We've seen so many documentaries and shows over the past decade or so about old, unsolved murder cases being revisited and solved, bringing closure to the victims' families. Today, the McLennan County Sheriff's Office can cross some haunting cases off its list.

Our partners at News 10 report that the MCSO's cold case unit has cleared six cold cases, and is currently working on another 38.

Their first success was solving the 1982 murder of Beth Bramlett - a 17-year-old Axtell girl whose body was found abandoned on railroad tracks near her home. Two years ago, detectives determined that Bramlett had been beaten and shot by a man named Talmadge Wayne Wood. Wood apparently didn't like the fact that his daughter was friends with Bramlett, and he abducted and murdered her as she was hitchhiking home from a back to school party.

Sadly, Wood never faced true justice for this horrific and senseless crime. He died in 2014.

It must have been a relief to the victim's family to finally have answers and closure though, and the cold case unit's success in solving her murder convinced officials to make them a permanent part of the MCSO. Their budget was almost non-existent, but financial aid came in the form of donations from local businessmen Waco businessmen David Willy and Sammy Citrano.

Another case involving a man who'd fatally shot his sister before she could tell her parents he'd been sexually abusing her was solved a short time later. Sadly, that suspect had also passed away before police could arrest him.

Sheriff Parnell McNamara tells News 10 it's only a matter of time before suspects in other cold cases are arrested and brought to justice. He says police know where they are and what they're doing, and their days as free men are numbered.

When I think about a young woman with her entire life ahead of her spending her final moments of existence in terror and pain, it brings my blood to a boil. Nothing can bring her back, but seeing lawmen dedicating their lives to finding justice for her and other victims, refusing to give up on them, it does my heart some good.

Nobody should be forgotten, and absolutely no one should be able to freely walk this earth after ending a life and destroying the lives of those who cared about the victim.

Major kudos to the MCSO's cold case unit. I think I can safely speak for all of Central Texas when I say you have our support and our thanks.

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