Sheriff's office renews effort to solve deputy's murder 25 years later

Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Kent Allee got the call 25 years ago from dispatch that his Ford Aerostar had been found abandoned and ablaze.

He raced home in vain to check on his wife, a fellow deputy, who had driven the van to Greenspoint Mall.

Her body was found the next day in a nearby field, but despite the intense effort launched by law enforcement, her killer or killers were never found.

Now, investigators have launched a renewed call for the public's help in solving the decades-old murder case, seeking tips that could bring arrests and, perhaps, some closure for the Allee family.

Roxyann Allee, 34, a mother of two who worked at the Harris County Jail, was shot to death Sept. 30, 1991, after apparently being snatched by two men outside the mall, where she had gone shopping for a dress.

Kent Allee, who retired in 2012 after 30 years with the Harris County Sheriff's Office, holds out hope he finally might find out what happened to the woman he married in college at Texas A&M University, where he played football and she was on the dance team.

"I'd like whoever did it to be found," he said. "If they know anything at all, I'd like them to come forward so we can close this chapter and find out what actually happened and bring them to justice."

A $30,000 reward is being offered by the governor's office and Texas Crime Stoppers for information leading to an arrest or arrests in the case.

The death tore into the Allee family, leaving Kent Allee to raise their two children, then 14 and 12.

"The kids and I leaned on each other," he recalled, adding that even after all these years, she remains a part of their lives.

"We talk about Roxyann all the time," he said. "My granddaughter, her middle name is Roxyann."

Family stories are passed along about what happened, how she lived, and how her death changed the family. They all went through counseling to try to come to terms with it.

'It eats you up'

Allee recalled being so dazed with emotion that he rear-ended a car on FM 1960 while driving home from a family grief-counseling session. He realized then that he needed to focus on raising and protecting his children, who were in the car with him at the time.

"That is when it dawned on me that I had to put a few things aside," he said. "Who knows what could have happened?"

He presided over family huddles at Denny's, where they would regularly share a meal and talk about what was going on in their lives. They kept notes in a journal.

His son, who wrestled with anger, dove into martial arts and continued to play baseball.

His daughter pushed on with band, where she played the flute.

And Allee continued to work at the sheriff's department, but things were never the same, especially among the jail inmates. He wondered if his wife's killer was among them.

"I worked in an environment full of inmates," he said. "You are wondering, 'Am I walking around somebody who was actually involved in this?' "

He was constantly approached at work and in his personal life by people claiming to know what happened.

"I had to separate myself; it eats you up," he said.

Badge, ID card found

Not much has been made public about Roxyann Allee's final moments.

Witnesses told investigator that at about 7:30 p.m., two men approached her in the mall's parking lot, pushed her inside her own van, and drove away.

Grainy surveillance footage from a convenience store shows two men purchasing gasoline.

A clerk said he saw a distraught woman who matched Allee's description.

The van was found about 90 minutes after her abduction in the 1500 block of Laurel Creek, about three miles from the mall.

Detectives found her badge and identity card among the charred debris, but not her pistol or purse.

Her body was found early the next day in a field near River Laurel Drive.

'Monumental injustice'

The Harris County Sheriff's Office is leading the investigation, which is in the hands of the cold case squad. The renewed effort to solve the case includes the reward from the governor's office and Texas Crime Stoppers.

"Any time we lose a fellow officer, it's devastating to our sheriff's office family," Sheriff Ron Hickman said. "We are particularly saddened that the perpetrators remain unfound. We remain hopeful that the governor's reward program will one day bring the people responsible for Roxyann's senseless murder to justice."

Gov. Greg Abbott joined the call for the public to step forward with any details about the case.

"Deputy Allee was a committed public servant who dedicated her career to the service and protection of others, and it would be a monumental injustice for her murder to go unsolved," Abbott said in a written statement. "We hope that renewing the public's interest about this case will uncover critical information, and bring closure to the investigation and her family."

Allee, who remarried a decade after his wife's death, said he has worked the crime through in his head countless times.

He believes her killers did not know she was an officer, intended to commit a carjacking, and panicked when they realized she was a deputy.

"I don't think they targeted her," he said. "I really think they just went into a panic mode."

He said he hopes publicity in the case might make a difference.

"I would think that a long time ago, somebody would have come forward," he said.

Tips on the case can be shared anonymously three ways, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety: Call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477); text the letters DPS, followed by your tip, to 274637 from a cellphone; or go online at tipsubmit.com.