The sweltering Texas heat on July 29, 1993, did nothing to mask the horror that a road crew stumbled upon along the isolated Cut Off Road in Telolo, Ellis County. Hidden among the dense brush, the workers discovered the naked, mutilated body of a young girl, a scene so savage that even seasoned officers would later recoil in disgust. The victim had been stabbed, shot, decapitated, and disemboweled, her body bearing wounds so extensive that the initial assessment suggested the killer had lingered at the scene long after her death, deriving a grotesque satisfaction from the aftermath.
Two hundred feet away, beneath the old wooden bridge spanning Smith Creek, a second, smaller body lay face down in the water. The boy had been shot twice in the head with a . 22 caliber pistol.
The Telolo Fire Department was summoned to retrieve the remains, and it was there that investigators found their first thread of identity: a library card in the boy’s wallet bearing the name James Brian King. The girl, however, presented a far more daunting challenge. Her head and hands had been severed and removed, eliminating the possibility of dental record comparison or fingerprint identification.
The sheer depravity of the crime left the pathologist to declare it one of the worst cases of mutilation she had ever encountered in her career.
As night fell, investigators canvassed the area, their flashlights cutting through the darkness in search of any clue. On a barbed wire fence near the crime scene, they discovered several strands of blonde hair tangled in the metal. The hairs were carefully collected and sent for analysis.
Simultaneously, calls to neighboring police departments revealed that two children had been reported missing from the same household: James Brian King, known as Brian, and his 13-year-old stepsister, Christina Benjamin. Brian’s father identified the wallet, confirming the worst fears of any parent. He told officers that Christina’s condition made identification impossible for him, but he provided a crucial detail about the night they vanished.
The father recounted that Brian had been sleeping in a hammock at the front of their property, an unusual occurrence. Out of nowhere, a tan-colored car pulled up and sounded its horn. From the window, the father saw his son speaking to the driver of a tan Subaru, though the driver’s face was obscured.
Someone with long, light-colored hair was visible in the back seat. By the time the father returned from the bathroom, Brian had entered the passenger side and the vehicle had disappeared into the night. The following morning, the family discovered Christina was also missing, and after a fruitless search, they reported both children as missing to the police.
Christina’s little sister, who shared a room with her, told officers that Brian had come into their room that night and the two had snuck out, suggesting the rendezvous had been pre-arranged. A hairbrush belonging to Christina was taken from the home, and its contents were compared to the hairs found on the barbed wire. The analysis confirmed a match, and an x-ray of a recent foot injury Christina had sustained also aligned perfectly with the x-ray of the deceased girl’s body.
The news shattered the family and sent a shockwave through the small community, where violent crime was virtually unheard of.
Further forensic examination of Brian’s trousers revealed a single blonde hair that did not belong to Christina, and a microscopic fiber was found on the bottom of his shoe. The fiber was identified as a tan material consistent with a vehicle carpet, possibly from a Japanese make, aligning with the father’s description of the tan Subaru. Entomological analysis of the insects on the bodies determined that the children had been deceased for approximately two days before discovery, matching the timeline of the car’s arrival at the King residence.
The police enlisted the help of the Behavioral Science Investigative Support Unit, providing them with crime scene photographs and detailed descriptions. The profilers concluded that the crime was not sexually motivated, despite Christina being stripped of her clothing. They theorized that the perpetrator had a history of animal 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮, derived pleasure from mutilation, and would likely keep trophies from the crime scene.
The profile painted a picture of an antisocial, organized individual with access to a vehicle and a history of substance 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮, driven by a rage-fueled hatred targeted specifically at Christina.
A significant breakthrough came when neighbors informed police that the children had been due to go out with a friend named Jason on the night they disappeared. Shortly thereafter, an anonymous call was made to the Sheriff’s Office, directing investigators to look into a 20-year-old high school dropout named Jason Massie. Interviews with Massie’s acquaintances revealed a deeply disturbing pattern of behavior.
He was known to enjoy hurting and mutilating animals, often decapitating them and keeping their heads as trophies in a metal cooler. His criminal record included stalking, harassment, and animal cruelty.
Just days before the bodies were found, police had responded to a call about a dead calf found behind a local McDonald’s, killed and mutilated. At the scene, officers discovered a bracelet with the name “Jason” engraved on it, and a tan Subaru had been seen fleeing the area. Jason Massie’s background was pieced together, revealing a childhood marred by neglect and 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮.
Born in 1973 to a single mother who often left him in the car while she went out drinking, Massie’s early life was unstable. He and his sister were frequently left alone for extended periods, and his mother was violent, hiding food from them and beating them with a paddle or belt. A male babysitter also sexually abused him before he started school.
His violent tendencies manifested early; at just nine years old, he strangled a cat to death and mutilated it. As he grew older, his behavior escalated, fueled by alcohol and substance 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮. In 1992, he held a knife to a young girl with the intent of sexual assault but was interrupted by the girl’s mother.
His diary entries from this period chillingly documented his desires, stating, “My life it’s been about chasing girls finding the one to rape and 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁. Rape is not enough I must have a body for the next day or two to hold talk to and make love bones to talk with.” In the spring of 1993, police stopped Massie and found drugs, a knife, and a cat with a rope around its neck in his car.
His diary contained a tally of his kills: seven cows, 32 dogs, and 41 cats. He wrote of wanting to “grab Society by the throat and Shake him with Terror” and become a “murder machine.”
Despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence, there was no direct forensic link to the crime scene. Massie was taken in for questioning, and when presented with photographs of Christina’s body, he began to violently retch, a reaction the lead investigator noted as a sign they had hit a nerve. The investigation uncovered that roughly ten days before the murders, Massie and a friend named Christopher had driven to see Christina.
Massie had flirted with her, and she had expressed a desire to sneak out sometime. He told her he would come by her house and sound his horn as a signal. After they left, Massie spoke graphically about wanting to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 and mutilate her, comments his friend dismissed as typical of Massie’s macabre talk.
Another girl, also named Christina, reported seeing Massie on the evening of July 26th, noting he was acting strangely. Her sister mentioned seeing Massie with handcuffs and a firearm. A search warrant was executed, and Massie’s Subaru was impounded.
Testing revealed blood stains on the seat, steering wheel, and a knife in the glove box. The trunk contained a roll of tape, a leaf with blood stains, a small axe, a hammer, a hunting knife, a screwdriver, a wrench, and a pair of handcuffs. A receipt for .
22 caliber bullets was also found. While the degraded state of the bodies prevented traditional DNA comparison, investigators used reverse paternity genotyping, comparing the blood spots to the parents of Christina and Brian, which determined the blood was most likely Christina’s.
A crucial witness emerged from a local car wash. The owner reported seeing Massie drive his Subaru into the wash bay late on the night of July 29th, placing several items into a rubbish bin before reversing out. When he saw the owner watching, he drove back in and began vacuuming the interior thoroughly.
After seeing a newspaper article about the murders, the owner recognized Massie’s photo and contacted police. The vacuum cleaner was dismantled, revealing a card for Massie’s probation officer, broken glass, a KFC receipt with his name, and several long blonde hairs. These hairs were microscopically similar to those found on the barbed wire, which had already been matched to Christina.
The fiber found on Brian’s shoe was also matched to the Subaru’s carpet, and the hair on his trousers belonged to Massie.
The investigation also revealed that Massie’s cousin owned a . 22 caliber gun, which Massie had taken without permission. A Walmart employee identified Massie in a lineup as the person who had purchased the .
22 caliber bullets, a pair of handcuffs, and two knives. A search of Massie’s home yielded a box of knives, two newspaper articles about the killings, and a pair of handcuffs. On March 17, 1994, Jason Massie was indicted on two counts of capital murder.
He pleaded not guilty, and his trial began on September 28, 1994.
The prosecution laid out a chilling narrative: around midnight on July 27th, Christina and Brian climbed into Massie’s car. On the Cut Off Road bridge, Massie stopped the vehicle and shot Brian twice in the head at point-blank range, pushing his body out of the car and over the bridge. Terrified, Christina fled, but Massie chased her down, shooting her in the back.
After she fell, he shot her in the head and then proceeded to stab and mutilate her body. The prosecution described Massie as a “lust killer,” someone who derived sexual pleasure from murder and mutilation. A state psychologist testified that Massie had been treated at the Dallas Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit in June 1991 after his mother found his diaries.
The doctor diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder, stating he posed an extreme danger to the public and could not be rehabilitated. Massie’s former teacher and classmate testified about his frequent comments about murder and his idolization of Charles Manson. A former friend detailed Massie’s obsession with fire and his love of mutilating animals.
The defense argued that the investigation was incomplete and that other potential suspects had not been thoroughly examined. They contended that the physical evidence was based on probability, not certainty, and suggested that someone else could have been in the car that night. The defense’s case was dealt a significant blow when a hunter discovered a metal cooler in the woods containing 31 skulls of mutilated animals and several diaries titled “Slayer books of death the thoughts of Jason Massie.”
These diaries, dated from 1989 to 1993, detailed his gruesome fantasies and plans for murder, including an entry from January 1991 where he detailed an attempt to murder his then-girlfriend.
The defense argued that Massie was a product of his abusive upbringing, a baby who wanted love but received rejection and violence. Prosecutor Clay Strange countered, “It’s impossible to assign a motive to a case like this. I think he did it because it was pleasurable to him.
It’s almost a miracle we caught him as quickly in his career as we did. He’s as evil as anybody I’ve ever encountered.” The jury deliberated and found Jason Massie guilty of murder.
During the punishment phase, the state argued for the death penalty, using excerpts from his diaries to demonstrate his intent to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 multiple times. Paul, the man who had made the anonymous call, testified, identifying Massie’s handwriting and detailing their shared history of violence and 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 use. Massie’s sister also testified, describing their dysfunctional upbringing but stating she had not turned out like him.
The jury took just 15 minutes to agree on the punishment. Jason Massie was sentenced to death by lethal injection. The judge remarked that his death would be more merciful and humane than the fate of Brian and Christina, prompting cheers from the courtroom.
Led away to death row, Massie claimed he had put Christina’s dismembered body parts in a pillowcase and thrown them into the river, a statement investigators doubted, given his propensity for keeping trophies. His subsequent appeals were rejected, including 24 separate counts of trial error that were thrown out due to incomplete records. For years, Massie refused to reveal the location of Christina’s head and hands, which were never found.
On April 3, 2001, 28-year-old Jason Massie was taken to the Huntsville Unit’s death chamber. In his final statement, he apologized to the victims’ families, admitting his guilt and claiming Christina did not suffer as much as they thought. He maintained that he had placed her remains in the Trinity River.
He spoke of God using his imprisonment to change his life and declared, “Let those without sin cast the first stone.” He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p. m.
, eight minutes after the drugs were administered. Christina’s grandmother, who witnessed the execution, said she could not judge Massie but would never forgive him. Brian’s sister noted the bitter irony that Massie’s death was quick and painless, while her brother and stepsister were not so lucky.
The murders of Brian King and Christina Benjamin left an indelible scar on the Telolo community, a stark reminder of the monster that can lurk in the shadows of an ordinary summer night.
