Murders of Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw
Rhonda Renee Johnson (December 16, 1956 – August 4, 1971) and Sharon Lynn Shaw (August 11, 1957 – August 4, 1971) were two American teenage girls who disappeared in Harris County, Texas, on the afternoon of August 4, 1971. In early 1972, the skeletal remains of both girls were discovered in and around Clear Lake near Galveston Bay. A local man, Michael Lloyd Self, was charged with the murders in 1972 and convicted of Shaw's murder in 1975. Controversy arose in 1998 when convicted killer Edward Harold Bell confessed to both murders. Bell's confession and corroborating statements from both law enforcement and prosecutors that Self had been coerced into a false confession led many to believe that Self had been wrongfully convicted. Self died in prison in 2000. The case has often been associated with the Texas Killing Fields, a 25-acre section of land off of Interstate 45 in League City where the bodies of dozens of young women have been discovered since the 1970s. A fictionalized film about the area, titled Texas Killing Fields, was released in 2011. Disappearance On August 4, 1971, Rhonda Johnson (born December 16, 1956, in Houston, Texas) and Sharon Shaw (born August 11, 1957,