Execution Report: Anthony Shore

Anthony Allen Shore, 55, was executed by lethal injection on 18 January 2018 in Huntsville, Texas for the rape and murder of four women and girls.

In October 1997, Shore, then 35, was arrested for sexually molesting his two daughters, Amber and Tiffany, from the time they were in kindergarten. He entered a no-contest plea and was placed on probation. As part of the terms of his plea bargain, he was required to providea DNA sample to the police.

In 2003, Houston police matched Shore's DNA sample to a cold case murder. In 1992, Maria del Carmen Estrada was abducted and sexually assaulted. She was then strangled to death with a cord. Her body was dumped behind a Dairy Queen restaurant in Spring Branch. Shore's DNA was matched to a sample taken from under the victim's fingernails.

Shore was arrested on 24 October 2003 at 4:15 p.m. He was taken to a police interview room at 4:53 and his handcuffs were removed. Officer Todd Miller confronted Shore with the DNA evidence implicating him in Estrada's murder and interviewed him for over three hours. Miller said Shore was "very cooperative and spoke freely," but he did not admit any involvement in the murder.

Sergeant John Swaim interviewed Shore from 8:07 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. Swaim said Shore was "calm, cool, cooperative," but did not provide any information about the murder.

Sergeant Roger Wedgeworth interviewed Shore from 9:25 p.m. to 10:15 p.m., again with no results.

Officer Miller returned at 10:20 p.m. to speak with Shore a second time. He expanded the scope of the discussion to include two other murders in which Shore was a suspect. According to Miller, Shore did not deny involvement in the murders, but said he could not remember. Miller invited Shore to speak "hypothetically" about what happened. Shore said he would, but he was more comfortable talking to Sergeant Swaim.

Miller left the room, and Swaim re-entered at 11:50 p.m. According to Swaim, Shore said, "What would you say if I gave you these cases and a couple of bonuses?" Swaim answered, "What's this hypothetical? What are you going to talk about hypothetically?" Shore then said, "Well, I have this evilness in me, and I think if I tell you what I've done that it will release that evilness, and I would feel better." Swaim obtained Shore's permission to make tape-recorded statements. The recordings began at 12:08 a.m. and ended at 1:00 a.m.

Shore's criminal career as a serial rapist and murderer began when he was 24. According to Shore, he was preoccupied with young girls and met Laurie Tremblay, 14 one day when she was on her way to a bus stop. He gave her a ride and began giving her rides on a semi-regular basis. During one of those rides, on 26 September 1986, he became sexually aggressive and unhooked Laurie's bra. When she demanded that he stop, he became angry and hit her in the back of the head. He then used a cotton cord to strangle her. "I tried to make sure that she would never, ever tell anybody," Shore said. He then dumped the girl's body behind a Ninfa's restaurant.

Maria Estrada, 21, was Shore's second victim. On 16 April 1992, after giving her a ride, he made sexual advances toward her. He stated that she "freaked out," but he persisted. Using a pair of shears, he cut off her shorts and pantyhose. He raped her and strangled her by twisting a nylon cord around her neck and tightening it with a piece of wood. He dumped her naked body in the drive-through behind the Dairy Queen.

About a year and a half later, Shore became infatuated with a 14-year old girl. On 19 October 1993, she came home to find him waiting for her. He bound her hands with an electrical cord and wrapped her head in duct tape. He took her into the bedroom, removed her pants, and cut her panties off with a knife. He then raped the girl as she screamed and cried. He then began choking her, but she managed to escape. Before he fled from the scene, Shore, who was wearing sunglasses and a bandana over his face and surgical gloves on his hands, threatened to return and kill the girl if she reported the crime. He also named her school and the sports activities she participated in. In his confession, Shore stated that he fantasized about raping her, but not killing her. He believed he could "beat the evilness" by possessing and controlling another person without killing her.

On 7 August 1994, Shore saw nine-year-old Diana Rebollar walking down the street while he was driving a van. He pulled into a parking lot and began talking to her. Noticing that no one else was around, he grabbed her, threw her into the van, duct taped her hands and feet, drove behind a building, and raped her. He strangled her with a rope and a bamboo stick. Her body, naked except for a t-shirt, was found on the loading dock of a building.

On 6 July 1995, Shore saw Dana Sanchez, 16, at a pay phone and offered her a ride. She accepted. Shore stated that when he began touching her, she objected and resisted. He took her into the back of the van, removed her clothes, and killed her by strangling her with a rope tightened with a toothbrush. Some time later, he phoned a TV news station to report that there was a "serial killer out there." He gave the body's location and a detailed description of the victim. The girl's nude, decomposed body was found with a yellow rope wrapped around her neck and a knot made by a toothbrush. Shore claimed that he did not sexually assault Sanchez.

News articles referred to Shore as the "Tourniquet Killer" because of the manner in which his victims were strangled.

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