Cold Cases That Have Seen Breaks After Years of Unanswered Questions

Kirsten Hatfield was 8 years old when she vanished on May 14, 1997. Her underwear was found in the backyard of her family’s Oklahoma home and blood was found on her bedroom’s windowsill. Kirsten's body was never found.

Anthony Palma lived two doors down from the Hatfield family when Kirsten vanished. Advances in technology made it possible to link Palma in 2015 to blood found in Kirsten’s underwear. He was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jeffery Dahmer brutally murdered and defiled the bodies of 17 men and boys over the course of 13 years, from 1978 to 1991. His reign of terror came to an end when a victim he lured to his home escaped and went to police.

Dahmer was convicted of 15 of the 16 murders he is known to have committed in Wisconsin and was sentenced to 15 life terms in 1992. He was killed by another inmate in 1994.

Angela Samota, lovingly known as Angie, was 20 years old when she was found raped and stabbed 18 times in her own home on Oct. 12, 1984.

Angie’s best friend Sheila Wysocki was heartbroken by her death. “The murder happened and my entire life and security crumbled," Wysocki said.

Wysocki made it her mission to help find who was responsible, even agreeing to talk with a suspect to see if his alibi was consistent. But the man’s alibi checked out, and just six weeks into the investigation of Samota’s murder, the case went cold.

Wysocki went on to marry and started a family. But she never forgot Angela. She went on to become a private investigator and constantly called on police to reopen the case.

Wysocki’s persistence paid off when in 2006, DNA found at the scene was sent off for analysis. Two years later, a match came back. Donald Andrew Bess, a convicted rapist serving a life sentence at Huntsville Prison in Texas, was convicted of Angela's murder in 2010 and sentenced to death.

Ariel Castro was responsible for the abductions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. He held them captive in his Cleveland, Ohio, home for more than a decade. He raped, impregnated and beat the victims to induce miscarriages.

Castro was finally arrested after Amanda Berry managed to escape and go to a neighbor for help in 2013. He pleaded guilty to 977 charges of imprisonment and rape, saying, “I knew I was pretty much going to get the book thrown at me.”

Michelle Knight, one of the women imprisoned and tortured by Ariel Castro, faced him in court, saying: “The death penalty would be so much easier. You don't deserve that, you deserve to spend life in prison." Castro was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years. He hanged himself in prison in 2013.

Suzanne Nauman, 17, was found raped and murdered on the edge of a driving range at the Schenectady Municipal Golf Course in New York's capital district on May 30, 1995. More than two decades would pass before investigators would know who killed the new mother.

Diligent investigative work, advances in technology and forensics and an old newspaper editorial led the Syracuse Police, New York State Police and prosecutors to conclude in 2017 that Stanislaw Maciag had murdered Suzanne Nauman after picking her up on a quiet road following a fight she had with her boyfriend.

Stanislaw Maciag killed himself in prison in 1997 after being arrested on an unrelated matter. He reportedly told a fellow inmate "I’ve done a lot of bad things, and I have to pay." Maciag’s body was exhumed on July 6, 2017. His DNA matched the evidence found under Nauman's nails and inside a left-behind sneaker.

Edmund Schreiber was 92 years old when he was found strangled with his own necktie in his Buffalo, N.Y., home in 1983. Nearly 35 years later, 51-year-old Saundra Adams pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter in Schreiber’s killing. She was 17 when she and an accomplice broke into Schreiber's house looking for money. Genetic testing showed evidence on the ties that linked Adams to the killing.

For 17 years, Ted Kaczynski sent bombs to universities and airlines, ultimately killing three people and injuring 23 more. In 1995, he sent a 35,000-word manifesto to The New York Times, threatening more violence if they did not publish it in its entirety.

The paper complied in the hopes that someone would recognize the writing. Kaczynski’s brother, David, did, and cooperated with investigators. Kaczynski was arrested in 1996, putting an end to the terror that began in 1978. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Christy Mirack was just 25 years old when she was beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted in her Greenfield Estate townhouse in East Lampeter Township in Pennsylvania on Dec. 21, 1992.

Investigators vetted dozens of persons of interest in the sixth-grade teacher’s killing, but the case went cold. But 25 years later, there was a break in the case.

A genotype formed from DNA evidence left at the scene matched relatives of Raymond Rowe, 49, a well-known area disc jockey.

Rowe’s DNA came back as a match to the DNA found at the crime scene, the district attorney’s office said. Rowe was arrested in June 2018 and charged with one count of criminal homicide in the Mirack case. He has not yet entered a plea.

Michella Welch was just 12 years old when she was abducted from Puget Park in Tacoma, Wash., on March 26, 1986. Her body was found later that day.

She had been sexually assaulted and died from a cut to the neck and blunt force trauma to the head.

Gary Hartman was charged in June with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in Michella’s killing after his DNA allegedly came back a match to the DNA found on Michella’s body.

Records show Hartman lived less than two miles from Puget Park (pictured) the year Michella was killed. He has pleaded not guilty.

Katie and Brian Maggiore (pictured) were shot and killed while walking their dog in 1978. Their murders were later linked to a spate of killings, rapes and burglaries believed to have been committed by one man, the Golden State Killer.

In April, investigators announced the DNA of 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo had been connected to the Maggiores’ murders. Officials believe DeAngelo was behind at least 12 murders, 51 rapes and 120 home burglaries that occurred in at least 10 different counties in California in the 1970s and '80s.

Joseph DeAngelo was arrested at his California home. He has not yet entered a plea.

Michelle Xavier, 18, and Jennifer Duey, 20, were found on a dark Northern California road, shot and stabbed to death after leaving a birthday party on Feb. 2, 1986.

Police dedicated extra resources and manpower, sparing no expense to investigate the case and, while several persons of interest were identified and interviewed over the years, the case went cold.

In 2016, DNA evidence tied David Emery Misch, a convicted murderer currently incarcerated serving 18 years to life, to the killings. 

"Misch lived in the area at the time and was a known commercial burglar and drug user," cops said. "We do not believe the women had any history or contact with Misch, prior to the incident."

He was charged in March 2018 with the murders. He has not yet entered a plea. 

Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible, both 16, were last seen alive on Dec. 29, 1999.

The girls planned to celebrate Ashley’s birthday with a sleepover at her Oklahoma home, but vanished in the wake of a fire at Ashley’s home, where her parents Danny and Kathy Freeman were found dead.

For nearly two decades, mystery surrounded the fates of the girls. But in April, officials announced they finally had answers to questions that have dogged them for nearly two decades.

Police arrested Ronnie Dean Busick, one of the three men they say killed the teens after torturing them for days. Busick, who was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, claims to not know where Lauria and Ashley’s bodies were. The other two men have since died.

Busick has not yet entered a plea. 

Tracy Gilpin was just 15 when she vanished after going to a party near her Kingston, Mass., home on Oct. 1, 1986. Her decomposing body was found in a forest three weeks later. She had died from a massive skull fracture.

In March 2018, Michael Hand, 61, was arrested in Gilpin's kidnapping and murder.

Hand allegedly told investigators he killed Gilpin with a 73-pound boulder. Hand's attorney has entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client.