Police arrested a longtime suspect Thursday in the 1990 killing of Kim Thomas in her Charlotte home.
Thomas’ murder has been a cold case for 35 years, up until now when Charlotte police made an arrest related to the case. Here are key events in the case.
Who was Kim Thomas and how did she die?
July 27, 1990
Kim Thomas was a 32-year-old women’s rights activist at the time of her death. Thomas lived with her 10-month-old son and her husband Ed Friedland. She was slashed to death and in handcuffs in her Cotswold home on July 27, 1990. Her 10-month-old son was in his crib nearby. Her death — and CMPD’s failure to find her killer — has reverberated through the city for decades.
Why was husband Ed Friedland a suspect?
July 11, 1994
Ed Friedland was a kidney specialist who worked at Presbyterian Hospital. He was one of the two main suspects of his wife’s murder. He was arrested on July 11, 1994, four years after Thomas was found dead.
Charges were later dropped and never refiled. He has spent decades trying to clear his name.
What about suspect Marion Gales?
Oct. 3, 1997
Friedland later filed a wrongful-death suit against Marion Gales, an early on suspect in Thomas’ murder. He won the case on Oct. 3, 1997. Marion Gales was a 28-year-old handyman at the time of Thomas’ death.
He would often work on the Cotswold home of Thomas and Friedland.
Marion Gales’ criminal history and the sample error
Aug. 24, 1990
Gales was reportedly homeless and a handyman at the time of Thomas’ murder. He lived in Grier Heights, a 5-1/2-minute walk across Wendover Road to Kim Thomas’ house on Churchill Road, according to previous Observer reporting.
Gales was in and out of jail since age 16 when he shot and wounded a woman on Churchill.
Crime scene technician R.D. Nance wrote that he took samples of head hair, pubic hair, saliva and facial hair from Thomas, but it turns out these were taken from Gales.
“We have direct criminal evidence linking Mr. Gales to the location and the victim,” CMPD Deputy Police Chief Ryan Butler said at a news conference Thursday. “This case highlights the fact that our work never stops.”
Gales has been a longtime suspect of the murder of Thomas, but was not arrested until Feb. 19.
DNA evidence connecting Gales to the crime was suggested four years ago by prominent North Carolina attorney David Rudolf in a court filing.
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 4:59 PM.
ALL NEW: A girl is murdered in Wahoo, Nebraska. More than 50 years later, the clues that led to an arrest.
“48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales reports Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Shaida Ghaemi was last seen Sept. 9, 2007, in Wheat Ridge. (Photo courtesy Colorado Bureau of Investigation)
Arash Ghaemi has wondered for 18 years what happened to his mother after she disappeared from a Wheat Ridge motel.
So Ghaemi, an artificial intelligence developer and entrepreneur, turned his profession into his passion.
“What if I can get the case files and run it through AI?” he said of the police investigation into his mother’s disappearance. “Maybe it will show me something and make the connections. If I could build it to solve my mom’s case, I could likely build it to solve other cases.”
Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl, an AI program that searches cold-case files to generate new leads for investigators, last year.
So far, the AI platform is in the hands of a few private investigators who are using it to chase leads on behalf of families searching for missing loved ones. Ghaemi hopes one day the program will have its big break in solving a case, and maybe — just maybe — it will help figure out what happened to his mother, Shaida Ghaemi, when she disappeared in 2007.
Ghaemi, who goes by “Ash,” on Tuesday met with investigators, information-technology staff and commanders at the Wheat Ridge Police Department to show off his AI tool and to ask for an update on his mother’s case.
For now, Wheat Ridge police say CrimeOwl is too unproven to use in the department’s investigations, including Shaida Ghaemi’s disappearance.
And they are tight-lipped about her case.
“We were really happy to meet with Ash. It’s part of our philosophy of relationship policing,” said Alex Rose, a Wheat Ridge police spokesman. “It was a twofold meeting to explain what we could about the case and to give some professional insight on the AI tool so it can become more widespread and of use to agencies across the country.”
‘Still trying to make sense of it’
When Arash Ghaemi was growing up, his mother was almost too good a mother, he said, describing her as “almost overbearing” in taking care of him and his older sister.
But when Arash was 17, his parents divorced, and everything changed.
Shaida Ghaemi became distant from her children. She left home a lot.
“It was weird,” he said. “She went from always needing to be in contact with me and my sister to she could take it or leave it.”
Shaida Ghaemi did not have a permanent home and did not have a job, her son, now 40, said. She traveled between Colorado and Maryland, where her parents lived.
In 2007 — five years after the divorce — she moved into the American Motel in Wheat Ridge with her boyfriend, Jude Peters.
“I am still trying to make sense of it,” he said of the changes in his mother’s behavior.
Arash Ghaemi was a 22-year-old server at a Red Robin restaurant in Highlands Ranch when his grandfather called from Maryland on a September night and told him they were unable to reach his mother. He asked his grandson to call the police.
Shaida Ghaemi, then 44, was last seen on Sept. 9, 2007, by Peters. Drops of her blood were found in their motel room. At the time, Peters told 9News it was menstrual blood and that Ghaemi often left for months at a time.
Wheat Ridge police still consider her disappearance a missing-person case, and there is no “clear indication of foul play,” Rose said. “Jude is not considered a person of interest in this investigation at this time,” Rose said of Peters.
“They still don’t know where she’s at and they don’t have any trace of her,” Ghaemi said.
‘True value’ of AI
Artificial intelligence is gaining ground as a law enforcement tool. Multiple police departments across Colorado are using the technology, most commonly for converting body-worn camera footage into written crime reports. It’s also being used to track license plates and to scan people’s faces.
The Wheat Ridge Police Department uses Axon’s Draft One to help write police reports, based on their body-worn camera footage.
“Our officers know they’re accountable for every single word,” Rose said. “It gives them a who, what, when and where and can save them time, but it’s not a substitution for good police work.”
Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl about six months ago. He is also developing AI programs for the dental industry and a new sports statistics program that could eventually be used by the NBA.
He programmed CrimeOwl to sort through all of the documents in a case file and build a map of the people connected to the missing person, such as partners, family, close friends and neighbors. The AI also creates a timeline of events leading to the disappearance or death and then maps all of the geographic locations connected to the crime, he said.
The platform has a chat function so investigators can ask the AI to sift through files to find answers to their questions.
While CrimeOwl was designed to help with missing-persons cases, Ghaemi said he hopes it can be used to solve other crimes.
No police departments have bought the product so far.
Ghaemi, who lives in Miami, said he tested CrimeOwl on a solved cold case in Florida and, after uploading the police case file into his program, the AI created a list of credible suspects within 30 minutes, he said. Police confirmed it had identified the actual perpetrator, he said.
“It took me 30 minutes to do what it could have taken them weeks or months to do,” Ghaemi said. “That’s the true value here.”
Not ready for police use
CrimeOwl, however, is not ready for active law enforcement investigations, Rose said.
The CrimeOwl platform would need to be secure so no one could tamper with the evidence once it is uploaded, Rose said. It would need to receive various certifications before any law enforcement agency used it, he said.
It would also need to be vetted by lawyers so any leads it generated would hold up at trial, he said.
“There are a lot of details and a lot of hypotheticals that would need to be heavily vetted for AI technology in a real-world police setting,” Rose said.
Still, Wheat Ridge police are intrigued by Ghaemi’s AI tool and were more than willing to offer advice and expertise, he said.
“We’re always going to applaud somebody who is trying to use technology to find ways to help,” Rose said.
Ghaemi said the Wheat Ridge investigators declined to hand over his mother’s case file because of the security concerns. He had wanted to upload those documents into CrimeOwl to see if it could generate new leads.
Police officials also told him that if they used CrimeOwl to identify a suspect, that person’s defense attorney would likely argue bias since the AI platform was built by the missing woman’s son, Ghaemi said.
“My stance is it has been 18 years. You guys have passed it on to other investigators. It’s not solving the case,” he said. “I’m willing to take that risk.”
Ghaemi hopes to overcome the legal barriers and law enforcement skepticism before his new company folds under financial pressure. He said CrimeOwl has a revenue stream, but it loses money every month.
“I built this thing with a mission in mind at first,” he said. “I didn’t really know how it would work or if it would work or if I would go broke. Even if it’s not me and CrimeOwl went broke tomorrow and we had to shutter the doors, I just want investigators to use AI to solve these cold cases.”
The 1988 murder of a 23-year-old woman was solved after detectives in Frederick, Maryland, retested DNA evidence.
Detectives in Frederick, Maryland, said an untested section of bedding held the key to identifying who killed a 23-year-old woman in her apartment more than 37 years ago.
Delores Marie “Mooda” Thompson was found dead in her apartment in the 100 block of S. Market on Feb. 1, 1988, according to a Frederick Police Department news release. Police said she died of “ligature strangulation” and that the case included evidence of a sexual assault.
At the time of her death, police said DNA testing was “in its infancy” and samples of evidence failed to find an “identifiable suspect profile.”
For nearly four decades, “her family has lived without answers,” said Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando. “Today, we can finally give them closure.”
This year, detectives looked again at the evidence in the case using updated DNA equipment and techniques on a small area of bedding not previously tested, police said in the release.
DNA on the bedding matched the profile of convicted offender Calvin Ziegler, police said. Ziegler was interviewed in the case following Thompson’s death and was known as having “frequently visited the victim’s apartment.”
Ziegler died in 2010, according to police.
After a review of the forensic findings, the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office issued a formal letter confirming that the evidence supports the identification of Ziegler as the contributor of the DNA and the person responsible for Thompson’s homicide.
“Because the identified individual is deceased, criminal charges are not possible; however, the case will be listed as closed based on the evidentiary findings,” police said.
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A decades-old New Hampshire cold case has been solved with modern DNA testing, authorities said Monday.
Judith Lord, 22, was found dead in her Concord apartment on May 20, 1975 when a staff member entered the unit to collect unpaid rent, according to a news release from the New Hampshire Department of Justice. The staff member also heard a baby crying inside the unit, according to the state attorney general’s report.
Investigators determined that there had been a violent struggle, and that Lord had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Her 20-month-old son was found unharmed in his crib in another room of the apartment.
Investigators recovered forensic evidence, including hair and seminal fluid, from the crime scene, authorities said. Investigators focused on three suspects: Lord’s estranged husband and two neighbors. Her husband had an alibi and no evidence tied him to the crime scene, according to the attorney general’s report. One of the neighbors was excluded as a suspect for the same reason.
The investigation began to focus on Lord’s next-door neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable, who was 24 at the time. He lived next door to Lord with his wife, and their apartments shared a wall, according to the attorney general’s report. Multiple witnesses told police that Lord was afraid of Gable. His fingerprints were found on the outside of Lord’s windows.
Judith Lord’s apartment complex.
New Hampshire Department of Justice
Physical evidence was collected from Gable, and hairs were submitted to the FBI’s Forensic Laboratory for microscopic comparison. The test “led to an incorrect conclusion that the suspect could not have contributed the hairs found at the scene,” the news release said, contradicting other evidence in the case.
The state of New Hampshire had been prepared to indict and prosecute Gable, according to the attorney general’s report, but the FBI report “created a significant evidentiary hurdle that prosecutors felt they could not overcome.” The investigation was “effectively halted,” the report said, and the case stalled for decades.
The case was reopened decades later. DNA testing found that the seminal fluids found on towels were a match for Gable, according to the attorney general’s report. The microscopic hair comparison test results remained an issue until 2015, when the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice formally acknowledged that nearly all uses of the test had led to flawed testimony or reports. New forensic testing correctly identified the hairs as belonging to Gable.
Judith Lord.
New Hampshire Department of Justice
Gable was stabbed to death in Los Angeles in February 1987, at 36 years old, according to the news release. Lord’s case will be formally closed and classified as solved. If Gable were still alive, “the Cold Case Unit would pursue alternative charges of First Degree Murder, both for knowingly causing Ms. Lord’s death during the commission of aggravated felonious sexual assault, and for purposely causing her death by strangulation,” the news release said.
“It is my hope that this long-awaited conclusion will finally bring peace and closure to Judy Lord’s family and the entire Concord community after nearly five decades of delayed justice,” said New Hampshire attorney general John Formella. “This resolution proves that no cold case is ever truly closed until the truth is found. The original Concord Police Department investigators showed extraordinary diligence, only to be thwarted by flawed forensic technology of the era. We commend the Cold Case Unit, the Concord Police Department, and all of our partners for their commitment to resolving this case and correcting a historic injustice.”
Officials announced Monday that they have solved a 50-year-old murder case in which a 22-year-old woman was found dead in her apartment in Concord, New Hampshire.Attorney General John Formella said a review of the 1975 death of Judy Lord determined that she was killed by her neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable.”I’m proud to say but also solemnly say that we can bring long-awaited closure to this case,” Formella said.He said Gable will not face justice in the case because he was stabbed to death in 1987 in Los Angeles. Lord was 22 years old when she was found strangled to death inside her home at the Royal Gardens apartment complex on May 20, 1975. She was living with her 20-month-old son at the time, and the baby’s cries led the building’s apartment manager to discover Lord’s body.”The scene police discovered more witnesses to a violent and desperate struggle,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Christopher Knowles.Knowles, who runs the state’s Cold Case Unit, said the original Concord police investigation was thorough, and Gable, who was 24 at the time, was identified as a suspect early in the case. But he said a flawed FBI hair analysis incorrectly excluded Gable as a suspect.Gable had a lengthy arrest history, and Lord had told her friends that she was afraid of him.Knowles said there was evidence that Lord was sexually assaulted. Semen found on a towel matched Gable’s blood type, and fingerprints at the scene also matched, Knowles said.Knowles called the circumstantial evidence “overwhelming” before hair samples were sent to the FBI, which conducted a microscopic analysis of the hairs. That technique was considered to be the gold standard in hair analysis, and the FBI was the leading authority, Knowles said. But the technique has since been discredited, and Knowles said it is no longer a tool used by investigators. New DNA analysis definitively linked Gable to the crime, and the new analysis by the Cold Case Unit allowed investigators to remove the FBI report from the case, Knowles said.Investigators said that if Gable were still alive, he would be charged with first-degree murder.”This case demonstrates that no cold case is ever truly closed until we find the truth, and that time is only one impediment,” Formella said. “Time is also an asset, because we will continue to work year after year, decade after decade, until we find the answers in these cases.”Several of Lord’s family members were at Monday’s press conference watching the announcement. Her son, Gregory Lord Jr., was watching virtually and sent a statement saying his mother will always be with him.”I’m told I look just like my mom, and I’m proud of that,” he said.
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
Officials announced Monday that they have solved a 50-year-old murder case in which a 22-year-old woman was found dead in her apartment in Concord, New Hampshire.
Attorney General John Formella said a review of the 1975 death of Judy Lord determined that she was killed by her neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable.
“I’m proud to say but also solemnly say that we can bring long-awaited closure to this case,” Formella said.
He said Gable will not face justice in the case because he was stabbed to death in 1987 in Los Angeles.
Lord was 22 years old when she was found strangled to death inside her home at the Royal Gardens apartment complex on May 20, 1975. She was living with her 20-month-old son at the time, and the baby’s cries led the building’s apartment manager to discover Lord’s body.
“The scene police discovered more witnesses to a violent and desperate struggle,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Christopher Knowles.
Knowles, who runs the state’s Cold Case Unit, said the original Concord police investigation was thorough, and Gable, who was 24 at the time, was identified as a suspect early in the case. But he said a flawed FBI hair analysis incorrectly excluded Gable as a suspect.
Gable had a lengthy arrest history, and Lord had told her friends that she was afraid of him.
Knowles said there was evidence that Lord was sexually assaulted. Semen found on a towel matched Gable’s blood type, and fingerprints at the scene also matched, Knowles said.
Knowles called the circumstantial evidence “overwhelming” before hair samples were sent to the FBI, which conducted a microscopic analysis of the hairs. That technique was considered to be the gold standard in hair analysis, and the FBI was the leading authority, Knowles said. But the technique has since been discredited, and Knowles said it is no longer a tool used by investigators.
New DNA analysis definitively linked Gable to the crime, and the new analysis by the Cold Case Unit allowed investigators to remove the FBI report from the case, Knowles said.
Investigators said that if Gable were still alive, he would be charged with first-degree murder.
“This case demonstrates that no cold case is ever truly closed until we find the truth, and that time is only one impediment,” Formella said. “Time is also an asset, because we will continue to work year after year, decade after decade, until we find the answers in these cases.”
Several of Lord’s family members were at Monday’s press conference watching the announcement. Her son, Gregory Lord Jr., was watching virtually and sent a statement saying his mother will always be with him.
“I’m told I look just like my mom, and I’m proud of that,” he said.
FOSTER CITY – An 81-year-old man was arrested Monday on suspicion of killing his estranged wife more than 40 years ago and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay, police said.
Patrick Galvani’s arrest in San Francisco comes after detectives reopened the case, Foster City police Chief Cory Call said in a news release.
On Aug. 9, 1982, a fisherman found 36-year-old Nancy Galvani’s body stuffed in a sleeping bag tied to a cinder block near the San Mateo Bridge. Asphyxiation was ruled as her cause of death.
“Despite extensive efforts over the years, the case remained unsolved until recent developments allowed investigators to move forward,” said Call, who did not share any additional details.
Patrick was booked into San Mateo County jail on a murder charge. He is being held without bail, according to jail records.
This is not the first time Patrick has been considered a suspect. He was arrested and charged with murder after Nancy’s body was found, but prosecutors dropped the charges.
In 1982, then-San Mateo County District Attorney Keith Sorenson told the San Francisco Examiner that prosecutors believed they had less than a 50% chance of winning a conviction, the Los Angeles Times reported in a 2014 profile of the couple’s daughter, Alison Galvani.
“I am not saying for a minute that he is innocent or didn’t do it,” Sorenson told the Examiner.
Shortly before she was killed, Nancy applied for a restraining order against Patrick and filed for divorce, according to the Times. She accused him of punching her and holding a pillow over her face, and told others he had tried to kill her, the newspaper reported.
According to the Times, Patrick opposed the divorce and said in court records that Nancy was paranoid. She had been diagnosed with manic depression, but lithium stabilized her, the newspaper reported.
“I believe her current fears of me are related to her mental illness,” Patrick said in a court declaration.
In a 2010 phone call monitored by Foster City police detectives, Patrick told his daughter he did not kill Nancy, but he called her mother’s death the best thing that could have happened to her, according to the Times. Patrick also said he would have killed Nancy for Alison’s sake, but someone beat him to it, the newspaper reported.
The current investigation remains “active and ongoing,” Call said. Anyone with information can contact the police department’s detective bureau at 650-286-3300 or the tip line at 650-286-3323.
Authorities this past week announced the arrest of a 76-year-old man in the 1987 killing of Margit Schuller, a 34-year-old mother found shot outside a laundromat near her home at the Palmetto Apartments.Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner on Wednesday said Cortez Sabino Lake, a former Navy corpsman stationed at Parris Island, who lived in the same apartment complex at the time, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder. Lake is being held pending a bond hearing.Schuller was last seen between 8:15 and 8:45 a.m. on Nov. 1, 1987, folding clothes inside the complex laundromat. Her 12-year-old daughter later found her under a tree outside. Investigators determined Schuller had been shot inside the laundromat and crawled outside. A second blood trail leaving the scene indicated the assailant was injured.Cold case investigator Bob Bromage said DNA taken from that trail in 1987 was first profiled in 2005 and uploaded to CODIS, but produced no hits. In 2019, forensic genealogy and a composite analysis by Parabon Nanolabs helped narrow the focus. Investigators recently obtained Lake’s DNA – first through noncooperative means and then via a court-ordered sample – which matched in the “septillions,” Bromage said. Detectives also recovered the murder weapon in 1989 at a construction site on U.S. 21 and matched it to a casing found in the laundromat. Bromage said investigators believe sexual assault was the motive based on evidence at the scene.Lake, who lived at Battery Creek Apartments in 1987 and later worked more than three decades at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, was not named as a suspect at the time, Bromage said. The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who knew Lake in the late 1980s – particularly residents of Battery Creek or Palmetto Apartments – to come forward with information. Tips can be provided to investigators or through Crime Stoppers.Schuller worked as a cardiac care nurse. Her husband, Jozsef, a Navy corpsman, was deployed for training in San Diego when the killing occurred. They were both originally from Hungary and immigrated to the U.S. in 1982.
BEAUFORT, S.C. —
Authorities this past week announced the arrest of a 76-year-old man in the 1987 killing of Margit Schuller, a 34-year-old mother found shot outside a laundromat near her home at the Palmetto Apartments.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner on Wednesday said Cortez Sabino Lake, a former Navy corpsman stationed at Parris Island, who lived in the same apartment complex at the time, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder. Lake is being held pending a bond hearing.
Schuller was last seen between 8:15 and 8:45 a.m. on Nov. 1, 1987, folding clothes inside the complex laundromat. Her 12-year-old daughter later found her under a tree outside. Investigators determined Schuller had been shot inside the laundromat and crawled outside. A second blood trail leaving the scene indicated the assailant was injured.
Cold case investigator Bob Bromage said DNA taken from that trail in 1987 was first profiled in 2005 and uploaded to CODIS, but produced no hits. In 2019, forensic genealogy and a composite analysis by Parabon Nanolabs helped narrow the focus. Investigators recently obtained Lake’s DNA – first through noncooperative means and then via a court-ordered sample – which matched in the “septillions,” Bromage said.
Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office
Detectives also recovered the murder weapon in 1989 at a construction site on U.S. 21 and matched it to a casing found in the laundromat. Bromage said investigators believe sexual assault was the motive based on evidence at the scene.
Lake, who lived at Battery Creek Apartments in 1987 and later worked more than three decades at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, was not named as a suspect at the time, Bromage said. The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who knew Lake in the late 1980s – particularly residents of Battery Creek or Palmetto Apartments – to come forward with information. Tips can be provided to investigators or through Crime Stoppers.
Schuller worked as a cardiac care nurse. Her husband, Jozsef, a Navy corpsman, was deployed for training in San Diego when the killing occurred. They were both originally from Hungary and immigrated to the U.S. in 1982.
University of Texas at Arlington faculty member Patricia Eddings was aiming high when she first proposed that the Arlington Police Department allow her criminal justice students to dive into unsolved homicide cases.
Eddings, who also directs our university’s program in forensic applications of science and technology, said she hoped UTA students would find new leads so officers could pursue justice for victims and their loved ones. Our Mavericks did even better.
Police announced Nov. 17 that they have made an arrest in the 1991 homicide of an Arlington woman whose body was found on a rural stretch of road in Johnson County. And they credited our students for cracking the case. Without Eddings and our UTA students — and the dedicated work of Arlington police — this case would have remained cold.
“I just want them to love their careers as much as I love mine,” Eddings says of her students.
University of Texas at Arlington students are recognized for their work in obtaining an arrest in a 1991 cold case during a press conference on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. The Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice partnered with the Arlington Police Department to allow students to review cold case files. None amccoy@star-telegram.com
Closing a cold case is an enormous win for our community. It also represents why a university like ours should be considered essential civic infrastructure — a shared investment and public good that benefits the entire region.
Through experiential learning opportunities like this cold case partnership with Arlington police, we strengthen the connection between classrooms and careers to build a strong workforce and make a positive impact on civic life. Nearly all of the 15 students in Eddings’ class say they intend to pursue careers as forensic scientists, crime scene investigators or law enforcement officers. In a few years, you’ll see them in labs, testifying in court, or patrolling our streets.
Arlington Police Chief Al Jones said his department “put trust into these young men and women who will be our future leaders.”
The University makes Dallas-Fort Worth stronger by teaching and training well-educated, workforce-ready graduates who are sustaining and transforming our local economy. With more than 280,000 alumni, 79% of whom remain in Texas, UTA graduates can be found in just about every company, nonprofit organization and government agency in the region.
In every corner of our campus, you’ll find examples of UTA preparing career-ready graduates to improve their lives and strengthen our economy and communities, including in fields with critical workforce shortages. We work with area employers to create talent pipelines for indispensable roles that yield profound societal benefits.
Every year, our nursing program — the largest in Texas — sends hundreds of future nurses into local hospitals and health facilities so they can get hands-on experience caring for your loved ones. Our College of Education will send about 160 student teachers into area classrooms in spring 2026. Those students will eventually lead classrooms in Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, Mansfield, Irving, Grand Prairie and Hurst-Euless-Bedford — all top employers of our education majors.
We have broadcast communication students who have developed promotional videos for area nonprofits. Landscape architecture students have worked with municipalities to protect coastlines from floating garbage. Social work students volunteer at the Salvation Army for course credit. This is valuable extracurricular coursework that prepares students for employment.
As president of UTA, I am clear-eyed about perceptions that challenge the roles of institutions of higher education, both here in Texas and across the country.
Those perceptions don’t describe the UTA I know. There are no ivory towers here — just smart faculty and hardworking students learning valuable knowledge, making impacts during their time at UTA and gaining experience so they can launch meaningful careers that advance our region.
Jennifer Cowley is president of the University of Texas at Arlington, a position she has held since 2022.
Virginia State Police identified Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. as the man responsible for Laurie Ann Powell’s 1988 killing.
For 37 years, the murder of 18-year-old Laurie Ann Powell haunted Virginia’s Gloucester County and the investigators who refused to let her name fade into another cold case file.
Thursday, Virginia State Police delivered the answer Powell’s family has spent nearly four decades waiting for: advanced DNA testing identified Alan Wade Wilmer Sr. as the man responsible for her 1988 killing.
“We express our sincere condolences for your loss and the pain you had experienced these past 37 years. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as our agencies worked toward solving this case,” Robin Lawson, the public relations director for Virginia State Police, said during a Friday news conference.
Wilmer, a commercial waterman who drifted between marinas in Gloucester, Middlesex, the Northern Neck and Hampton Roads, died in 2017. But, investigators said, if he were alive today, he would be facing homicide charges.
Powell vanished on March 8, 1988, after being dropped off by her boyfriend and beginning a walk along Route 614 toward Route 17. Her body was found nearly a month later in the Elizabeth River near Craney Island. She had been stabbed multiple times. Biological evidence from the crime scene included DNA tied to a sexual assault.
A multiagency effort and modern forensic tools funded through the state’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative helped change that. When investigators obtained Wilmer’s DNA postmortem, the match was found.
Authorities said Wilmer would have also been charged in the 1987 killings of David Nobling and Robin Edwards in Isle of Wight County, as well as the 1989 killing of Teresa Lynn Spaw-Howe in Hampton. The deaths of Nobling and Edwards became known as being a part of the Colonial Parkway murders.
Powell becomes the fourth confirmed victim linked to Wilmer.
Wilmer had no felony record during his lifetime, which meant his DNA never landed in CODIS, a DNA indexing system. State Police hinted that loopholes like this — where a suspected serial killer’s profile can’t be uploaded because he was never convicted — may require a legislative fix.
Investigators are now reconstructing Wilmer’s movements throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, asking the public for any memories, sightings, or interactions, however small. Officials highlighted Wilmer’s distinctive blue 1966 Dodge Fargo pickup, his wooden fishing boat Denny Wade, and his tree service business that ran under the name, Better Tree Services.
But, the day belonged to Powell’s family.
Powell’s sister, Cindy Kirchner, spoke through tears, describing her as a “fearless, bold, unforgettable firecracker” whose laughter and spirit still echo through the people who loved her.
“It’s not justice,” Virginia State Police Cpt. Timothy Reibel said. “But it is resolution.”
Anyone with further information is urged to contact Virginia State Police at questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
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A medical examiner found no evidence of foul play in the death of a central Minnesota man whose remains were found in a submerged car nearly 60 years after his disappearance.
Roy Benn was reported missing from Benton County in 1967 after leaving a supper club in a blue Buick Electra. Earlier this year, a fisherman spotted a car on sonar in the Mississippi River in Sartell, Minnesota. Authorities pulled the car from the water and found Benn’s remains inside.
On Wednesday, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office said a medical examiner determined Benn “died as the result of a single motor vehicle crash with water submersion.” His death has been ruled accidental and the investigation will be closed, the sheriff’s office said.
Benn was 59 when he disappeared and was reported to be carrying “a large sum of money” at the time, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Investigators worked for several years after Benn disappeared to find him, conducting various interviews and searches, but the case went cold until his car was discovered. Brady Loch, the fisherman who found it, said it was “100% luck.”
“If my buddy wouldn’t have caught that walleye, then we would have just kept on floating down and never would have found it,” Loch said.
Note: The video above originally aired Aug. 14, 2025.
Almost 40 years after a passerby found the skeletal remains of missing teenager Donna Sue Wayne in a northeast Aurora field, investigators finally identified a suspect in her death — a man already in prison for the murder and sexual assault of another woman killed in the city seven months after Wayne.
Richard “Ricky” Saathoff, 65, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping in Wayne’s death, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
While some details of the 18-year-old’s disappearance have long been public knowledge, a newly filed Aurora Police Department arrest affidavit illuminates the winding path investigators trod for nearly 40 years, using DNA and fingerprint evidence along with witness statements to identify Saathoff as a suspect.
Donna Sue Wayne.
Wayne went missing after leaving her Aurora home to meet up with friends at a Montbello house party and bar the night of June 13, 1986.
She was last seen alive early the next morning, when a Stapleton airport worker saw her being physically and sexually assaulted by a man driving her green 1972 Ford LTD in the 800 block of North Picadilly Road.
Earlier reports described the car as red, but the arrest affidavit includes photos of the green Ford. The car was later destroyed. .
Wayne screamed for help before the man forced her back into the car, the woman told police. The woman drove to the nearest house to get help, but by the time police arrived, Wayne and the man were gone.
Wayne’s car was seen abandoned in Aurora’s Hoffman Heights neighborhood the next day, on June 15, 1986, but police did not link the car to Wayne until it was towed away two weeks later, an Aurora cold case investigator wrote in the affidavit.
Police lifted two fingerprints from the driver’s side window, and a neighbor found Wayne’s car keys, tossed in an evergreen bush down the block near Vaughn Elementary School, a few weeks later.
Wayne’s body was found by a passing driver in a northeast Aurora field littered with trash and debris one month after she was last seen alive, with her clothes and purse were strewn about the area, according to the affidavit.
Her exact cause of death was never confirmed because of how much her remains had decomposed, but she had multiple broken bones, including her jaw, ribs, clavicle and in her neck, chest and face.
The investigation seemed to stall after her body was found as police chased leads that did not pan out.
Fingerprint evidence from the driver’s side window was later misplaced and went missing for years, until it was found and retested in 2009, with no matches.
Investigators retested the fingerprints in a new system in 2012 and matched the two prints to Saathoff, who was already in prison after he was convicted of murder in the death of 40-year-old Norma Houston. Houston’s body was found naked, brutally beaten and assaulted near a gas station at 11697 E. Colfax Ave. on Jan. 18, 1987, seven months after Wayne’s death, police wrote.
Like Wayne, Houston had significant trauma to her head and a broken jaw, police wrote.
Houston was sexually assaulted, and though Wayne’s remains were too deteriorated to confirm sexual assault, her pants and underwear had been removed, like Houston’s.
Investigators linked Saathoff to Houston’s murder after his DNA was found on her clothes, and he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in June 1988. He is eligible for parole in June 2027, state records show.
After the 2012 fingerprint match, investigators tried to further link Saathoff to Wayne’s murder, according to the affidavit. A detective interviewed him in prison in 2014, and he denied knowing Wayne (and later denied killing Houston).
Investigators determined Saathoff lived with his parents in the same neighborhood where Wayne’s car was abandoned, and so did his ex-girlfriend.
In May, more than a decade after the fingerprint match, investigators again looked at Wayne’s clothes for a DNA sample, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found and tested DNA on Wayne’s jeans that had a high likelihood of belonging to Saathoff.
Saathoff remains in prison at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, according to state records. His next court date was not available Friday.
CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. – Two years after 19-year-old Emily Rose Taylor was shot and killed while riding in a car in Estacada, investigators are again asking for the public’s help to solve the case.
On Nov. 6, 2023, around 11 p.m., Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of gunfire in Estacada. Investigators determined Taylor was a passenger in a vehicle when one or more people fired at it, fatally striking her.
Despite extensive work by detectives, no arrests have been made. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said it continues to pursue new leads and believes there are people with information who have not yet come forward.
Authorities are urging anyone with details about the shooting — no matter how minor they may seem — to contact investigators.
Crime Stoppers of Oregon is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information that leads to an arrest in any unsolved felony crime.
Denver police are searching for leads in a cold-case shooting that killed a man nearly 30 years ago, according to the department.
Robert Escobedo Jr., 28 was shot and killed Oct. 16, 1997 during an argument behind the now-defunct High Rise Lounge, 3240 W. Colfax Ave., according to the Denver Police Department.
Witnesses told investigators that they saw several men leaving the scene of the shooting in a white Chevrolet S-10 pickup, police said.
Escobedo was seen arguing with three unidentified men before shots were fired, according to police.
“Despite many years of investigative efforts, this crime remains unsolved,” police said Thursday in a crime alert.
Anyone with information on the 1997 shooting is asked to contact investigators at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
The man who raped and killed 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty at a Bristol Township church in 1962 was finally identified Wednesday as William Schrader, a serial child abuser and longtime suspect in the cold case that shook the girl’s Bucks County community, prosecutors said.
Authorities identified Schrader — who died while in prison for other crimes in 2002 — at a news conference in Doylestown to share the findings of a grand jury investigation into Dougherty’s death. Pennsylvania State Police and Bucks County prosecutors kept the case alive by tracking down eyewitnesses, reviewing forensic evidence and obtaining a confession that Schrader made to his stepson years after Dougherty’s death, investigators said.
Dougherty, a fifth-grade student at the school at St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church, went missing on the afternoon of Oct. 22, 1962. She was last seen riding her bike to stop for a snack and meet friends at the Bristol Borough Free Library. Doughtery never made it there and didn’t return home for dinner, prompting her family to search the community.
That Monday night, Dougherty’s father found Carol Ann dead inside St. Mark’s. She had been raped and strangled with the use of a ligature, investigators determined, and male pubic hairs were clutched in her hand at the scene.
Police knew she had ridden her bike down Lincoln Avenue, which runs adjacent to St. Mark’s, not long before she was killed.
“Living on Lincoln Avenue was an absolute predator, and a predator whose prey was little girls — and that was William Schrader,” Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said Wednesday.
Schrader, who grew up in Luzerne County, had a violent past that traced back to his childhood. He was in and out reform school and later joined the Army, but he was dishonorably discharged a year later. He was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of another man in Luzerne County and served time at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. After his release from prison, Schrader settled with family members in Bristol. He was 22 at the time of Dougherty’s death.
Investigators initially focused on three other suspects, but ruled each one out after they provided legitimate alibis.
About two months after the murder, police questioned Schrader after a witness reported having seeing him cut through his lawn nearby the church the day Dougherty was killed. Schrader’s alibi that he had been working that day was proven false when investigators obtained timecards from his employer. Schrader agreed to give police a pubic hair sample, but then fled to Florida to evade further investigation. He ultimately settled down and got married in Louisiana.
Provided Image/Bucks County DA’s Office
William Schrader, the man suspected of raping and killing 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty in 1962, is shown above in a mugshot taken by Bristol Township police during his initial questioning in the case.
Schorn detailed an insidious pattern of sexual abuse committed by Schrader against his stepdaughters, his biological children and his grandchildren over the ensuing years.
“The generational sexual abuse that this man inflicted upon every female child and woman in his life, he didn’t stop until the day he died,” Schorn said.
During a domestic dispute with his wife in 1985, Schrader intentionally set fire to the family’s home. A 12-year-old girl the couple had been fostering died in the blaze, resulting in Schrader’s conviction and imprisonment.
In 1993, after Pennsylvania State Police analyzed 141 pubic hair samples in the Doughtery investigation, they determined Schrader was the only person who could not be eliminated as the source of the hair found in the girl’s hand. He was extradited to Bucks County, where he again denied responsibility for Dougherty’s death, and was then sent back to prison in Louisiana. Charges could not be filed against Schrader in the Dougherty case because the hair fiber analysis was not sufficient evidence to move forward and DNA testing proved inconclusive.
In more recent years, Schorn said Schrader’s surviving family members shared their “deepest, darkest secrets” to help detectives bring closure to the case. In November, Schrader’s stepson, Robert Leblanc, told police that Schrader had twice confessed to killing a little girl at a Pennsylvania church. LeBlanc said Schrader had told him he lured the girl into the church to rape her and that he “had to kill the girl in Bristol to keep her from talking.”
Years after Dougherty’s death, another witness came forward to Bristol police to report that he had seen Schrader outside the church the day of the murder.
The Dougherty investigation gained renewed attention last year because of a 14-episode podcast series produced by longtime sports radio host Mike Missanelli, whose uncle was the police chief in Bristol in 1962.
Kay Dougherty, Carol Ann’s sister and the lone surviving member of her immediate family, praised Missanelli and others for their dedication to the case at Wednesday’s news conference.
“After so many decades of unknowing, this finding finally brings closure and a truth to a wound that never healed,” Dougherty said.
HAYWARD — Detectives with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office have uncovered new leads and reopened the case of a homicide that happened more than 30 years ago, the agency said.
Modesto native Zachary Jackson 30, was found shot to death inside his home in an unincorporated part of Hayward on June 17, 1993.
Cold case investigators have discovered “new evidence” in the killing and developed new leads based on that evidence, sheriff’s office spokesperson Capt. Tye Modeste said in a statement released Monday. Modeste said the new information has created “fresh momentum in the investigation.”
“Based on the new leads, detectives believe there are people in the community who have knowledge of those responsible for Jackson’s murder,” Modeste said. “The sheriff’s office is encouraging anyone with information regarding this case to contact us.”
Lead investigator Det. Patrick Smyth can be reached at 510-667-7538, and anonymous tips can be left at 510-667-3636 or by going to alamedasheriff.gov and hitting the “Community” tab.
Closing the Cold Case of Robin Lawrence – CBS News
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A gifted artist is murdered in her home. Her toddler is left at the crime scene to fend for herself. “48 Hours” correspondent Anne-Marie Green reports.
A Chantilly, Virginia, man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for sexually assaulting a jogger in 1998.
A Chantilly, Virginia, man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a jogger in 1998.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano announced in a news release that Edward Pottmyer, 60, was determined as a suspect in the 27-year-old cold case after DNA evidence positively matched.
In 1998, Pottmyer assaulted a 48-year-old woman who was running on a bike path in the Fair Lakes area, implying he had a knife. He sexually assaulted her and then ran away.
Detectives in the investigation were able to match DNA evidence from the woman’s body to beer cans recovered from Pottmyer’s garage, Descano’s office said.
“This is the type of scenario that usually only exists in our nightmares, and certainly not in Fairfax County,” Descano said.
He was arrested and charged in June 2024. He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of abduction in July of this year.
Pottmyer has ties to two other sex offense cases in 2000 and 2004.
In the 2000 case, Pottmyer broke into the home of a 66-year-old woman and sexually assaulted her as she slept. The victim woke up and fought the suspect, who police say fled after jumping from a second-story balcony.
In the 2004 case, Pottymer exposed himself to a 51-year-old woman while standing in the backyard of her home in Burke. The victim yelled and he ran away.
“After nearly 30 long years, the victim of this horrific act is finally receiving the closure she deserves,” Descano said.
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