The worst fear of any case is becoming cold. Cold cases refer to the crimes that remain unsolved for weeks, years or even decades.
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
By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — As days turned into years, Brett Woolley came to accept that his father’s murderer would never be found — and that his family’s private tragedy had become a Wild West legend, the kind of thing folks shared when they were a few too many drinks deep. […] More
December 7, 2020
By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British serial killer known as the “Yorkshire Ripper” died Friday, reviving unsettling memories of a killing spree that bred fear across northern England in the late 1970s. He was 74. Peter Sutcliffe was serving a life sentence for the killings of 13 women in Yorkshire and […] More
November 13, 2020
MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) — An 83-year-old man charged with killing a couple in a northeastern Wisconsin park in 1976 has been found competent to stand trial. A judge in Marinette County Circuit Court on Wednesday found that Raymand Vannieuwenhoven is able to understand the court proceedings and assist in his own defense. Vannieuwenhoven was arrested […] More
November 5, 2020
By TOM HAYS Asscociated Press NEW YORK (AP) — An heir to the Seagram’s liquor fortune was sentenced Wednesday to an 81-month prison term and immediately thrown behind bars for her role as an unwavering benefactor of Keith Raniere, the disgraced self-improvement guru convicted of turning women into sex slaves who were branded with his […] More
September 30, 2020
A suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann faces another investigation over an alleged rape. More
September 25, 2020
By CURT ANDERSON AP Legal Affairs Writer ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — After 37 years behind bars, a Florida man was formally cleared Monday of a 1983 rape and murder that DNA evidence proved he did not commit after a long-ago trial that relied on a sketchy jailhouse informant and faulty bite mark analysis. Robert […] More
September 14, 2020
UPDATED 9/3/20 ALEXANDRIA, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man whose sister vanished in May after going on a bicycle ride near her Colorado home is organizing a search of the mountainous area, saying that his family has waited long enough. Andy Moorman announced the planned search of the area near Maysville, Colorado, on Saturday during a […] More
September 3, 2020
By CURT ANDERSON and TAMARA LUSH Associated Press BOWLING GREEN, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who spent the last 37 years in prison on a rape and murder charge was released Thursday, hours after officials revealed dramatic new evidence that proved his innocence. Robert DuBoise walked out of the Hardee Correctional Institution in […] More
August 28, 2020
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press UPDATED 8/21/20 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A former California police officer who became known as the Golden State Killer told victims Friday he was “truly sorry” before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for a decade-long string of rapes and murders across a wide swath of California. Sacramento County Superior […] More
August 21, 2020
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Since death row isn’t an option for serial killer and rapist Joseph DeAngelo, his victims want him sent to the toughest possible prison in California to live in daily terror of other inmates. But they may not have much say over where or how the […] More
August 20, 2020
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Joseph DeAngelo’s victims are reveling in their chance to finally confront him in a courtroom, four decades after he committed 13 known murders and dozens of rapes that spanned much of California. Many said they thought their opportunity would never come as the former police officer […] More
August 19, 2020
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville police and FBI agents searched a rural Tennessee property on Wednesday, Aug. 12 for any evidence of a girl who disappeared 17 years ago. Tabitha Tuders was 13 years old when she left her East Nashville home sometime after 7:30 a.m. on April 29, 2003, to catch a school bus […] More
August 18, 2020
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Golden State Killer, a former police officer in California who eluded capture for four decades, faces his victims in court Tuesday on the first of four days of hearings before he is sentenced to life in prison. The scope of Joseph James DeAngelo’s crimes “is […] More
August 18, 2020
By JIM MUSTIAN, MICHAEL BALSAMO and TOM HAYS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly two decades after the slaying of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, federal prosecutors said Monday they have solved one of New York City’s most enduring mysteries, charging two men from his neighborhood with murder and suggesting that the hip-hop artist […] More
August 17, 2020
