Latest news with #Project:ColdCase
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nassau County arrest reignites case of missing woman and her sons from U.S. army base
A decades-old mystery that spans continents is getting renewed attention after a recent arrest in Northeast Florida. Tina Grogan and her two sons, 6-year-old Dale Jr. and 4-year-old Stephon, disappeared from a U.S. Army base in Würzburg, Germany, in November 1992. Now, more than 30 years later, new information stemming from an arrest in Nassau County has led to the reopening of their case. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) is offering a $15,000 reward for credible information that leads to an arrest and conviction in connection with their disappearance or death. 'This is a snapshot of the cold case victims,' said Ryan Backmann, founder of Project: Cold Case. 'Since then, it's grown to over 1,800 victims, and there's so many they can't all fit on this banner.' Grogan's niece, Arielle Garcia, said the family never got answers. 'He never reported them missing. Or her running away,' Garcia said. Grogan's husband, Dale Grogan, was stationed in Germany at the time. He was later discharged from the military and moved to Jacksonville. Her sister, Shannon Ballenger, described Tina's relationship with Dale - her high school sweetheart - as rocky. 'It would've been a blessing to have my sister, and to love her kids and for her to meet my kids and love my kids,' Ballenger said. In January 2025, Dale Grogan was arrested by the Nassau County Sheriff's Office for traveling to meet a minor. That arrest caught the attention of the Army CID Cold Case Unit, which then reopened the long-dormant disappearance case. 'No, he has not been arrested or charged with the disappearance,' said Ryan Backmann, with Project: Cold Case. 'But he was picked up in Nassau County in January for another offense, which is what seems to have started the ball rolling. He made some statements, is my understanding, after his arrest that were enough to get the Army to reopen the investigation into Tina and the boys' disappearance.' For Ballenger, the pain has never faded — but neither has her determination to find the truth. 'Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy on his soul,' she said. Project: Cold Case has helped families across nearly every state in the U.S. find answers and keep unsolved cases alive in the public eye. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
USA Today
29-03-2025
- USA Today
An Ohio State University student was killed in 2000. A suspect was just charged.
An Ohio State University student was killed in 2000. A suspect was just charged. Show Caption Hide Caption Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper and DNA: New tech solving murders From Ted Bundy to Jack the Ripper, new DNA technology is solving murder mysteries, finding serial killers, and exonerating innocents. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY An Ohio State University student was found dead in his apartment building in 2000. Nearly 25 years later, a man is facing charges in connection with his death. A Franklin County grand jury indicted Brian Swanson, 48, of Cincinnati, on Thursday on charges of aggravated murder and murder in connection with the Feb. 8, 2000, death of 22-year-old Charles "Chico" Ballard. Authorities filed a warrant for Swanson's arrest, according to court records. Ballard, a mechanical engineering student from Shaker Heights, was attending Ohio State on a full academic scholarship, The Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, previously reported. Around 6 p.m. Feb. 9, 2000, his body was found in the basement of a home. Ballard had lived in an apartment on the first floor of the building. The Dispatch reported Ballard was last seen the day before. After missing a shift at his telemarketing job and a class, as well as not responding to multiple pages, friends became worried and ultimately called the police. In 2010, The Dispatch spoke with the detective investigating Ballard's case, Dana Farbacher, who said there had been confrontations between Ballard and a clerk who worked at a gas station less than a block away. About 90 minutes after Ballard was last seen alive, that same clerk, now believed to be Swanson, tried to use a debit card connected to Ballard. Detectives could not disprove Swanson's explanation about finding the debit card on the steps of a nearby building. The detective called Ballard's killing a "Hollywood hit" because he believed the person who killed Ballard had lured him into the building's basement by flipping off circuit breakers to cut the home's electricity. Ballard had likely gotten a candle to help light his way to the basement, which caught some trash and other material on fire, partially burning his own body after he had been shot, The Dispatch previously reported. Columbus police featured Ballard's homicide on the Division of Police's "The Fifth Floor" podcast in 2024. Genealogical DNA, cigarette butts: Police go to lengths to solve cold cases According to Project: Cold Case, of the 1.1 million homicides and non-negligent murder cases between 1980 and 2023, just 345,613 are unsolved. The nonprofit works with surviving families and law enforcement to share stories about victims and their unsolved cases. Police departments see breakthroughs in the cold cases as advancements made in DNA technology help investigators crack the codes, according to the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice. "As a result, crime scene samples once thought to be unsuitable for testing may now yield DNA profiles," the department said. "Additionally, samples that previously generated inconclusive DNA results may now be successfully analyzed." That's what happened in Michigan, where a suspect in the 1983 murder of Christina Castiglione was identified using genealogical DNA comparisons. The 19-year-old's body was found in the Oak Grove State Game Area in Livingston County, nearly an hour away from her mom's Redford Township home. Detectives found Castiglione partially clothed and said she had been strangled to death and sexually assaulted. Private forensic lab Othram Inc. developed a genealogical profile from the DNA found on Castiglione, leading the Livingston County Sheriff's Office to Charles David Shaw. Shaw died in November 1983 of accidental sexual asphyxiation. 'The work that was done back in 1983 to preserve the evidence, to process the scene, was an outstanding effort by everybody that was at the scene, detectives as well as the responding deputies,' County Sheriff Mike Murphy told the Livingston Daily Press and Argus, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. In Vermont, DNA from a cigarette butt helped Burlington Police Department solve the 1971 murder of Rita Curran, 24. The butt was found next to Curran's body and had DNA evidence that's been preserved for more than 50 years, according to the Burlington Free Press, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. The department sent the cigarette to a forensic lab in New York City, where the lab determined that a man's DNA was detected. CeCe Moore, a scientist and genealogy expert at Parabon Nanolabs, matched the DNA to William DeRoos after hours of research through genealogical and public records. Roos, however, died in 1986 of a drug overdose. "The DNA evidence ended up being so incredibly key," Moore said in a 2023 press conference. "They couldn't have possibly imagined the power that we would have at this time to actually use that to narrow it down to one person." Contributing: Lilly St Angelo, Burlington Free Press; Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily Press and Argus. Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@ or on Bluesky at @
