HOUSTON – Nothing can rival the devastating loss felt by parents who’ve lost a child, especially when it comes at the hands of their own neighbor. In this episode of the KPRC 2 Investigates award-winning docuseries ‘The Evidence Room,’ we explore the haunting 1992 case of ‘Uh-Oh the Clown.’
The man who performed for children during parties, confessed to killing two little girls while they played in their own home on a hot July day in 1992.
Who is the Uh-Oh the Clown?
It took months for one officer to win the trust of the killer clown, all while “Uh-oh the Clown” was being watched by a father and his biker buddies.
The day two little girls were killed is a day Bob Carreiro will never forget.
“Kynara Carreiro, brutally murdered July 20th, 1992 with her best friend, Kristin Wiley,” he said.
The two girls were at Kristin’s home that day, playing and listening to music when a man walked in and slashed them to death in a quiet Harris County neighborhood.
“Oh, God, my sister’s dead,” said her brother talking to the 911 operator. “It just looks like they got bit or something.”
Autopsy reports show Kynara Carreiro was stabbed more than 20 times, while Kristin Wiley was stabbed more than a dozen.
At the time of the killings Kynara’s father was working.
“I was at work, worked for a company, trucking company at the time. And I got a call. I was out making deliveries, and I got a call from the terminal manager saying that something’s happening, your daughter, and they need to get you out there right away,” Carreiro tells us.
Andy Kahan, the Director of Victims Services for Crime Stoppers shares the scene is something out of a horror film.
“I mean, the middle of the day, in the middle of a middle-class neighborhood three in the afternoon,” said Kahan. “It was just like a real-life Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Police wouldn’t allow Carreiro inside the home where his daughter was found, so he went across the street and waited two hours to be told Kynara and her friend were dead.
“Yeah, it was just, (I) wanted to die myself just sitting there,” said Carreiro.
Chat about the episode below:
Uh-Oh the Clown’s Deception
Rex Warren Mays lived next door to the Wiley’s. Mays held several jobs, including performing for children as ‘Uh-Oh the Clown.’
On the day of the murders, Mays gave detectives a piece of information that would initially derail the investigation.
“He gave them the story of there was a black man and a Spanish man playing hide-and-seek in the yard, and that sent the police on a wild goose chase,” said Bob Carreiro. “And so they spent like three days out there chasing the ghost and just ignoring the fact that there was blood on the fence and so forth, and just really didn’t much look at him for the first few days.”
An old KPRC 2 report shows Carreiro wearing his daughter’s rings, leading a search party in the initial days of the investigation looking for anything to solve his girl’s murder.
“The whole damn thing was crazy. They had, like, five different detectives working on it, you know, and they came up with, like, five different suspects. And it was crazy as hell because you could go in and sit down and talk, and each detective was assigned to a certain person,” he said. “So, you know, you’re here just going crazy because you got five different suspects.”
What can a father do?
“I said, what can I do? You as officers, police officers are restricted from doing some things. Now as a private citizen I know there’s things that I can do that you can’t do to help me out. Let me know,” Carreiro asked.
He wanted officers to know his daughter’s case was not going to go cold.
“I’m not going to lay down, I ain’t going to go away. I’m going to be the biggest pain in their ass and I’m not I’m not going to go away,” said Carreiro.
Suspect the clown
Despite the initial setback, Mays became the primary suspect in the girls’ murders.
“That’s why I followed him around. A lot of my biker buddies, we kept an eye on him,” said Carreiro.
KPRC 2 Investigates Robert Arnold asked, “So you did surveillance on him?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied. “I found out what bars he went to. You know, I wouldn’t say a damn word to him; look up and he’d see me sitting across the bar, wouldn’t saying nothing.”
Carreiro says he followed Mays around for 18-months. His biker buddies and he would show up places where Mays put on his character of ‘Uh-Oh the Clown,’ or if he went out for fun.
“He started trying to date women. I call them up and tell them you know who he is,” said Carreiro. “So everything he did, I was a detriment to him. Couldn’t get a date, couldn’t find work. You know, I was always there watching him.”
Gaining his trust
As Carreiro was tracking Mays movements, Sheriff’s Detective Bill Valerio was working to gain his confidence. The detective became “friends” with Mays, drinking and visiting strip clubs together to gain his trust.
“I tell you what, yesterday I found out something we need to talk about,” said Detective Valerio in a recording with Mays. “They’re saying you were in the house; you understand. They say, they have proof it wasn’t the day before, it wasn’t the day after, it wasn’t two weeks before.”
Det. Valerio tells Mays the FBI processed evidence found in the Wiley’s house.
“I’m having a hard time Rex, there’s got to be an explanation. These people don’t lie, let me tell you about the FBI. When it comes to processing evidence, they’re the f******- best in the world. There’s no comparison,” he pressed. “If there is a reason, please, tell us. Tell me, it’s just you and me in this room.”
Carreiro was becoming restless, now knowing who may have killed his daughter.
“I’ll string him up and skin him,” said Carreiro.
Arnold asked, “What stopped you?”
He said, “It was to do the right thing. To do it right. If I killed him, I end up in jail. What good was I going to do for my little girl?”
The Confession
On Feb. 9th, 1994, almost 19 months after the girls were murdered, Valerio brought Mays in again for questioning.
This time Mays confessed.
“My full name is Rex Waren Mays. I am a white male, 34 years of age, having been born on January 21st, 1960,” court records show.
Mays tells Valerio he was fired from his job at Exxon earlier that day.
“Being upset from losing my job, I stopped the car a couple of houses down and west of my house on Fair Forest,” he stated.
In his confession, he tells detectives he heard loud music and began calling out Kristin’s name.
“I shouted out, why don’t y’all turn the music down? I went down the hall to tell them to turn the music down,” he adds.
The confession states, “Kynara said, ‘No, we are not going to turn it down. Just get out of the house.’”
That’s when Mays tells officers he lost it and grabbed a knife from the kitchen.
“I followed them into the bedroom and just started stabbing Kristin. Kynara started to run out of the bedroom, and when she got to the door, I stepped in front of her. I started stabbing her backside,” Mays stated. “I continued to stab her on the face to take her eyes out so she couldn’t identify me.”
After killing the girls Mays hopped a back fence leaving blood on the posts. He went to his house, took off his clothes, showered and then walked back outside and pretended to be a concerned neighbor. Mays wife had no idea her husband just committed double murder.
“Mays was standing outside his yard, acting like he was going to help us. My ex-wife, she just had a new baby a month ago and she was on the sidewalk. She was crying her eyes out they actually, he actually came out, and then his wife came out and tried to console us, and that was just crazy. After the fact (I) learned that he was (the) number one suspect,” Carreiro recalls.
In the confession, Mays states, “I invited several of the deputies into our house. We got them water and cokes and stuff…I tried to be helpful. I was trying to make them think someone else had done the killings.”
“[It’s] just like you see in the movies, you know, the quote, concerned neighbor, that offers to help,” Kahan tells us. “That way they feel connected to it. It’s kind of like an adrenaline flow for them. Like, I know what I did, you have no idea. But I’m going to pretend that I’m going to help you solve this case.”
The knife was never found. However, May’s confession was finally enough to bring capital murder charges.
On Sept. 12th, 1995 Mays was found guilty of capital murder. Six days later he was given the death penalty.
“I’d do anything to have my daughter back. To deal with the person that cut my daughter’s eyes out. Mutilated her, we need to deal with them at all cost,” Carreiro said shortly Mays was found guilty. “The bottom line is the vow that I made to my daughter, I want to be there so that he can look into my eyes when he goes.”
After his daughter’s murder, Carreiro became very active in the victims’ rights movement. Appearing on nationally syndicated shows like Oprah, Geraldo, and Jerry Springer.
Change in State Processes
In the 90′s victims were not allowed to witness executions in the State of Texas.
To change that Kahan contacted the then head of Texas Board of Criminal Justice, Alan Polunsky.
“I ran it by him and he said, you know what I’m going to put this on the agenda at our next board meeting,” he said.
By the end of that meeting, the board unanimously voted to change the policy.
Carreiro witnessed May’s execution on September 24th, 2002. He says Mays didn’t even look at him.
“It took about three minutes,” he said. “Probably the greatest relief of my life was watching him being executed.”
Best friends throughout it all
“You know, these two girls were inseparable from the time they met in the middle of the street. And when I go to pick up Kynara from my ex-wife’s house, I would get to my house and in five minutes my daughter would be on the phone talking to Kristin, and she come up, ‘Daddy, can we go get Kristin?’ And we’d have to turn around, drive right back over, get Kristin so they can come play Barbies at the house,” said Carreiro.
The girls are buried next to each other
More of The Evidence Room Season 5
The Evidence Room, Episode 32 - The Brit on Death Row
The Evidence Room, Episode 31 - The Wig Shop Murder
The Evidence Room, Episode 30 -The Long Hallway
Behind the scenes: ‘The Evidence Room’ season 5 premiere party with KPRC 2 Insiders