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Tag: Cold Case

  • Frederick police say untested bedding area identified killer in 37-year-old cold case – WTOP News

    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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  • Killer identified half a century after young mom murdered in her home, New Hampshire authorities say

    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. 

    screenshot-2025-11-25-at-11-05-26-am.png

    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.”

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  • Decades-old murder solved after new analysis, investigators say

    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.

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  • Arrest made in decades-old Foster City homicide

    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.

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  • Investigators make arrest in 1987 killing of 34-year-old mother

    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.

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  • Solved cold case shows how UT-Arlington students serve the community | Opinion

    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.
    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.

    Jennifer Cowley
    Jennifer Cowley

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    Jennifer Cowley

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  • After 37 years, Virginia identifies suspect in 1988 killing of Laurie Ann Powell – WTOP News

    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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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Will Vitka

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  • Minnesota man whose remains were submerged for decades died in car crash, medical examiner says


    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.

    Riley Moser and

    Ashley Grams

    contributed to this report.

    Anthony Bettin

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  • Convicted killer linked to 1986 cold case murder of Donna Wayne, Aurora police say

    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.

    Saathoff’s arrest affidavit was first reported Wednesday by 9News.

    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.

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  • Reward Offered For Information That Leads To Arrest In 2023 Killing Of 19-Year-Old Emily Taylor – KXL

    Photo Courtesy Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office

    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.

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    Grant McHill

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  • Killer identified in 1962 church murder cold case



    Killer identified in 1962 church murder cold case – CBS News










































    Watch CBS News



    A 1962 Pennsylvania murder cold case closed this week after prosecutors announced they identified the killer.

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  • Denver cold-case killing remains unsolved nearly 30 years later

    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.

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  • Bucks County officials identify killer in 1962 rape and murder of 9-year-old Carol Ann Dougherty

    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.

    MORE: ICE deports man involved in the 1994 murder of Philly teenager Eddie Polec

    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.

    William Schrader BucksProvided 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.

    Michael Tanenbaum

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  • Cold case detectives find new evidence in 32-year-old Alameda County killing

    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.

    Rick Hurd

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  • Closing the Cold Case of Robin Lawrence



    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.

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  • Chantilly man sentenced to 10 years in prison after breakthrough in 27-year-old cold case – WTOP News

    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.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Ciara Wells

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  • Man arrested in cold case murder of Annapolis woman 36 years later – WTOP News

    Police in Annapolis, Maryland, arrested a man Thursday and charged him in the cold case murder of a woman who was killed in 1989.

    Police in Annapolis, Maryland, said they have found the man responsible for the cold case murder of a woman 36 years ago.

    Garnet Elizabeth Griffith’s body was found on Kensington Way in Annapolis on Jan. 12, 1989, while officers were responding to a 911 call.

    Police said she suffered injuries consistent with a gunshot wound, according to a news release.

    After following new leads, the Annapolis Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division, in collaboration with partner agencies, arrested William Cook Jr., on Thursday at his home in Annapolis.

    “The arrest in this case is a testament to the unwavering commitment of our detectives, both past and present, to seeking justice for every victim. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the men and women of the Annapolis Police Department, past and present, who never gave up on this case,” Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said in a news release.

    Cook, 53, is facing charges of first- and second-degree murder as well as first- and second-degree rape, according to online court documents. He’s being held without bond.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Valerie Bonk

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  • Human remains found in Canadian well identified as woman born in 1881

    Canadian authorities have identified a person known as “The Woman in the Well” nearly two decades after her remains were found. 

    The woman, Alice Spence, was born in September 1881 and had moved to Canada from Minnesota in 1913, police said. 

    In June 2006, crews excavating a site in Sutherland, Saskatoon, found an old well and a barrel containing preserved human remains, according to a news release from the Saskatoon Police Service. The area was previously the site of the Shore Hotel, a boarding house that was demolished in 1927, according to a news release from the private genetic genealogy company Othram. 

    The woman had been partially dismembered, police believed, and was wrapped in a burlap sack and stuffed in the barrel, Othram said. Police found clothes, including a fitted jacket and long skirt, that dated to between 1910 and 1920, Othram said. A broken necklace and men’s clothing were also found. 

    An autopsy determined the woman had died under suspicious circumstances, but authorities were unable to identify her despite years of investigation. Police developed a DNA profile, but found no matches, and facial reconstruction images released to the public turned up no answers, Othram said. 

    In 2023, the Saskatoon Police Services submitted forensic evidence from the case to Othram. Othram’s scientists were able to develop a DNA extract from the skeletal evidence. They built a comprehensive DNA profile, Othram said, which was used to generate “new investigative leads” that were returned to the police service. 

    A breakthrough came in June this year, Saskatoon Police Service Sergeant Darren Funk said in a news conference. At an event in Ottawa, Funk heard the Toronto Police Service describe how they had used investigative genetic genealogy to solve a homicide. Investigative genetic genealogy uses the DNA of people who were related to the subject to help make an identification. 

    Funk connected with the Toronto Police Service and asked them to review the case of “The Woman in the Well.” The Toronto Police Service’s follow-up investigation led investigators to people who may have been the woman’s relatives. Police collected reference DNA samples from those subjects, and those samples were compared to the woman’s DNA profile. Authorities also used historical information and city archives to help make the identification. 

    Alice Spence was married to a man named Charles Spence and had a daughter, Idella, police said. Spence’s listing in a 1916 census was the last proof of life historians could find for her. 

    The family’s home in Sutherland was destroyed by a fire in 1918, police said. Other records show Charles and Idella Spence living with a housekeeper in 1921. Investigators believe that Alice’s death occurred sometime between 1916 and the fire in 1918. 

    Spence’s descendants, located through forensic genetic genealogy, were largely unaware of their relative and her death, police said. 

    The police service said it believes this is the oldest investigation in Canada to be solved with the assistance of investigative genetic genealogy. Saskatoon Police Service Chief Cameron McBride called it a “testament to the determination and innovation of investigators throughout all these years.” 

    Kerry Breen

    Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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  • ‘Yogurt Shop Murders’ investigators lay out how they solved killings of four teen girls

    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    New DNA and ballistics testing have linked a serial killer to the 1991 “Yogurt Shop Murders,” solving a case that has haunted Austin, Texas, for more than three decades.

    During a news conference on Monday, the Austin Police Department announced that genetic evidence linked Robert Eugene Brashers to the killing of four teenage girls inside a North Austin yogurt shop.

    “After 34 years, the Austin Police have made a significant breakthrough in one of the most devastating cases in our city’s history,” said Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis. “This unthinkable crime has weighed heavily on the hearts of our community, the families of the victims and our detectives who have tirelessly pursued justice.”

    DNA EVIDENCE CRACKS COLD CASE, CONNECTS DEAD SUSPECT TO MURDERS OF 4 TEENS AT AUSTIN YOGURT SHOP

    Photos of the “Yogurt Shop Murders” victims, who were killed in 1991. (FOX 7 Austin)

    Investigators say a major breakthrough in the case came in recent weeks, when advanced testing revealed that DNA found beneath 13-year-old Amy Ayers’ fingernails matched that of Brashers — a man previously connected to homicides in both Missouri and South Carolina.

    “I have never been so proud of my daughter in all of my life,” her father, Bob Ayers, told the Austin American-Statesman. Authorities believe Ayers managed to gather the DNA during a desperate struggle with her attacker.

    “Our whole family knew there was something about Amy that would help solve this,” Ayers said.

    He added, “This is over.”

    FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X

    Brashers, who died by suicide during a 1999 standoff with Missouri police, had already been tied to a string of violent crimes across the country.

    In 2018, officials in Missouri announced that DNA evidence connected Brashers to the 1990 strangulation of a woman in South Carolina, as well as the 1998 shootings of a mother and daughter in Missouri. He was also linked to the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee.

    ‘YOGURT SHOP MURDERS’: AUSTIN’S UNSOLVED COLD CASE CONTINUES TO RAISE QUESTIONS DECADES LATER

    Robert Brashers mug shot

    Robert Brashers’ mugshot. (Missouri State Highway Patrol)

    Then, in June, Jackson resubmitted ballistics data from a .380 caliber shell casing recovered at the yogurt shop to a federal database. The results matched an unsolved 1998 case in Kentucky. While Jackson declined to share details about the Kentucky case, he noted that it bore similarities to the Austin murders.

    In August, South Carolina investigators informed Austin detectives that new DNA testing on a sample from under Amy Ayers’ fingernail matched Brashers — confirming his connection to the 1990 South Carolina murder.

    “Amy’s final moments on this Earth were to solve this case for us,” Jackson told The Courier of Montgomery County. “It’s because of her fighting back.”

    Police are still piecing together why Brashers was in Austin the night of the murders, but noted he was stopped near El Paso just two days later. He told police he was driving a stolen truck from Georgia to visit his father in Arizona.

    A .380 caliber handgun found on Brashers during that stop was confiscated by police but later returned to his father — who may have given it back to him. Jackson said it was the same make and model Brashers used when he died by suicide during a 1999 standoff with Missouri police.

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    "Yogurt Shop Murders" suspects (Credit: FOX 7 Austin)

    Authorities investigate suspects in the “Yogurt Shop Murders” case. (FOX 7 Austin)

    On Dec. 6, 1991, firefighters responding to a fire at the I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt store made a horrifying discovery: the bodies of Eliza Thomas, 17; sisters Jennifer, 17, and Sarah Harbison, 15; and Sarah’s best friend Amy Ayers, 13. 

    All had been shot in the head. Authorities believe the girls were bound, that some were sexually assaulted, and that the fire was intentionally set to destroy evidence.

    The investigation faced major hurdles early on, as fire and water damage compromised much of the physical evidence. Thousands of tips poured in, but most led nowhere and no suspect was ever conclusively tied to the crime. The case eventually went cold.

    For the families, decades of uncertainty became its own form of torture. Pam Ayers, Amy’s mother, told the Statesman that she is still trying to process the new revelations.

    GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB

    Victims' memorial

    Tributes lay on a memorial Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, for four teenage girls who were killed in a yogurt shop in 1991 in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Paul J. Weber)

    “I can’t say I am happy,” she said. “I’m not there. I am kind of numb. Knowing it is a serial killer, I am not sure that makes it worse, but I would have never thought it would be a serial killer. That is hard for me to process.”

    While Brashers is long deceased, police say the investigation is ongoing. Detectives are working with agencies in other states to trace his movements and determine whether he is connected to additional unsolved crimes.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said he hopes the breakthrough may help the city move forward.

    “My hopefulness is that we can turn a page as a community and hopefully the final page on this horror that marked a very different time in Austin’s history,” Watson said. “We can take heart in our growth and progress and strength as a city. And we can go to sleep knowing that while the threat of this kind of evil may never pass in this world, we are far, far better able to prevent it before it happens and solve it when it does.”

    Authorities are urging anyone with information about Brashers to come forward.

    Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.

    Stepheny Price is a Writer at Fox News with a focus on West Coast and Midwest news, missing persons, national and international crime stories, homicide cases, and border security.

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  • Arrest made in 2010 triple-shooting in Castroville that killed 18-year-old




































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    More than 15 years after a triple-shooting in Monterey County left a man dead, authorities have announced an arrest in the case.

    On the morning of Aug. 15, 2010, deputies were called to the 11000 block of Jackson Street in the community of Castroville following reports of a juvenile male possibly suffering a heart attack. When deputies arrived, they found three victims with gunshot wounds.

    Deputies administered first aid, while firefighters and paramedics responded. Two victims were taken to local hospitals. A third victim, 18-year-old Salvatore Dentice, was pronounced deceased at the scene.

    In an update Wednesday, deputies said there were able to identify 41-year-old Stephen Vasquez as a suspect in the shooting and arrest him in connection with the case. Additional details about his arrest were not immediately available.

    stephen-vasquez-cold-case-arrest-092525.jpg

    Stephen Vasquez, who is accused in a triple shooting in Castroville on Aug. 15, 2010 that left an 18-year-old man dead.

    Monterey County Sheriff’s Office


    “Today’s arrest is a testament to collaboration, persistence of our detectives, and the unwavering commitment of this office to pursue justice – no matter how much time has passed,” Sheriff Tina Nieto said. “Cold cases leave lasting impacts on families and our community, and while nothing can erase the pain of loss, we hope this step provides a measure of healing.”

    Jail records show Vasquez being held at the Monterey County Jail on suspicion of homicide and two counts of attempted homicide.

    Anyone with additional information is asked to contact Detective Richard Geng of the sheriff’s office at 831-253-6029 or Sgt. James Day at 831-597-0065. Tips can also be sent anonymously on the sheriff’s office website.

    Tim Fang

    Tim Fang is a digital producer at CBS Bay Area. A Bay Area native, Tim has been a part of the CBS Bay Area newsroom for more than two decades and joined the digital staff in 2006.

    Tim Fang

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