Latest news with #unsolvedmurders
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Thrillers That Capture the Dark Side of Small-Town Life
This month's books all provide pleasingly fresh variations on a familiar theme: a troubled person's reluctant return home to confront old traumas, and possibly unsolved murders, from long ago. Whether this is a good plan (or not) is an open question. The Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont, the title character of THE GHOSTWRITER (Sourcebooks, 342 pp., $27.99), is still haunted by a tragedy from a generation earlier: the unsolved double murder in 1975 of her father's siblings, Poppy and Danny, in Ojai, Calif. Though her father — just 16 at the time — had an alibi, he could never escape from the rumors that he was the killer. A half-century later, Olivia is pulled back to Ojai to help her father, whom she hasn't seen in decades, write his memoirs. It's a disturbing task. He appears ready to tell the truth, finally, about what happened on that fateful day all those years ago — but is she ready to hear it? 'There are things I never told the police,' he says, darkly. Complicating matters is his recent diagnosis of dementia, and how his memory seems to flicker on and off. 'This illness, it's deceptive. It tricks you into thinking you have a grasp on reality, on events of the past,' he tells her, in one of his lucid moments. 'But then you find out that nothing you believed is real.' Clark's book deftly and engagingly delves into this complicated not-so-cold case, from multiple points of view. Most affecting are a journal and some newly unearthed film footage taken by Poppy, an aspiring moviemaker and budding feminist who turns out to be the heroine of the story. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Yahoo
The detectives trying new tricks on old cases
A team of cold case detectives recently involved in solving three major crimes still has more than 70 unsolved murders on its books. The specialist investigators are part of a joint major crime unit set up by police forces in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. Their work has made headlines in recent years after men involved in the killings of Carol Morgan in1981, Rikki Neave in 1994, and Una Crown in 2013, were jailed. The team - which began life nearly 20 years ago - has been compared to the fictional officers featured in the BBC drama New Tricks. Senior officers say the team has 78 unsolved murders, nine unsolved attempted murders, and less than 50 unsolved serious sex crimes on its books. They say unsolved major crimes are subject to a system of review and the oldest cold case dates back to 1955. Det Ch Supt Ian Simmons, who heads the major crime unit, does not expect the numbers of unsolved murders to grow. He said police solve most murders now and he thinks the number of unsolved crimes will drop because of scientific advances. Det Ch Supt Simmons said 21st-Century detectives have access to evidence - including DNA, information stored on mobile phones and CCTV - police could not have imagined decades ago. "That is why we are probably quite successful in solving current cases - because of the range of investigative opportunities, tactics, covert techniques and so on that are available to us," he said. He added: "If you take an investigation from 1955, for example - no phones, no automatic number plate recognition, no CCTV." He said the "beauty" of reviewing an old unsolved case was the benefit of "hindsight". Three Headline Cases Rikki Neave: In 2022, the killer of a six-year-old schoolboy who evaded justice for nearly three decades was jailed for a minimum of 15 years. Rikki Neave's naked body was found posed in a star shape near his Peterborough home the day after he disappeared in November 1994. He had been strangled. Three years ago, James Watson, then 41 but 13 at the time of Rikki's, was convicted of murder. Carol Morgan: A husband accused of hiring a hitman to murder his former wife in 1981 was found guilty and jailed in 2024. Carol Morgan, 36, was killed in a shop she ran with her husband Allen Morgan in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Morgan, who is now in his 70s, from Stanstead Crescent, Woodingdean, Brighton, denied conspiring to murder. Una Crown: A man who carried out "a ferocious and sustained knife attack on a defenceless old lady in her own home" more than a decade ago was jailed in February after being convicted of murder. The body of former postmistress Una Crown, 86, was found at her bungalow in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, on 13 January 2013. She had been stabbed four times and her throat cut. Neighbour David Newton, who is now in his 70s, was prosecuted after a DNA breakthrough. Det Ch Supt Simmons said the team did not routinely tell the public, or victims' families, when unsolved crimes were being reviewed. And he said detectives sometimes concluded an unsolved crime should not be "proactively" re-examined unless new information emerged. But he said everything "is on the table for reinvestigation" and victims' families should know that no case was "put to bed". Det Ch Supt Simmons said: "We have got a large number of undetected investigations that go back decades, which we routinely review on a time basis, whether it's two years, five years, 10 years. "And it depends on solvability factors. "It depends on whether witnesses or victims and families are still alive. "It depends on forensic factors." The team has access to crime exhibits going back decades and works with an archivist. Det Ch Insp Nick Gardner, who is in day-to-day charge, said some exhibits were kept at stores in Hertfordshire and Cambridge - and some in a more unusual location. "There's a lot in a large salt mine in Cheshire," he explained. "Material is kept there because of the climatic conditions." He said anything relating to murder was kept for 100 years. "Paperwork in particular, some of it is starting to degrade," he added "We are starting of getting to the point of trying to digitise as much as possible." Det Ch Insp Gardner said the oldest "solved" case was the 1981 murder of Carol Morgan. He said the older cases were most demanding. "Cases we were not able to solve in the 2010s, 2000s, there is going to be so much more evidence available," Det Chief Insp Gardner explained. "The older cases are almost either a change of allegiance or a complete re-imagining." Det Ch Insp Gardner said the three-force cold case team was "absolutely" value for taxpayers' money. Senior officers say resources limit the type of unsolved crimes which can be routinely re-examined. Fact and Fiction Television viewers might draw parallels with New Tricks - a drama, which has starred Dennis Waterman, James Bolam and Amanda Redman, about a police cold case team made up of a serving officer and three retired detectives Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. How a love affair led to a murderous plot Man loses appeal over 1994 murder of Rikki Neave No DNA clue found when widow died, court told The Boy in the Woods - The Murder of Rikki Neave True Crime: Cold Case Mysteries Cold Case Investigators: Solving Britain's Sex Crimes
News.com.au
22-05-2025
- News.com.au
William Tyrrell's foster mum breaks silence amid new claims aired about person of interest in case
William Tyrrell's foster mother has broken her silence to call for police to investigate a convicted child abuser allegedly linked to the victims of three unsolved murders. It follows a series of groundbreaking reports this week by Witness: William Tyrrell podcast, revealing that evidence of these alleged links has not been followed up by police. 'In the middle of William's inquest we find three more families who don't have answers,' said the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons. 'That's not acceptable. How can they be forgotten?' Asked if she thought police should investigate this new evidence, much of which was tendered to the inquest into William's disappearance and suspected death, she said, 'Yes.' It is the first time the three-year-old's foster mother has spoken publicly since she was identified as a 'suspect' by police investigating William's disappearance in a leaked, front-page story in September 2021. That described police as 'now confident they will solve the mystery of the disappearance of the three-year-old boy' who was reported missing from a house on the NSW Mid North Coast in 2014. Almost four years on from that newspaper report the foster mother has not been charged and has repeatedly denied any involvement in what happened to William. After reviewing the police investigation, the lawyer leading an inquest into the case said last November it was 'beyond argument' that no forensic or eyewitness evidence had been found 'that provides a clue to his disappearance'. NSW Police Force detectives did submit a brief of evidence to the state's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in June 2023, seeking to charge William's foster mother over his disappearance. There has been no public statement of the ODPP's advice in the two years since, however, with a spokeswoman referring our questions about this to the police force, who themselves refused to answer. The same detectives did charge both of William's foster parents with unrelated offences, including assaulting and intimidating another child, who is not the three-year-old. William's foster father had his convictions overturned on appeal, and the foster mother will learn the results of her own appeal at a court hearing today. The convicted child abuser allegedly linked to the three unsolved murder victims in evidence before the inquest is a man called Frank Abbott. Abbott was previously identified as a 'person of interest' to police investigating William's disappearance, but was never called to answer questions at the inquest. Over the past week, has published a series of reports about the unsolved murders of 17-year-old Helen Harrison, 38-year-old Margaret Cox and 17-year-old Cherylee Masters. All three went missing close to where Abbott was living at the time and evidence before the inquest includes witnesses describing alleged links between him and each of the three victims. We are not suggesting the alleged links are true, or that Abbott was in any way involved in either case, just that they are contained in evidence before the inquest and have not been fully investigated. Abbott has previously been found not guilty of murdering Helen. Despite having possession of this evidence for several years now, the victim's families and other witnesses said they have not been contacted by the police. Abbott, who is in prison for sexually assaulting two girls and a boy, has privately denied any involvement in what happened to William.
CBS News
16-05-2025
- CBS News
South Los Angeles billboard spotlights unsolved murders
A South Los Angeles billboard is bringing attention to unsolved murders, with the question "Do You Know Who Murdered Me?" above the faces of four homicide victims. The group Justice for Murdered Children hosted Friday's event, where the billboard is meant to be both a memorial and a call to action. "Unfortunately the victims pictured here on this billboard here behind me represents hundreds of victims who have been murdered in Los Angeles County," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Chief Joe Mendoza said. Family members and law enforcement joined with District Attorney Nathan Hochman at the 104th Street and Vermont Avenue billboard. "This is not an organization you ever want to be part of, Justice for Murdered Children. Yet it is an organization that has to exist … to ensure that parents, sons, daughters, siblings, relatives of murdered children have a voice, have a support network in our system," Hochman said. Victims pictured on the billboard, whose deaths remain unsolved include the following: Ezmeralda McGee, 22, murdered on Jan. 24, 2022, in South Los Angeles Kishaundra Gatlin, 43, was murdered on March 29, 2023, in the Chesterfield Square area. Edgar Vazquez, 20, murdered on July 6, 2022, in Los Angeles County Reginald Thompson, Sr., 34, murdered on Sept. 11, 2022, near Vermont Avenue and Imperial Highway. JMC was established in 1996 by LaWanda Hawkins, whose motivation came from the tragic loss of her son Reginald, who was murdered in December 1995. Residents can anonymously report tips to Los Angeles Crime Stoppers at 1(800) 222-8477. A billboard at 104th Street and Vermont Avenue in South Los Angeles brings attention to unsolved murder cases in LA County. KCAL News
