A Teenager Barely Gets a Chance to Live
(‘Headquarters,’ Forensic Files)
Those who saw the photo of 8-year-old Belynda Tillery on rollerskates in the Lubbock Evening Journal in 1983 probably imagined the carefree-looking child would go on to live a charmed life.
But the golden-haired girl’s circumstances changed drastically sometime between then and 1992, when she disappeared.
For this week, I looked into why her trajectory took a dangerous turn and what happened to the boyfriend who ended her life. And because a number of YouTube viewers expressed shock that a strip club hired Belynda as a dancer when she was a minor, I looked around for an explanation.
So let’s get going on the recap of “Headquarters” along with extra information from internet research and online correspondence with Belynda’s younger sister.
Brothers aplenty. Belynda Kay Tillery came into the world in Hobbs, New Mexico, on Dec. 27, 1974, the daughter of Beverly Lutz Tillery and Robert Earl Tillery.
Just a small amount of background information about Belynda’s parents came up online. Their 1969 wedding announcement in the Lubbock Avalanche noted that Beverly worked at Litton Industries (an electronics manufacturer) and attended Azusa Pacific College.
The newspaper item described Robert Tillery as a Poco Taco employee attending South Plains College. It’s not clear how long Belynda’s father stayed in her life or what type of work he did at the time of her birth.
But the couple had plenty of children to support. Belynda was the fourth of the Tillerys’ five children and the first girl. The family lived in Lubbock, where they attended the First Church of the Nazarene.
Veering off course. Growing up, Belynda was “best friends” with her brother Danny and “a bit of a tomboy,” according to her sister, Robyn Tillery. But Belynda “enjoyed her Easy-Bake Oven” and “playing in her makeup — and was quite good with end results.”
In school, Belynda showed little interest in extracurricular activities, Robyn said. “In her early teenage years, she became quite the rebel and found herself drawn to the bad kids. She loved the party life but still made time for her family.”
At 13, Belynda was removed from the Tillery household and placed in some type of children’s home. About four years later, she was returned to her mother and got a job dancing at the gentleman’s club.
Tasmanian devils? Although no media source gives the name of the establishment, Forensic Files mentioned that the Bandidos owned it.
The Bandidos were a multistate motorcycle group “so fearsome that when a rumor spread through a town that they were coming, people literally headed inside their homes and locked their doors,” according to a Texas Monthly story by Chris Hollandsworth.
That probably explains how the Bandidos got away with employing dancers younger than 18. (By the way, Texas has since raised the required age to 21 for all types of strip club workers as well as customers.)
But the real danger that stalked Belynda came not from a 220-pound tough on a Harley with no muffler but rather a skinny unaffiliated loser named Troy Armstrong.
Baneful boyfriend. Troy, who Forensic Files describes as a petty thief and drug user in his late 20s, began dating Belynda while she was working at the club.
As if he weren’t already bad news, Troy was two-timing Belynda with girlfriend Angela Allen, who viewers will remember from her appearance on Forensic Files.
Belynda ended up pregnant, which riled Troy, although media accounts give varying reasons: Troy didn’t want to pay child support. Or he was mad that the baby belonged to another man. Or it was Troy’s and he was angry that Angela broke up with him because of it.
Regardless of any turmoil, Belynda wanted to continue the pregnancy. “She loved children and showered her nieces and nephews with plenty of love and attention,” Robyn said. “She was over-the-top excited when she learned that she would be having a child of her own.”
Remains of the day. In 1992, Troy took Belynda camping, ostensibly so they could discuss the pregnancy.
She vanished afterward.
Two years later, in 1994, a couple of hunters stumbled upon an unidentified skull, some bones, and a white high-heeled shoe in a field in Yellow House Canyon. Forensic evidence suggested that the remains belonged to a woman who died of a stabbing attack and was no older than 24.
Forensic artist Karen T. Taylor created a portrait of the anonymous female.
Passing likeness. After police released the drawing to the public, they got tips from the usual mix of people genuinely trying to help and a few oddballs — some who thought she was a woman missing since the 1950s, according to lead investigator Tom Watson. He also noted that one caller told him that her “knife freak” husband committed the murder and added, “By the way we’re having a custody battle tomorrow — can you give me a copy of the report for my lawyer?”
Fortunately, Beverly Tillery recognized the portrait as looking like her own missing daughter, and dental records confirmed it.
Angela, Troy’s other girlfriend, surrendered any loyalty to him and told investigators that Troy had shown up at her door with blood on his hands after the camping trip with Belynda. She turned over a jagged-edged knife he owned to police.
Then it was Troy’s turn to disappear.
Evidence in storage. The authorities finally apprehended him in January 1996, when they used GPS to track down a trucker friend of Troy’s on Interstate 80 in Nebraska. They dragged Troy out of his hiding place in the back of the tractor-trailer.
Police discovered he had a key to a New Mexico storage locker with Belynda’s driver’s license and other possessions. All together, they had enough evidence to charge him.
For the court proceedings, Troy cut his longish brown hair and put on a suit. He looked more like a nervous CVS clerk who shoplifted Marlboro Lights than a knife-wielding killer.
At the trial, prosecutors contended that Troy and Belynda argued during the camping trip and he stabbed her numerous times in the back, then deserted her body on or about July 24, 1992.
More loss. Angela testified that Troy admitted to committing the murder and threatened he’d kill her children and her father if she told anyone.
The jury took two hours to find him guilty on Dec. 5, 1996. He got a life sentence.
Today, Troy Armstrong resides in the Alfred Hughes facility in Gatesville, Texas. The board declined to grant him parole in January 2021 based on the crime’s brutality, the likelihood he would reoffend, and his “drug abuse involvement.”
Although the Tillerys won justice for Belynda, tragedy would strike their mother again. Beverly’s obituary — she died at age 62 in in 2010 — notes that she had a 12-year-old son, Michael Canales, as well as a granddaughter whose lives ended before hers did.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
