On the night of November 15, 1997, 87-year-old Etta Mae Stallings was shot and killed in her Port Arthur, Texas, home during a burglary. The intruder, identified as Elroy Chester, had cut phone lines and tampered with outside lights in a pattern later linked to a series of home invasions, sexual assaults, and murders across the city. Stallings awakened during the break-in, retrieved a gun to defend herself and was fatally shot; the assailant then stole items from the house, including the firearm she had tried to use.

Chester was later tied to multiple killings after his arrest for the murder of firefighter Willie Ryman III; ballistics linked a .380 pistol in his possession to Stallings’ death and four other victims. He confessed to Stallings’ murder and the killings of John Henry Sepeda, Cheryl DeLeon, and Albert Bolden Jr. Chester was indicted and pleaded guilty in related prosecutions, and his case brought an end to the crime spree that had terrorized Port Arthur.

If anyone knew Etta Mae Stallings or has information about that night, please share what you remember.