When Diane Lynn Dahn missed her shift at the San Diego Transit Corporation on May 2, 1988, a coworker went to her apartment to check on her. She was more than that, she was a victim. Online records show he is not eligible for parole in that state until 2030. In the 36 years since, the case was passed to many detectives, all to no avail. To put the numbers in perspective, it is estimated that there have only been 117 billion people who have ever inhabited earth, the police statement said. In March 2022, a Chattahoochee County Grand Jury made the decision to indict 64-year-old Marcellus McCluster for the murder of then-20-year-old Rene Dawn Blackmore of Arizona. 3:28 PM EST, Thu February 17, 2022. The man who would eventually be named as her killer, Raymond Moody, had been a person of interest in Brittanee Drexel's disappearance as far back as 2012 but until just recently, they had nothing solid connecting him to the crime. "When I looked at her, I just knew. The case was solved through modern DNA and genealogy technology and the careful preservation of evidence from the crime scene in 1971. Traditionally, investigators will take DNA from a crime scene and compare it to a suspects DNA or they enter the crime scene DNA into a national database, also known as CODIS, to see if theres a match with a known criminal offender. 12:45 PM EDT, Fri March 18, 2022. But in a Tuesday news conference, the Burlington Police Department announced that Curran's case was solved and the man responsible for the 24-year-old's murder, William DeRoos, died years ago. We live in an era of incredible technology: cars, computers, and even robots. However, this was the '80s, and it would take a while for the science of genetic genealogy to help the cops pin down their suspect. Highsmith was only 21 months old when shewas kidnappedby a woman purporting to be a babysitter more than a half a century ago. I knew," Jeff Highsmith said. The serial murderer known as the "Torso Killer" admitted to killing a 23-year-old woman outside a Long Island shopping mall in 1968 and four other women decades ago. The coroner determined her manner of death to be strangulation. This entry is one of the coldest cases to be solved in the U.S. in recent years. The main problem with positively identifying her was the fact that her fingertips had been cut off, and entreaties to the public for help yielded nothing, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Forte you would need to search over 4 million planet earths.. Despite his confession, Kinlaw couldn't be charged with the murder until positive identification of his victim was made and with that accomplished, a first-degree murder charge was filed against him in July 2022. The murder caused ripples of fear in a time when many Burlingtonresidents left front doors unlocked, and the killer remained a mystery for decades, despite the police looking into hundreds of tips. Now, 'Little Miss Nobody' has a name. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 'Help me find my children': How race affects social media efforts to find missing kids. I traveled the world as a photographer. A man confessed to the crime shortly after. Kane was reportedly working as a prostitute at the time she was killed and may have been meeting a customer, Womer said, adding that police are trying to determine whether it was Grim. Before Drummond could be arrested, he died by suicide.[8]. Mr. Smith died by suicide in 1999.[1]. A photo of 20-year old Eve Wilkowitz from Project: Cold Case. The Fort Worth Police Department said it plans to investigate the disappearance, but the statute of limitations on pursuing criminal charges in the kidnapping has passed. Cold case murder that inspired 'Twin Peaks' solved 100 years later: Book By Caroline Howe January 1, 2022 7:25am Updated After five years of research, a pair of "Twin Peaks" fans claim they. Although her mother had a dark past that included drug use and prostitution, she was trying to turn her life around, Reyes said. Ten years later, investigators opened Dahns case again, looking for new leads and use of new technology. Originally from Rochester, New York, Drexel was spending her spring break vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and was last seen walking from one hotel to another. For instance, some of the contents of Stacys purse were strewn about the vehicle including her wallet. In April 1982, U.S.. Vianne Falcon, Falcon-Deweys mother, told CNN affiliate KING on Wednesday that she was emotionally devastated by the loss of her daughter and grandson. Hall's daughter, happy to finally have closure, had a message for those facing the unsolved murder of a loved one: "Please don't give up. The keys to the car appeared to have been dropped between the drivers seat and the door and were not readily visible, the document says. Anna Kane. Richard Cottingham makes a remote appearance in a courtroom in Mineola, N.Y., Dec. 5, 2022. These companies then send back information on their clients ethnic heritage, genetic health risks and family tree as well as a raw data file of their DNA. As later reported by the Great Falls Tribune, 18-year-old Lloyd Bogle was found shot in the head with his arms tied behind his back with his own belt. The DNA was eventually matched to one Ray Chapa, who at the time of the murder was Loves 19-year-old neighbor. This finally happened in 2022, when DNA information provided to public websites by members of the killer's family allowed authorities to focus on Scott Grim, a resident of the area who had never been charged with any crime. After he'd moved to Texas, and his letters had stopped coming, his mother says she was contacted by a member of the organization about returning his car. 5 Decades-Old Cold Cases Finally Solved Twenty-three-year-old Tonya McKinley had gone to Darryl's Bar & Grille in Pensacola, Florida, to celebrate the upcoming new year of 1985 but never returned home to her 18-month-old son. She also enjoyed playing the organ. Rita Curran was murdered in her Burlington apartment in 1971, and the case remained a mystery for years. Here are a dozen of the most stubbornly unresolved cold cases that were finally put to bed in 2022. (Nassau County District Attorney's Office). Rita Curran was violently murdered in her Vermont apartment in 1971 and the case remained a mystery for decades. This is fourth oldest cold case to be solved in in the country using genetic genealogy and the oldest in the state of Pennsylvania, according to state police Cpl. Melissa said she had a troubled childhood: "I didn't feel loved as a child. In 1975, long before DNA evidence would become a factor in criminal justice, 19-year-old Lindy Sue Biechler was brutally stabbed to death inside her home. Brett Bowen sent DNA from Loves sexual assault for advanced DNA testing and forensic genealogy. The Riverside County DA's Regional Cold Case Homicide Team, which was formed in 2020, took the case on and sent a sample of the remains to Texas-based laboratory Othram Inc. Despite ongoing searches, his disappearance remained unsolved for over four years. A spot of blood on the victims shirt that seemed to suggest the culprit stood over the body and bled on the shirt as he ransacked the victims pockets. His remains were identified 47 years later. Why did he kill a young woman who was just trying to take care of her children? appreciated. Meanwhile, Reyes still misses her mother. Melissa's sister, Sharon Highsmith, wrote on Facebook: Our finding Melissa was purely because of DNA, not because of any police/FBI involvement, podcast involvement, or even our familys own private investigations or speculations. Consequently, we will continue to ask ourselves what would have been or could have been.. In December 1975, 19-year-old Lindy Beichler was murdered in her Lancaster, Pennsylvania, apartment. She was only 9 years old. She was last seen alive around 8:10 a.m., according to Pennsylvania State Police. The letter writer also left his DNA when he licked the envelope. Her siblings on Thursday described her as a quiet, sweet girl that had aspirations of becoming a nun. Over 4,000 pages of information have been compiled in this case over the years. On May 11, 2022, the remains of Brittanee Drexel were found in South Carolina. Fortunately, the profession seems to attract those who have this quality, as proven by the many decades-old cases which finally see their resolutions every single year. In the summer of 1960, the body of a young girl was found near a highway in Yavapai Country, Arizona. The case gained national attention, even serving as the basis of an HBO special in 1983; justice, though, was a long time in coming. Related: Top 10 Grim Cold Cases With Recent Twists And Turns. Cates had developed a habit of borrowing and pawning power tools from Stagner, a city maintenance worker, in order to support this habit; even Cates' own family members had long suspected his involvement in the killing, but police were never able to gather enough evidence to support a probable cause warrant for his arrest. The team has. Jones is currently imprisoned for murdering a man in 1995 in California, prosecuting attorney Jessica Berliner said. The body of a young child tragically known as "Little Miss Nobody" was identified in February after remaining a mystery for over 60 years. Both families tried to report the couple missing, but were told by authorities that they probably didn't want to be contacted. A DNA sample taken at the time of that arrest was eventually used to connect him to the Lloyd and Cuevas slayings. Dukat was only 8 years old, grabbed by a stranger and killed with a 20-pound rock in a shallow stream on her short walk home from school, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Moore, who was at the news conference via Zoom, credited the databases of DNA that are now available to scientists because of genealogy testing and the detectives who collected evidence at the time of the murder. Using court records, news reports, and good old-fashioned police work, investigators then determined that one of those people 68-year-old David Sinopoli lived in the same apartment complex as Biechler in 1975. This, combined with re-interviewing witnesses and reviewing statements, led investigators to finally gather enough evidence for an arrest. In a statement announcing the closure of the investigation, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office stated its confidence that "the evidence in this case would support a conviction of Drummond for the murder of Joette Smith.". A year later, Robertson moved to Indiana and lived there until he died at age 39, in a house fire on November 25, 1999, investigators said. In February 2019, DNA from Baggens clothes and body was submitted to a public genealogy database after previous attempts to match the DNA had been unsuccessful. NYC 'TORSO KILLER PLEADS GUILTY TO 1968 MURDER OF LONG ISLAND WOMAN DIANE CUSICK, ADMITS TO KILLING 4 OTHERS. This is the fifth time the Sheriffs Homicide Unit has used investigative genetic genealogy to solve a cold case. In this case, it led back to Rueben Smith. A local newspaper, the Reading Eagle, ran a front-page story seeking information on Kanes death. In this video, we are going to talk about cold cases that were solved in 2022, after decades. "We came into this like we come into all cases," AWP diver Doug Bishop explained. In April of that year, their 17-year-old daughter Brittanee took off for spring break, without her parents' permission, to Myrtle Beach, Florida, and never came home (via Democrat & Chronicle). Using data from Brittanee's cell phone, authorities were finally able to pinpoint the location of Brittanee's disappearance more effectively than in previous attempts, which led to the discovery of a surveillance video implicating Moody in the crime, as reported by Democrat & Chronicle. The technique is used to create family trees based on genetic similarities to hopefully lead back to the owner of the unknown sample. While Chapa died in 2021, just nine months before being identified, police and the FBI are looking into the possibility that Chapa is connected to other crimes in other states.[4]. Highway in Yavapai Country, Arizona consequently, we are going to talk about cold cases With Twists. ': How race affects social media efforts to find missing kids was just trying to take of. 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