Another Cold Case Solved, by jay7777

[mosswilliams]

May 9, 2018 20:15:32 GMT Jay7777 said:

Ok another one:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/cold-case-mystery-woman-faces-life-insurance-fraud-probe-related-to-husbands-death/ar-AAwZgrU?ocid=spartanntp

Cold case mystery: Woman faces life insurance fraud probe related to husband's death

A day after Denise Williams was indicted in the murder of her late husband Mike Williams, the state of Florida is launching an investigation into alleged life insurance fraud involving the once cold case.

Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Wednesday he has directed the Division of Investigative and Forensic Sciences to conduct the investigation.

“As a result of recent findings surrounding Mike Williams’ death, I have directed my office to investigate whether or not his death was part of a scheme to fraudulently profit from his life insurance policies,” Patronis said in a written release. “As this case remains ongoing, we ask members of the community to come forward with any information they may have surrounding this case.”

Mike Williams went missing in December 2000 after supposedly going on a solo duck hunting outing on Lake Seminole. He initially was presumed to have fallen from his boat and drowned, though his body was never found in the lake.

Six months later, Denise Williams convinced a judge to declare him dead. She later collected at least $1.5 million in life insurance payouts.
Late last year, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced it had found Mike Williams' body. The agency said he had been killed, though it didn't name a suspect.

On Tuesday, a Leon County grand jury indicted Denise Williams on first-degree murder in his death. The grand jury found that Denise Williams and Brian Winchester, Mike Williams' one-time best friend, planned the killing and that Winchester shot him.

Mike Williams had two life insurance policies at the time of his death, including one written by Winchester about six months before he was killed.

Anyone with information is asked to call the CFO’s Fraud Tip Hotline at 1-800-378-0445. Callers may remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward if their information leads to a successful prosecution.

ID channel show "Disappeared" did an episode on this story many years ago. It was clear the wife and Williams' best friend were suspected of his disappearance but authorities could not prove it. 

[almagata]

It's a bad year if you are a serial killer and left DNA. 

An arrest was announced in 1987 double murder of Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18 and Jay Cook, 20.  Police used the same familial DNA matching that was used to catch GSK.  William Earl Talbott, 55, was arrested at his trucking job. 

vancouversun.com/news/crime/u-s-police-announce-arrest-in-double-murder-of-victoria-couple

[sammyt]

May 19, 2018 6:24:06 GMT almagata said:

It's a bad year if you are a serial killer and left DNA. 

An arrest was announced in 1987 double murder of Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18 and Jay Cook, 20.  Police used the same familial DNA matching that was used to catch GSK.  William Earl Talbott, 55, was arrested at his trucking job. 

vancouversun.com/news/crime/u-s-police-announce-arrest-in-double-murder-of-victoria-couple

So many more stone cold cases are going to be solved in the next few years.

I hope the Norcal rapist is next.

[mosswilliams]

May 19, 2018 6:24:06 GMT almagata said:

It's a bad year if you are a serial killer and left DNA. 

An arrest was announced in 1987 double murder of Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18 and Jay Cook, 20.  Police used the same familial DNA matching that was used to catch GSK.  William Earl Talbott, 55, was arrested at his trucking job. 

vancouversun.com/news/crime/u-s-police-announce-arrest-in-double-murder-of-victoria-couple


I am so happy they caught him. The show "Unsolved Mysteries" did a segment on the double murder. The show theorized the two victims met the killer on the ferry and he asked them for a ride. One of the victims mother would get greeting cards from the presumed killer taunting her. 

[Jay7777]

May 19, 2018 6:24:06 GMT almagata said:

It's a bad year if you are a serial killer and left DNA. 

An arrest was announced in 1987 double murder of Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18 and Jay Cook, 20.  Police used the same familial DNA matching that was used to catch GSK.  William Earl Talbott, 55, was arrested at his trucking job. 

vancouversun.com/news/crime/u-s-police-announce-arrest-in-double-murder-of-victoria-couple

Great find almagata! I hope they can use this technique to find many others including the Zodiac killer. 

[Jay7777]

Who is this guy? Not solved yet but soon I am sure and hope so:

The shooting death on Thursday of Dr. Steven Pitt, a prominent forensic psychiatrist

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/police-link-killings-of-phoenix-psychiatrist-2-paralegals/ar-AAy9tx2?ocid=spartanntp


Police link killings of Phoenix psychiatrist, 2 paralegals


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The shooting death of a prominent forensic psychiatrist who assisted in high-profile murder cases including serial killings in Phoenix is connected to the killing of two paralegals, said authorities, who were investigating Saturday whether a fourth homicide was also related.
Police in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale said the killings Friday of paralegals Veleria Sharp, 48, and Laura Anderson, 49, were related to the fatal shooting in Phoenix a day earlier of Dr. Steven Pitt.

Scottsdale police spokesman, Sgt. Ben Hoster said investigators are trying to determine what linked the three victims.
"We don't know the relationships or the connections," he said.

Witnesses heard a loud argument and gunfire Thursday outside Pitt's office on the border with Scottsdale. Phoenix police have been investigating the shooting and previously said they had no information on whether the killing was related to Pitt's work.

Sharp and Anderson were shot Friday inside a law office. Police say one of the women managed to walk to an intersection to seek help despite a gunshot wound to her head. She was taken to a hospital where she died.

Officers followed a blood trail back to the office and found the other woman. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police released a sketch of the suspect in the three killings.

Hoster said there was no indication that family members of the victims were in danger.

"We're asking the public to remain vigilant and to call us if they notice anything out of the ordinary," Hoster said.
In the other case, Scottsdale police received a call Saturday about a man found fatally shot inside an office. Hoster did not identify the caller but said the person knew the victim.

The killing occurred in an office park that houses mostly therapists and counselors.
Hoster said it was not yet known if that killing was related to the others.

Pitt, 59, assisted in the investigation of the 1996 death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, who was found dead at her home in Boulder, Colorado.
A decade later, he helped Phoenix police in the Baseline Killer investigation as they sought a man who was later convicted of killing nine people.
The website of Burt/Feldman/Grenier, the law firm that employed Sharp and Anderson, says it practices divorce, child support and other aspects of family law litigation and mediation.

The firm issued a statement saying the women were treasured by co-workers who were mourning their deaths and helping police.
Anderson was described as a grandmother and mother with intellect and passion. Sharp was praised as a wife and mother who cherished music and her faith.

Shouting was heard outside of Dr. Steven Pitt office before the shots were fired!

[Jay7777]

Here is a better link with POI drawing:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/high-profile-forensic-psychiatrist-shot-dead-outside-phoenix-office/ar-AAy7v9A?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp&utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark&OCID=ansmsnnews11

High-profile forensic psychiatrist shot dead outside Phoenix office

A high-profile forensic psychiatrist who advised police and prosecutors in high-profile cases like the JonBenet Ramsey murder and the Columbine school massacre was shot dead outside his Arizona office on Thursday evening.

Steven Pitt, 59, was leaving his office for the day when witnesses heard a loud argument and then gunshots, Phoenix Police Sgt. Vince Lewis said. The witnesses provided a description of the gunman that allowed police to create a sketch.

"We are not ruling anything out, but at this point, a loud argument probably suggests they knew each other either professionally or personally," said Lewis, adding that officers were still canvassing for possible surveillance video.

Pitt had worked as a consultant for law enforcement across the country, helping investigators understand the dynamics between suspects and victims and map out interrogation strategies. He was frequently quoted as an expert by national media outlets, including NBC News.
Phoenix police said they have not yet determined a motive for the shooting. But they are keeping the nature of Pitt's work in mind.
"It's an angle we'll be looking into," Lewis said.

© Provided by NBCU News Group, a division of NBCUniversal Media LLC Image: Sketch of suspect that killed Steven Pitt.Sketch of suspect in the fatal shooting of Steven Pitt.

A crime buff from an early age, Pitt used to practice in Colorado, where he was tapped by Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter to assist in the 1996 homicide of child beauty queen JonBenet.

"He gave us insights in terms of 'profiling' people that we were looking at that I thought were beyond all of our expertise, important, helpful stuff," Hunter would later tell the Phoenix New Times.

"He's tough and tenacious, and he isn't just a book kind of guy. He was particularly valuable in giving us suggestions about the order and timing and nature of the questions we'd be asking the Ramseys. He always has had extremely strong feelings about the case, which, to put it mildly, he wasn't afraid to share."

[Jay7777]

Solved now:

Suspect dead in Scottsdale, Arizona murders, police confirm

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/suspect-dead-in-scottsdale-arizona-murders-police-confirm/ar-AAydI0Y?ocid=spartanntp

[Jay7777]

I know this is a cross post from another folder but its worth posting here again as well:

patch.com/texas/across-tx/cold-case-dad-claims-he-solved-daughter-s-killing-field-murder?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blasts&utm_content=national

Cold Case: Dad Claims He Solved Daughter's 'Killing Field' Murder

Dad thinks he found daughter's killer three decades after her skeleton was found in the notorious Texas "killing fields."


LEAGUE CITY, TX — Almost as soon as 16-year-old Laura Miller was kidnapped and murdered in 1984, her case went cold. The League City teen probably ran away, police initially told her father, Tim Miller. She had a history of suicide attempts, they reminded the worried dad. He asked police: Could Laura's disappearance be connected to the murder of Heidi Fye, a waitress whose body was discovered in the desolate oil field off Interstate 45? Both were last seen at the same gas station, both used the same payphone, and they lived within three blocks of one another. Didn't it make sense to at least look at a serial killing?

That added up to some big coincidences, even if circumstantially. Miller says police brushed all of it aside and dropped the investigation, dismissing his daughter as probably a runaway or suicide and Fye as probably a drug addict.

Miller decided if he was going to catch his daughter's killer, he would have to do it himself. Now, nearly 35 years later, he may have done that.


Along the journey, Miller has helped identify the remains of some 200 people through the nonprofit mounted search and recovery he founded after his daughter's disappearance from League City, located in north Galveston County, Texas, on Sept. 10, 1984. She was using the payphone to call her boyfriend. The Miller family was new to town and their phone hadn't been hooked up yet.

Miller, now 71, was correct about his hunch that Laura might have been killed in the rugged wasteland between the oil fields and I-45 that has become synonymous with missing women and girls. A couple of years after Laura disappeared, boys riding their dirt bikes on the rough terrain of the area smelled something foul and discovered a woman's body propped to a tree. That led investigators to Laura's skeleton. Both women's bodies had been dumped in the same area where Fye's body was found.

From the 1970s to the 2000s, the bodies of 30 women and girls have been discovered in what came to be known among locals as "the killing fields" and later, as the as the "Texas Killing Fields," the title of a 2011 movie starring Sam Worthington that is loosely based on the cases of missing girls between Galveston and Houston.

A few of the oil field murders have been solved, but Laura Miller's case went cold — except for the dogged refusal to give up by her father, and the help of his Texas EquuSearch Mounted Search and Recovery team.

Miller told The Guardian he believes the killer may be Clyde Hedrick, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a Texas prison for the murder of a woman in 1984, the same year Laura was killed. Hedrick was long suspected of killing Ellen Beesen, whose body was found near the oil fields, but wasn't arrested for her murder until 2013.

Hedrick originally claimed Beeson had drowned while they were skinny-dipping together, and he panicked and hid her body. The autopsy was inconclusive, and Hedrick was convicted of abusing Beeson's corpse and served a short stint in jail. Almost three decades later, a new examination of Beeson's body showed she died of blunt force trauma to the head, leading to Hedrick's arrest and eventual conviction.

Hedrick has denied any involvement in the deaths of Laura Miller, Heidi Fye and a woman identified as Jane Doe, whose bodies were all found in the oil fields around the same time. All three bodies had been ritualistically propped against a tree with their faces pointed toward the sky. A fourth body was later discovered face down. Investigators have said they have two different suspects.

The League City Police Department hasn't named Hedrick a suspect or person of interest in either case. Miller and the local police department have had an acrimonious relationship, and he has accused police of incompetence and botching the investigation. Patch has reached out to the League City Police Department for comment, and we'll update this post if we hear back.

Miller has said his daughter's boyfriend can connect Hedrick to Laura. Before the Millers moved to League City, he was a neighbor and sometimes talked with Laura when she walked by. Given the crowd the troubled teen was running with at the time of her death, she could certainly have had more than a passing acquaintance with Hedrick, Miller told The Houston Press three years ago. The boyfriend told Miller Laura and some of her friends went to Hedrick's house to buy pot, according to The Guardian's report.

As prosecutors were building a case against Hedrick in Beeson's murder, several women they interviewed implicated him in the oil field murders. The witnesses included a woman who said she was with Hedrick when he dumped Beeson's body, kicking it to ensure she was dead. She eventually led investigators to Beeson's body, despite Hedrick allegedly having threatened to kill her and her children if she went to police.

Even if police weren't, Miller was convinced enough of Hedrick's involvement that he named him as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in 2015, shortly after Hedrick was convicted in Beeson's death.

Gary Ratliff, who is still the League City Police Department's assistant chief, said at the time that he told Miller that he "is not helping our criminal case at all."

"I can tell you that Tim Miller wasn't there the day that these bodies were discovered, was not present at the time when evidence was collected," Ratliff said in 2015. "So it's hard to take anything that he says with relevance when I know that he is a grieving father that is still grasping to make amends to get this cleared up — as we are."

For his part, Hedrick said Miller has a crusade against him and that he's the latest in a string of people he has accused in the past.
"Miller got a lot of people to think I'm the League City Killing Field Serial Killer," Hedrick told The Guardian. "I'm the fourth man he said got to be the one. All of us caused his daughter's death. Come on."

[Jay7777]

Solved and this freak is finally gone as well:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/texas-inmate-executed-for-1979-rape-murder-in-houston/ar-AAzdDLZ?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=HPDHP

Texas inmate executed for 1979 rape, murder in Houston


HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas prisoner accused of four killings and at least nine rapes was executed Wednesday for a 1979 rape and murder in Houston that went unsolved for two decades until he confessed.

Danny Paul Bible, 66, received lethal injection Wednesday evening after unsuccessful appeals contended his multiple health issues made it likely his execution would be botched and cause him unconstitutional pain. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal about an hour before he was put to death without apparent complications.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Bible replied: “No, sir.”

His head was shaking slightly as the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began. His attorneys said Parkinson’s disease was among his ailments.
As the drug started to take effect, Bible started taking quick breaths, muttered at one point that it was “burning” and that it “hurt.” His breaths then became snores and about a minute after the procedure began, all movement stopped.

Despite fears from his attorneys that a vein would not be found for the IVs, prison technicians had one needle inserted in his left hand three minutes after he was strapped to the death chamber gurney. The second IV was inserted in his right hand after another three minutes.
He stared intently at relatives of two of his victims who watched through a window a few feet from him, but never said anything to them.
He was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m., about 15 minutes after the lethal dose started. The execution was the seventh this year in Texas, the country’s most active death penalty state.

Bible’s guilt was not disputed, but his lawyers had proposed he be rolled in his wheelchair in front of a firing squad or be administered nitrogen gas to cut off oxygen to his brain until he stopped breathing. Lawyers argued his deteriorating health left his veins unsuitable for IVs to be inserted.

If either of those alternatives wasn’t possible — and state attorneys said neither was — Bible’s lawyers said his punishment should be stopped.
“His unique and severe medical conditions render lethal injection an intolerably cruel method of execution as applied to him,” attorney Nadia Wood told the high court. His civil rights claim “should not be barred simply because Texas has not authorized an alternative method of execution.”

Bible’s appeal went to the Supreme Court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused his lawsuit seeking a reprieve, a restraining order and an injunction. Assistant Texas Attorney General Stephen Hoffman said in a court filing that the lawsuit was a “meritless tactic” to delay his “well-deserved execution.”

Lethal injection is the only execution method allowed in Texas and changing that would require approval of the state Legislature, which isn’t scheduled to meet again until next year. A handful of death penalty states allow nitrogen hypoxia, although the method hasn’t been used. Three Utah inmates have been executed by firing squad, the most recent in 2010. Utah now allows that method if drugs for execution are unavailable.
Bible’s lawyers also argued that severe tremors accompanying his Parkinson’s disease would complicate insertion of needles. They warned of a problematic execution like ones in recent years in Ohio and Alabama.

Hoffman, the state attorney, noted that IVs had been used recently to draw blood from Bible as part of his medical care.
Bible was a drifter with a record of violence in several states when he was arrested in Fort Myers, Florida, in 1999 for a rape in Louisiana. He told detectives in Louisiana about four Texas killings — including the death of a 4-month-old boy — and at least nine rapes, including five in San Jacinto County northeast of Houston.

The four slaying victims included 20-year-old Inez Deaton, a friend of Bible’s cousin who was found on the banks of a Houston bayou in 1979. Investigators determined she had been raped and fatally stabbed with an ice pick. The killing went unsolved for decades before Bible linked himself to the case, and a jury decided in 2003 that the man who became known in Houston as “the ice pick killer” should die for the slaying.

The three other killings all occurred in North Texas on the same day in May 1983. The victims were Bible’s sister-in-law, Tracy Powers; her 4-month-old son, Justin; and Powers’ roommate, Pam Hudgins.

Bible pleaded guilty to Hudgins’ death and was sentenced to 25 year in prison. He served seven and was released to Montana in 1992 on a form of parole known as mandatory supervision.

At his trial for Deaton’s slaying in Texas, Harris County prosecutors presented evidence of robberies, thefts, assaults and abductions, including the rape of an 11-year-old girl in Montana and his confessions to repeated sexual assaults of young girls from 1996 to 1998.

“Some criminals’ actions are so heinous, they earn the label ‘worst of the worst,’” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.

[Jay7777]

D.B. Cooper

So is this solved!!??

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/the-search-for-db-cooper-investigators-say-theyve-confirmed-skyjackers-identity-by-decoding-long-lost-confession/ar-AAzi4Zb?ocid=spartanntp

The search for D.B. Cooper: Investigators say they've confirmed skyjacker's identity by decoding long-lost 'confession'


A team of cold-case investigators claim they’ve decoded a 1972 message by D.B. Cooper — and that it contains a confession from Vietnam veteran Robert Rackstraw, long suspected of being the infamous skyjacker.

The letter was addressed to “The Portland Oregonian Newspaper.”
Months earlier, a man identified as the fictitious Cooper had hijacked a Seattle-bound flight and later parachuted out of a plane with $200,000, never to be heard from again.

“This letter is too (sic) let you know I am not dead but really alive and just back from the Bahamas, so your silly troopers up there can stop looking for me. That is just how dumb this government is. I like your articles about me but you can stop them now. D.B. Cooper is not real,” it reads.

“I want out of the system and saw a way through good ole Unk,” he writes. “Now it is Uncle’s turn to weep and pay one of it’s own some cash for a change. (And please tell the lackey cops D.B. Cooper is not my real name).”

Television and film producer Tom Colbert — who’s led a team of about 40 private investigators in the search for Cooper — said he received the letter after successfully suing the FBI for the Cooper files.

“No one even knew about this letter,” Colbert told the Daily News. “When I got it, I noticed it was typed just like (a different Cooper letter), so I called a code breaker and showed it to him. He said, ‘Tom, you’re not going to believe it, but his confession is in here,'” Colbert said.

Rick Sherwood, a former member of the Army Security Agency — which deciphers signals — said he spotted four phrases or words that were repeated throughout the note, including “D.B. Cooper is not real,” “Uncle” or “Unk” referring to Uncle Sam, “the system,” and “lackey cops.”

“D.B. Cooper” and “lackey cops” appeared in the same sentence, “as did “Unk” and “the system,” suggesting to Sherwood that the coded messages could be contained in those sentences.

He decoded “through good ole Unk” to mean “by skyjacking a jet plane,” using a system of letters and numbers.

“And please tell the lackey cops” was decoded to mean “I am 1st LT Robert Rackstraw,” according to Colbert.

Sherwood had deciphered earlier letters from Cooper and had become familiar with his writing style.

“I read it two or three times and said, ‘This is Rackstraw, this is what he does,’” Sherwood told the Daily News.

“I noticed he kept on repeating words in his sentences and thought he had a code in there somewhere. He was taunting like he normally does and I thought his name was going to be in it and sure enough the numbers added up perfectly,” he said.

He said the entire decoding process took him a couple weeks.

“I was definitely shocked his name was in there. That’s what I was looking for and everything added up to that,” he said.

An earlier letter, addressed to four different newspapers, contained hidden identifiers — including his military units — that pointed to Rackstraw, now 74 and living in the San Diego area. Rackstraw, who could not be reached for comment, was previously investigated and cleared by authorities of being Cooper, but he remains the most likely suspect in the elusive case.

“Let’s just say we closed the case and this is icing on the cake I didn’t expect, it truly is. We not only had his initials and units in the other letters, but we now have him saying, ‘I am Cooper.’ Rackstraw is a narcissistic sociopath who never thought he would be caught,” Colbert said.

“He was trying to prove that he was smarter than anyone else. But he couldn’t fight 1500 years of brainpower on our team. We beat him. I didn’t expect it, but it’s the icing.”

[Jay7777]

Add this to the list:

abc7news.com/officials-man-kills-self-as-deputies-try-to-serve-warrant-in-brutal-1974-stanford-murder/3669771/

COLD CASE
Officials: Man kills self as deputies try to serve warrant in brutal 1974 Stanford murder

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) --
Officials say a suspect in a cold case from four decades ago at Stanford University appears to have killed himself as deputies were approaching to serve a search warrant Wednesday morning.


On the morning of Sunday, Oct. 13, 1974, Arlis Perry - a 19-year-old from Bismarck, N.D. - was found dead at the rear of the church by security guard Steve Crawford, according to the Stanford Daily.

Perry, the Stanford Daily reported, "Died by a blow from an ice pick to the back of the head. Found nude from the waist down, she had been molested with a three-foot candlestick. Another candlestick had been pushed up her blouse. She had also been beaten."


Deputies from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office were trying to make contact with a suspect they believe is connected to the 1974 murder of a Stanford student's wife, who was found dead inside Memorial Church on the university's campus.



Sheriff Laurie Smith told ABC7 News that the suspect appears to have shot himself inside his apartment, on Camden Avenue near Kooser Road, before making direct contact with deputies.

"He was someone that had been a suspect in the case for quite a long time," Smith said. "We just didn't have the evidence, but there was not any really strong link, and I believe that now we have the strong link."


Smith said the man realized investigators "had focused on him as a suspect" in the case.



Deputies from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office were trying to make contact with a suspect they believe is connected to the 1974 murder of a Stanford student's wife, who was found dead inside Memorial Church on the university's campus.

On the morning of Sunday, Oct. 13, 1974, Arlis Perry - a 19-year-old from Bismarck, N.D. - was found dead at the rear of the church by security guard Steve Crawford, according to the Stanford Daily.


According to a search by ABC7 News, a man named Steve Blake Crawford was listed as living at the address where the suspect appeared to kill himself Wednesday.



Details are still unclear whether words were exchanged before a shot was fired, but Smith confirms it was not an officer-involved shooting. Smith said the man has been a suspect for some time and that DNA evidence was recently re-tested.

"We have a cold case homicide unit and they have been working this case actively since 1974," Smith said. "There's been a lot of increases in technology for DNA, and we were able to get more information that led us to believe that this was the suspect. That's why we were able to do the search warrant today."



On the morning of Sunday, Oct. 13, 1974, Arlis Perry - a 19-year-old from Bismarck, N.D. - was found dead at the rear of the church by security guard Steve Crawford, according to the Stanford Daily.


"He was someone that had been a suspect in the case for quite a long time," Smith said. "We just didn't have the evidence, but there was not any really strong link, and I believe that now we have the strong link."



This comes months after DNA evidence linked dozens of cold case rapes and murders by the Golden State Killer to Joseph James DeAngelo, who was arrested in April 2018.

The sheriff's office says they plan to have an update for reporters after 5 p.m.

[woofytreats]

Jun 28, 2018 16:06:29 GMT Jay7777 said:

D.B. Cooper

So is this solved!!??

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/the-search-for-db-cooper-investigators-say-theyve-confirmed-skyjackers-identity-by-decoding-long-lost-confession/ar-AAzi4Zb?ocid=spartanntp

The search for D.B. Cooper: Investigators say they've confirmed skyjacker's identity by decoding long-lost 'confession'


A team of cold-case investigators claim they’ve decoded a 1972 message by D.B. Cooper — and that it contains a confession from Vietnam veteran Robert Rackstraw, long suspected of being the infamous skyjacker.

The letter was addressed to “The Portland Oregonian Newspaper.”
Months earlier, a man identified as the fictitious Cooper had hijacked a Seattle-bound flight and later parachuted out of a plane with $200,000, never to be heard from again.

“This letter is too (sic) let you know I am not dead but really alive and just back from the Bahamas, so your silly troopers up there can stop looking for me. That is just how dumb this government is. I like your articles about me but you can stop them now. D.B. Cooper is not real,” it reads.

“I want out of the system and saw a way through good ole Unk,” he writes. “Now it is Uncle’s turn to weep and pay one of it’s own some cash for a change. (And please tell the lackey cops D.B. Cooper is not my real name).”

Television and film producer Tom Colbert — who’s led a team of about 40 private investigators in the search for Cooper — said he received the letter after successfully suing the FBI for the Cooper files.

“No one even knew about this letter,” Colbert told the Daily News. “When I got it, I noticed it was typed just like (a different Cooper letter), so I called a code breaker and showed it to him. He said, ‘Tom, you’re not going to believe it, but his confession is in here,'” Colbert said.

Rick Sherwood, a former member of the Army Security Agency — which deciphers signals — said he spotted four phrases or words that were repeated throughout the note, including “D.B. Cooper is not real,” “Uncle” or “Unk” referring to Uncle Sam, “the system,” and “lackey cops.”

“D.B. Cooper” and “lackey cops” appeared in the same sentence, “as did “Unk” and “the system,” suggesting to Sherwood that the coded messages could be contained in those sentences.

He decoded “through good ole Unk” to mean “by skyjacking a jet plane,” using a system of letters and numbers.

“And please tell the lackey cops” was decoded to mean “I am 1st LT Robert Rackstraw,” according to Colbert.

Sherwood had deciphered earlier letters from Cooper and had become familiar with his writing style.

“I read it two or three times and said, ‘This is Rackstraw, this is what he does,’” Sherwood told the Daily News.

“I noticed he kept on repeating words in his sentences and thought he had a code in there somewhere. He was taunting like he normally does and I thought his name was going to be in it and sure enough the numbers added up perfectly,” he said.

He said the entire decoding process took him a couple weeks.

“I was definitely shocked his name was in there. That’s what I was looking for and everything added up to that,” he said.

An earlier letter, addressed to four different newspapers, contained hidden identifiers — including his military units — that pointed to Rackstraw, now 74 and living in the San Diego area. Rackstraw, who could not be reached for comment, was previously investigated and cleared by authorities of being Cooper, but he remains the most likely suspect in the elusive case.

“Let’s just say we closed the case and this is icing on the cake I didn’t expect, it truly is. We not only had his initials and units in the other letters, but we now have him saying, ‘I am Cooper.’ Rackstraw is a narcissistic sociopath who never thought he would be caught,” Colbert said.

“He was trying to prove that he was smarter than anyone else. But he couldn’t fight 1500 years of brainpower on our team. We beat him. I didn’t expect it, but it’s the icing.”

I was trying to decipher this one. Rackstraw has been a suspect in the D.B Cooper case forever and now a TV and film producer and a retired Army Security Agency analyst have "decoded" his writings that are supposedly self-incriminating based on their solutions in their decoding of his writings. They sued the FBI ( a hallmark for conspiracy theorists ) to get the letter that was the catalyst in their solution. Rackstraw was ( rightly or wrongly ) cleared of being involved with the Cooper case previously and now a TV producer and his analyst are saying "We beat him" and it's the "icing on the cake" before there's been an arrest.  Considering the source, I think I would probably wait for the arrest to be assured it's not the equivalent of another History Channel Amelia Earhart episode looking for publicity and funding based on specious claims.

[Jay7777]

I hear you woofytreats, lets wait and see!

[Jay7777]

I am glad they caught this freak:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/how-a-genealogist-helped-police-crack-an-infamous-30-year-old-cold-case/ar-AAAcmyH?ocid=HPDHP

How a genealogist helped police crack an infamous 30-year-old cold case

Indiana police say cutting-edge genealogy and DNA techniques helped solve an infamous, 30-year-old cold case.

Police arrested John D. Miller on Sunday and say he confessed to raping and strangling 8-year-old April Tinsley in 1988.

When they showed up unannounced at Miller's home Sunday, detectives say the 59-year-old already knew why: April Tinsley.

The 8-year-old vanished in April 1988 walking to a neighbor's house. Her body was found dumped in a ditch three days later; she had been raped and strangled, reports CBS News' Don Dahler.

"If it wouldn't have been for DNA, I don't think we wouldn't have gotten as far as we have," April's aunt, Teresa Tinsley, said.
The suspect left his DNA on April's body and on threatening notes he used to taunt police 16 years later. Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who appeared in the PBS show "Finding Your Roots," helped identify Miller as Tinsley's likely killer.


"It's exactly the same techniques that you would use for an adoptee to find their birth parents," Moore said.

Moore and her team of DNA sleuths first uploaded the suspect's DNA onto a public genetic database, GEDmatch.com, which found distant relatives in about eight hours. From there, Moore built out family trees and then zeroed in on people who fit the killer's age, physical traits and location. That process that can take a few days to a few weeks.

In Tinsley's case, Moore determined her murderer was either Miller or his brother. On July 9, investigators secretly pulled used condoms from Miller's trash and sent them to the state crime lab. Three days later, they got confirmation that his DNA matched the suspect's.

"I really do appreciate the law enforcement agencies….Thinking outside the box, who have jumped right in and used this incredible technology to help bring closure to these families," Moore said.

Since May, Parabon NanoLabs, where Moore works, has uploaded more than 140 crime scene DNA samples to GEDmatch and has gotten hits for more than half.

Genetic genealogy has already helped police identify suspects in five cold cases across the country including the alleged Golden State Killer, who is tied to dozens of rapes and murders in the 70s and 80s.

On the 30th anniversary of Tinsley's death, her mother Janet revealed what she wanted to know most from April's killer.

"The main question I would ask is why," Janet Tinsley said. "What made her stand out the most? That'd be the main question I would ask him over and over and over again -- why?"

Prosecutors will hold a news conference on Tuesday to give more details about how they identified Miller as their suspect. They have until Thursday to formally charge him with Tinsley's rape and murder.