cold cases

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Cops: For Years, Girl's Killer Acted Like 'Friend' of the Family

Former pastor David Zandstra charged with 1975 killing of another pastor's daughter

(Newser) - A former Pennsylvania pastor who reported the disappearance of a neighboring pastor's daughter when she failed to turn up at summer Bible camp in 1975 has admitted to murdering the girl who refused to remove her clothing for him. Eight-year-old Gretchen Harrington had set out from her home on...

Tupac Search Warrant Was About an Alleged Witness

Duane Keith Davis, 60, was allegedly in the same car as the shooter

(Newser) - NBC News has the first details regarding the search warrant executed this week regarding the murder of Tupac Shakur in 1996. The outlet reports that Vegas police searched a home linked to 60-year-old Duane Keith Davis, who police suspect was in the shooter's vehicle. In fact, the suspected...

Canada Cracks One of Its Best Known Cold Cases

Woman murdered in 1975 identified as American businesswoman Jewell Langford

(Newser) - The victim in one of Canada's best-known cold cases was an American woman, investigators have confirmed almost 50 years after her body was found in the Nation River in eastern Ontario. Investigators from the Ontario Provincial Police used forensic genealogy to identify the woman known as the "Nation...

The Real Killer Signed the Guest Book at Her Funeral

'Texas Monthly' looks at the 1987 murder of Susan Woods, and how everyone assumed her husband did it

(Newser) - When 30-year-old Susan Woods was found in her bathtub in 1987 in Stephenville, Texas, the victim of a brutal rape and murder, "everyone in Stephenville knew who did it," writes Bryan Burrough at the Texas Monthly . That would be her husband, Michael Woods, a long-haired, motorcycle-riding non-local who...

Vatican: Let's Look at New Leads Over Missing Teen

40 years after 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi vanished, new hope for solving her cold case

(Newser) - Exactly 40 years after the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared, the Vatican said Thursday that new leads "worthy of further investigation" had surfaced hopes of finally getting to the bottom of one of the Holy See's enduring mysteries. Emanuela Orlandi vanished June 22, 1983, after leaving...

Killer Receives Life Sentence in 1999 Deaths of Teenage Girls

DNA testing tied Coley McCraney to the slayings

(Newser) - An Alabama judge sentenced a man to life imprisonment without possibility of parole on Thursday, bringing a close to the case of the slayings of two teenage girls in 1999. Coley McCraney was convicted of capital murder in April by a jury that decided the sentence, which the judge was...

After 25 Years, Serial Killer's Fourth Victim Identified

Kerry Ann Cummings' family last heard from her in 1997

(Newser) - For more than 25 years, family members wondered what had happened to Kerry Ann Cummings. Thanks to forensic genealogy, they now have closure, but her fate was a grim one. Investigators say Cummings, who was 25 years old and suffering from untreated mental illness when her family last heard from...

Victim in City&#39;s &#39;Oldest, Most Infamous&#39; Cold Case Identified
Victim in City's
'Oldest, Most
Infamous' Cold
Case Identified
in case you missed it
Jun 4, 2023 11:35 AM CDT

Victim in City's 'Oldest, Most Infamous' Cold Case Identified

'Trunk Lady' now has a name: Sylvia June Atherton

(Newser) - A Florida city's "oldest and most infamous cold case" has been solved, 54 years later. A woman's partially clothed body, strangled with a Western-style bolo tie and wrapped in a plastic bag, was found inside a black steamer trunk in the woods behind a St. Petersburg restaurant...

'I Don't Want to Live Life Anymore Without Confessing'

Tony Peralta told police he couldn't live with the guilt of killing landlord 15 years ago

(Newser) - Police officers found Tony Peralta earlier this month sitting on a curb not far from the convenience store in a small southeastern New Mexico community where he borrowed a cellphone—so he could call 911 and confess to killing his landlord 15 years earlier. Sweating and taking puffs from his...

3rd Man Charged in One of NYC's Most Notorious Unsolved Murders

Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay was slain in 2002

(Newser) - A third man has been charged in the 2002 shooting death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, prosecutors said Tuesday, marking the latest movement in a case that's languished for years . Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York filed a superseding indictment on Tuesday, charging Jay Bryant,...

Cops Solve One of Quebec's Highest-Profile Cold Cases

Sharron Prior, 16, was killed by a West Virginia man

(Newser) - Canadian police said Tuesday they have solved one of the highest-profile cold cases in Quebec history, linking the 1975 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl to a West Virginia man who died more than 40 years ago. Police in Longueuil, Quebec, said that DNA evidence allows them to be...

How Wife Allegedly Got Away With Killing This Man in 1961

'Corrupt influences' aided Frances DiMare, now blamed for first husband's 1961 murder

(Newser) - Many considered Frances DiMare a victim when she died in 2006 at age 82. Four decades earlier, she told police that she and her husband were kidnapped at gunpoint and Joseph DiMare was fatally shot in the head. Miami-Dade police now say her story was a lie. "Investigators met...

Interpol Shares a Black Notice With the World for First Time

International appeal seeks to identify 22 murdered women

(Newser) - The 22 women mostly met violent deaths. Their bodies, some dismembered, were found in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands over a span of 43 years—the most recent in 2019, reports the AP . Police say some showed signs of abuse or starvation. But who they were is unknown, frustrating detectives'...

Deputy Drove Away With a Man Who Then Disappeared. Twice

CNN explores the still-unsolved cases out of rural Florida

(Newser) - On October 14, 2003, Felipe Santos got into the back seat of a patrol car driven by Collier County deputy Steven Calkins in rural Florida and was never seen again. Calkins told investigators he encountered the 23-year-old Santos at a traffic accident and later dropped him off at a Circle...

Discarded Coffee Cup Leads to Arrest for 2 Long-Ago Rapes

Kurt Alan Rillema accused of raping women in Michigan (1999) and Pennsylvania (2000)

(Newser) - An "avid golfer" in Michigan is facing charges of raping two women at golf courses more than 20 years ago after police pulled DNA from a coffee cup he threw away. Police say DNA links Kurt Alan Rillema, 51, of West Bloomfield, to a September 1999 attack at the...

26 Years After Woman Was Killed in Front of Son, an Arrest

Cold-case detective makes arrest in 1996 slaying in the Bronx

(Newser) - Stories about cold cases being cracked thanks to advances in DNA evidence are pretty common these days, though the New York Times notes that at least 340,000 unsolved murders over the last 60 years remain on the books. It still takes a slew of factors to come together to...

'Lady in the Fridge' Identified 28 Years Later

$10K reward offered in California for information leading to arrest of her killer

(Newser) - For the 30 years she was alive, she was known as Amanda Deza. For almost as long since her death, she's been dubbed California's "lady in the fridge"—but no longer. The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office has announced that it's finally identified Deza,...

Sweet Potato Leads to Arrest in Massachusetts Cold Case

Officials were able to match DNA from the root vegetable left at the scene with suspect

(Newser) - After Todd Lampley was shot in the bedroom of a Massachusetts home on February 27, 2011, police recovered evidence outside the bedroom window: shell casings, a cellphone, and a sweet potato. Twelve years later, there's finally an arrest in the case, and authorities say DNA left on that sweet...

A 52-Year-Old Piece of Evidence Leads to Killer

Vermont police say Rita Curran was killed by her upstairs neighbor

(Newser) - A cigarette butt was found next to 24-year-old Rita Curran's body in 1971. Some 52 years later, it would unmask her killer. The Washington Post reports that officials in Burlington, Vermont, on Tuesday said genetic genealogy has identified the late William DeRoos as the killer. He and his then-wife...

'For 45 Years, We've Looked for This Young Man and This Car'

Remains found in December 2021 are those of Kyle Clinkscales

(Newser) - More than a year after investigators in Alabama recovered a car and bones they believed were tied to a 1976 cold case comes a positive identification. The remains are indeed those of Kyle Clinkscales, the 22-year-old Auburn University student who vanished while making the 45-mile drive home from his bartending...

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