2002 Susan McFarland’s Murder in Terrell Hills / San Antonio

Introduction

On January 14, 2003, Texas Ranger Shawn Palmer and Detective Boyd Wedding from the Terrell Hills Police Department made a horrible discovery at an abandoned farm.

An old Datsun truck bed that had been made into a utility trailer sat with half-burned refuse in it. Ranger Palmer walked up to have a peek.

The unmistakable odor of decomposition and burnt flesh hit him. What he first saw, however, was a burned-up VCR and television, and in the corner of the truck bed was a wrapper from a Wyler’s Authentic Italian Ices. Palmer had recently learned that Richard McFarland was obsessed with that snack, so Palmer knew the body of McFarland’s wife, Susan, lay beneath that mess.

To her friends and family in the upscale old San Antonio suburb of Terrell Hills, Susan McFarland was the picture of success.

She was a CPA and had graduated at the top of her class in college. Susan had worked her way into a well-paying executive position at SBC Communications, while also being a devoted mother to three young boys and skillfully balancing a demanding career with school carnivals and charitable work.

Susan and her husband, Richard McFarland, lived in a 1938-built, two-story home on Arcadia Place in picturesque Terrell Hills, a small city within San Antonio’s boundaries.

But this perfect picture was shattered on Thanksgiving Day 2002, when Susan’s husband, Richard, reported her missing, kicking off a seven-week investigation that concluded with a horrific discovery.

Hi, I’m Brenda. Thanks for being here with me at Vintage Texas Crimes. I’m a writer of old Texas crime stories, and that’s all this account is about. If that’s your cup of tea, please subscribe or follow.

Thanks, friends!

PART 1 – WHERE IS SUSAN?

Susan and Richard McFarland had been married for thirteen years by November 2002.

Susan was the family’s energetic breadwinner; she was cute, witty, and fun. Her husband, however, was neither successful nor energetic. He thought he was too good for working for other people. And he didn’t have a sense of humor.

From the outset, Susan McFarland’s case was quirky; and today, we can look back and see it foreshadowed another San Antonio case that presented itself in October 2024, when Suzanne Simpson, wife of Brad Simpson, disappeared. There are strong similarities between the two cases. Both missing women were beautiful and kind; people loved them. They were smart and highly successful at their jobs. Each couple had three children, and both women had husbands who were controlling and emotionally abusive. While the women worked long days, neither of their husbands could be relied upon to even pick up the children from school on time.

[Side note: Suzanne Simpson’s body has still not been found. Brad Simpson has been held at the Bexar County Jail since October 2024. Currently, it looks like his trial will happen in April or May 2026.]

When Richard McFarland reported his wife missing, Terrell Hills Police Sgt. Boyd Wedding saw immediately that the case was not a simple “runaway mom” situation. Susan McFarland was classified as a “missing person with suspicious circumstances.”

Richard told police he hadn’t seen his wife since the evening of Monday, November 25.

Three days had gone by before he told them she was missing. He insisted there had been no arguments and that Susan had never gone missing before. His story to police was that he thought she’d gone to Amarillo for the holiday and left their children with him. Police reached out to Susan’s friends and family, who completely dismantled Richard’s story about Amarillo.

The First Clue: An Abandoned Ford Explorer

Thanksgiving
November 28, 2002

The first tangible piece of evidence in Susan’s missing person investigation was found three days after she had last been seen. Even at that point, Richard had not yet reported her disappearance to the Terrell Hills Police Department.

At 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning, a patrol officer discovered her 1997 Ford Explorer abandoned in a vacant field, just two miles from her home. The keys were still in the ignition.

Sgt. Boyd Wedding contacted Richard McFarland before the missing person report was filed.

According to Sgt. Wedding, the husband’s reaction was strangely calm. “There wasn’t a whole lot of concern about it,” according to Wedding.

And get this…

Police wanted to come to his house and take a report about his wife, whom he said he had not seen since November 25, when she left to go visit friends. He told Sgt. Wedding that it was not a good time. He said he would come to the police department as soon as he could.

That put Richard on the radar as suspect #1—especially when it was nearly fifteen hours later that he went to the station to pick up the car and report her missing. Fifteen hours. Talk about a guy who can’t read a room. That was law enforcement’s first red flag.

As days turned into a week, the news spread, and a chill settled over Terrell Hills. Missing person posters bearing Susan McFarland’s smiling face appeared in the windows of local stores and gathering places. The case that began with Richard McFarland’s half-hearted report of a missing wife soon escalated.

The Terrell Hills Police Department reached out to the Texas Rangers and said they might need help soon.

PART 2 – THE NEIGHBOR’S GARAGE

I have followed crimes since I was eighteen years old, and I have never seen this before.

It was the day after Thanksgiving — November 29, 2002.

One of the McFarlands’ neighbors, Harriet Wells, had recently sold her home directly across the street. The rumor among the other Arcadia Place neighbors was that the buyer planned to tear it down and build a new luxury home.

At 11:45 a.m. that day, Mrs. Wells’ real estate agent, Deborah Myers, arrived to take pictures of the house and was surprised to see Richard’s white van in her client’s driveway. The agent parked her car on the street.

Richard saw her and walked over to speak with the agent. He introduced himself and asked if he should move the van. Myers said it wasn’t necessary. The agent told him she had a tight schedule that day and had already finished taking the pictures she needed.

Myers headed for her car.

“So, this house is going to be demolished?” asked Richard.

“Yes, that’s the buyer’s plan,” said Myers over her shoulder. And then came a weird question, even for Richard: “Will they demolish the garage, too?”

“I’m sure they will. Have a nice day, Richard!”

At the time, she thought nothing of Richard’s question — just that it was kind of weird, and that the neighbor she had just met was a weird guy.

Later in the day, Harriet Wells arrived at her former home to move out more of her belongings. Before she arrived, Deborah Myers had called her about Richard parking in the front driveway. His van would not be in the way. Harriet Wells didn’t like Richard McFarland, so she always pulled in from the alley into her back driveway to avoid him.

When she opened her garage, she was shocked. Parked inside was a blue and tan Chevrolet Suburban that did not belong to her.

She looked inside the SUV and found shopping bags with merchandise in them. She also found a wallet. Inside was a card for AAA bearing the name “Richard McFarland.”

Her husband said he would call Richard and tell him to get the vehicle out of their garage. She said no — she was going to call the police … but not until she got the things loaded up that she had come for.

About the same time, across the street, Officer Rick Trevino rang the McFarlands’ doorbell. He had come to see if the Explorer was still parked in the driveway and to see Susan, if she had returned. Trevino walked by the passenger side of the Explorer and looked in. He saw something on the console. The door was unlocked, so he opened it and looked closer.

It was blood.

The SUV had to be impounded to determine whether this was Susan’s blood. He called in an impoundment order so it would be picked up.

That’s when he went to the door to tell McFarland what was happening.

The McFarlands’ eight-year-old son answered. Trevino asked to speak with his mother. The child said she was in a deep sleep and could not be disturbed.

“How about your dad?” probed Trevino.

“He is asleep, too.”

Trevino knew McFarland was hiding, but he left anyhow. They would be back with a search warrant.

Detective Sgt. Boyd Wedding called Texas Ranger Shawn Palmer to let him know about the Explorer’s impoundment. They would need the Rangers’ help with processing the Explorer and investigating the case.

Meanwhile, two other police officers (names not given) arrived and knocked on Richard’s door. They were supposed to watch him and know his whereabouts at all times for the present. They needed to confirm he was at home.

McFarland would not answer. They went next door and watched for him from the neighbor’s bedroom window. Sure enough, he appeared.

When he saw the police, he ran to his car and tore out of the driveway. They followed him. Richard returned twenty minutes later. He went into his garage and came out with a circular saw in hand. He plugged it in and scored a line across his driveway with the saw.

Across the street, Harriet watched Richard’s curious behavior. The police officers who were assigned to keep up with him watched from their car.

Officers Homer Delgado and Rick Trevino arrived at Harriet’s home regarding the call about the Suburban in her garage. They also saw the bizarre sawing of the concrete driveway. Harriet wondered if he was trying to heat up the blade to destroy DNA that might be on it.

The Suburban itself was quickly identified as having been stolen from a nearby Texaco gas station owned by Richard Clemmer.

Delgado and Trevino began identifying evidence in the SUV.

They found the wallet belonging to McFarland. On the bumper was a dark smudge of what looked like blood. In the rear of the SUV was a shovel. And scattered around the garage were items Harriet insisted weren’t hers: two bags of charcoal, an empty gas container, and insecticide. Those were items for starting fires.

And perhaps someone — likely McFarland — had purchased the insecticide to keep bugs away from a body so that, should the body be discovered, forensics could not determine how long the deceased had been dead based on insect activity.

There was also a great deal of soil and vegetation under the front of the car.

Richard Clemmer, the owner of the Texaco station where the vehicle had been for sale, confirmed the Suburban was stolen off his lot on November 25 — the last day Susan was seen. Clemmer was selling the Suburban on consignment for an acquaintance, Guy Chipman.

Clemmer said only one person had taken that specific Suburban for a test drive — Richard McFarland. He had taken it out on November 20 and 22 and was seen looking under the hood on November 23.

Clemmer said that on one of the test drives, McFarland did not bring the vehicle back for two hours and blamed the delay on his wife.

When the Suburban was stolen, the keys were not taken from inside the Texaco station.

Law enforcement told the San Antonio Express-News they believed McFarland may have gone somewhere to have keys made so that he could steal the vehicle without the original keys a few days later. They asked anyone who had made keys for McFarland to call them.

Next, we will look behind the scenes at the McFarlands’ marriage and dig a little into McFarland’s peculiar personality.

PART 3 – RED FLAGS

For weeks, the public story about the McFarlands was one of a happy family torn apart by a mysterious disappearance. But behind the scenes, Susan McFarland was harboring a secret—one that would cast the entire investigation in a new light: she was planning to divorce her husband.

“She said she just couldn’t take it anymore,” her longtime friend Dee Ann Dowlen would later tell reporters. “She just couldn’t handle how he was treating her. He had begun putting his face very close to hers and screaming at her when he was angry.”

Susan and Richard McFarland met at a party in 1988 in St. Louis, where both were from.

They realized they had once attended the same high school, but had run in different groups. Richard played water polo, was involved in drama productions, and built sets. Susan had been studious, mathematically inclined, and popular.

When they met again years later, Susan was keenly aware of the ticking of her biological clock.

She was drawn to Richard, perhaps at a weak moment when she had just turned thirty years old and was thinking seriously about wanting a family in her future. He was good-looking, worked for a stock brokerage firm, and, at least early on, seemed like a steady, reliable man. Their dating period was pleasant and uneventful on the surface. Susan, outgoing and quick-witted, often carried the social energy of the relationship, while Richard was quieter and more reserved.

Despite that calm exterior, Susan’s friends harbored reservations she later wished she had taken more seriously. There were big red flags, and like many people with nesting fever who want to be part of a couple, Susan chose to overlook them. One example was Richard changing jobs during their engagement without telling her for nearly three weeks.

More troubling was Richard’s mother, a deeply judgmental Bible-thumper who made it clear she believed Susan was not good enough for her son. She did little to hide her dislike, and Susan would later come to regret dismissing these early warning signs as minor irritations rather than signals of deeper problems ahead.

Right after they married, Susan learned that Richard had a mound of debt he had never mentioned to her.

None of those things improved.

His weird and deceptive ways grew.

Richard lost his job shortly after they married and did not work again for over a year. He did not get along with coworkers or bosses at the jobs he was able to get during their marriage.

Investigators learned that Richard had developed compulsive shopping habits that went far beyond occasional overspending. He became fixated on rebate offers—buying items, mailing in rebate paperwork, and then attempting to return the merchandise for a full refund. The behavior escalated to the point that he was banned from Eckerd’s (now CVS) and explicitly told not to return.

He would purchase expensive electronics—such as two Palm Pilots at a time, spending around $500—solely to collect small rebates, then try to return the items. He also bought discounted merchandise they neither needed nor wanted, driven by the thrill of the purchase rather than necessity. He went to stores in Alamo Heights, bought items, brought them home to resell on eBay, and if he couldn’t turn a profit within the store’s return window, Richard returned the items for a full refund.

Richard’s behavior placed a significant and ongoing strain on their finances.

A month before Thanksgiving, Richard drained their bank account, and Susan gave him an ultimatum to return the funds. He didn’t bother to replace the money.

Susan’s friends told investigators that she had hired a divorce attorney on November 12, just two weeks before she vanished, and planned to file the papers on the Monday after Thanksgiving. She wrote all of this in her diary, which was stored in a file on her computer.

She feared a bitter custody battle over their three sons, ages 11, 9, and 5, as Richard was a stay-at-home dad who pretended to run an internet ad sales business from home.

Friends described Richard’s behavior as increasingly irritable. He would scold Susan harshly over trivial matters, such as using seat belts instead of car seats for their older sons.

His inability to hold a steady job wore on Susan, who supported the family’s affluent lifestyle with her salary alone. They had moved to Terrell Hills five years earlier when her job’s headquarters relocated there. Richard had barely worked after they moved to the San Antonio area.

Unknown to Susan or her friends, on the night of November 12, 2002, Richard sat down at his computer, hacked into Susan’s computer, and read her electronic journal. He saw how she had begun to feel repelled by him. He saw she planned to file for divorce on the Monday after Thanksgiving. This breach of privacy would not be found out until much later.

While her friends never witnessed physical abuse, the emotional strain was unmistakable.

With this new information, the focus on Richard McFarland intensified. On December 6, as Richard left his youngest son’s school, he was stopped by Texas Rangers. They escorted him to a police station for questioning and obtained a saliva specimen for DNA testing.

Law enforcement also executed multiple search warrants in November and December. One of them included all the computers in the house. That is when it was learned Richard had read Susan’s diary.

Neighbors recalled seeing Richard with a bandage on his pinky after Thanksgiving, which he claimed was from an accident with a handsaw.

More damningly, Richard made a desperate attempt to obstruct the investigation. After the Suburban was found in Harriet Wells’ garage with his belongings inside, he went to see Richard Clemmer at the Texaco station. He asked Clemmer to lie to police, offering “a couple of steak dinners” to “make it worthwhile” if Clemmer would say he had given Richard permission to take the vehicle. What Richard didn’t know is that Clemmer was recording his conversation.

As investigators dug deeper, a portrait emerged of a man described by those who knew him as “difficult.” Neighbor Carrie Miller recalled how, shortly after the McFarlands moved in, Richard cut down a tree on her property without explanation or apology.

Other friends told investigators he was prone to stalking Susan when she visited a friend or went out, driving past their houses repeatedly, seemingly to check up on her.

There is no end to the list of jarring stories people told about Richard’s behavior during his marriage to Susan and after she disappeared. If you are interested in this weird behavior, read Diane Fanning’s book, Gone Forever, that I will link at the end of this article.

 

PART 4 – A TIPSTER CALLS

Before I start this, I want to tell you that I am sharing a link to my step-by-step timeline in the notes for YouTube, and if you are seeing this on my blog, it will be below.

The case broke open with a phone message.

On January 11, 2003, while reviewing accumulated messages, Terrell Hills Police Detective Sergeant Boyd Wedding found one in the stack from the stepson of a man named Gil Medellin.

The tip was critical.

Medellin reported seeing two vehicles—a blue and tan Suburban and a black Ford Explorer, just like the ones central to the case—out on South W.W. White Road around the time of Susan’s disappearance. He had even seen smoke near an old farmhouse in the area on November 27.

Acting on the tip, Texas Ranger Shawn Palmer visited Gil Medellin on January 13 to hear the story firsthand. Medellin told Palmer that no one came out to that area unless they lived there, but those two vehicles had made more than one trip to that stretch of W.W. White Road. Medellin said they drove slowly, looking around. He tried to flag down the driver to offer help, but the vehicle sped up and drove off.

The next day, on January 14, Palmer and Sgt. Wedding secured permission to search the abandoned farm where the vehicles seemed to be driving most frequently. The property was an overgrown, remote stretch of land that had become an illegal dumping ground for junked cars, caliche pits, and even a trailer full of trash.

It was a place, one local truck driver noted, where “if you were to think like a criminal, this would be the place to dump a body.”

There, amidst the desolate landscape, investigators made a horrific discovery. They found the charred and decomposing remains of Susan McFarland.

The events that followed moved fast.

About an hour after the remains were found, state authorities took the three McFarland boys into protective custody from their schools. Less than two hours after that, Richard McFarland was arrested.

The remains were quickly identified using dental records. It was, without a doubt, Susan McFarland. The seven-week search was over, confirming the family’s worst fears.

“We knew this day was coming, but it doesn’t make it any easier,” her brother, Pete Smith, said from his home in Kansas City. “It’s a never-ending nightmare.”

Richard McFarland was initially charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and two counts of attempting to obstruct the investigation. He was held on bonds totaling $150,000. But with the positive identification of his wife’s body, prosecutors announced they planned to file murder charges. The sole suspect in his wife’s disappearance was now the accused in her murder. His bond was set at $950,000. It was lowered to $550,00, but he couldn’t raise the $55,000 to bond out and never left the county jail.

The murder case against Richard McFarland was set to be one of the most high-profile trials in San Antonio history. Media interest was intense. Court TV had made plans to film the proceedings, and best-selling true-crime author Ann Rule was reportedly considering writing a book on the slaying. The stage was set for a dramatic courtroom battle.

But on January 5, 2004, just as jury selection was about to begin, the drama came to an abrupt end.

Richard McFarland pleaded guilty to the murder of his wife, Susan.

In exchange for his guilty plea, Richard McFarland, 46 at the time, agreed to a 40-year prison sentence. Under the terms of the deal, he would not be eligible for parole for 20 years. Court watchers speculated that the “mountain of evidence and lurid detail” contained in the 400-page court file convinced his legal team that any attempt at a defense was “doomed.”

Aftermath

Richard McFarland is currently imprisoned in the John M. Wynne Unit in Huntsville. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, he was denied parole in 2025. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2029.

When he was in jail before his conviction, Richard did not get along with the other prisoners. Some were afraid of him, and he had to be reassigned several times.

He is still not getting along with the other prisoners.

The tragedy of Susan McFarland’s murder has continued to resonate in San Antonio, especially after Suzanne Simpson went missing and was later declared dead.

A 2024 article in the San Antonio Express-News drew eerie parallels between Susan McFarland’s case and the more recent disappearance of Suzanne Simpson, noting how both women were successful primary breadwinners whose seemingly perfect lives concealed turmoil at home.

About the Children

Because of their father’s actions, the court required Richard McFarland to relinquish his parental rights so the boys could be adopted.

Susan McFarland’s sons, whom she loved so much, were adopted by people outside the family. The family attempted to place them with blood relatives, but Susan’s siblings were nearing age sixty when she died and did not feel they could take on the responsibility. Susan’s parents were deceased. Richard’s parents were in their late seventies, and Richard’s siblings knew he would cause problems if they adopted the boys. His brothers could not allow Richard’s actions to disrupt their own families or take away from their own children.

The youngest and middle sons were adopted by the couple who had fostered them after Richard was arrested. The oldest boy required extensive counseling and went to a facility that could provide that care. He was later adopted by an educated, single woman in her forties who had no children. She had the time and the means to focus on him alone and to make him feel safe and secure.

Both situations are said to have worked out well.

But how sad that this happened to those boys.

Susan was a beloved mother, sister, and friend.

May she rest in peace.

Want More About the McFarland Case?

If this story intrigues you, you will like the book below by Diane Fanning.

“Gone Forever: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal, and Murder” by Diane Fanning
https://amzn.to/4jY5aKt 

This video covers the farm where Susan’s body was dumped.
Channel: Matthew Gonzales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOk_NVTHFk0

I always start by making a timeline. Here is the one I made for Susan McFarland:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hMkipjKzcbxPHi4JZHpLfmfmfGCKPFiqwELexXO8kHw/edit?usp=sharing