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In 2004, Rebekah Gould had just transferred to Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville when she reported missing from her boyfriend's house on September 21. Within a week, her body was found on the embankment off a highway. She had been viciously beaten and died of two fatal blows to the head.
Investigators initially suspected the involvement of Gould's boyfriend, Casey McCullough, given that the crime took place at his house on September 20. McCullough even claimed he didn't notice the bloody scene when he returned home the following morning.
The case was only solved in November 2020, when a man named William Miller was arrested and charged with murder. Miller eventually confessed to killing the college student and pleaded guilty, receiving 40 years in prison.
This Friday, an all-new two-hour NBC Dateline episode will revisit the gruesome murder of Rebekah Gould. The episode, titled Secrets in the Ozarks, airs on the channel at 9 pm ET on June 2, 2023.
The synopsis states:
"When the body of 22-year-old college student Rebekah Gould is found a week after she vanished, theories about her murder run rampant through the Arkansas Ozarks. Dennis Murphy reports."
Rebekah Gould was fatally struck in the head and then strangled before her body was dumped near a highway
In 2004, Rebekah Gould had only recently transferred from Melbourne's Ozarka College to Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville before her disappearance. She and her sister Danielle traveled to Melbourne in September of that year, where the 22-year-old intended to spend the weekend with her boyfriend, Casey McCullough, at his home in Guion.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported that on September 20, Gould went missing after dropping McCullough off at work. She was last seen that same day at a nearby convenience shop. Her purse and car keys were discovered inside her car, which was still at her boyfriend's house.
Gould was reported missing the following day, and her body was found a few days later, on September 27, on an embankment off a highway. She died of two fatal blows to the head, as per Oxygen. Other reports state that she was also strangled.
Investigators initially declared McCullough a person of interest given that the crime took place at his home, but he was never formally identified as a suspect. Moreover, Gould's belongings, including her unharmed dog, car, cellphone, and other personal items, were left behind at the house.
Additionally, there was other evidence such as bloody sheets in the washing machine, a blood-stained mattress and pillows, a trail of blood, and large amounts of bleach, which were used in a hurried attempt to clean up the crime scene. Reports state that a piano leg was also missing.
The NEA Report states that McCullough claimed he never returned home that night and was out with friends for a movie and dinner, following which he decided to spend the night at a friend's house. The following morning, he returned to his home to collect work clothes but failed to notice the bloody scene at the house.
How was Rebekah Gould's murder mystery solved after 16 years, and who was charged?
Rebekah Gould's case languished in obscurity as authorities tracked false leads for almost 16 years until Special Agent Mike McNeill was assigned the case and he decided to investigate Casey McCullough and his family members. McNeill was soon convinced someone in the family was involved in the crime.
It was soon unearthed that McCullough's first cousin, William Miller, had briefly visited his home on the night of the murder. He was initially interviewed in connection with Rebekah Gould's disappearance, but nothing came out of it.
Detectives then started a Facebook group in an attempt to locate Gould's killer, and Miller was one of the first people to join. He sent multiple messages to the group over the course of 10 months, expressing his thoughts and theories with regards to the murder.
Afterwards, Miller failed a polygraph test and was basically tricked into confessing to the crime by detectives on November 7, 2020. He confessed to having entered the house under the pretense of wanting to use the phone because his car was having issues.
Miller claimed at that moment he was overwhelmed by a psychotic urge to kill her and used a loose piano leg to strike her twice in the head while she lay in her bed before using a necktie to strangle her to death. He then wrapped her body in a sheet and tried to clean the crime scene before driving the body to the site where it was later found.
According to THV11, William Miller was charged with Gould's murder in November 2020, and two years later, he pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The mysterious case of Rebekah Gould airs on NBC Dateline this Friday at 9 pm ET.
