Roy Joe McCaleb’s murder took nearly three decades to solve – Evil Stepmothers

Roy Joe McCaleb ‘s murder by his wife Carolyn Sue Smith Krizan is the subject of this episode of Evil Stepmothers on Investigation Discovery.

Roy Joe McCaleb was a veteran of the Korean War and was a foreman at Brown and Root, where he’d worked as a solid employee for 20 years. He’d been married for over 20 years as well but that relationship has succumbed to the stresses of time and he found himself single once again.

He met Carolyn Sue Smith Krizan and the pair hit it off, with McCaleb looking for a companion and Krizan craving some stability. The two lovebirds decided to get married, Krizan for the seventh time, but their halcyon days were numbered and less than two years into their married life, McCaleb was shot dead.

Sept. 22, 1985, and 51-year-old McCaleb was shot dead in his bed, with his wife claiming it was the work of an intruder. She then explained to police that she’d been carjacked and raped over a week before and that this same man had come back and crept into the couple’s home. Assaulting 43-year-old Krizan again and then shooting her husband dead with the revolver she kept under her pillow.

Detectives were puzzled by the case and they failed to turn up a viable suspect or any concrete leads. Days turned to months and then to years, but MCCaleb’s daughter, Pam Nalley, kept chasing the case up and eventually it was reopened by two Texas Rangers and the DA decided to take action.

In 2008 Krizan was arrested and a rather lenient plea deal was agreed, with the 71-year-old being asked to serve only six months in jail.

However, the Assistant Harris County District Attorney explained that she might well have never served any time in prison and it was important for the family of the victim to get some sort of closure. Krizan’s age and health was also a factor, but initially the case was dismissed due to the amount of time that had passed. This was eventually reversed and the case sent back to the court, with Krizan finally admitting to killing her husband in 2013.

Evil Stepmothers – As Bad as It Gets at airs at 9:00 PM Investigation Discovery.