A Deadly Case of Mistaken Identity: The Shocking Lake Waco Murders

True Crime Nightmares
20 min readFeb 16, 2024
One of the last photos taken of Jill Montgomery and Raylene Rice
Kenneth Franks

Summer of Fear

The evening of July 13, 1982, started out like any other for seventeen-year-old Jill Montgomery, her best friend Raylene Rice — also seventeen — and eighteen-year-old Kenneth Franks. Since she was the only one with a car, Raylene would be providing the transportation. With plans to hang out at a local park, it should have been a typical Saturday night. As it happened, nothing could have prepared them for the terror to come.

The trio, none of whom had ever been in any real trouble, had met months earlier at a home for wayward teens. As they struggled to navigate the rocky road to adulthood, they had formed a kinship, especially Kenneth and Jill whose feelings for each other had developed into a full-blown romance.

Jill was a petite brunette with a shy smile that matched her demeanor. Raylene, on the other hand, was a blonde spitfire with an outgoing nature that perfectly offset her friend’s introverted personality. The two of them together were an unstoppable force. That is, until the night of July 13th.

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True Crime Nightmares
True Crime Nightmares

Written by True Crime Nightmares

Author, victim advocate, true crime historian.

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