cold cases

Stories 221 - 240 | << Prev   Next >>

TV Show Helps Lead to 84-Year-Old's Arrest for Murder

Norma Allbritton arrested thanks to partnership between authorities, reality show

(Newser) - For decades, the death of Johnnie Allbritton—shot with a 20-gauge shotgun in the chest and back as he entered his Buffalo, Texas, home on May 14, 1984—had remained unsolved. Then, in 2015, Leon County Sheriff Kevin Ellis digitized the files and evidence and sent it all to Cold ...

DNA Pointed to the Same Man. It Took Decades to Get Him
They Had a DNA Match
in 1993. It Wasn't Enough
longform
Jul 2, 2019 12:11 AM CDT

They Had a DNA Match in 1993. It Wasn't Enough

'Mother Jones' looks at the trouble with DNA advances and our statutes of limitations

(Newser) - When law enforcement officials came to Mary-Scott Hunter's door in March 2018 to say the man suspected of raping her was in custody, it wasn't for that crime. She was raped in 1987, when the statute of limitations on rape in Minnesota was just three years. The man...

Newborn Found in 1993. Now, Murder Charges
New Development, Twist in
Mystery of 'Geauga's Child'
in case you missed it
Jun 15, 2019 11:30 AM CDT

New Development, Twist in Mystery of 'Geauga's Child'

Gail Eastwood-Ritchey charged with murder after DNA hunt

(Newser) - It's yet another cold case apparently cracked thanks to an ancestry website that collected people's DNA. This time, it involves a dead newborn found in a trash bag along an Ohio road in 1993. The baby's mother, 49-year-old Gail Eastwood-Ritchey, now faces murder charges, but the case...

A Soldier Was Killed in '87. Now, an Arrest in Her Murder

Colorado's Michael Whyte charged in death of 20-year-old Darlene Krashoc

(Newser) - A suburban Denver man has been arrested in the unsolved slaying of a soldier in Colorado 32 years ago after DNA evidence was used to create an image of what a suspect might look like, authorities said Friday. Civilian and Army investigators arrested Michael Whyte of Thornton in the 1987...

DNA Find Leads to Charges in Horrific 1993 Child Murder

Pedophile Earl Cox was already behind bars

(Newser) - A convicted pedophile who ran an international child pornography ring was charged with the 1993 abduction, rape, and killing of a 9-year-old Missouri girl after previously undetected DNA found on her underwear implicated him in the crime, authorities announced Wednesday. Earl Webster Cox, who has been in custody for years...

Algorithm Finds 51 Eerily Similar Chicago Murders

'It just screams serial killer'

(Newser) - The bodies turned up in some of Chicago's most derelict places: alleys, abandoned buildings, weed-choked lots, and garbage containers, per the AP . The victims were mostly black women who had been strangled or suffocated. Authorities believed many were prostitutes or drug addicts or both. There was evidence of sexual...

Judge Ditches Guidelines, Gives Man Life Over 1993 Killing

He cites toll on son, who witnessed the crime as a toddler

(Newser) - A quarter-century after a toddler told police his father hurt his mother, that man has been locked up. Michael Haim, 52, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the 1993 murder of his 23-year-old wife, Bonnie. Haim lived for years off Bonnie's life insurance policy before his son...

After 34 Years, Arrest Made in Murder of TV Director

Cops say Edwin Hiatt admitted killing Barry Crane

(Newser) - A man charged with bludgeoning and strangling to death a Hollywood television director more than three decades ago was arrested Thursday in North Carolina after police said DNA and a confession linked him to the crime. Edwin Hiatt was arrested in Burke County for the 1985 death of Barry Crane...

33 Years Later, Hubby Charged in Newlywed's 'Staged' Slaying

John Norton accused of inventing 1985 home invasion

(Newser) - It was long thought that 23-year-old Karen Norton was killed when she interrupted a 1985 home invasion. More than three decades later, authorities in Maryland have offered a different version of events, alleging murder at the hands of the newlywed's husband. Indicted on first-degree murder charges, John Norton, 57,...

Suspect in 1981 Cold Case Nabbed After Asking Question

'Did you find the body?'

(Newser) - There's no body, no DNA evidence, and no confession. The Thursday arrest of the husband of a woman who vanished in Bucks County, Pa., in 1981 instead came after an odd question: "Did you find the body?" William Korzon, who had a history of assaulting his wife, asked...

A Years-Old Used Razor Cracks Cases From the '70s

It contained Arthur Rudy Martinez's DNA

(Newser) - Arthur Rudy Martinez was an early suspect in a pair of murders in Atascadero, Calif., in the late 1970s. It took 41 years to officially name the now-deceased man as the suspect. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office credits that confirmation to a used razor kept for years...

Man, 80, Arrested for 1973 Double Murder

Police say he killed 2 young women in Virginia

(Newser) - A suspect is in custody almost 46 years after a double murder that horrified Virginia Beach. Lynn Seethaler and Janice Pietropola, two 19-year-old women from Pittsburgh, were found murdered in their room at a seaside motel in June 1973. Pietropola had been raped, strangled, and shot in the head three...

He Told Police, 'Daddy Hurt Her.' Decades Later, He Found Her Body

Bonnie Haim murder trial begins this week in Florida

(Newser) - When Aaron Fraser was 3, his mother disappeared, and the little boy told police he had seen his father shoot and kill her, News4Jax reports. He was removed from his father's Florida home, and eventually adopted by another couple, after his father became the main suspect in his mother'...

Woman Charged in Death of Infant Who Became a Symbol

Newborn was left to die in a field in 1990

(Newser) - Nearly three decades after the body of a newborn girl was found wrapped in newspaper and left in a field, police in South Carolina have charged a 53-year-old woman they say is the infant's mother. Brook Graham is charged with homicide by child abuse, the Greenville News reports. A...

He Went For a Job, Got Charged With Murder

Fingerprints submitted by Todd Barket link him to 1998 Florida slaying

(Newser) - A decades-old cold case may have been solved after the suspect applied for a job. More than 20 years after a woman was murdered in South Florida, police have arrested a man they think is the killer. Todd Barket, 51, submitted his prints to a potential employer, which matched ones...

Posted Confession Brings Arrest in 1986 Slaying

Michael Leon Curry accused of killing nurse's aide in Michigan

(Newser) - A convicted felon confessed repeatedly in the late 1980s to killing a woman in Michigan. Nothing happened. "People thought he was trying to get attention," the lead police investigator tells WOOD . But last June, Michael Leon Curry confessed again, on Facebook. "If I get pissed I kill,...

6-Year-Old Proves Key in Pregnant Mom's 1988 Murder

He reportedly kept quiet on threat of death from his mother's ex-boyfriend, but no more

(Newser) - George Kearney's secret was kept for 30 years. Less than a year after his arrest, an admission to murder will put it all on the table. Kearney, charged in the 1988 murder of a pregnant mother in Indiana, pleaded guilty Monday without having made a plea deal. That means...

Grisly Cold-Case Killing Comes Back to Life

A jury convicts Howard Pilmar's wife and brother-in-law in horrific stabbing

(Newser) - Manhattan businessman Howard Pilmar was found stabbed to death in 1996, but the crime went unpunished—until now. On Friday, a New York jury found Pilmar's wife and brother-in-law guilty of luring him to his office to stab him dozens of times. "They planned it as a trap,...

5 Men Vanished in 1978. Why Was One Never Found?

The Sacramento Bee digs into the case

(Newser) - Five young men were supposed to play in a Special Olympics basketball game on Feb. 25, 1978. They never made it. The remains of four of the men were found in Northern California's Plumas National Forest that summer; the fifth was never found. Why the men were there at...

Experts Say Prosecutor Can't Seek Execution in 1973 Killing

After an arrest, district attorney said he could ask for the death penalty

(Newser) - A prosecutor has announced he might seek the death penalty in the case of an 11-year-old girl sexually assaulted and slain more than four decades ago, NBC reports. But Linda O'Keefe was killed in Newport Beach in 1973, in a period when California didn't have the death penalty—...

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