Tommy Lee & the Pecan Trees

:: Murder of a Matriarch- — after Tommy Lee Jones property sale fell through

The ambulance headed toward the 2-story farmhouse four miles west of Harkeyville, Texas. The home that sits amidst a 300-acre pecan farm, alongside actor Tommy Lee Jones’ colossal cattle ranch property.

It was assumed by many that the ambulance was for Bonnie Harkey, the matriarch of Harkey Pecan Farms. She was 85yo, frail by this point, and required help from a caretaker.

But shortly after arriving at the house that afternoon on March 25, 2012, paramedics pronounced the death of Bonnie’s caretaker, 50yo Karen Johnson, who lay face down on the floor. Bonnie was nowhere in sight. Karen’s 11yo son was safe; he had been the one to call 911.

The following day, after a tip, Bonnie’s lifeless wet and mud-splattered body was found covered in leaves in a creek bed nearly 200 miles east in Leon County. She had been hit in the head and then drowned. The well-regarded, gentle woman who had embraced life, loved pink, and of course, made delicious pecan pies was dead.

The phone tip came from the mother of Lillian King, who was the common law wife of Bonnie’s adoptive grandson, Carl Pressley. Lillian’s mother knew that her daughter and Carl had been out to the farm that day. She…