Maria "Elena" Guzman Bryan
1946 - 1969
Elena was born August 4, 1946, to Alberto and Guadalupe B. Salazar Guzman in Michigan. She was raised by her aunt and graduated from Los Fresnos High School in Los Fresnos, Texas. Elena married Clifton Floyd Bryan, of Provo, Utah, in 1968. She and her husband lived in the Houston, Texas, area where he worked as a carnival roundabout with a friend, Russell Morris Peterman, of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras. They occasionally went fishing together on their days off, as they did for the last time on April 5, 1969. Elena's nude and battered body was found in a pasture on a lonely farm road near Clodine, Texas, the next day by motorists. Medical examiners found she had been bludgeoned to death with a bottle and repeatedly run over by an automobile. Her husband and friend, Russell, were suspected and charged in absentia, for her murder. Jesse Contreras, deaf and mute since age six, eventually confessed to Texas authorities on May 22, 1969, through sign language and the translation of his stepmother, that he had shot both men on that fishing trip with a .410 gauge shotgun, then bashed the weapon against a tree and threw it in the river. Authorities recovered the weapon and ammo, turning the matter over to a grand jury. The bodies of Clifton Floyd Bryan and Russell Morris Peterman were eventually found by fishermen in the San Bernard River, a short distance from where Elena's murdered body had been found. Contreras had already been charged with the murder of Elena, though he denied taking her life. Maria "Elena" Guzman Bryan, 22; her husband, Clifton Floyd Bryan, almost 19; Russell Morris Peterman, 21; and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras, 23, were last seen together in a 1959 Dodge truck on April 5, 1969, leaving for a fishing trip. Jesse Contreras was the only one that survived that day. His fate is unknown at this writing. Each of these young people in this triple murder were buried in three different cemeteries in three different states.
© Researched and written by: Annie Duckett Hundley
- Sources:
Port Arthur News | Port Arthur, TX | 8 Apr 1969 | pg. 5
Lubbock Avalanche Journal | Lubbock, TX | 21 May 1969 | pg. 35
Wichita Falls Times | Witchita, KS | 22 May 1969 | pg. 6
Brownsville Herald | Brownsville, TX | 25 May 1969 | pg. 8
Provo Daily Herald | Provo, UT | 29 May 1969 | pg. 4
1946 - 1969
Elena was born August 4, 1946, to Alberto and Guadalupe B. Salazar Guzman in Michigan. She was raised by her aunt and graduated from Los Fresnos High School in Los Fresnos, Texas. Elena married Clifton Floyd Bryan, of Provo, Utah, in 1968. She and her husband lived in the Houston, Texas, area where he worked as a carnival roundabout with a friend, Russell Morris Peterman, of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras. They occasionally went fishing together on their days off, as they did for the last time on April 5, 1969. Elena's nude and battered body was found in a pasture on a lonely farm road near Clodine, Texas, the next day by motorists. Medical examiners found she had been bludgeoned to death with a bottle and repeatedly run over by an automobile. Her husband and friend, Russell, were suspected and charged in absentia, for her murder. Jesse Contreras, deaf and mute since age six, eventually confessed to Texas authorities on May 22, 1969, through sign language and the translation of his stepmother, that he had shot both men on that fishing trip with a .410 gauge shotgun, then bashed the weapon against a tree and threw it in the river. Authorities recovered the weapon and ammo, turning the matter over to a grand jury. The bodies of Clifton Floyd Bryan and Russell Morris Peterman were eventually found by fishermen in the San Bernard River, a short distance from where Elena's murdered body had been found. Contreras had already been charged with the murder of Elena, though he denied taking her life. Maria "Elena" Guzman Bryan, 22; her husband, Clifton Floyd Bryan, almost 19; Russell Morris Peterman, 21; and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras, 23, were last seen together in a 1959 Dodge truck on April 5, 1969, leaving for a fishing trip. Jesse Contreras was the only one that survived that day. His fate is unknown at this writing. Each of these young people in this triple murder were buried in three different cemeteries in three different states.
© Researched and written by: Annie Duckett Hundley
- Sources:
Port Arthur News | Port Arthur, TX | 8 Apr 1969 | pg. 5
Lubbock Avalanche Journal | Lubbock, TX | 21 May 1969 | pg. 35
Wichita Falls Times | Witchita, KS | 22 May 1969 | pg. 6
Brownsville Herald | Brownsville, TX | 25 May 1969 | pg. 8
Provo Daily Herald | Provo, UT | 29 May 1969 | pg. 4
Maria "Elena" Guzman Bryan
1946 - 1969
Elena was born August 4, 1946, to Alberto and Guadalupe B. Salazar Guzman in Michigan. She was raised by her aunt and graduated from Los Fresnos High School in Los Fresnos, Texas. Elena married Clifton Floyd Bryan, of Provo, Utah, in 1968. She and her husband lived in the Houston, Texas, area where he worked as a carnival roundabout with a friend, Russell Morris Peterman, of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras. They occasionally went fishing together on their days off, as they did for the last time on April 5, 1969. Elena's nude and battered body was found in a pasture on a lonely farm road near Clodine, Texas, the next day by motorists. Medical examiners found she had been bludgeoned to death with a bottle and repeatedly run over by an automobile. Her husband and friend, Russell, were suspected and charged in absentia, for her murder. Jesse Contreras, deaf and mute since age six, eventually confessed to Texas authorities on May 22, 1969, through sign language and the translation of his stepmother, that he had shot both men on that fishing trip with a .410 gauge shotgun, then bashed the weapon against a tree and threw it in the river. Authorities recovered the weapon and ammo, turning the matter over to a grand jury. The bodies of Clifton Floyd Bryan and Russell Morris Peterman were eventually found by fishermen in the San Bernard River, a short distance from where Elena's murdered body had been found. Contreras had already been charged with the murder of Elena, though he denied taking her life. Maria "Elena" Guzman Bryan, 22; her husband, Clifton Floyd Bryan, almost 19; Russell Morris Peterman, 21; and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras, 23, were last seen together in a 1959 Dodge truck on April 5, 1969, leaving for a fishing trip. Jesse Contreras was the only one that survived that day. His fate is unknown at this writing. Each of these young people in this triple murder were buried in three different cemeteries in three different states.
© Researched and written by: Annie Duckett Hundley
- Sources:
Port Arthur News | Port Arthur, TX | 8 Apr 1969 | pg. 5
Lubbock Avalanche Journal | Lubbock, TX | 21 May 1969 | pg. 35
Wichita Falls Times | Witchita, KS | 22 May 1969 | pg. 6
Brownsville Herald | Brownsville, TX | 25 May 1969 | pg. 8
Provo Daily Herald | Provo, UT | 29 May 1969 | pg. 4
1946 - 1969
Elena was born August 4, 1946, to Alberto and Guadalupe B. Salazar Guzman in Michigan. She was raised by her aunt and graduated from Los Fresnos High School in Los Fresnos, Texas. Elena married Clifton Floyd Bryan, of Provo, Utah, in 1968. She and her husband lived in the Houston, Texas, area where he worked as a carnival roundabout with a friend, Russell Morris Peterman, of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras. They occasionally went fishing together on their days off, as they did for the last time on April 5, 1969. Elena's nude and battered body was found in a pasture on a lonely farm road near Clodine, Texas, the next day by motorists. Medical examiners found she had been bludgeoned to death with a bottle and repeatedly run over by an automobile. Her husband and friend, Russell, were suspected and charged in absentia, for her murder. Jesse Contreras, deaf and mute since age six, eventually confessed to Texas authorities on May 22, 1969, through sign language and the translation of his stepmother, that he had shot both men on that fishing trip with a .410 gauge shotgun, then bashed the weapon against a tree and threw it in the river. Authorities recovered the weapon and ammo, turning the matter over to a grand jury. The bodies of Clifton Floyd Bryan and Russell Morris Peterman were eventually found by fishermen in the San Bernard River, a short distance from where Elena's murdered body had been found. Contreras had already been charged with the murder of Elena, though he denied taking her life. Maria "Elena" Guzman Bryan, 22; her husband, Clifton Floyd Bryan, almost 19; Russell Morris Peterman, 21; and Jesus "Jesse" Contreras, 23, were last seen together in a 1959 Dodge truck on April 5, 1969, leaving for a fishing trip. Jesse Contreras was the only one that survived that day. His fate is unknown at this writing. Each of these young people in this triple murder were buried in three different cemeteries in three different states.
© Researched and written by: Annie Duckett Hundley
- Sources:
Port Arthur News | Port Arthur, TX | 8 Apr 1969 | pg. 5
Lubbock Avalanche Journal | Lubbock, TX | 21 May 1969 | pg. 35
Wichita Falls Times | Witchita, KS | 22 May 1969 | pg. 6
Brownsville Herald | Brownsville, TX | 25 May 1969 | pg. 8
Provo Daily Herald | Provo, UT | 29 May 1969 | pg. 4
Gravesite Details
UNMARKED
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
