Cold Cases

Daniel Yuen disappeared in February 2004. More

April 26, 2021

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Scripps News San Luis Obispo) — 3-year-old Orson and 4-year-old Orrin West have been missing for months. According to Trezell and Jacqueline West, the boys adoptive parents, the boys disappeared from their backyard on Dec. 21.   “They do not just roam around these patches … I think definitely would have been picked up or […] More

April 22, 2021

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California college student missing for nearly 25 years was once buried in the backyard of the home owned by the murder suspect’s father, authorities said in a court document. The body of Kristin Smart, which has never been found, was recently moved from the home of Ruben Flores, a prosecutor […] More

April 21, 2021

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lawyers for a father and son charged in the 1996 disappearance of California college student Kristin Smart criticized the evidence used Monday to make arrests, with one saying it was “so minimal as to shock the conscience.” A prosecutor shot back that lawyers for Paul Flores, 44, who is charged with […] More

April 20, 2021

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former California college student charged with murder in the 1996 disappearance of classmate Kristin Smart and the defendant’s father, who is accused of helping hide the young woman’s body, made their first court appearance Thursday but did not enter pleas. Paul Flores, 44, was charged with first-degree murder for the […] More

April 15, 2021

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The suspect in the 1996 disappearance of California college student Kristin Smart killed her while trying rape her in his dorm room and his father helped hide the body, the San Luis Obispo County district attorney said Wednesday. District Attorney Dan Dow said prosecutors would seek to prove Paul Flores tried […] More

April 15, 2021

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Flores was the last person seen with Kristin Smart before she vanished from a college campus on California’s scenic Central Coast nearly 25 years ago and suspicion has followed him ever since. He went from being a “person of interest” to a “suspect” to “the prime suspect.”   Investigators never […] More

April 13, 2021

LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — Decomposed remains found in a Missouri park have been positively identified as those of a Chinese woman who had been missing from Columbia, Missouri, since 2019, authorities said Tuesday. Columbia Mayor Brian Treece said forensic experts used dental records to identify Mengqi Ji’s remains, which were found by a hunter on March 25 […] More

April 7, 2021

BALTIMORE — “It’s been rough. I wish I could call him. See what he’s up to. See what’s new, tell him what’s going on with me, but I can’t do that. I can’t do it.” Instead she fights back the tears every time she thinks of her dad. Autumn Harris was just 9 when her […] More

April 5, 2021

HENDRY COUNTY, Fla. (Scripps News Fort Myers) — “ A human a very kind-hearted human, like all of us should be anyway, and it shouldn’t have happened, not that way, not that way,” said Lemetris Jackson. That’s how the family of Bolman Slater, described her in a September 2020 press conference at the Hendry County […] More

March 31, 2021

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (Scripps News Richmond) — Nearly nine years after a security guard was found beaten to death near his crashed patrol vehicle, investigators say they have new leads and are confident they will solve the case. “I absolutely believe it will get solved, but only with the help of the community,” said Chesterfield […] More

March 26, 2021

DELPHI, Ind. (Scripps News Indianapolis) – The year 2021 should be filled with cap & gowns, graduation parties, and college choices for Libby German and Abby Williams. Instead, their families are holding on to the hope that this is the year their killer is brought to justice. “We will get answers. We will get answers. […] More

March 26, 2021

Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart says they believe 'the belt was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims.' More

March 25, 2021

TUCSON, Ariz. (Scripps News Tucson) — It’s a mystery that started in the City of Apache Junction with a discovery in the hot Arizona sun that became a 28-year-old case that’s gone cold.   On August 6th 1992 at around 9:45 am, a man was walking his dog at the northwest corner of Baseline Avenue […] More

March 24, 2021

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Scripps News Cleveland) — It is one of the darkest chapters in Cleveland’s history. From 1934 to 1938, a serial killer stalked the town, claiming at least a dozen victims. The killer, known as both the “Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run” and the “Torso Murderer,” for the way he dismembered his many victims […] More

March 23, 2021

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Scripps News Kansas City) — “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference,” Christine Anderson recited. She was reading the Serenity Prayer, prominently hung on the wall of her living room. On her hardest days, she […] More

March 22, 2021

POWAY, Calif. (Scripps News San Diego) — The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is bringing attention to a 54-year-old unsolved murder. On May 1, 1967, 14-year-old Nikki Benedict was stabbed and left to die while walking home from her friend’s house in Poway.   The family has gone 54-years without knowing what happened to Nikki. […] More

March 19, 2021

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (AP) — The latest of many searches in the nearly 25-year mystery of the disappearance of California college student Kristin Smart ended Tuesday with no comment from authorities on whether it yielded any results.   The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that service of a search warrant was concluded at the Arroyo […] More

March 17, 2021

MILAN, Ohio (Scripps News Cleveland) — Milan, Ohio is best known for being the birthplace of Thomas Edison. For locals, the town of 1,300 is also known for its dark past. On April 1, 1968, a triple murder rocked the small farm town — three members of a well-loved family, slain in the dead of […] More

March 17, 2021

SAN DIEGO (Scripps News San Diego) — It’s a mother’s desperate plea to find the person responsible for killing her daughter, 40 years ago. Cold case detectives are no closer to finding Michelle Louise Wyatt’s killer today than they were in 1980. But family and friends of Wyatt want to bring her story back into […] More

March 16, 2021

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Georgia’s highest court opened a door Monday for taxpayer funds to help cover the legal defense of a man awaiting trial for the 2005 slaying of a high school teacher whose disappearance remained a mystery for more than a decade. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that private attorneys for Ryan […] More

March 15, 2021

SEATTLE (AP) — The mother of a newborn found dead in a trash can at a convenience store in Seattle more than 23 years ago was arrested after she was identified using genetic genealogy, authorities said. The mother was 27 when the baby was born, The Seattle Times reported. The statute of limitations for manslaughter is […] More

March 15, 2021

AURORA, Colo. (Scripps News Denver) — It’s been more than four years, and the trail of whoever killed an Aurora bartender has gone cold. Friends of Kelly Acosta are still holding out hope that reward money will turn the tables and bring someone to justice. “His picture is up on the wall. He was a […] More

March 15, 2021

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — The effort to free Lamar Johnson, who has spent 26 years behind bars for a murder he says he didn’t commit, hit another roadblock Tuesday when the Missouri Supreme Court refused to grant a new trial. The case “is not about whether Johnson is innocent or whether there exists a remedy […] More

March 3, 2021

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho man has pleaded guilty to the 1996 rape and murder of Angie Dodge, a crime for which another man was wrongfully convicted nearly a quarter-century ago. Brian Leigh Dripps of Caldwell entered the guilty plea Tuesday morning as part of an agreement with prosecutors, the Post Register reported. In exchange […] More

February 10, 2021

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The daughter of a Tennessee man executed 14 years ago for murder wants to test DNA evidence to prove his innocence. If the effort is successful, it would be the first time such evidence was used to prove someone was wrongly executed in the U.S. Attorneys for April Alley presented arguments […] More

February 4, 2021

Court TV takes a closer look at the clues surrounding unsolved cases from around the country and speaks directly to the investigators and family members searching for justice. More

February 1, 2021

SEATTLE (AP) — Genetic genealogy helped identify the youngest known victim of one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers almost 37 years after her remains were discovered near a baseball field south of Seattle. Wendy Stephens was 14 and had run away from her home in Denver before Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, […] More

January 26, 2021

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Three brothers have been charged in Florida with involvement in the 2006 slaying of a 16-year-old girl. Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said at a news conference Monday that the case was solved using cellphone tracking analysis unavailable when Amber Woods was fatally shot 14 years ago. Second-degree murder charges have […] More

December 22, 2020

By ROBIN McDOWELL and MARGIE MASON Associated Press MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Black man sent to prison for life as a teenager took his first steps of freedom Tuesday to the sound of ringing bells and cheering family members and supporters, hours after a pardons board commuted his sentence in a high-profile murder case. Myon […] More

December 16, 2020