cold cases

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NJ Cops Release Sketches to Help ID Man Found Dead in 1982

Composite sketches show what unidentified victim may have looked like

(Newser) - Decades after a body turned up in a New Jersey marsh, investigators are taking another shot at naming the man. The New Jersey State Police have released facial reconstruction sketches in hopes of identifying skeletal remains found on May 14, 1982, in a marshy meadow off Golden Hammock Thorofare in...

Murder Victim Found 40 Years After She Vanished From Work

Police say remains found in Florida canal are those of Rose Marie Gayhart, last seen in 1985

(Newser) - Authorities finally have a break in a Florida mystery that has lingered for four decades. Police in Cape Coral say human remains discovered by kayakers in a canal in May 2024 have been identified as those of 23-year-old Rose Marie Gayhart, who vanished from the area on March 21, 1985,...

Anonymous Confession Leads to Arrest in 1993 Alaska Murder
Anonymous Confession Leads
to Arrest in Cold Case Murder
in case you missed it
Jul 25, 2026 1:00 PM CDT

Anonymous Confession Leads to Arrest in Cold Case Murder

Michigan suspect traced after anonymous calls, body found in barrel

(Newser) - A mysterious tipster who said he'd killed a man near Fairbanks in 1993 has now been arrested for that very crime, Alaska authorities say. Alaska State Troopers allege the caller was 54-year-old Michigan resident Christopher Popps, who has been indicted on two counts of second-degree murder in the death...

Arrest Made in Cold Case That Shocked Texas City

Realtor arrested in 2012 murder of Arlington woman who was stabbed around 100 times

(Newser) - A Texas murder case that sat unsolved for more than a decade has abruptly moved forward with the arrest of a local real estate agent. Authorities say 42-year-old Mayra Velasquez is being held without bond on a capital murder charge in the 2012 killing of 32-year-old Irasema Chavez, who was...

Bones Found in 1981 Identified as Murdered Millionaire

It took 45 years to connect remains to Thelma Gaston, whose killer remains jailed

(Newser) - Four decades after an 80-year-old Los Angeles millionaire vanished with a note about looking for her cat, authorities say they've finally matched her to a body found in a shallow grave in the mountains. Riverside County officials have identified the remains discovered in 1981 near Sugar Loaf Mountain as those...

Cracker Barrel Clues Help Crack Cold Case From 1985

Items discarded behind Georgia restaurant after crime link suspect to brutal Ohio murder

(Newser) - A trail that zigzagged from an Ohio hotel to a Georgia Cracker Barrel and a Florida beach has produced an arrest more than four decades after a salesman was killed. Ohio prosecutors say discarded items discovered behind the restaurant in Dalton, Georgia, days after the murder, helped them charge 62-year-old...

Arrest Made in 2008 NC Bottling Company Double Murder

Suspect arrested in Washington state, faces murder and robbery charges

(Newser) - A killing that rattled a North Carolina soda plant and stumped investigators for nearly 18 years may finally have a suspect, the Charlotte Observer reports. Police in Concord, NC, say 43-year-old Johnny Steven Talbert was arrested last week in Washington state and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and...

Decades After Woman Vanishes, Her Husband and His Mom Are Arrested

Authorities dig mother-in-law's property for evidence in cold case

(Newser) - A Kentucky cold case that lingered for more than 30 years has led to two arrests—and a fresh search of a rural property, USA Today reports. Authorities in Boyle County say they've charged 59-year-old Anthony Blaine Manning with murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse in...

Cops: He Was a Stranger— 'Until the Day of the Murder'

Charles Berry, 66, charged in 1986 Virginia Beach killing of Roberta Walls

(Newser) - An arrest has been made in a killing that haunted Virginia Beach for nearly 40 years. Police say DNA evidence led them to a Connecticut man now accused in the 1986 rape and stabbing death of 22-year-old Roberta Walls, who was last seen leaving the library where she worked as...

Teen Whose Remains Were Found in 1993 Is Finally IDed

California authorities say questions remain on what happened to Joseph Patrick Reardon

(Newser) - Three decades after leg bones turned up at a Southern California dump site, investigators finally know the victim's name. SFGate reports that DNA testing has identified the remains, found in 1993 in Camarillo, as those of Joseph Patrick Reardon, born in Fresno in 1970, according to authorities in Ventura...

Decades After Infamous Killing, Suspect Arrested Under Alias
Decades After Infamous Killing,
Suspect Arrested Under Alias
in case you missed it
May 2, 2026 12:30 PM CDT

Decades After Infamous Killing, Suspect Arrested Under Alias

DNA breakthrough leads to arrest of James Lawhead Jr. for young mom's 1991 murder

(Newser) - Police have made an arrest in a notorious 35-year-old cold case in California after a DNA hit led deputies to a man living under a fake name in Arizona, reports KTLA . Authorities say advanced DNA testing on a piece of long-stored evidence identified 64-year-old James Lawhead Jr. as the suspect...

Suspect in 1989 Florida Child Abduction Nabbed in Philippines

DNA allegedly ties Young Tom Talmadge to sexual battery of 7-year-old

(Newser) - Nearly 40 years after a 7-year-old girl was abducted from a Tampa bowling alley and sexually abused, authorities say they've identified a suspect living on the other side of the world. Hillsborough County investigators used preserved DNA and genealogical techniques to zero in on Young Tom Talmadge, 69, who was...

Suspect in 'Infamous' 1990 Killings Found Dead in Jail

Floyd Parrott suspected of committing suicide ahead of extradition hearing

(Newser) - The man arrested last month in the "infamous" 1990 killings of a young couple in Houston has died in jail in Nebraska. Floyd Parrott, facing capital murder charges and possibly the death penalty in the brutal slayings of Cheryl Henry and Garland "Andy" Atkinson, was discovered dead of...

Men Charged in Teen Girl's 1982 Murder After Podcast Airs

Louisiana State Police credit series for bringing new leads in case of Roxanne Sharp

(Newser) - A Louisiana cold case that sat unsolved for 43 years may finally be nearing an answer, thanks in part to a true-crime podcast. Four men have been charged in the 1982 rape and killing of 16-year-old Roxanne Sharp, whose body was found near the St. Tammany Parish Fairgrounds in Covington...

Man Admits Killing Girlfriend After 43 Years

Oregon's Marcus Sanfratello pleads guilty to manslaughter, motivated by health issues

(Newser) - A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Oregon for the death of his then-girlfriend in a 1980s cold case that was recently reopened, authorities said Tuesday, per the AP . Marcus Sanfratello, 73, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of Teresa Peroni and was sentenced to...

Man Charged in 1990 Cold Case Has a Missing Wife

Robert William McCaffrey Jr. arrested in killing of NJ's Lisa McBride

(Newser) - The arrest of a man in a 1990 cold-case murder has drawn new attention to the 2012 disappearance of his wife. Authorities have charged 54-year-old Robert William McCaffrey Jr. in the New Jersey killing of 27-year-old Lisa Marie McBride, who vanished after a night out in New York City on...

Girl Who Went Missing in 1994 Is Found—Alive
Girl Who Went Missing
in 1994 Is Found—Alive
in case you missed it
Apr 5, 2026 2:40 PM CDT

Girl Who Went Missing in 1994 Is Found—Alive

Police withholding current whereabouts of Christina Marie Plante, who vanished in Arizona

(Newser) - Nearly 32 years after a teenager disappeared in Arizona, authorities say she has been found alive. The Gila County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday announced investigators recently located Christina Marie Plante, who seemingly "vanished without a trace" from the mountain community of Star Valley (then Payson) in May 1994...

Arrest Made in Cold-Case 'Texas Killing Fields' Murders

But the main suspect killed himself after he was interviewed by investigators last month

(Newser) - More than four decades after bodies began turning up along a desolate stretch of land between Houston and Galveston, an arrest has been made in the "Texas Killing Fields" investigation and prosecutors say there could be more to come.
  • Galveston County officials on Wednesday announced the arrest of 61-year-old
...

Woman Arrested in Cold Case That Haunted Iowa Realtors

Suspect worked for company that built home where Ashley Okland was killed in 2011

(Newser) - More than a decade after an Iowa real estate agent was gunned down in a model townhouse, police say they've made an arrest. West Des Moines police on Tuesday charged 53-year-old Kristin Ramsey with first-degree murder in the 2011 killing of 27-year-old Ashley Okland, who was shot while working...

Cops Identify Man Found Dead in 1970—Without His Head

New York State Police seek info on Clyde A. Coppage, 35, of Pennsylvania

(Newser) - More than five decades after a man's mutilated body turned up on a rural New York roadside, investigators finally know his name. New York State Police say DNA testing has identified the victim as 35-year-old Clyde A. Coppage, who was living in Genesee, Pennsylvania, when he disappeared in 1970,...

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