This is a general discussion thread for cold cases, cold case innovations, or possibly to break out into a thread, if the interest goes that way.
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Cold Cases
This is a general thread for short discussions on very old unsolved cold cases.
Please note that if the case starts an active discussion, moderators may create a new thread highlighting said case.
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1998 sexual assault cold case solved with blood sample from suspect’s autopsy
The suspect died in 2014, but his fingerprint and blood sample matched DNA collected in 1998
West Falls Church VA
Aug. 17, 1998 the suspect appeared as an exterminator and forced entry into a 32-year-old woman's home. The man threatened the victim with a gun and sexually assaulted her before she jumped two stories from a balcony to escape.
DNA and fingerprints were taken as evidence from the scene, but the suspect's identity was not found. In early 2019, detectives resubmitted suspect's DNA and fingerprints and received a fingerprint hit for Juan Johnson of Maryland. Johnson died in 2014 at age 48, but a blood sample from an autopsy allowed the Virginia...
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Missing wife of decapitated Georgia man found dead in lake
May 17, 2014
With the discovery of the body of an 87-year-old Georgia woman whose disappearance came to light after her husband’s decapitated body was found in their waterfront home, authorities not only want to know who did it, but also why.
Shirley Dermond’s body was found in Lake Oconee, south of Athens, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills told reporters Friday.
“We now, unfortunately, know that Shirley Dermond was murdered,” Sills said.
Sills declined to discuss the condition of the body other than to say, “the head was not removed or anything like that.”
The discovery adds an element to the investigation – the possibility that a boat was a mode of transportation in the...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Amy_Mihaljevic
Amy Renee Mihaljevic (December 11, 1978 – October 27, 1989) was a ten-year-old American elementary school student who was kidnapped and murdered in the U.S. state of Ohio in 1989. Her murder case received national attention. The story of her unsolved kidnapping and murder was presented by John Walsh on the television show America's Most Wanted during the program's early years. To date, her killer has not been found, yet the case remains active; new information in 2007 and 2013 has increased hopes of resolving the case.
Disappearance and murder
On October 27, 1989, Amy Mihaljevic was kidnapped from the Bay Square Shopping Center in Bay Village, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.[1] The...
Texas father still looking for answers, justice in 2010 death of Hailey Dunn
https://www.reporternews.com/story/news/2019/12/27/father-clint-dunn-seeks-answers-death-hailey-dunn-colorado-city-texas-2010-cold-case/2752190001/
The disappearance of 13-year-old middle school student Hailey Dunn in Colorado City hits its nine-year anniversary this month with her father, Clint Dunn, still looking for answers.
"I feel like I'm left in the darkness because law enforcement is not communicating with me at all," said Clint Dunn, speaking via telephone this week. "... This needs to move forward."
Hailey's death remains unsolved, though her remains were found in 2013 in Scurry County.
Investigators named Shawn Adkins, the live-in boyfriend of...
On a sweltering August day in 1992, Tammy Jo Zywicki dropped her younger brother off at Northwestern University in Illinois, and set out for Grinnell College in Iowa, excited for her senior year.
The 21-year-old never made it.
Hours after Tammy left the Chicago area and headed west toward Iowa on I-80, her white 1985 Pontiac 1000 hatchback was found abandoned on the side of the road, five miles east of LaSalle, Illinois.
Tammy — an upbeat, athletic, talented amateur photographer from Marlton, New Jersey — was nowhere to be found.
For nine days, her family, friends and the police looked for her.
Their...
On June 5, 1986, at approximately 2:42 p.m., Eugene Police and Eugene Fire Medics responded to an apartment at 255 High Street for a report of a deceased person, identified as 62-year-old Gladys May Hensley, who was located during a welfare check by an apartment employee after she had not been seen for several days.
The investigation revealed it was a murder and that she was likely killed in the early hours of June 4, 1986.
In August 2000, additional DNA work requests resulted in Hensley's murder being connected to the June 19, 1986 murder of Janice Marie Dickinson, investigated by the Eugene Police Department, and the February 28, 1988 murder of Geraldine Spencer Toohey, investigated by the Oregon State Police.
Dickinson, a...
David "Dave" Lewis was a 46 year old father of three. A jack of all trades and good man in any camp, Dave was well known and well respected in his mountain community where he lived on the summit of Dead Indian Memorial Road, 13 miles east of Ashland, Jackson County, Oregon for more than 20 years.
David was found dead after a fire at his rural cabin at 12801 Dead Indian Memorial Road. He had been murdered, shot & the cabin set fire.
David's remains were identified by DNA. There was also ANOTHER FIRE near Dave's cabin that same night, at a vacant vacation cabin at 18196 Dead Indian Memorial Road, about 5-6 miles away.
Edited to add media link: Dave Lewis was found murdered in his rural cabin east of Ashland, Oregon in 2008. His murder...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_JonBenét_Ramsey#/media/File:Jonbenet-ramsey.jpg
https://www.newsweek.com/anthony-sanchezs-last-words-before-oklahoma-execution-1829006
His disappearance and death tha gripped an entire community. Robert Bee Junior ran from a truancy officer last November. The search for the teenage boy coming to a screeching halt on a hot July day when his skeletal remains were found. But what happened to him remains a mystery.
https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/wmbd-special-investigation-part-i-what-happened-to-robert-bee-junior/
2007 Boca Raton mall murders: Watch what police have to say
The slayings of Nancy Bochicchio, 47, and her daughter, Joey Bochicchio-Hauser, 7, shocked the community and drew national attention. They were found bound and shot in an SUV in the parking lot of the Town Center mall shortly before midnight Dec. 12, 2007.
Boca Raton police, in an interview with the Sun Sentinel and a video released Tuesday, are updating the public on what’s known about the Bochicchios’ case and a separate kidnapping likely carried out by the same man.
As the 10-year anniversary nears, finding the killer remains a high priority.
“We’re still working this. We’re going to continue to work this,” says Police Capt. Matthew Duggan, whose agency has combed...
Troy Dean Carney was a 44 year old truck stop laborer looking for work assisting truckers at the Pilot Truck Stop on Biddle Road near Central Point in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon. Troy was last seen leaving the truck stop around 6:00 pm on Labor Day 9/1/2008. When he was discovered in his sleeping bag near the Bear Creek Greenway, he was still wearing the same clothing he had last been seen wearing. Troy's mom tried calling him and did not get any response from the early morning of 9/2/2008 until he was discovered on 9/4/2008.
Troy's camp on the greenway was set fire in the very early morning of 9/14/2008.
Edited to add Media link: Troy Carney was shot and killed while asleep in his sleeping bag near Central Point, Oregon in...
Faith was a 19-year-old junior at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill when, on the morning of Sept. 7, 2012, a returning roommate discovered her body in a bedroom of the off-campus apartment they shared, according to the roommate's 911 call.
An autopsy revealed Faith died after a severe beating to the head; investigators believed the weapon was an empty but unbroken bottle of Bacardi peach-flavored rum found at the scene, covered in blood.
From that moment on, police have searched unsuccessfully for an assailant.
https://people.com/crime/faith-hedgepeth/
On July 13th, 2012 Elizabeth Collins, age 8, and her cousin Lyric Cook, age 10, went for a bike ride in Evansdale. The two never returned and their abandoned bikes were later located on a trail in the southeast corner of Meyers Lake later in that day. A large search was executed in Evansdale and their disappearance was investigated by local, state and federal officials.
On December 5th, 2012 hunters in the Seven Bridges Wildlife Park discovered the bodies of Elizabeth and Lyric. Seven Bridges Wildlife Park is approximately 25 miles from where they disappeared.
To this day, no arrests in their disappearance and murder have been made.
Tips may be submitted by calling the Evansdale Police Department at 319-232-6682, emailing the Iowa...
On December 1, 2017, at approximately 7:00 pm, deputies with the Park County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a house fire located at 3763 County Road 43 in Bailey, Colorado. It was reported in a 9-1-1 call that people were inside the residence causing damage. At least one male was on the property. After the fire was extinguished at the residence, Maggie Long's remains were discovered by fire rescue personnel. The El Paso County Coroner's Office later ruled her death a homicide. Long was 17 years old at the time of her death. Investigative efforts at the scene revealed a physical altercation took place between Long and her assailants before the fire started. The suspects stole a Beretta handgun, an AK-47-style rifle, 2,000 rounds of...
Watch as this 19 year old case is experiencing a resurgence by 2 very determined men who
remember the murder & seeing her burned home near their apartment.
TARA LOUISE BAKER
Tara was murdered in a heinous fashion on January 19, 2001 one day shy of her 24th birthday. The epitome of overkill: Tara was beaten, stabbed, and strangled. A sexual assault was not ruled out. The killer even went so far as to set her apartment on fire. Her laptop was stolen.
According to the Augusta Chronicle: "Investigators identified at least three possible suspects after the murder, including a man Baker was dating, a fellow law school student, and an attorney at a local firm Baker worked for. Authorities will not say if the men still are under suspicion...
The Nancy Grace show is very interesting on how police are using familial DNA to solve cold cases.
(Sort of off topic, but Nancy's choice of eye makeup is weird. She uses a dark pink makeup to outline her eyes. It makes her look like she has pink eye.)
Anyhoo, this one case is about a woman who was raped and killed.
This happened back in 1980. The police who worked this case kept up on new forensic tequniques.
They knew about DNA technology, but realized that the new science wasn't ready to help them. So, they figured that the technology would make steps forward and could eventually help them.
They made sure to carefully bag and keep anything that could have DNA on it.
When they took the cold case back up, all of that prescient...
https://gbi.georgia.gov/cases/unsolved-homicide/helen-martha-eskew
MEDIA link:HELEN ESKEW was known as the neighbor with a heart of gold! Then, who killed her in 1998 & why is her case UNSOLVED TODAY? Douglasville, #GEORGIA
DETECTIVES investigating a 30-year-old murder case have uncovered new clues that link the death of a young beauty queen to other horror crimes.
The family of Mimi Barraza is still begging for justice decades after the 21-year-old mom was shot in the head as she celebrated her birthday.
The mom and former beauty queen was killed as she celebrated her birthday at a friend's home
She was standing outside her home in San Diego, California, on the morning of September 4, 1993, when a drive-by shooter pulled up in a van.
The killer unleashed a spray of bullets from an assault rifle at Barraza and her friends, hitting the young mom in the head and her friend in the leg.
The van, which had been reported stolen, was found abandoned a few...
interesting read:
It is time for the FBI to tell us who killed Jimmy Hoffa
The FBI and Department of Justice can close the Jimmy Hoffa case and announce who they think did it.
It is time for the FBI to release the still redacted and hidden documents that remain classified and announce who investigators believe were responsible.
James P. Hoffa, Jimmy Hoffa's son, is writing a book, "My Name Is Hoffa," that is expected to blame the mobsters in Motor City for his father's demise.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/time-fbi-tell-us-who-killed-jimmy-hoffa
Margaret Walsh, a 47-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed on April 24, 1980, inside the Dairy Queen on Clayton at Clarkson, where she worked as a night manager. The store’s office was ransacked, and cash was stolen. Walsh left behind three children, who were 16, 18, and 21 years old at the time of her death. She also worked as a secretary at Parkway South Middle School.
Despite reopening the case in 1991, 2006, and again in recent years, no arrests have been made. Police are calling it an active investigation and are hopeful that someone might still provide the crucial information needed to solve the case.
A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest, with all tips remaining anonymous through...