cold cases

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FBI Links Serial Rapist to Murders in National Park

2 women were found with their throats slashed in Shenandoah National Park in 1996

(Newser) - Nearly three decades after two young women were found with their throats slashed in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, federal authorities announced Thursday that they have identified a now-deceased serial rapist from Ohio as the person they believe was responsible for the killings. The bodies of Julianne "Julie" Williams,...

In St. Louis, a Long Stretch of Unsolved Murders
In St. Louis, a Long Stretch
of Unsolved Murders
longform
Jun 16, 2024 1:15 PM CDT

In St. Louis, a Long Stretch of Unsolved Murders

Marshall Project examines the problem

(Newser) - St. Louis has long been known for having one of the highest murder rates in the nation. An investigation by the Marshall Project reveals a troubling tangent to that: A surprising number of the city's killings over the last decade remain unsolved. The city had approximately 1,900 homicides...

Woman Says She's Kid Who Vanished in 1985

Pennsylvania State Police investigating Facebook claim related to Cherrie Mahan, who was 8

(Newser) - Surely not every Facebook comment is to be believed. But police in Pennsylvania are eager to determine the truth of one particular comment in which a woman claims to be Cherrie Mahan, who vanished from Pennsylvania as an 8-year-old in 1985. The woman made the claim on the " Memories...

A Texas Dad Still Wants to Know: Who Killed His Boy?

Marshall Stewart has been searching for his son's killers since 1988

(Newser) - "For thirty-five f—ing years, my brain's been turning over all these questions," says Sean Stewart. Questions like why the bodies of his 16-year-old brother, Shane, and Sally McNelly, 18, were left in the brush along a rough dirt path leading to a reservoir outside San Angelo...

Vermont Police Solve Sad 42-Year-Old Mystery

They find parents of dead infant, but no charges will be filed

(Newser) - More than 40 years after some Vermont children waiting for a school bus discovered a dead baby off the side of the road, state police have announced that they found the infant's parents and that no charges will be filed. The deceased infant was found in Northfield on April...

Cops: After 16-Plus Years, We Nabbed the 'Bad Breath Rapist'

Tuen Kit Lee was arrested in San Francisco Bay area, long after 2005 crime in Massachusetts

(Newser) - Since 2007, authorities have sought a man dubbed the "Bad Breath Rapist," who escaped custody and went on the lam. Now, their suspect is in custody once again, on the opposite coast from where he carried out his crime. Per the AP , Tuen Kit Lee's story begins...

20 Years After Missed Court Date, His Skeleton Was Found

Police seek info on Ronnie Joe Kirk, whose remains turned up in Wisconsin store chimney

(Newser) - His name was Ronnie Joe Kirk. How he got to be in the chimney of the Good 'n Loud Music store in Madison, Wisconsin, is anyone's guess. The body of the 5'7" man was discovered at the base of the chimney on Sept. 3, 1989, during the...

Remains Found in Cold Case on Same Day Suspect Dies

Elderly suspect had been arrested in 2000 disappearance of mother, daughter

(Newser) - Remains believed to be that of a woman and her daughter who have not been seen in nearly 24 years were found at a southern West Virginia home—on the same day that the girl's alleged killer died while imprisoned, per the AP . Susan Carter and her daughter, Natasha...

Florida Milkman Murder Solved After 56 Years
Florida Milkman Murder
Solved After 56 Years
in case you missed it
Apr 14, 2024 3:35 PM CDT

Florida Milkman Murder Solved After 56 Years

Killing of WWII veteran Hiram 'Ross' Grayam was county's oldest cold case

(Newser) - The Indian River County Sheriff's Office in southeast Florida says it has solved the oldest cold case in its history—the 1968 murder of WWII veteran Hiram "Ross" Grayam. The Purple Heart recipient "had faced the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of...

He Spit Out His Gum and Was Found Guilty of Murder

Robert Plympton convicted in 1980 killing of Barbara Mae Tucker in Oregon

(Newser) - Barbara Mae Tucker was a 19-year-old student at Oregon's Mt. Hood Community College when she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and beaten to death a stone's throw from campus, just beyond a school parking lot. It was the evening of Jan. 15, 1980. As it turns out, her killer...

Infamous Lindbergh Baby Case Takes a Dark Turn

Skeptics doubt guilt of the man convicted, while an author suggests Lindbergh himself is a suspect

(Newser) - It was, at the time, the "crime of the century"—the 1932 kidnapping and murder of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of the famed pilot. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was eventually executed for the 1932 crime, but as the New York Times reports, many continue to believe he was...

A Newborn Was Found Dead at Airport in 2005. Now, an Arrest

Police say the mother of the infant has been identified

(Newser) - On October 10, 2005, a baby girl with her umbilical cord still attached was found dead, wrapped in hotel towels and newspapers and stuffed inside a plastic Marriott bag, in the trash bin of a women's bathroom at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport. On Tuesday, authorities said they'...

New Wrinkles Emerge in Case of Teen Missing Since 1980

Officer may be reinterviewed in the case of decades-old disappearance of Randy Sellers

(Newser) - It's been an unanswered question since 1980, writes Shaila Dewan in the New York Times : "What happened to Randy?" The reference is to Randy Sellers, a 17-year-old who attended the Kenton County Fair in Kentucky and hasn't been seen since, per the Cincinnati Enquirer . Police were summoned...

Man Who Blamed Identical Twin for Rapes Gets 140 Years

California's Kevin Konther ultimately didn't get away with attacks that happened more than 25 years ago

(Newser) - In 2019, DNA testing led investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Department to haul in two suspects for a set of cold-case rapes in California—identical twins, each insisting they were innocent. In fact, Kevin Konther blamed his brother for the crimes, which included the rape of a 9-year-old...

They Were Stabbed and Left to Die. 50 Years Later, a Suspect

Indianapolis cops say Thomas Edward Williams, attacked 2 sisters, friend in 1975; he has since died

(Newser) - A nearly 50-year-old cold case surrounding three young girls stabbed and left to die in an Indiana cornfield has finally reached a conclusion, although it's one that will end without justice. In a Thursday presser , the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department announced that DNA evidence was able to help identify...

California Detective Has Become a Cold Case Ace
California Detective Has
Become a Cold Case Ace
LONGFORM
Jan 14, 2024 2:20 PM CST

California Detective Has Become a Cold Case Ace

'San Francisco Chronicle' profiles one who has solved eight of them in seven years

(Newser) - Cold cases hold particular fascination in the true crime genre, and detective Matt Hutchison can relate. He's managed to solve eight of them in seven years as an officer rotating into the robbery-homicide beat in California's Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. And while detectives disguising themselves as busboys...

Father Killed 5-Year-Old, Faked Tears on TV: Charges

Justin Turner's stepmother and father face murder charges in 1989 slaying

(Newser) - As a TV news crew recorded the moment in March 1989, a South Carolina man who had joined the police search for his missing 5-year-old son stepped inside a small camping trailer on his property. A few seconds later, he backed out of it, saying: "My son's in...

Missouri Citizen Sleuth Cracks 10-Year Local Mystery

James Hinkle discovered the missing car and likely remains of Donnie Erwin in Missouri

(Newser) - Citizen sleuth James Hinkle has developed a unique set of skills over the years—drone camera operator, rescue diver, and volunteer firefighter—and per the Washington Post , they've helped him crack a 10-year cold case. In December, Hinkle's nearly two years of investigating waterways helped recover the missing...

Suspect Named in 3 Cold Case Murders in Virginia

Authorities investigate links the deceased Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. may have to other killings

(Newser) - If he were alive today, Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. would be charged in three cold case murders. But the fisherman and hunter—positively linked to two of the "Colonial Parkway Murders," a series of double killings in the late 1980s, as well as the murder of a woman—...

Headless Body Posed in Vineyard Is Identified

Ada Beth Kaplan was 64 when she was killed, posed in 'degrading way' in California

(Newser) - Authorities described the scene as "creepy." In 2011, the body of a woman was found "posed in an intentionally degrading way" on a dirt road at a vineyard in Arvin, California, per SFGate . Even more horrific, the body was drained of blood, with its head and thumbs...

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