Top 10 Times Cold Cases Got SOLVED Decades Later
#10: Karen Klaas
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Back in January of 1976, Karen Klaas, known as the ex-wife of The Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley, was attacked while returning home and strangled with her own pantyhose. This caused her to lapse into a coma, and she passed away just a few days later. The death pained Medley, causing him to take a hiatus from music and hire a private investigator to hunt for the mysterious killer. Unfortunately, the trail went cold and remained unsolved for the next 40 years. In 2017, investigators announced that they had finally cracked the case. They utilized familial DNA to identify convicted felon Kenneth Troyer as the assailant. Troyer did not face repercussions, as he was killed by cops back in 1982.
#9: Colette Aram
The night before Halloween of 1983, British teen Colette Aram was abducted while walking to her boyfriend’s house. Her deceased body was found the next morning. The case was featured on BBC’s “Crimewatch” and resulted in over 400 calls, but despite the public’s interest, the trail went cold. But then something amazing happened. In 2008, a young man named Jean-Paul Hutchinson was DNA swabbed after being arrested on a random vehicle charge, and investigators discovered a near-identical match to the killer’s DNA profile. However, he was too young to have committed the crime. Police then went to his father, Paul Hutchinson, and found an identical match. Hutchinson was arrested and sentenced to life, and he passed away in prison in October 2010.
#8: The Pima County Jane Doe
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Hunters were in the area of Pima County, Arizona when they found a jacket hanging from a tree. Investigating the bizarre sight, they found the body of a deceased woman laying in the nearby brush. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled. Despite extensive efforts, the woman was never identified. But in 1995, a man named John Kalhauser was arrested, and investigators found him in possession of a photograph. The blonde woman in the photo resembled the facial reconstruction made of the Pima County Jane Doe. She was eventually identified as Brenda Gerow, a woman who had disappeared in 1980 after leaving the state with her boyfriend - John Kalhauser. Kalhauser is now the primary suspect in her death.
#7: Adam Walsh
While shopping in Sears with his mother, Adam Walsh was left at the video game kiosk with a group of older boys. A security guard then kicked the boys out after they began fighting, and Walsh disappeared. Two weeks later, his remains were found in a canal. Suspicion fell on Ottis Toole, the criminal partner of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. Toole confessed to the crime, and there was some evidence pointing toward his guilt. However, the police botched the investigation by misplacing key pieces of evidence, and Toole’s confession was deemed unreliable as he often confessed to crimes he didn’t actually commit. 27 years later, the case was officially closed by Hollywood Police Chief Chad Wagner, who officially identified Toole as the killer.
#6: Nova Welsh
A young woman by the name of Nova Welsh went missing in July of 1981, leaving behind two children. A friend of Welsh then received a letter claiming that she had been attacked on a date. Three weeks after the disappearance and six days after her friend received the letter, Welsh’s body was found in a cupboard inside her home. A wad of gum was found securing the lock to the cupboard. 36 years later, the same DNA was found on both the gum and the letter, implicating Welsh’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her children, Osmond Bell. Bell had apparently grown jealous of Welsh’s new boyfriend, killed her, and then wrote the letter to misdirect both her friends and the authorities.
#5: Killer Clown
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Back in 1990, Marlene Warren was shot to death at her own front door by a clown. Just hours later, authorities received an anonymous call telling them to investigate Warren’s husband Michael and a woman named Sheila Keen. Detectives found that Keen and Michael Warren were having an affair, and Keen was spotted buying clown apparel just days before the killing. Her hair was also found in the getaway car, and she owned shoes with traces of orange wig fibers that seemingly matched that of the clown wig. Regardless, Keen was never charged owing to a lack of DNA evidence. It wasn’t until 2017 that advanced DNA testing officially implicated Keen, and she was finally charged with the death of Warren.
#4: Joseph Henry Loveless
In August of 1979, a family was exploring an Idaho cave when they came across a burlap sack. Their curiosity getting the better of them, they opened the sack and discovered human remains. 12 years later, a human hand was found inside the same cave, prompting an excavation that uncovered even more body parts. The DNA Doe Project then utilized forensic genealogy and found that the remains belonged to one Joseph Henry Loveless, a man who had died back in 1916. Loveless had been convicted of killing his wife, and he eventually broke out of prison using a saw blade. He was never seen again. And while the identity of the remains was answered, the nature behind Loveless’ death remains a question.
#3: Krystal Beslanowitch
On the morning of December 15, 1995, Salt Lake City sheriff’s deputy Todd Bonner was called to the Provo River. It was there that he found the body of a 17-year-old girl who had reportedly been killed with a riverside rock. The case quickly went cold without any leads, haunting the frustrated Bonner. But in 2007, the state crime lab received new forensics technology that allowed them to study DNA found on the rock and under Beslanowitch’s fingernails. It led them to a man named Joseph Simpson, and after trailing Simpson, investigators recovered his DNA from a discarded cigarette. It was a complete match, and Simpson was arrested 18 years after the death of Beslanowitch.
#2: The Peterson-Schuessler Killings
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Three boys - Robert Peterson and brothers John and Anton Schuessler - walked to downtown Chicago on the afternoon of October 16, 1955, to see a movie. Two days later, their bodies were found in a ditch. And their deaths would have remained unsolved if it wasn’t for the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brach. While investigating that case, ATF detectives learned from informants that a man named Kenneth Hansen had often boasted about killing Peterson. An investigation revealed Hansen’s guilt, and he was sentenced to life in 2002. Hansen had reportedly kidnapped the boys and took them to a stable with mob ties. The owner of the stable then covered up the crime to prevent the authorities from uncovering his illegitimate connections.
#1: Lloyd Duane Bogle & Patricia Kalitzke
While taking a winter hike in 1956, three young boys discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Duane Bogle. The very next day, a construction worker found deceased 16-year-old high school student Patricia Kalitzke. Both had been shot in the same manner, and they were eventually revealed to be a couple who had died at a nearby lover’s lane. The case went cold until 2019 when forensic genealogy linked DNA found on Kalitzke to a local man named Kenneth Gould. Gould passed away in 2007, but DNA samples taken from his children confirmed him as the culprit. The case was finally closed after more than 60 years, potentially making this the oldest cold case ever solved using forensic DNA.
