In Honor of Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search & Recovery Team and its Founder, Timothy (Tim) A. Miller
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Tim Miller and the Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery Team (TES).
Since Tim had horses of his own, and given a rash of missing persons in his area, many people suggested that he should start a horse search and rescue team. Tim shared this idea with some friends and was amazed at all the positive interest and support received.
The first official TES officer meeting was held in August of 2000 and then the work started. Tim, and his faithful and incredibly supportive wife Georgeann Miller, never realized how difficult forming an organization like this could be; or that it would require giving up his business as a general contractor to devote himself full time to the founding and operation of TES. Two years later, I’m proud to say that Tim and his all-volunteer TES team are working harder than ever to help bring home loved ones who are missing.
Since Texas EquuSearch was formed, they have been on nearly one hundred searches in two short years. They have an admirable record of working constructively with our nation’s local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As these words were being written Tim and TES are on still another search near TES’s headquarters in Dickinson, Texas. TES was founded in loving memory of Laura Miller, Tim’s daughter. The success rate of TES in finding missing people and returning many of them home alive is truly impressive. It is a living tribute to the spirit of Laura Miller. That spirit is alive and well in every volunteer of TES. The following words are Tim’s own:
“I know how important a search and rescue team can be. My daughter, Laura Miller was abducted in September of 1984. I went to the police department to report her missing and file a missing persons report. Five months prior to Laura’s disappearance the remains of a young lady named Heidi Villareal Fye, were found on some property at an abandoned oil field on Calder Road in League City, Texas. I told the police officer taking the report of my concerns, and would they please check the area where she had been found, or tell me where it was located so that I might check myself. Of course they said Laura is sixteen, she ran away and will be coming back home. We called and drove to all of Laura’s friends to see of anyone had seen her. Three days went by and I found out that Heidi had only lived 4 blocks from our house. So I went back to the police station to tell them my new worries about the close location of our houses and could they go and check the field where Heidi was or please take me to where it was located. Again they said Laura was sixteen and she had run away so we should go home and wait by the phone for her to call.
The days turned into weeks, weeks into months, several trips to the police station and still no Laura. Seventeen months later, kids were riding dirt bikes on Calder Road when they smelled a foul odor. They felt as though it was a dead animal but walked over to the area of the odor to see anyway. The odor was not a dead animal; it was in fact the remains of a female who had been there approximately two months. The police were called out to investigate, and during the investigation stumbled across the remains of yet another female some sixty feet from the other. These remains of the other girl found were those of my daughter, Laura Miller. The remains of the other girl found there have not been identified to this day and still is only known as Jane Doe.
These were by far the most frustrating and lonely seventeen months of my life and there was some feeling of relief when Laura was found, at least now we know. I often think of what would have changed back in 1984 when Laura disappeared, if there had been a Texas EquuSearch. Would Laura have been found alive? Probably not, but she would have been found and there probably would have been some evidence on the scene to help the police in the investigation. Would Jane Doe have been murdered? My thoughts–probably not or at least not at that spot.”
Mr. Speaker, the Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search & Recovery Team, was founded in loving memory of Laura Miller by her father Timothy A. Miller to search for our nation’s missing and abducted children and adults. It has received help from the citizens of Houston, the State of Texas and the United States to successfully search for and find the lost, abducted, and missing. Our nation’s communities and law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have already recognized the significance and value of the Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search & Recovery. It is now appropriate that the People and the Congress of the United States of America applaud and urge on Texas EquuSearch to continue forward- assuring that ‘The lost are not alone’.
NICK LAMPSON
Member of Congress
