2023-12-31 16:00:00
He technology advancement, especially that related to DNA, is a crucial element when it comes to clarifying police events, both recent and old. In that sense, more and more cases that have been frozen for decades are being resolved thanks to the evolution of investigative techniques.
Another important factor is the media impact. Those events that are more widespread have a greater probability of being solved due to citizen participation, either to recognize an object related to the case or to identify those involved.
From Cecilia’s crime in Chaco to the dismembered trader: the 7 most resonant police cases of 2023
Below is a list of police cases that, due to technological advances or media coverage, were solved in 2023 following decades of mystery:
Ralph Stutzman: seven decades of mystery and a double life
On August 17, 1952, Ralph Stutzman, 46, disappeared from his farm in LaGrange, Indiana (United States). The man was a local farmer, described by those close to him as a hard worker and family man. At the time of his disappearance, he had thirteen children with his wife.
On the day he was last seen, Stutzman acted normally: First he dedicated himself to working on the farm and promised his children that he would play with them. After the children finished their chores, they talked to his father to ask when they would play together. In response, the man told them that he would return to the house in twenty minutes, following having chased the cows into the field. However, he never appeared or contacted his family or friends once more.
According to his relatives, there was no evidence that the farmer planned to leave that day since he had not packed his suitcase and did not have any meetings scheduled in the city. One of the theories that was considered is that he had debts with some individual because the previous night he had played poker with his friends. Likewise, the police did not rule out that he had left voluntarily, even though none of his loved ones were aware of the alleged plans to flee.
He disappeared for six years and told why he abandoned his family: “A stupid argument”
Finally, in June 2023, almost 71 years following his disappearance, authorities located the man thanks to DNA samples. Stutzman had changed his name to Delbert Schrock and at some point he had moved to Florida, where he died in 1968. With his new identity, he remarried and had six children with his second wife.
Some of the children from the first marriage had already died when it was discovered what happened to Stutzman. However, the rest of her family, including her grandchildren, were notified regarding it. “She is a relief to my mother. For years and years, she has always said that she would like to know what happened to her father before she died. She is 92 years old,” said Ben Boyd, the farmer’s grandson. Although her fate was known, Authorities were unable to decipher the reasons behind the man’s escape in 1952..
Kahyla Unbehaun: found thanks to the documentary “Unsolved mysteries”
On July 4, 2017, Kayla Unbehaun, 9, was kidnapped by her mother Heather Unbehaun in Illinois (United States). Earlier that same year, a judge had granted full custody of the minor to her father, Ryan Iskerka, while the woman was allowed scheduled visits. It was during one of those visits that the mother disappeared with the girl and on July 28, 2017, an arrest warrant for child abduction was issued once morest Unbehaun.
“According to police interviews, Heather was last seen packing her belongings on the roof of her car. Her closest relatives indicated that she went camping to an unknown location in Wisconsin and was expected to return on Wednesday, July 5 at 7 pm to do the custody exchange from one parent to another (.. .) All of Heather’s social media had been disabled and her phone was turned off. (…) no one has been able to contact her or spoken to her since July 4,” Iskerka wrote in a GoFundMe created with the aim of raising funds to hire a private investigator and any additional costs related to the search.
Thanks to the documentary “Unsolved mysteries” they found a girl missing since 2017
In November 2022, Kayla’s image appeared in the last episode of the third season of Unsolved mysteries the Netflix. At the end of the chapter “Kidnapped by their parents” Various missing persons posters and computerized age progression images from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) were shown. Among them, a photo of Kayla at age 9 was seen for less than five seconds next to an image of what he would look like when he was a teenager.
Just those moments were enough for May 13, 2023 an employee of a store recognized the minor with her mother at a shopping center in Asheville, North Carolina. That same day Unbehaun was arrested and the girl was handed over to her father, who through social networks thanked citizens for their participation and asked for privacy for the “new beginning” that the reunion represents.
Unbehaun was accused of the crime of extradition, a charge she refused to renounce. The woman was released on May 16 following posting $25,000 bail. However, she turned herself in the next day in Kane County, Illinois, where she was charged with kidnapping. On May 18, she appeared before Justice and He was released on bail with an electronic monitoring device.
Added to this, Kayla’s father obtained a protective order once morest his ex-wifewho is prohibited from being within 1,000 feet (a little more than 300 meters) of his residence, and cannot leave Illinois without court permission, according to reports The Independent.
Netflix did not miss the opportunity to echo the role of its series in the discovery. Along these lines, through social networks, the streaming platform confirmed that “the owner of a store in North Carolina recognized Kayla Unbehaun, who was kidnapped in 2017 by her mother without custody of her.” “An “Unsolved mysteries” viewer has closed a case!“he added.
Jewell Parchman Langford: One of Ontario’s Oldest and “Unique” Unsolved Cases
On May 3, 1975, the body of a woman was discovered floating in the Nation River, located in Casselman (Canada). The body showed signs of violence, it appeared to have been strangled and its hands and feet were tied with ties., so the authorities determined that it was a homicide. Because of the way it was found, police assumed someone had thrown the remains off a nearby bridge. As her identity was not known, she was nicknamed “the lady of the river nation“.
It would take 45 years to discover his real name, which was made possible by advances in DNA technology. In 2019, her body was exhumed to create a new genetic profile and the following year, in 2020, “the lady of the River Nation” recovered her identity: It was Jewell Parchman Langford, 48 years old.
According to Langford’s niece, Denise Chung, her aunt She was a prominent businesswoman “ahead of her time”, who had opened a spa in Tennessee (United States). The victim, who had no children and had kept her ex-husband’s last name, decided to take a trip to Montreal (Canada) in April 1975. Although she promised to keep in touch with her family, shortly following leaving her loved ones had no news. regarding his whereregardings, so they reported his disappearance to the authorities.
They arrest two motorcycle riders for the murder in Quilmes: they are 14 and 18 years old
Given the genetic coincidence, the researchers announced the discovery to the surviving relatives (his parents and siblings died without knowing his fate). His identity was revealed to the public in July 2023, to which was added the arrest of Rodney Nichols, 81, for his murder. During interrogation, the man informed investigators that he “had to confess” to the murder. However, his defense attorney indicated that the alleged murderer is in a wheelchair and lives with total dementia.
According to Radio-Canada, Nichols, who currently resides in Florida (United States), lived next to Langford at the time of her disappearance. Likewise, people close to the man commented that he continued using the woman’s car for his personal use and that He described her as his “love interest.”. When teammates on her rugby team asked him regarding her, he told them that he had left her and that he didn’t know where.
“Its objective [el de Langford] was to spread love and joy and make people very happy to be around her (…) I am heartbroken because my family did not find out what happened before he died, but I am very grateful that [la policía] not give up and keep working hard to try to solve it and figure out who she was (…) I would love to see justice done (…)”, Chung said.
Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas: victims of the “Zombie Hunter”
Angela Brosso, 22, was murdered on November 8, 1992 while riding a bicycle along a canal in Phoenix (United States). Almost a year later, on September 21, 1993, the body of Melanie Bernas17, was found in an area regarding two kilometers from where Brosso’s remains were discovered.
Both women had been attacked with a knife and showed signs of sexual assault. Authorities reported that Brosso’s body was found naked and decapitated, while Bernas’ was discovered floating in the canal. DNA evidence collected showed the attacks were linked to the same suspect. Finally, in 2015 there was a genetic coincidence: Bryan Patrick Miller.
Miller, 51, was arrested for the murders in 2015. While he denied involvement, he acknowledged that he lived near where the events occurred at the time and that he rode his bicycle on the roads in the area. The man, who referred to himself as the “Zombie Hunter” (in Spanish, “zombie hunter“), He was found guilty and sentenced to death in April 2023 on charges of first degree murder, kidnapping e attempted sexual assault. Added to this, Authorities believe he was behind the disappearance of 13-year-old Brandy Myers. occurred on May 26, 1992.
“Today I am not looking for compassion. This moment is for the family and friends of the victims. I can’t imagine the pain they have endured all these years,” Miller declared during the trial. For its part, the prosecution highlighted the “brutality” of the crime by calling for the death penalty: “The brutality of what he did, the impact it had on the family of these young women, what he stole from these young women deserves execution. And this will sound harsh. Angela and Melanie mightn’t choose when to die. They mightn’t choose the day, the hour, the moment. “This defendant deserves to know the day, the time of his death.”
Todd Lampley: they found the murderer thanks to a sweet potato
On February 27, 2011, Todd Lampley, 31, died following being shot through the bedroom window of his home in Massachusetts (United States). At the crime scene, police found three bullet casings, a cell phone and a sweet potato. which had been cut flat on one end, appeared to have a hole carved into the center and was “swollen and irregular” on the other end, according to the affidavit.
More than a decade following the fact, The authorities discovered the alleged murderer thanks to finding DNA on the vegetable, corresponding to Devarus Hampton, 40 years old. The man, who pleaded not guilty to charges of murder y assault with a dangerous weaponwas arrested without bail.
For researchers, the sweet potato was used as a silencer. In that sense, in court, prosecutors recalled a scene from the HBO series The Wire in which that vegetable was used to muffle the sound of gunshots. Added to this, the cell phone found at the crime scene was registered under the name Marlo Stanfieldone of the characters in the program.
In addition to DNA, police found other evidence that incriminated Hampton. In this regard, phone records reviewed by authorities showed that he had exchanged more than a dozen calls and text messages with a man who was in the house with Lampley at the time of the murder, including the minutes before and following the shooting. , according to the affidavit.
Additionally, Hampton was wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet at the time of the murder as part of his probation in an unrelated case, being that Location records of the bracelet showed it was near the house at the time of the shooting and later at the lake where the murder weapon was discarded..
Although Hampton’s possible motive remains unclear, He and Lampley knew each other.. Along those lines, during a 2010 trial, Hampton implicated the victim in the murder of Jacques Sellers that occurred in 2007. According to his statement at the time, following the shooting that ended Sellers’ life, Lampley told him that a canine unit of the police had been near the place where he was standing and that “he escaped with luck”, in addition to acknowledging that “he and his friend” were involved in the incident.
“The Lady of the Dunes”: the murderer was discovered following half a century
On July 26, 1974, a girl who was out for a walk found the lifeless body of a woman in the dunes of Provincetown (United States). The victim was naked on a beach blanket and her hands had been cut off., so it was not possible to identify her by her fingerprints. Besides, her skull had been crushed and she was almost decapitated. The investigation determined that the cause of death was a blow to the head, and it was likely that she had died several weeks before being discovered.
In October 2022, the woman might be identified thanks to advances in genealogy research as Ruth Marie Terry, 37 years old. Terry, whose aliases included Teri Marie Vizina, Terry M Vizina and Teri Shannon, also had ties to Michigan and California, authorities said.
Marita Verón Case: the sinister phrase that fuels the hypothesis once morest a union
After that discovery, attention focused on her late husband, Guy Rockwell Muldavin, who had married her a few months before she disappeared. The man, who died in 2002, He was also the main suspect in the deaths of another of his wives and a stepdaughter. in Seattle in the 1960s.
Finally, in August 2023, Authorities concluded that Muldavin was the killer, but they did not provide more information regarding what was discovered during the investigation. After the couple got married, they found out, they had traveled to Tennessee, where Terry was from, to visit his family. “When Mr. Muldavin returned from that trip, he was driving what was believed to be Ms. Terry’s vehicle and indicated to witnesses that Ms. Terry was deceased,” Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois reported in a statement. “His family never saw Mrs. Terry once more,” he added.
Patricia Carnahan: a necklace and a “rape kit” helped solve the case
On September 28, 1979, the lifeless body of a woman was found next to Lake Tahoe (United States). According to investigations, the victim, who might not be identified, He suffered severe blows and died from strangulation.. In 2015, when the case was re-examined, the body was exhumed to extract DNA. In addition to this, photographs were published of the jewelry she was wearing when she was found, including a Chai necklace, often related as a Jewish symbol of life, so Detective John Gaines, in charge of the case, asked the community for help. bean.
That way, Relatives of Patricia Carnahan, 35, recognized the pendant she was wearing, plus there was a genetic match with them. Carnahan had been reported missing in the state of Virginia a month following her death. During her last communication with her family, the woman had told them that she was touring the California area, but following that they were unable to determine the exact point of her disappearance.
Luisina Leoncino case: the key evidence that allowed the identification of the remains found of the young woman
After having discovered the victim’s identity, investigators set regarding finding the culprit. Thanks to DNA evidence found in a rape case that occurred in 1994 In the town of Spokane, which coincided with the genetic evidence collected in the Carnahan case, the police obtained the identity of the alleged murderer: Harold Carpenter63, who was arrested in February 2023.
According to officials, Carpenter had been arrested and booked in the past on a charge of second-degree rape.. However, the case was suspended and the charges were never formally presented to the authorities, something that cannot be done today either since the statute of limitations expired and the victim died. On that occasion, a homeless woman accused the man of rape, while he defended himself by saying that they had consensual relations and that she stole his wallet, the file indicates.
“I am proud to say that our Cold Case Unit is one of the most successful of its kind in the United States. Sadly, Ms. Carnahan was buried in a potter’s field under the headstone of an ‘unidentified woman.’ Thanks to the tireless dedication of our investigators, she was identified and returned to her family. Now, thanks to the multi-state collaboration of numerous agencies, his killer will finally be held accountable“El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in a statement.
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