Billy Fiegener

Billy Fiegener
Name	William Arthur Fiegener
Sex	Male
Age	22
Missing from	Brooklyn, New York
Disappeared	1984 - 1985
Discovered	October 27, 1985
Location	Springtown, Texas
Identified	December 2019
Span	34 years
Cause of death	Homicide

William Arthur "Billy" Fiegener was a young man found murdered in Texas in 1985. He was identified in December 2019. His murder was solved in February 2020.

Case

The victim's partial remains were found in a field along State Route 51. It appeared he died in 1984 or early 1985, based on the condition of the remains, which were skeletonized.

In 2018, the Parabon NanoLabs analyzed his DNA to determine characteristics that were previously unknown. The phenotyping disputed earlier assumptions that the victim was of mixed race.

Police were able to identify the murderer and circumstances leading up to the murder through witness interviews.

Billy, who was originally from Brooklyn, New York, was sent to a horse ranch in California in 1984 in hopes of separating him from bad influences. After some time, he was approached by a man name Forrest Ethington who convinced Billy to join him in Lake Dallas,Texas where they would perform several robberies. Billy was sent to court after being caught in a solo robbery attempt.

Billy had used a car belonging to Ethington's daughter during the unsuccessful robbery attempt. This infuriated Ethington who would go on to inform a witness of his intention to kill Billy. He also informed the same witness later that he'd killed Billy. Ethington was also purportedly worried that Billy would reveal Ethington's robberies because Billy had a reputation for being talkative.

After Billy's death, Ethington organized a crew of robbers and robbed a coin shop in Pantego, Texas and one of the members of the crew killed the owner of the shop. Ethington and a partner were caught when they tried to sell the coins at a coin show after other coin collectors exposed them.

The robbers had failed to notice that the coin packages had the owner's handwriting. Other coin collectors noticed the discrepancy and informed the FBI.

Ethington served about five years in prison before appealing the case in 1991. He was arrested and sent to prison again in 2010 for aggravated sexual assault of a child. He died in prison, in October of 2019.

Characteristics

• A light complexion.
• Hazel or brown eyes.
• Brown hair.

Clothing

• A white Union Bay fleece jacket.
• A gray cotton Raphael jacket.
• Gimmick gray jacket.
• Guess blue jeans with leather trim.
• Jockey underwear.

Gallery

Sources

• Billy Fiegener at the Doe Network
• Weatherford Democrat
• Mineral Wells Index
• NCMEC