cold cases

Stories 421 - 440 | << Prev   Next >>

'Oldest Possible Serial Killer Case' Ever Uncovered

Journalist's crusade led to Felix Vail's arrest

(Newser) - A grand jury yesterday indicted a man for the murder of his wife—a crime he allegedly committed 50 years ago. Felix Vail, 73, will automatically get life without parole if convicted, reports Jerry Mitchell at the Clarion Ledger , where he calls it "the oldest possible serial killer case...

Woman Hunts Down Dad's Killer Online, 26 Years Later

Determined Joselyn Martinez 'basically solved the case'

(Newser) - In 1986, Justo Santos and another teen walked into Jose Martinez's New York restaurant and, allegedly, started harassing Martinez's wife. Martinez kicked him out, and as they argued on the sidewalk, witnesses say Santos shot Martinez dead. Police identified Santos as the suspected killer immediately, but he fled...

Sisters' Unsolved Murders Get a New Look, 57 Years Later

Retired cop, amateur detectives putting heads together

(Newser) - No one knows what happened to Patricia and Barbara Grimes in December 1956, when the teenage sisters left their Chicago home to watch an Elvis Presley movie and never returned. Their bodies were found, a month later, naked along a rural road; their deaths were officially attributed to exposure to...

Cops: We Can't Solve Susan Powell Case

Release new details, including husband's alleged affair

(Newser) - Josh Powell reportedly had an affair just months before his wife disappeared, and his brother may have been "heavily involved" in getting rid of her body, Utah police revealed as they announced they couldn't solve the sensational case. The West Valley City Police Department yesterday opened its books...

China Wants US Help With 19-Year-Old Poisoning Mystery

Zhu Ling's poisoning was never solved

(Newser) - An unsolved poisoning case has enthralled China, 19 years after the fact, and now more than 112,000 people have signed a petition asking the White House to investigate and deport a former suspect who is said to have moved to the US. Zhu Ling was a chemistry student at...

Woman, 76, Gets 10 Years for 1957 Murder of Daughter

Judge rejects leniency for Ruby Klakow of Wisconsin

(Newser) - Prosecutors wanted the judge to impose a 45-day jail sentence along with 10 years of probation. Instead, she gave 76-year-old Ruby Klokow of Sheboygan 10 years in prison after Klokow pleaded no contest to killing her infant daughter in 1957, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . A lesser sentence would "...

Case Against Brooklyn 'Killer' Falls Apart 23 Years Later

David Ranta expected to be set free this week

(Newser) - David Ranta has been in prison since 1991 for the murder of a Brooklyn rabbi in a high-profile city slaying. Ranta is now packing up his cell, however, because prosecutors plan to ask a judge this week to set him free, reports the New York Times . No physical evidence tied...

SF Cops Name Suspect in 1984 Abduction Case

Search resumes for body of Kevin Collins

(Newser) - San Francisco police have reopened a 29-year-old abduction case, renewing the search for the body of Kevin Collins, who disappeared in 1984 when he was 10 years old, and publicly naming a suspect for the first time. That suspect, who was last known as Dan Leonard Therrien but has gone...

13 Years Later, Big Reveal in JonBenet Ramsey Case

Grand jury had actually voted to indict her parents

(Newser) - Another major decade-old case is getting fresh press thanks to a Boulder Daily Camera exclusive. As the paper reports, the district attorney's Oct. 13, 1999, announcement that the grand jury investigation into the death of JonBenet Ramsey had concluded without "sufficient evidence to warrant a filing of charges...

Ex-Cop Gets Life for 1957 Murder
Ex-Cop
Gets Life for
1957 Murder

Ex-Cop Gets Life for 1957 Murder

Slaying of 7-year-old girl is oldest cold case to result in conviction

(Newser) - A former policeman from Washington state has been given a life sentence for kidnapping and murdering a little girl 55 years ago. In what is believed to be the oldest cold case ever to go to trial and get a conviction, Jack McCullough was found guilty of murdering 7-year-old neighbor...

'Chewing Gum Survey' Snares Man for 1976 Murder

DNA match made 36 years after Maine slaying

(Newser) - A Seattle man accused of a horrific murder in Maine 36 years ago was busted after an undercover cop got his DNA by persuading him to take part in a "chewing gum survey," the Daily Mail reports. The DNA obtained from 63-year-old transient Gary Raub matched that of...

Police Get Tip in Teen's 1989 Disappearance

Anonymous tip prompts new search

(Newser) - Investigators think they may be on the verge of a breakthrough in a 23-year-old mystery. A team of 9-13 cadaver dogs will search a Massachusetts State Park on Saturday in search of the remains of Melanie Melanson, a local girl who went missing in 1989, just five days before her...

Tapes Could Link Manson Family to More Murders

LAPD wants audio tapes that could yield new evidence

(Newser) - The horrific history of Charles Manson and his followers could soon be rewritten. The Los Angeles Police Department has asked for eight hours of decades-old audio recordings that could link the Manson family to more murders, reports NBC Los Angeles . The tapes feature conversations between Manson's former right-hand man,...

Man Arrested in Etan Patz Disappearance: I Killed Him

Man implicated himself in the case: NYPD commissioner

(Newser) - Police have arrested a man who has implicated himself in the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly confirms today. A man who sources name as Pedro Hernandez was arrested yesterday in New Jersey and is now being questioned in New York. But beyond that the details get...

DNA Ties 1991 Murder to 17th-Century Family
 
 DNA Ties 1991 Murder 
 to 17th-Century Family 
in case you missed it

DNA Ties 1991 Murder to 17th-Century Family

Police believe results will narrow search for Sarah Yarborough's killer

(Newser) - In December, stumped Washington state authorities sent a DNA sample from an unsolved 1991 murder to a forensic consultant in California—and though she didn't return with a match to the murderer himself, she did figure out who his 17th-century ancestors were. The DNA profile closely matched the family...

Woman Found on Queen's Estate Was Murdered

Police performing an autopsy today

(Newser) - A British mystery is officially a murder mystery: Police say that the human remains discovered on the grounds of Sandringham, the queen's massive rural estate, belong to a woman, and that the case is being treated as a murder. An autopsy scheduled for today will hopefully shed some light...

NJ Man Acquitted in 1978 Murders

Defends self in mysterious disappearance of 5 boys

(Newser) - Some 33 years after five boys went missing, a man charged in their deaths has been acquitted. Lee Evans, who was arrested last year, was found not guilty on all counts, but there was “no jumping up and down or hooting and hollering. That type of feeling wasn’t...

Is This Jack the Ripper?
 Is This Jack the Ripper? 

Is This Jack the Ripper?

Detective creates composite photo of German suspect

(Newser) - It's more than a century too late to show it to witnesses, but the first photo of a prime Jack the Ripper suspect has emerged. Trevor Marriott, a British homicide detective who went on the trail of the Ripper after retiring, created the composite photo from descriptions of German...

Vial of Ted Bundy's Blood Could Tie Him to Cold Cases

33-year-old vial of blood gave investigators a full DNA profile of serial killer

(Newser) - A newly found 33-year-old vial of blood belonging to Ted Bundy will be used to give the infamous serial killer a full DNA profile, reports the AP . Once it is added to the FBI's national database, investigators hope the profile will help them link Bundy to several long-unsolved crimes....

Girl's Body Exhumed 54 Years After Murder

Investigators hope new DNA techniques will help nail prime suspect

(Newser) - A little girl's body has been exhumed 54 years after her murder, by cops who now think they can nail the killer using new forensics techniques. Prime suspect Jack McCullough, a former neighbor of the 7-year-old girl, has already been extradited from Washington to Illinois to face charges. "...

Stories 421 - 440 | << Prev   Next >>