Howard County Police ID 1971 Jane Doe, Reunite Her Children Decades Later
For more than half a century, she was known only as “Jane Doe.”
Her beaten body was found in a Howard County field in 1971, She died days later, was never identified, and her name was lost to time.
For 54 years, the case gathered dust — the police department's oldest cold case homicide.
Now police say they finally know who she was.
Authorities announced Wednesday, Sept. 4, that DNA profiling has revealed the victim as Sadie Belle Murray, born in 1924 in Pennsylvania, who at the time of her death went by Sarah Belle Sharkey.
And in a stunning twist, detectives also tracked down her …
DNA On Victim’s Underwear Leads To Arrest In 1991 Mullica Township Murder, Prosecutor Says
After more than 30 years, a 55-year-old Mullica Township man was arrested and charged on Wednesday, July 2 for a 1991 murder and sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman, authorities said.
Eddie Sykes is charged with murder, felony murder and aggravated murder in the death of Evelyn Caez, a Mullica Township woman, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said.
On Oct. 12, 1991 at 7:30 a.m., Mullica Township police responded to 1 W Lakeview Dr. and found Caez dead in her kitchen from stab wounds, authorities said.
In September 2023, the N.J.S.P. Office of Forensic Sciences reexamined foren…
WWII Hero From Wappingers Falls Returns Home 80 Years After Pacific Crash: Here's Service Dates
More than eight decades after he was killed in action over the Pacific during World War II, the remains of a Dutchess County native have been brought home where they belong.
US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Eugene J. Darrigan, 26, was killed on March 11, 1944, when his B-24D “Liberator” bomber, Heaven Can Wait, crashed into the waters off New Guinea during a World War II bombing mission. After 80 years, Darrigan’s remains have finally been identified and returned to his hometown in Dutchess County.
On Friday, May 23, New York State Police, along with the Dutchess County Sheriff…
Former Delco Pastor Acquitted In 1975 Murder Of 8-Year-Old Gretchen Harrington
Nearly 50 years after 8-year-old Gretchen Harrington was abducted and killed in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, David Zandstra, a former pastor accused of her murder, has been found not guilty.
Court records updated on Saturday, Jan. 18, show Zandstra was acquitted of all charges following a trial on Friday, Jan. 17. The charges included Criminal Homicide, First-Degree Murder, Second-Degree Murder, and Third-Degree Murder. Additional charges, including Possession of an Instrument of Crime, were dismissed or withdrawn.
David Zandstra, 83, originally from New Jersey and most recently of M…
Quadruple Murder: Matthew Locke Guilty Of Vicious Slaying Of West Brookfield Family
A jury convicted a Massachusetts man of the brutal quadruple murder of his cousin's wife and her three young children at their Worcester County home, prosecutors said.
Matthew Locke, 38, formerly of Ware, was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Sara Bermudez, 38, Madison Bermudez, 8, James Bermudez, 6, and Michael Bermudez, 2, the Worcester County District Attorney's Office said.
Locke, a cousin of Moses Bermudez, committed the March 1, 2018, murders while Moses was out of town in California, authorities said.
The trial lasted four weeks and included…
IT'S Over: Sex Assault Suspect Captured In El Salvador Decades After Fairfax County Arrest
After more than a decade on the run, a 27-year-old man wanted for sexual assault out of Fairfax County was captured in El Salvador, police announced.
David Ernesto Cuevas Maldonado, of Springfield, fled to El Salvador after sexually assaulting his victim, a stranger, at a home on Commerce Street in Springfield on Oct. 21, 2013, county police announced on Friday, May 24.
Detectives collected evidence from the scene to help identify Maldonado with the help of a DNA profile dating back to 2014, authorities said. He was charged with sex assault and released on bond before fleeing to El Salvador…
Tenacious Detective Cracks Two Virginia Cold Cases In One Shot
For nearly 40 years, Jacqueline Lard and Amy Baker's killer has remained a mystery.
On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, authorities in Virginia announced a break in the cases.
Elroy Harrison, 65, was identified as a suspect in both cases thanks to the relentless work of Stafford County Sheriff's Detective D.K. Wood, Sheriff David Decatur said.
Jacqueline Lard was killed in 1986, and Amy Baker in 1989. Both were residents of Stafford, but Baker was returning from visiting family in Falls Church when she went missing.
On March 4, Harrison was indicted by a Stafford County Grand Jury for the fir…
