Georgia Geer

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Galveston County Sheriffs Office (TX)

Offense Location:

Dickinson, Texas

Summary:

Georgia Geer, 14, disappeared with Brooks Bracewell on Sept. 6, 1974. Her body was found in a remote swampland near Alvin on April 3, 1981. Police initially insisted that Bracewell and Geer were runaways, only beginning to investigate foul play in 1981. Edward Harold Bell, an admitted sex offender, convicted murderer and self-described serial killer, gave multiple confessions from his locked prison cell of abducting and slaying teenage and adolescent girls in the 1970s.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

Brooks Bracewell, 12, and Georgia Caroline Geer, 14, were both last seen at the UtoteM convenience store off I-45 on September 6, 1974. Both girls attended MacAdams Junior High School; they walked together to the bus stop but decided against attending their classes that day. On September 6th, 1974, Georgia and Brooks were seen at El Rancho motel. The Galveston County Sheriff's Deputy who stopped by the house to take a report that evening didn't waste much time on a couple of "runaways." Police conducted no search at all. In 1976, partial skeletal remains belonging to Bracewell were found by police in a culvert in Alvin, Texas, nearby the pair's last known location, but were not connected to Bracewell and Geer at the time, and were only identified as Bracewell after a new detective took over the case in 1981. The young girls' skulls were first located in 1976 by an oil rig worker. The remains enabled authorities to say Friday that the girls were Georgia Geer, 14, and Brooks Bracewell, 12, both of Dickinson.

Additional Details:

At the time of their disappearance, police insisted that Bracewell and Geer were runaways, only beginning to investigate foul play in 1981. The murders of Brooks and Georgia generated by far the least attention from authorities in the first crucial days and months. Their case was not worked as a homicide until 1981 — a delay during which important witnesses left town or disappeared. Deed records show Bell owned a rural pasture a few minutes' drive from the Dickinson store where two middle school students, Georgia Geer, 14, and Brooks Bracewell, 12, were last seen in 1974. In disturbing letters sent to Harris and Galveston county prosecutors in 1998 - but kept secret for 13 years - Bell claimed to have killed seven girls, including two Galveston 15-year-olds shot as they stood tied up and half naked in the chilly waters of Turner Bayou. In interviews with Lise Olsen, Edward Bell denies killing anyone, even Larry Dickens. When asked about the letters he wrote in 1998, Bell said he was suicidal and wanted the state to execute him; he supposedly made it all up. In A&E's series The Eleven, journalist Lise Olsen and retired Galveston Police Department detective Fred Paige revisit the cold cases after they are presented with a confession letter from inmate Edward Harold Bell, who is serving a 70-year-sentence for a different murder. However, Bell was never charged with these murders due to lack of evidence.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 07, 2026