HARRIS COUNTY – On January 6, 1981, Karen Lynn Douglas was stabbed to death in front of her baby in her Harris County home. KPRC 2 Reporter Corley Peel spoke one-on-one with the victim’s husband after law enforcement offered an increased reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest.
Randy Douglas went to work the morning of January 6, 1981, leaving his wife Karen and their 3-month-old baby at home.
“One of the guys that worked for me, his name is David, the phone rang, and he answered it and he goes ‘Ma’am, ma’am’, you know, and he said all of a sudden, the phone went dead,” Douglas said. “And I said, ‘Who is that?’”
Douglas says his employee told him he heard a woman screaming.
“...the phone rang again. It was my mother-in-law and she had gone to pick Karen and Chrissy up to go to the doctor, and she was hysterical,” Douglas said. “She told me that Karen had been stabbed and she was dead.”
Related Story: Reward increased to $6K for tips in cold case murder of Harris County mother
Douglas told our Corey Peel that he raced home so fast he beat the police to the scene of the murder.
“When I walked in there was blood everywhere. She put up a really; she fought really hard,” Douglas said.
Douglas says he found a ski mask on the bed and all the evidence from the murder was saved.
Two weeks before Karen’s murder, she escaped a home invasion. Douglas said his wife told him the man was “not a very big person” and was “cocky”.
There were multiple unsolved home invasions in the same area where women were attacked by a young man with a knife.
Douglas believes the man who killed his wife is the same man who previously broke into his home.
“Why? How can a human being kill another human being? It makes no sense to me. Why? I mean, if he found Christ, God can forgive him, but I wouldn’t,” said Douglas.
We asked Douglas if he could talk to Karen now what would he say. He told us, “I would tell her I love her. I miss her. I wish I didn’t have to live my life without her.”
The Texas Department of Pubic Services said there is a $6,000 reward for any information that can lead to an arrest in Karen’s murder.
Funded by the Governor’s Public Safety Office, Texas Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards to any person who provides information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for any Texas Rangers cold case listed on the DPS website – which provides information on more than 140 cases in an effort to garner public interest in unsolved or cold cases.
To be eligible for cash rewards for this case, tipsters MUST provide information to authorities using one of the following three methods:
- Call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477) or the Crime Stoppers of Houston hotline at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
- Submit a web tip through the Texas Rangers’ Cold Case website by selecting the victim’s name you have information about.
- Call the Missing Persons Hotline at 1-800-346-3243. Your information will be forwarded to the Texas Ranger assigned to this case.
All tips are anonymous — regardless of how they are submitted — and tipsters will be provided a tip number instead of using a name.
As part of a DPS public awareness program, one case from the Texas Ranger Unsolved Crimes Investigation (Cold Case) Program will be featured bi-monthly in an effort to generate new investigative leads and bring attention to these cold cases. Texas Crime Stoppers rewards are increased up to $6,000 for featured cases in hopes of generating additional tips. The higher reward amount will only be paid if the tip is submitted before the next cold case is featured.
The Texas Ranger Unsolved Crimes Investigation Program was created to assist Texas law enforcement agencies investigating unsolved homicides or violent serial crimes. Since there is no statute of limitations for the offense of murder, investigators pursue these cases to a successful resolution or until no viable leads remain.
