cold cases

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DNA Links Dead Man to Horrific Austin Murders

4 teenage girls were bound, gagged, killed in yogurt shop in 1991

(Newser) - Police in Austin say a new, rapidly unfolding DNA and ballistics evidence trail led them to declare a dead man as the likely perpetrator in the killing of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in the city 1991, a horrific crime that haunted the city for decades. And officials...

'Woman in the Well' ID'd Over a Century After Murder

Murder victim Alice Spence's body was found during construction in Saskatoon in 2006

(Newser) - More than a century after her death, Canadian police have identified the "Woman in the Well," whose preserved remains were unearthed in a Saskatoon construction site back in 2006. The remains belonged to Alice Spence, who was born in Michigan in 1881 and moved to Canada in...

Man Says He Saw Girl Carried Away in 1970
Review Sparks Outrage in
1970 Missing Child Case
UPDATED
Sep 30, 2025 11:05 AM CDT

Review Sparks Outrage in 1970 Missing Child Case

Cheryl Grimmer's brother claims potential witnesses weren't interviewed

(Newser) - The brother of Cheryl Grimmer, a young girl who vanished from an Australian beach in 1970, says he's furious with police for failing to interview witnesses who've gone public in recent years. A four-year review of the 55-year-old cold case has revealed no new information that could lead...

It Took 20 Years to Identify 'the Woman in Pink'
After 20 Years, 'the Woman
in Pink' Has a Name
in case you missed it
Sep 28, 2025 11:00 AM CDT

After 20 Years, 'the Woman in Pink' Has a Name

Interpol's Identify Me initiative counts another win in naming Russia's Liudmila Zavada

(Newser) - After two decades, authorities have identified a woman whose body was discovered beside a roadside near Barcelona, Spain. Once known only as "the woman in pink" for her color-matched shirt, pants, and shoes, she's been identified as Liudmila Zavada, a 31-year-old Russian citizen, believed to have died...

Cops: Cold-Case Rapist Is Also Cold-Case Killer

Connecticut inmate charged with murdering woman in 1973

(Newser) - A man with a lengthy criminal history has been charged with the 1973 killing of a woman in Connecticut, a few years after receiving a 25-year sentence in another cold case for kidnapping and sexual assault, police said Thursday. George Legere, 77, who is incarcerated at a maximum-security state prison,...

Oregon Revisits Case of Its Oldest Unknown Murder Victim

Police exhume remains in hopes advanced DNA testing will 'give her a name' nearly 80 years later

(Newser) - Oregon authorities have reopened the state's oldest unidentified person case with the exhumation of a woman's remains on Monday, nearly 80 years after her body was found near the Willamette River. Known as "Oak Grove Jane Doe," the woman was discovered in April 1946, her...

Death Row Inmate Unmasks Serial Killer Hiding in Plain Sight

Inmate Joseph Naso's jailhouse notes tie him to decades-old murders

(Newser) - Charlotte Cook left her home in Oakland, California, one January afternoon in 1974 to visit her sister. The next day, her body was found at the bottom of a bluff near Daly City, a belt around her neck. For years, Cook's murder was a cold case, until a...

DNA Links Navy Diver to Decades-Old Rape Cases

DNA evidence links the late Sean Patrick McNulty to six unsolved assaults in four states

(Newser) - A Navy diver who died nearly 30 years ago has been identified as the culprit in a string of rapes spanning four states in the 1980s and '90s, reports CBS News . The Ventura County District Attorney's Office in California announced that Sean Patrick McNulty—who took his...

DA: Sheriff Who Inspired a Movie Likely Killed His Wife

Authorities say there is now evidence that Buford Pusser killed Pauline Mullins Pusser

(Newser) - A late Tennessee sheriff who inspired a Hollywood movie about a law enforcement officer who took on organized crime killed his wife in 1967 and led people to believe she was murdered by his enemies, authorities said Friday. Authorities acknowledged that the finding will likely shock many who grew up...

Man Admits Killing Ex's Mom in 2001 Cold Case
Man Who Killed
Ex's Mom in 2001
Sentenced
UPDATED
Aug 29, 2025 3:34 AM CDT

Man Who Killed Ex's Mom in 2001 Sentenced

Eugene Gligor, 45, was identified through DNA after 2 decades of searching

(Newser) - Eugene Gligor has been sentenced to 22 years in prison—almost as long as he evaded justice after murdering his ex-girlfriend's mother in 2001. Leslie Preer was beaten and strangled to death in her Maryland home in what prosecutors said was an "unrelenting attack." "What happened...

Arrest Made in 1996 Disappearance of Girl, 11
Arrest Made Decades Later
in Disappearance of Girl, 11
in case you missed it
Aug 17, 2025 10:41 AM CDT

Arrest Made Decades Later in Disappearance of Girl, 11

The body of Illinois girl Trudy Appleby has never been found

(Newser) - Trudy Appleby asked her dad if she could go swimming on Aug. 21, 1996, and he said no. Phone records indicate the 11-year-old went anyway, and then vanished. She was last seen getting into a vehicle with an unidentified man not far from her Moline, Illinois, home. Now, almost exactly...

DNA Cracks Cold Case of Mom Who Killed Baby in 1986

Woman found in Florida is sentenced to probation

(Newser) - A woman who killed her infant son in 1986 in Connecticut and went on to live a seemingly quiet, normal life with her family in Florida for more than three decades was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation. Janita Phillips, 65, of Lake Mary, Florida, was charged with murder...

Purdue Team Will Soon Search for Earhart's Plane
It's a Fresh Search for
Amelia Earhart's Plane
in case you missed it
Jul 6, 2025 4:00 PM CDT

It's a Fresh Search for Amelia Earhart's Plane

Satellite image sparks November search on Nikumaroro Island

(Newser) - A new push is underway to solve one of aviation's longest-standing mysteries: the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Researchers announced a November expedition to the Pacific island of Nikumaroro, spurred by a 2015 satellite image that some believe shows the remains of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E. The effort...

Body in NJ Cold Case Identified as a 19th-Century Captain

His skeletal remains started washing up on beaches in 1995

(Newser) - A man whose skeletal remains washed up on beaches in southern New Jersey between 1995 and 2013 was a victim of the sea, not a serial killer. Genealogy students at New Jersey's Ramapo College helped crack the case, which had puzzled state police for decades, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports....

She Was a Logical Suspect, but Arrest Took 23 Years

Victim's family suspects it's because the killer was an LAPD cop at the time

(Newser) - The mystery of who murdered newlywed Sherri Rasmussen in 1986 finally got solved in 2009. But as the Los Angeles Times reports, the related question of why it took the LAPD 23 years to arrest one of their own remains unanswered to this day. The killer turned out to be...

Utah Student Vanished in 1973. His Remains Have Been Found

Remains found last year are those of 23-year-old college student Douglas Brick, who vanished in '73

(Newser) - "On October 12, 1973, Douglas Brick walked out of his dorm ... and vanished." That's how the University of Utah starts the tale of one of its most famous former students, a 23-year-old senior from Pocatello, Idaho, who seemingly disappeared into thin air more than five decades ago,...

Thumbprint Found in 1977 Murder Returns a Hit

Prosecutors: Print, run through FBI's updated system last fall, was found to match Willie Sims

(Newser) - Nearly half a century after a 24-year-old California woman was strangled to death, officials say a thumbprint on a carton of cigarettes has led to an arrest. Willie Eugene Sims was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, in connection with the death of Jeanette Ralston, according to a Friday statement from the...

Suit Seeks to Open Evidence to DNA Tests in Lindbergh Case

New Jersey has not yet allowed envelopes that held ransom notes to face new analysis

(Newser) - In a new development in a 93-year-old case, a lawsuit seeks to let experts apply the latest DNA analysis to evidence in the Lindbergh baby case. The plaintiffs want envelopes that held ransom notes tested for saliva to see whether anyone other than Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed for the...

Wisconsin Mother Missing Since 1962 Found Alive
Wisconsin Mother Missing
Since 1962 Found Alive
in case you missed it
May 10, 2025 12:30 PM CDT

Wisconsin Mother Missing Since 1962 Found Alive

Police say she chose to leave her family

(Newser) - A Wisconsin cold case dating back more than 60 years has ended with the missing woman found alive. Audrey Backeberg, now 82, vanished from her family's home on July 7, 1962, when she was 20 years old and a mother of two. The Sauk County Sheriff's Office...

Mystery Endures Over Girl's Death in Picturesque Town

Body of Eva Rauter was found in Portbou, Spain, in 1990, but answers still elude

(Newser) - The locals, at least those who were around in 1990, still remember the day the body of the girl with the "angelic" face was found in the small Spanish town of Portbou on the Mediterranean. The circumstances explain why: As Giles Tremlett writes in the Guardian , she was found...

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