cold cases

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DNA Proves He Raped, Killed a Girl—and Someone Else

Genome sequencing cracks Las Vegas murders of Nanette Vanderburg, Stephanie Isaacson

(Newser) - Las Vegas police say they finally know who killed a 14-year-old girl during her walk to school more than 32 years ago. Stephanie Isaacson never arrived at school on June 1, 1989, a fact her father only learned when she failed to appear that afternoon. Her body was found that...

Mom Arrested in Newborn's Death, 14 Years Later

Another cold case helped along by DNA evidence in 2007 homicide in Pennsylvania

(Newser) - "Baby Mary Anne" would have been 14 this year, had she not been killed as a newborn and dumped in a trash bin at a Pennsylvania YMCA. Now, justice may be around the corner, thanks to DNA evidence that has helped along yet another cold case. PennLive.com reports...

20 Years Ago, Police Searched 5K Buildings for Bradley Sisters

Tionda and Diamond Bradley vanished from Chicago's South Side in 2001

(Newser) - On Tuesday in Chicago, a group of about 50 people called out "we love you Diamond and Tionda" as they released 20 balloons—20 because that's how many years the Bradley sisters have been missing. It's a case that launched what USA Today calls "one of...

After 44 Years, Mounties Identify 'Septic Tank Sam'

Mutilated body was found on farm in 1977

(Newser) - For 44 years, it has been one of Canada's most gruesome cold cases: The decomposing body of a man was found in a septic tank on a rural property in Alberta in April 1977. The victim—nicknamed "Septic Tank Sam by investigators—had been beaten, burned with a...

A New Jersey Detective Had a Hunch About a Serial Killer

Robert Anzilotti spent years getting Richard Cottingham to confess to more murders

(Newser) - He was dubbed the "Torso Killer" for the string of dead prostitutes—some with their heads and hands cut off—left in hotels in Manhattan and New Jersey over a 6-month period over 1979 and 1980. New Jersey family man Richard Cottingham was convicted in the early '80s...

DNA Cracks 65-Year-Old 'Lovers' Lane' Double Murder

The presumed killer, Montana native Kenneth Gould, is dead

(Newser) - The children of a Montana native who died almost a decade and a half ago have learned the man with no known criminal history was in fact a double murderer. It wasn't a skeleton in the closet, but rather genetic genealogy that supplied the shock. Since 1956, detectives have...

Officials: Cold-Case Contract Killing Tied to Former Governor

Authorities say Tenn. Gov. Ray Blanton's administration helped fund 1979 murder

(Newser) - A former Tennessee governor's administration helped fund a contract murder of a key federal witness decades ago while embroiled in the state's largest political scandal, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday. Investigators in Hamilton County, which encompasses Chattanooga, have been chipping away at the 42-year-old cold case of Samuel...

Police Think They Solved 49-Year-Old Murder Case

Julie Ann Hanson, 15, was killed in 1972

(Newser) - Don’t call it a cold case. “We had Julie's picture on our desks” for all these years, Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said of Julie Ann Hanson. Julie was only 15 when she disappeared, only to be found dead hours later in Illinois in 1972. Now,...

Australia to Try to Solve One of Its Greatest Mysteries
Australia to Try to Solve
One of Its Greatest Mysteries
in case you missed it
May 23, 2021 1:25 PM CDT

Australia to Try to Solve One of Its Greatest Mysteries

Somerton Man's remains exhumed in hopes of creating a DNA profile

(Newser) - Australian authorities are hoping to get to the bottom of one of the 20th century's most intriguing cold cases : that of the still-unidentified Somerton Man, a suit-clad, 40-something man who was found dead on a beach near Adelaide—possibly by poison—on the morning of Dec. 1, 1948. Now,...

Bones Kept in Trash Bags Are Finally Identified
Bones Kept in Trash Bags
Are Finally Identified
longform
May 9, 2021 4:20 PM CDT

Bones Kept in Trash Bags Are Finally Identified

The 'New York Times' looks at how forensic genealogy is being used in a widespread way

(Newser) - The Golden State Killer's case brought national attention to forensic genealogy as a way to identify long-unknown killers—but the same techniques can put names to long-anonymous victims as well. And as the New York Times reports, that's increasingly being done by smaller jurisdictions. As Virginia Hughes writes,...

Paul Flores Allegedly Killed Kristin Smart in His Dorm Room

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow speaks about the case

(Newser) - Tuesday brought big arrests in the 1996 disappearance of Kristin Smart. Wednesday brought the prosecution's theory of the crime. San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow alleged Paul Flores, a fellow student who was the last person seen with Smart and has been the main suspect all these...

Widow's Admission Cracks 20-Year-Old Double Murder

Arkansas police finally know what happened to Angela Cox and her young son Mikey

(Newser) - Police in Arkansas say they have solved a nearly 20-year-old double murder case, but the killer has since died himself. In a lengthy account , the Fulton County Sheriff's Office says a man named Clarence Krusen killed 20-year-old Angela Cox and her 4-year-old son Mikey in late 2002 or early...

New Autopsy in 2004 Death Leads to Murder Investigation

Exhumed body of Alonzo Brooks shows evidence of injury

(Newser) - When Unsolved Mysteries was revived last year , show producers said they hoped to solve the April 2004 death of a 23-year-old Black and Hispanic man found in a creek following a party in Kansas. And though Alonzo Brooks' death is not yet solved, authorities are now confident in calling it...

The Day After the Killer Died, a Tipster Called Police

Jesse Aylward confirmed as having murdered a former lunch lady in 1984

(Newser) - A 59-year-old Massachusetts widow was stabbed and strangled to death at home in 1984, and police were stumped. They conducted 50-plus interviews. Virginia Hannon's family suspected it perhaps had to do with a $380,000 inheritance she had recently received, money that led her to retire from her job...

Remains Found Decades Ago Are Those of Missing Wife

Body of woman killed in 1977 in Delaware is identified as Marie Heiser

(Newser) - Four decades ago, a 50-year-old Philadelphia wife and mother of two named Marie Petry Heiser vanished. Police say husband William Heiser told their children that she "packed her bags and left" and that he had no idea where she'd gone, per the Philly Voice . One part of the...

They Went to Investigate 1999 Murder, Found a Different Body

Christopher Lovrien, 53, is accused of killing 2 men in Oregon more than 2 decades apart

(Newser) - More than two decades ago, Mark Dribin vanished. While police haven't yet found the Oregon man's remains, they have a suspect. That man, 53-year-old Christopher Lovrien, is now being accused not only of murdering Dribin, but also of murdering Kenneth Griffin, who disappeared in February 2020 and whose...

A High-Profile Murder in 1963 Still Haunts Chicago

A rising Black politician named Ben Lewis was shot to death in his office

(Newser) - It is, declares the headline of a lengthy story at ProPublica , "the murder Chicago didn't want to solve." And as Mick Dumke writes, the killing of Black politician Ben Lewis in 1963 does indeed remain unsolved after nearly six decades. The slaying was national news at the...

DNA Solves 1999 Cold Case Hospital Slaying

Cops used a public genetic genealogy database

(Newser) - The 1999 murder of a 23-year-old Colorado woman whose body was found wrapped in plastic in the stairwell of the hospital where she worked has finally been solved. Per Fox News , Colorado Springs police announced Wednesday that they finally found the man who murdered Jennifer Watkins over two decades ago,...

DNA Leads to Mother's Arrest in 2003 Slaying of Twins

Woman decided no one would know about boys' birth: police

(Newser) - Cook County sheriff's detectives watching Antoinette Briley waited for her to finish her cigarette. She dropped it, and they picked it up, giving them the DNA sample they needed. Briley, 41, is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two newborn twins, WBBM...

How Worst Serial Killer in US Got Away With It for Decades

Samuel Little enjoyed decades of impunity by targeting the unmissed: Washington Post

(Newser) - America's most prolific serial killer operated for more than 30 years, targeting vulnerable, usually Black women, under the watch of an "indifferent" criminal justice system. That's according to part one of an in-depth investigation by the Washington Post , which interviewed experts and reviewed thousands of pages of...

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