KSLA INVESTIGATES: Neighbors say soaking wet man seen night 3 girls later found dead in pond disappeared

CASS COUNTY, Texas (KSLA) - In 2022, three young girls were found dead in a pond in Cass County. Initially, it was believed the girls had drowned, and their deaths were accidental. However, the case was later ruled a homicide.

Now, KSLA has conducted interviews with neighbors that reveal new details in the case.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE>>> FAMILY DEMANDS JUSTICE FOR 3 GIRLS FOUND STRANGLED IN CASS COUNTY POND LAST YEAR

This coming Sunday, July 30, will mark one year since the three Cass County girls were pulled out of the pond. Months later, the Cass County district attorney revealed the girls were strangled to death.

One year later, a tight knit community is still waiting for answers on who killed Zi’Ariel Robinson-Oliver, 9, A’Miyah Hughes, 8, and Te’Mari Robinson-Oliver, 5.

Raydeen Edwards works for the local newspaper and has been covering the case.

“I think we are really trying to find out who did it,” Edwards said.

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe tells KSLA this is a very active investigation, however, he wouldn’t elaborate on details.

“I would like to see it come to an end. Somebody needs to go to jail for this,” said Edwards.

Here’s what we know...

On July 29, 2022, the girls were reported missing. Neighbor, Josephine Webster, remembers driving home around 9:30 p.m. She says she was approached by a man who had been living at the home with the children and their mom, Shammaonique Oliver-Wickerson.

“I gave him my house phone and he called the mom and told her the girls hadn’t showed up,” Josephine said.

Law enforcement and volunteers searched the area. Nearly five hours later in the early morning hours, their bodies were found by divers in a pond that borders their property and for the first time, one year later, the owner of this pond allowed KSLA access.

“They would have to get in there through there with the horse to go down to the pond,” Josephine said.

“Just something about it just didn’t seem right,” said Aberney Webster Jr., a neighbor.

Josephine remembers telling detectives what could be a key piece of evidence about the man who came to her house.

“He was wet and I noticed that,” she said. “It looked like all the way down, not sweat. It looked like water.”

Eight months after the girls were killed, leader of the New Black Panther Nation and activist, Quanell X, stood next to the girls’ mother demanding justice.

“We come here to Cass County today angry as hell. We are hurting with this mother and her family,” Quanell X said at the time.

“It’s been hard for me, my family, mainly because we all want answers. We all want to know exactly what happened,” the girls’ mother said back in April of 2023.

KSLA reached out to the mother of the girls, but was unsuccessful in speaking with her for an interview. Meanwhile, the small town of Douglassville, right outside of Atlanta, Texas, wants the case solved so they can move on.

“It is still somebody out there on the loose and we don’t know who and where they come from,” said Aberney.

KSLA is still working to get ahold of the last person seen with the three girls; so far, we’ve been unsuccessful.

A balloon release in the girls’ memory is scheduled for Saturday, July 29 at 7 p.m. near the home where the girls disappeared.

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