Murder Story

On July 20, 1992, Rex Warren Mays returned to his Houston neighborhood after being fired from his job. Living next door to the Wiley family, he entered their unlocked home where 10-year-old Kristin Michelle Wiley and 7-year-old Kynara Lorin Carreiro were playing upstairs. By his later confession, he became angry after the girls refused to lower their music and told him to leave. He then took a kitchen knife and fatally attacked both children in a bedroom. Their bodies were discovered shortly afterward by Kristin’s brother. Autopsies showed both girls had suffered numerous stab wounds and additional injuries.

After the killings, Mays tried to appear as a concerned neighbor. He gave investigators false stories about imaginary suspects and watched the emergency response from outside his home. The case remained unsolved for more than a year until he confessed in February 1994 after repeated contact with detectives. He also admitted disposing of evidence, and forensic testing connected blood from his clothing to the victims. A Harris County jury convicted him of capital murder in September 1995 and sentenced him to death. After years of unsuccessful appeals, he was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on September 24, 2002.