cold cases

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After 40 Years, Arrest Made in Murder of California Teen

Karen Stitt, 15, was abducted from bus stop, raped, stabbed 59 times

(Newser) - Investigators say they've tracked down the man who abducted 15-year-old Karen Stitt from a bus stop in California 40 years ago, raped her, stabbed her 59 times, and left her to die. The Santa Clara District Attorney's Office says Gary Ramirez, 75, was arrested in Hawaii last week...

30-Year-Old Cold Case Closed With Surprise Discovery

Killer assumed his brother's identity and lived as a transient for decades, say investigators

(Newser) - Detectives in Alameda, California, say Abraham Riviera got away with murder—but he had to give up his identity and live as a transient for decades to do so. Police say that Riviera, then 50, killed 25-year-old Juliette Rivera in 1992, then disappeared when detectives zeroed in on him as...

Cold Case Arrest Made Thanks to DNA, and a Twist

Investigator pored over old immigration ties to Italy to zero in on suspect

(Newser) - That DNA evidence appears to have cracked a cold case isn't too unusual. But this one required some unique additional sleuthing, reports Lancaster Online . The case in question is the brutal 1975 murder of 19-year-old Lindy Sue Biechler, a married woman who was stabbed inside her apartment in Pennsylvania'...

After 20-Year Search, She Saw the Rendering and 'Screamed'

Woman's tip helps crack 1999 cold case murder of 6-year-old boy in Georgia

(Newser) - It had been more than 20 years since she'd seen the little boy. But when the woman saw a facial rendering of a child that had turned up dead outside Atlanta, Ga., in 1999, created by a forensic artist with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children two...

Cops: New DNA Testing Reveals a 'Complete Monster'

Robert John Lanoue accused of raping, killing 5-year-old Anne Pham in California in 1982

(Newser) - Anne Pham was just 5 years old when she convinced her mother to let her walk the few blocks to kindergarten alone. Anne, the youngest of 10 children, never made it. Her body, suffocated and sexually assaulted, was found on an Army base a mile from her California school within...

'Christmas Tree Lady' Who Planned Own Death Finally IDed

Advanced DNA testing led to Joyce Marilyn Meyer Sommers' remaining siblings

(Newser) - On Dec. 18, 1996, police responded to reports of a dead woman at a Fairfax County, Virginia, cemetery. They found her with a suicide note in one pocket identifying her only as Jane Doe and asking that no autopsy be performed, $50 to cover the costs of her funeral in...

Widow Arrested in &#39;Most Notorious&#39; French Cold Case
His Headless Body
Was Found in 1995.
His Widow Was
Just Arrested
in case you missed it
Jul 3, 2022 3:55 PM CDT

His Headless Body Was Found in 1995. His Widow Was Just Arrested

Christophe Doire's decapitated body was found on Christmas Day 1995

(Newser) - "Serious and concurring evidence points to her involvement in the murder of Christophe Doire," said a French prosecutor of that man's widow, who was arrested this week and charged with that crime. It's an allegation that comes nearly 30 years after Doire's death. Le Parisian ...

48 Years Later, Remains Identified as 15-Year-Old Girl
She Disappeared in 1972.
Now, 'Finally,' Search Is Over
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jun 11, 2022 4:15 PM CDT

She Disappeared in 1972. Now, 'Finally,' Search Is Over

Remains found in 1974 identified as 15-year-old Florida girl

(Newser) - In 1974, the remains of a teenage girl were found in Florida's Palm Beach County. Nearly five decades later, she finally has a name: Authorities have identified her as Susan Gale Poole, who was 15 when she went missing just before Christmas in 1972, Local 10 reports. They believe...

Arrest Is Made in Spate of Hospital Deaths in 2002

Jennifer Anne Hall's lawyer says she is being wrongly accused—again

(Newser) - In the five months that Jennifer Anne Hall was a respiratory therapist at Hedrick Medical Center in 2002, the rural Missouri hospital experienced 18 "code blue" incidents—an alarming increase in sudden cardiac arrest events for a hospital that historically averaged one of them a year, according to a...

Police: DNA Match Solves Murder After 34 Years

But it won't be possible to prosecute the suspect

(Newser) - Almost exactly 34 years ago—May 23, 1988—two of Lucille Hultgren's many friends stopped by her house to check on her after she didn’t show up for church, only to find her body. The 79-year-old was a recent widow and mother of two adult sons. The coroner...

26 Years After Murder, Note to Cops Leads to Arrest

Jade Benning accused of stabbing boyfriend Christopher Harvey in Santa Ana, California

(Newser) - For more than two decades, police in Southern California wondered who killed 22-year-old Christopher Harvey in his own apartment. Then they got a major hint contained in an anonymous note. The letter, submitted to police in January 2020, implicated Harvey's live-in girlfriend Jade Benning, who'd pointed the finger...

'I Pushed a Bloke. He Went Over the Edge'

Australian court hears confession in 1988 murder of American Scott Johnson

(Newser) - A man told police he killed American mathematician Scott Johnson in 1988 by pushing the 27-year-old off a Sydney cliff in what prosecutors describe as a gay hate crime, a court heard on Monday. Scott White, 51, appeared in the New South Wales state Supreme Court for a sentencing hearing...

Madeleine McCann: Suspect Declared Ahead of Deadline

German national Christian Brueckner is currently incarcerated

(Newser) - Portuguese prosecutors have identified a formal suspect in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Prosecutors in Faro, the main city of the Algarve region, said Thursday that a suspect had been formally identified a day earlier, per the BBC . Though prosecutors didn't name the individual, they said he had...

She Went Out for a Run in 1998 and Never Came Home

'Dateline' resurfaces the case of Tera Smith

(Newser) - The case of a California 16-year-old who vanished after going out for a run in 1998 is back in the spotlight thanks to Dateline , which has delved into the case of Tera Smith. NBC News reports mother Marilyn told Dateline her recollection of August 22, 1998: The two had run...

Victim of 'Happy Face Killer' Identified, 29 Years Later

Patricia Skiple was found dead in 1993

(Newser) - A victim of the Happy Face Killer has been identified nearly 30 years after her body was left near a California highway, authorities said Monday. Patricia Skiple of Colton, Ore., had been known only as “Blue Pacheco" for the color of her clothing until genetic genealogy was used to...

30 Years Later, Female Found in Ditch Has a Name

Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr., 17, IDed thanks to DNA evidence; now it's a homicide investigation

(Newser) - For three decades, the identity of a body found along an Indiana highway remained unknown, a cold case that stumped Boone County officials. Now, a name to that body, thanks to a curious sister and advances in genetic genealogy. FOX59 details the case of 17-year-old Ohioan Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr....

Mystery of Her 1982 Murder May Be Solved

Authorities in Georgia charge Marcellus McCluster in death of Rene Dawn Blackmore

(Newser) - A long-unsolved murder of an Army private in Georgia may have been cracked. Authorities in Georgia have charged Marcellus McCluster, 64, with killing Rene Dawn Blackmore in 1982, when she was a private at Fort Benning, reports Fox 8 . The 20-year-old Blackmore vanished while returning to her barracks on the...

33 Years Later, 'Days Inn Killer' Has Been Identified

DNA analysis leads to cold case resolution, points finger at a dead man

(Newser) - In 1987, Vicki Heath was murdered in Kentucky; two years later, Margaret "Peggy" Gill and Jeanne Gilbert were killed in Indiana. More than three decades later, Indiana State Police say they've identified the man who murdered them and sexually assaulted another woman in Indiana in 1989, CNN reports....

YouTube Divers Say They Found Man Missing Since 2003

Family called in 'Adventures With Purpose' team

(Newser) - James Amabile was on his way to pick up his daughters from a babysitter in Dec. 2003, and had told the babysitter he was running late. The 38-year-old never arrived, and was never seen again, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Now, a scuba diving team that is dedicated to helping families...

15 Years After Teen's Murder, Her Roommate Is Charged

Police arrest Nichole Rice, 34, in connection with fatal stabbing of Anita Knutson, 18, in Minot, ND

(Newser) - Nearly 15 years after a North Dakota teen was found murdered in her home, a crack has finally been made in the case. Police in Minot say that Nichole Rice, 34, has been arrested in connection with 18-year-old Anita Knutson's killing, after more than 10 years in which "...

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