather Dawn Church was killed by Browne in 1991. (The Denver Post)
be dangerous to assume he is lying" about other killings, Nohr said. "I cannot say and will not say Browne lied to us about anything."

Browne is held in segregation at the Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City and was unavailable for an interview.

In 1995, the self-employed tree farmer was sentenced to life in prison in the 1991 kidnapping and killing of 13-year-old Heather Dawn Church, who lived near him in the Black Forest area. Browne said he pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty.

He dropped his first hint of more victims in a cryptic March 2000 letter to prosecutors: "The score is, you one, the other team 48." The letter added: "Seven sacred virgins entombed side by side, those less worthy are scattered wide."

In 2002, Browne began corresponding with Charlie Hess, a former FBI and CIA officer who served as a volunteer for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office Investigations Division.

He teased authorities for the next four years about a string of 48 murders that he claimed began in South Korea in 1970 and continued for decades across nine states. If true, it would make Browne one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history.

Last summer, El Paso County investigators announced they found enough evidence to convict Browne in one of those 48 cases, the murder of 15-year-old Rocio Delpilar Sperry of Colorado Springs, although her body was never found. Again, a plea deal meant Browne would not face the death penalty.

But Sperry's husband, Joseph Sperry, said last week that he never would have agreed with the plea bargain in his wife's murder if he had known the killer claimed to have dismembered his wife's body and thrown it into a trash bin, as he learned after Browne's sentencing.

"He deserves the death penalty," Joseph Sperry said.

Browne's boasts triggered a search for links to the remaining 47 murders he claims.

Last July, El Paso County District Attorney John Newsome said Browne provided enough evidence in some murder cases that authorities wouldn't need more information from him to obtain convictions.

Yet so far, local authorities have not charged Browne or definitively linked him to any of the other murders he claims.

Investigators have confirmed that seven of those 47 murders actually occurred, in Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. But they haven't found proof of a murder in the other 40 claimed cases, including seven in Colorado.

Some officials say Browne has offered them no information about crimes in their jurisdictions that only the killer would have. In some cases, they say, he has offered only details that would be available from news accounts; in other cases, his statements conflict with the facts.

"I think he would have to tell something more than the average Joe would know, but he hasn't done that," said Sheriff Johnny Ray Norman of Red River Parish, La.

Browne claimed he murdered Faye Self, 26, Wanda Faye Hudson, 20, and Katherine "Fuzzy" Jean Hayes, 15, in Norman's jurisdiction, where Browne grew up.

But Nohr said the Louisiana State Patrol is still investigating the cases, and claims Browne did provide evidence that only a killer would know.

Hess, who is writing about police volunteers in a book that describes his contact with Browne, noted that Browne claimed to have strangled 17-year-old Nidia Mendoza, whose dismembered body was found in a ditch in 1984 in Sugar Land, Texas. Hess said Browne described how he decapitated Mendoza and cut off her legs in a bathtub before authorities released those details.

But Browne has not yet been charged in that case. Both Hess and Sugar Land authorities say test results have not come in yet to confirm whether fingernail scrapings and other DNA evidence taken from clothing link Browne to the murder.

Details hard to come by

In explaining why Browne's murder claims have not led to the discovery of a single body, Hess said Browne may not recall exact details and locations years later. He said Browne was an opportunistic killer who in many cases spent only a few minutes with victims he met on lonely country roads where he had never been before. And according to Hess, Browne also said he had so many victims and was drinking heavily at the time.

Investigators in Louisiana have been especially busy looking into Browne's accounts of 17 murders in the state, but their efforts so far have been futile.

In a cryptic May 20, 2003, letter to Hess, Browne said New Orleans was "very fertile ground" between 1975 and 1979. One of his claims was very specific:

"Left inside a room inside a Holiday Inn; about five minutes from the French Quarter," Browne wrote. "This lady claimed to be from South Phily (sic)."

But New Orleans detectives have found no case matching that description, said Richardson, of the New Orleans police.

Browne also claimed that in 1983 he met a woman at the Hill Top Bar near Natchitoches, La., and took her to a motel where he killed her, said Travis Trammel, a detective with the Natchitoches Parish sheriff's office.

"We have been unable to corroborate Mr. Browne's claims, not any of them," Trammel said.

In Arkansas, Browne has provided information about only one of the five murders he claims in the state, said Sgt. Barry Roy of the Arkansas State Patrol. And even in that case, Browne's story of killing a young prostitute and dumping her body in a marsh couldn't be verified.

"No one has ever found a body in that marsh," Roy said.

"If Browne could give me one case in Arkansas that I can verify, then we're getting somewhere."

Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.

SOUND A LITTLE ZODIAC DOESN"T IT!
his first hint of more victims in a cryptic March 2000 letter to prosecutors: "The score is, you one, the other team 48." The letter added: "Seven sacred virgins entombed side by side, those less worthy are scattered wide.Zodiac

The similarity between the Zodiac and Browne is interesting from the little bit I have read on Zodiac.

It could be that Browne is infatuated with the work of the Zodiac. JMO

I have some reading to do on this.