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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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/
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/
Remember this case?
Kristin Ramsey, 53, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ashley Okland
On April 8, 2011, the body of 27-year-old Ashley Okland was discovered inside a model townhome where authorities say she was hosting an open house. She had been shot twice. An employee working within the complex heard a commotion inside the townhome and went to investigate the cause of the noise, according to Crime Stoppers of Central Iowa. Upon entering the building, the worker found Okland on the floor and dialed 911.
On Wednesday, officials revealed 53-year-old Kristin Elizabeth Ramsey, of Woodward, is charged with first-degree murder. At the time of Okland’s death, Ramsey worked as an administrative assistant and sales...
media: Was Roger "Unkle Rog" McCall Deliberately Murdered? WCMF radio DJ in Rochester for 30 years. His death is UNSOLVED!
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...
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/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...
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...
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...
The murder mystery of a man who owned a ghost town near the New Mexico-Arizona line remains unsolved four months after he was found shot to death, and investigators say the case has stalled.
“We need help,” said Capt. Ryan Suggs of the New Mexico State Police. “We need to turn up a new lead.”
The body of Larry Link, 68, and a small-caliber revolver nearby were found by his son on June 7 just outside his property in Steins, a 5,000-person town that borders Arizona. Link and his wife Linda were the longtime owners of Steins Railroad Ghost Town.
Suggs told the Las Cruces Sun-News that the only people who have been ruled out in the killing are Link’s family members...
Woman gunned down in her driveway in 'monstrous' attack caught on video: 'We need justice for Liz'
After a young woman was gunned down in her own driveway in a crime caught on surveillance video, Houston authorities are pleading for help to get her "callous killer off our streets."
Elizabeth Barraza was setting up a garage sale when she was attacked on Friday, Jan. 25, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a Wednesday news conference.
At about 6:55 a.m., the killer drove up to her home, walked up the driveway and engaged Barraza in conversation before pointing a pistol at her and shooting her multiple times, the sheriff said.
Barraza was hospitalized and died the next day, the sheriff said.
Barraza's killer -- a "coward" --...
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...
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...
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
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...
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...
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