cold cases

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Mother Convicted in 1981 Death of Newborn Left in Field

Theresa Bentaas, who allegedly said she was 'young and stupid,' faces life in prison

(Newser) - Update: A South Dakota woman has been convicted in the death of her newborn son, found alone in a cornfield 40 years ago. Theresa Bentaas, 60, of Sioux Falls, entered what's known as an Alford plea to manslaughter charges, a move in which she technically admits no guilt, reports...

Calif. Cops Take Fresh Look at Teen's 1986 Disappearance

Susan Bender's mom has long suspected a family acquaintance

(Newser) - California police are looking for the public's help in wrapping up the 35-year-old disappearance of a teenage girl . Susan Robin Bender was 15 when a friend saw her get into a green van at a Greyhound bus station in Modesto on the afternoon of April 25, 1986. Susan claimed...

Cold Case Team: We've ID'd the Zodiac Killer

Police aren't so sure, say case remains open

(Newser) - While one codebreaker claims the Zodiac killer's own cyphers identifies him as a known suspect , a team of 40 former law enforcement investigators say physical and forensic evidence points to a different person. The so-called Case Breakers say they've identified a former US airman and house painter from...

15 Years After Murder of 'Canes Star, Teammate Is Arrested

Rashaun Jones pleads not guilty in 2006 slaying of University of Miami player Bryan Pata

(Newser) - Update: A former player on the University of Miami football team has pleaded not guilty to killing a teammate in 2006. Raushan Jones, 35, is currently charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Bryan Pata, 22, though that could eventually be bumped up to a first-degree count. Our original...

Girl Taken in 2007 Is Reunited With Mother

Police say Jacqueline Hernandez was brought to Mexico by her father

(Newser) - The police department in Clermont, Fla., has taken the unusual step of releasing a photo of a mother hugging her daughter. But this was no ordinary hug. It shows Angelica Vences-Salgado embracing 19-year-old Jacqueline Hernandez in Laredo, Texas, near the border with Mexico, reports CBS News . The two hadn't...

To Arrest a Murder Suspect, All Detectives Wore Levi&#39;s
To Arrest a
Murder Suspect,
All Detectives
Wore Levi's
in case you missed it
Aug 22, 2021 7:00 PM CDT

To Arrest a Murder Suspect, All Detectives Wore Levi's

1981 murder victim had worked for Levi Strauss

(Newser) - Michael Glazebrook, accused of killing his neighbor in Monterey County, Calif., in 1981, escaped his 1983 murder trial scot-free when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict and the district attorney chose to forgo a retrial. Forty years later, a new trial will finally come. Glazebrook was arrested for...

DNA Proves He Raped, Killed a Girl—and Someone Else

Genome sequencing cracks Las Vegas murders of Nanette Vanderburg, Stephanie Isaacson

(Newser) - Las Vegas police say they finally know who killed a 14-year-old girl during her walk to school more than 32 years ago. Stephanie Isaacson never arrived at school on June 1, 1989, a fact her father only learned when she failed to appear that afternoon. Her body was found that...

Mom Arrested in Newborn's Death, 14 Years Later

Another cold case helped along by DNA evidence in 2007 homicide in Pennsylvania

(Newser) - "Baby Mary Anne" would have been 14 this year, had she not been killed as a newborn and dumped in a trash bin at a Pennsylvania YMCA. Now, justice may be around the corner, thanks to DNA evidence that has helped along yet another cold case. PennLive.com reports...

20 Years Ago, Police Searched 5K Buildings for Bradley Sisters

Tionda and Diamond Bradley vanished from Chicago's South Side in 2001

(Newser) - On Tuesday in Chicago, a group of about 50 people called out "we love you Diamond and Tionda" as they released 20 balloons—20 because that's how many years the Bradley sisters have been missing. It's a case that launched what USA Today calls "one of...

After 44 Years, Mounties Identify 'Septic Tank Sam'

Mutilated body was found on farm in 1977

(Newser) - For 44 years, it has been one of Canada's most gruesome cold cases: The decomposing body of a man was found in a septic tank on a rural property in Alberta in April 1977. The victim—nicknamed "Septic Tank Sam by investigators—had been beaten, burned with a...

A New Jersey Detective Had a Hunch About a Serial Killer

Robert Anzilotti spent years getting Richard Cottingham to confess to more murders

(Newser) - He was dubbed the "Torso Killer" for the string of dead prostitutes—some with their heads and hands cut off—left in hotels in Manhattan and New Jersey over a 6-month period over 1979 and 1980. New Jersey family man Richard Cottingham was convicted in the early '80s...

DNA Cracks 65-Year-Old 'Lovers' Lane' Double Murder

The presumed killer, Montana native Kenneth Gould, is dead

(Newser) - The children of a Montana native who died almost a decade and a half ago have learned the man with no known criminal history was in fact a double murderer. It wasn't a skeleton in the closet, but rather genetic genealogy that supplied the shock. Since 1956, detectives have...

Officials: Cold-Case Contract Killing Tied to Former Governor

Authorities say Tenn. Gov. Ray Blanton's administration helped fund 1979 murder

(Newser) - A former Tennessee governor's administration helped fund a contract murder of a key federal witness decades ago while embroiled in the state's largest political scandal, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday. Investigators in Hamilton County, which encompasses Chattanooga, have been chipping away at the 42-year-old cold case of Samuel...

Police Think They Solved 49-Year-Old Murder Case

Julie Ann Hanson, 15, was killed in 1972

(Newser) - Don’t call it a cold case. “We had Julie's picture on our desks” for all these years, Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said of Julie Ann Hanson. Julie was only 15 when she disappeared, only to be found dead hours later in Illinois in 1972. Now,...

Australia to Try to Solve One of Its Greatest Mysteries
Australia to Try to Solve
One of Its Greatest Mysteries
in case you missed it
May 23, 2021 1:25 PM CDT

Australia to Try to Solve One of Its Greatest Mysteries

Somerton Man's remains exhumed in hopes of creating a DNA profile

(Newser) - Australian authorities are hoping to get to the bottom of one of the 20th century's most intriguing cold cases : that of the still-unidentified Somerton Man, a suit-clad, 40-something man who was found dead on a beach near Adelaide—possibly by poison—on the morning of Dec. 1, 1948. Now,...

Bones Kept in Trash Bags Are Finally Identified
Bones Kept in Trash Bags
Are Finally Identified
longform
May 9, 2021 4:20 PM CDT

Bones Kept in Trash Bags Are Finally Identified

The 'New York Times' looks at how forensic genealogy is being used in a widespread way

(Newser) - The Golden State Killer's case brought national attention to forensic genealogy as a way to identify long-unknown killers—but the same techniques can put names to long-anonymous victims as well. And as the New York Times reports, that's increasingly being done by smaller jurisdictions. As Virginia Hughes writes,...

Paul Flores Allegedly Killed Kristin Smart in His Dorm Room

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow speaks about the case

(Newser) - Tuesday brought big arrests in the 1996 disappearance of Kristin Smart. Wednesday brought the prosecution's theory of the crime. San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow alleged Paul Flores, a fellow student who was the last person seen with Smart and has been the main suspect all these...

Widow's Admission Cracks 20-Year-Old Double Murder

Arkansas police finally know what happened to Angela Cox and her young son Mikey

(Newser) - Police in Arkansas say they have solved a nearly 20-year-old double murder case, but the killer has since died himself. In a lengthy account , the Fulton County Sheriff's Office says a man named Clarence Krusen killed 20-year-old Angela Cox and her 4-year-old son Mikey in late 2002 or early...

New Autopsy in 2004 Death Leads to Murder Investigation

Exhumed body of Alonzo Brooks shows evidence of injury

(Newser) - When Unsolved Mysteries was revived last year , show producers said they hoped to solve the April 2004 death of a 23-year-old Black and Hispanic man found in a creek following a party in Kansas. And though Alonzo Brooks' death is not yet solved, authorities are now confident in calling it...

The Day After the Killer Died, a Tipster Called Police

Jesse Aylward confirmed as having murdered a former lunch lady in 1984

(Newser) - A 59-year-old Massachusetts widow was stabbed and strangled to death at home in 1984, and police were stumped. They conducted 50-plus interviews. Virginia Hannon's family suspected it perhaps had to do with a $380,000 inheritance she had recently received, money that led her to retire from her job...

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