Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and her Landrum’s 7-year-old grandson, Colby Landrum, were driving from New Caney to Dayton down FM 1960, which was then a two-lane blacktop road with dirt shoulders.

Cox appeared in Pike County Court Monday, where bail was set at $1 million cash. Landrum is incarcerated in Ross County on unrelated charges, and an arrest warrant for murder has been issued in ...