Another Cold Case Solved, by jay7777

[vivazapata]

Serial Killers 14th Victim:

www.desertsun.com/story/news/nation/california/2024/08/13/1986-killing-of-woman-in-l-a-county-linked-to-prolific-serial-killer/74782335007/



The brutal killing of a 19-year-old Riverside County woman in Los Angeles County nearly 40 years ago has been linked to a condemned serial killer with 13 prior murder convictions, authorities announced Tuesday.

The 1986 cold case killing of 19-year-old Cathy Small was solved thanks to advances in DNA technology and dogged investigation by homicide detectives over the years, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna.

Authorities identified her killer as William Lester Suff, 73, who is also known as the Riverside Prostitute Killer or the Lake Elsinore Killer, LASD Homicide Lt. Patricia Thomas said. He was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murders of 12 women and the attempted murder of another in Riverside County between 1989 and 1991. He is imprisoned on death row at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

Cathy Small, 19, of Lake Elsinore was found stabbed and strangled to death in South Pasadena on Feb. 22, 1986.
In solving the case, "We believe we're bringing a long overdue sense of justice and closure to the victim and her family," Luna said.

Charges were not expected to be filed since the suspect is already sentenced to death, officials said.

Small, a mother of two, was found dead on the morning of Feb. 22, 1986, on the road in the 800 block of Bank Street in South Pasadena, Thomas said. An autopsy determined she died from multiple stab wounds and strangulation.

Thirty-three years passed without a break in the case until a chance discovery led to clues that would ultimately identify the killer.

Cathy Small, 19, of Lake Elsinore was found stabbed and strangled to death in South Pasadena on Feb. 22, 1986.
The investigation that lead to Small's killer

Detectives and coroner's officials responded to the scene of the natural death of a 63-year-old man at a home in the 800 block of Bank Street on Oct. 11, 2019, Thomas said. They noticed "disturbing items" that included photographs of women being assaulted and seemingly held against their will, as well as a newspaper article describing the 1986 killing that took place in front of the home.


Investigators didn't find any connection between the dead 63-year-old man and Suff.

Homicide investigators regathered the original case evidence with the advantage of decades of advancements in DNA technology, she said. The collected DNA evidence did not match that of the dead man, who was not linked to any crimes.

But DNA from Small's clothing, which had never before been tested, was linked to Suff, who was already awaiting execution on death row for the Riverside County serial murders.

The killing of Cathy Small

Suff confessed and discussed, in detail, the murder of Cathy Small during interviews held in San Quentin.

Suff told detectives he had met Small at a Lake Elsinore computer repair shop where he worked. He picked her up from her home and drove her to South Pasadena, where they got into an argument, Thomas said.


"He became enraged because she knocked his glasses off his face," according to the lieutenant. "He retrieved a knife he kept in the vehicle and stabbed her multiple times in the chest as she sat in the front passenger seat."

Suff then pushed the victim out of the car and drove away, she said.

Before the serial killings, Suff was convicted in 1974 of murdering his 2-month-old daughter in Texas, Thomas said.

"He was sentenced to 70 years for the murder but was paroled to California in 1984," Thomas said.


Thomas read a letter from Small's younger sister, Deanna Larson.

"My sister, Cathy Small, was not a statistic. She was a protective big sister, a loving mother and a good daughter. Cathy was funny, smart, and caring. She had a big heart and would do anything for anyone," the letter read.

"Cathy was talented, but her life was cut short before she could even begin to make her dreams come true," the sister said.

Larson thanked the detectives who ensured her sister was not forgotten and ultimately provided answers about what happened to her.

"I have spent almost my entire life trying to figure out who murdered my sweet sister. I think of her every day," she wrote. "Bill Suff is where he is supposed to be, and he can no longer hurt anyone. Thank you for remembering my sister, Cathy."

[almagata]

Suspect identified in 1987 Summit County cold case attacks, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announces
Thomas Jordan, who died in 2009, was identified as the suspect in the rape and death of a woman in Hudson Township and the rape of a teen girl in Cuyahoga Falls.

HUDSON, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced that investigators have linked the brutal attacks of two Summit County women in 1987 to the same suspect, a man who died in 2009 in Arizona.

In a release, Yost identified Thomas Collier Jordan as the man responsible for the rape and homicide of a 30-year-old woman in Hudson Township and the rape of a 17-year-old girl in Cuyahoga Falls.

“The need for answers does not dwindle with the passage of time,” Yost said in the release. “This case is yet another example of BCI working alongside local law enforcement to breathe new life into cases that were once considered unsolvable. My hope is that our results provide victims and their loved ones with the closure that they deserve.”

BACKGROUND ON THE COLD CASES

Hudson Township homicide

Here's how Yost's office detailed the death of Janice Christensen:

On Aug. 10, 1987, Janice Christensen had driven to the Metro Bike Path in Summit County’s Hudson Township to go for a jog. When she didn’t return home, she was reported as missing, eliciting a prompt response from law enforcement.

Police and several family members searched for Christensen. Tragically, her body – partially naked and with five stab wounds – was found the next morning by her husband, Ken.

A pair of shoelaces lying next to Janice Christensen’s body, investigators would later learn, did not belong to her. The victim’s car and car keys were missing. Six days later, the vehicle was found abandoned in Bedford.

Hudson police exhausted their resources in trying to identify a suspect but came up empty. With DNA technology less advanced 37 years ago, a complete DNA profile of the offender could not be developed from the evidence.

The case eventually turned cold.

Cuyahoga Falls sexual assault

As investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and Hudson police worked to solve the Christensen case, they looked at similar sexual assaults and homicides throughout Northeast Ohio. They felt that another case with a comparable criminal pattern might suggest a serial offender.

According to Yost's office, investigators did find a case "with eerily similar circumstances and sufficient evidence that allowed them to close both cases." Read their summary below.

On June 16, 1987, Michelle Puett-Howard had been sexually assaulted at Top of the World Park in Cuyahoga Falls. The teenager was walking alone on a trail when a man grabbed her, held a knife to her throat, took her to a secluded area off the trail and sexually assaulted her, binding her hands and ankles with a pair of shoelaces and taking her underwear. The suspect also took the victim’s car keys, telling her that he was taking the vehicle.

Puett-Howard, who now lives outside Ohio, immediately reported the rape to police.

DNA evidence was obtained, but again – given the status of DNA testing at the time and the lack of DNA databases – the case grew cold.

HOW THE SUSPECT WAS IDENTIFIED

Yost's office reports that in 2022, the evidence from the Cuyahoga Falls attack was resubmitted to BCI’s laboratory and retested using advanced DNA technology, with the results entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System database, more commonly known as CODIS.

"Although the statute of limitations for prosecution had passed, investigators felt that the testing could lead to a serial offender," the AG's office added.

The DNA matched the offender profile of Jordan, who was born in Cleveland in 1926 and died in 2009 in Yuma, Arizona, at the age of 83.

After investigators were unable to find any living family members to confirm the DNA match, BCI agents traveled to Yuma this past April to exhume Jordan's body and obtain his DNA. Yost's office says the "subsequent DNA testing confirmed the link between Jordan and the crimes against Christensen and Puett-Howard."

BCI agents also found that Jordan had an extensive criminal history throughout Northeast Ohio;

1959 - Sentenced to prison in Trumbull County for grand larceny
1961 - Sentenced in Cuyahoga County for burglary
1972 - Sentenced in Geauga County for malicious entry
1976 - Sentenced to prison in Geauga County for rape, stabbing, burglary. He remained in prison until 1985.

"Based on the DNA evidence and the similarities between the Hudson Township and Cuyahoga Falls cases, law enforcement is confident that Jordan was responsible for both crimes. And given his extensive criminal history in Ohio, he is thought to have committed additional sexual assaults during his life," Yost's office stated.

Those "additional sexual assaults" may have happened in multiple states as Jordan was known to have ties to Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, California, Louisiana, and Michigan. BCI investigators are sharing information about the Summit County case to "law enforcement nationwide, in hopes that additional cases might be solved."

The Ohio Attorney General's office released the below video chronicling the efforts to solve the cold cases

Want to be among the first to know the most important local and national news? The latest sports updates? We've got you covered! You can download the free WKYC app and get the latest updates sent to your phone: Android, Apple.

[almagata]

www.kentreporter.com/news/kent-police-describe-what-led-to-arrest-of-man-in-1980-cold-case/

Kent Police detectives used DNA, genealogy comparisons and a discarded cigarette to find the man who allegedly killed Dorothy “Dottie” Silzel 44 years ago at her Kent condo shortly after she ended her shift at a local pizza parlor.

“With the advancements in DNA technology and other forensic tools, they can run but they can’t hide,” Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said at a Wednesday, Aug. 28 press conference at City Hall.

King County prosecutors have charged Kenneth Kundert, 65, with first-degree murder for the February 1980 strangulation of Silzel, 30, found dead in her condo in the 25400 block of 106th Avenue SE.

Kent detectives, the FBI and the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office arrested Kundert Aug. 20 at his home in Clinton, Arkansas. Kundert remains in custody in the Van Buren Correctional Facility in Clinton with bail set at $3 million.

It could be a week or several weeks before Kundert is extradited to face the murder charge in King County, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

“The apprehension of Dottie’s killer has given hope to so many other families waiting for a resolution to their active or cold case,” said Jim Yantzer, an older brother of Silzel, at the press conference.

Yantzer praised the Kent Police for its work.

“A special thank you to (Detective) Tim Ford with the Kent Police who became her avenger for us and renewed our faith and gave us hope with his compassion and faith that her killer would be found,” Yantzer said.

The cold case

Silzel was last seen the night of Feb. 23, 1980 between 10 and 10:15 p.m. when she left Gaetano’s Pizza at the end of her shift, according to police documents. She worked there part-time to supplement income from a full-time job at Boeing.

On Feb. 26, 1980, a Kent patrol officer was dispatched to Silzel’s condo to meet her friends and co-workers from Boeing for a welfare check. She had not reported for work for two days, which was highly unusual.

The officer entered the home through an open slider door and found Silzel’s body on the second floor of the condo. She had signs of lividity, indicating she had been dead for some time.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined she had been strangled to death and noted she also had a blunt impact to her head. During the death investigation, DNA evidence was collected, including a bathrobe.

Evidence was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab, and utilizing microscopic examination, the lab located DNA evidence belonging to an unknown male, named Individual A, according to police.

Over the years, multiple Kent detectives were assigned to the case and worked numerous tips and leads, according to police. Multiple DNA samples were obtained for comparison, but none had been identified as the Individual A.

In 2015, members of Silzel’s family contacted Ford, a major crimes sergeant, to take a look at the case again. Ford assigned the case to himself and has worked it for the last nine years.

“I knew about the case,” Ford said at the press conference. “I knew her name. I knew the facts. Once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down.”

In March 2022, senior forensic genealogist Misty Gillis began to perform additional genealogy comparisons of the DNA profile of Individual A. At that time, she worked for Identifiers International, a company that uses forensic genealogy to identify potential suspects, according to police. They identified 11 potential suspects.

According to an article on the National Library of Medicine website, forensic genetic genealogy has become a law enforcement tool with the rise in popularity of consumer DNA testing because there now exist public genetic genealogy databases populated with large amounts of genetic data from consumers, i.e., general members of the public. Forensic genetic genealogy utilizes this mass of data for the purposes of human identification in a forensic context. The websites people use to share their data include FamilySearch, Ancestry and many others.

Law enforcement began to collect and research DNA samples from the group of suspects to compare to Individual A’s DNA profile.

Two of the potential suspects identified through DNA were Kurt and Kenneth Kundert, brothers living in Arkansas. In September 2023, Kent detectives found out the two brothers were in custody for an assault. Ford worked with the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office to request voluntary DNA from the brothers.

Kurt Kundert gave a voluntary sample, according to police. Kenneth Kundert declined. The State Patrol Crime Lab excluded Kurt Kundert as a suspect because he was not a match.

Kent detectives looked into Kenneth Kundert’s ties to Washington state. He worked in 1987 in the Snohomish County area. They also learned he and his brother had lived in an apartment complex about 1,200 feet from where Silzel was killed.

In March, Ford and other Kent detectives in the Special Investigations Unit traveled to Clinton, Arkansas to conduct surveillance of Kundert, according to police. They were assisted by the FBI, the Arkansas 20th Judicial Drug Task Force and the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office.

During the operation, they were able to obtain a discarded cigarette reportedly belonging to Kenneth Kundert. Ford confirmed at the press conference that Kundert reportedly had discarded the cigarette outside of a Walmart store. The State Patrol Crime Lab determined the DNA on that cigarette reportedly matched DNA found on a bathrobe at the murder scene and belonged to Individual A.

“Within the confines of the law and respecting privacy and constitutional rights, our detectives are very creative at their jobs,” Padilla said about tracking down a cigarette.

Padilla said Kundert had no substantial criminal history. He said detectives continue to work the case to find out more about his life in Washington.

Ford said it was unknown when Kundert left Washington. He lived in several states before moving to Arkansas. He apparently worked in the siding and construction business.

As far as his connection to Silzel and a motive to kill her?

“We are working to determine that still,” Padilla said.

The victim

Silzel graduated from high school in Manden, North Dakota, according to a profile released at the press conference. She lived in the Seattle area for about 12 years prior to her death.

At the time of her death, she was a training supervisor at Boeing in Renton for new engineers. She worked at the Kent pizza parlor, just a few blocks from her condo, on the weekends.

“She loved her job at Boeing,” Yantzer, her brother said at the press conference.

Silzel previously lived in Renton but had purchased the Kent condo not long before her death. She was survived by five brothers, two sisters, her parents and extended family at the time of her death. Her parents have since died. Most of her siblings lived in the South King County area in 1980. She was single at the time of her death and did not have any children.

“Dottie loved life and people,” Yantzer said. “She was an awesome aunt to many nieces and nephews and daughter to mom and dad and a sister to eight brothers and sisters.”

She also did volunteer work.

“She was a hugger for the Special Olympics,” Yantzer said. “She is missed by all.”

[vivazapata]

www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Media/Newsletters/Criminal-Justice-Update/September-2024/Solved-34-years-later


(I like the write up especially for an AGs office!)


When he moved to Yuma, Arizona, Thomas Collier Jordan probably took comfort in knowing that Mexico was less than 10 miles away. If police came sniffing around, he could hightail it across the border.

As he grew further into old age and death was in the rearview mirror, he probably took comfort in knowing that his black secrets would be buried with him under the sands of the Sonoran Desert.
Whatever his twisted thoughts, the truth finally caught up with him.

Thanks to the persistence and teamwork of the Hudson and Cuyahoga Falls police departments and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Jordan has been revealed in death to be the monster he was in life.

Jordan.jpg

Specifically, he has been identified as the man who on Aug. 10, 1987, brutally raped and fatally stabbed 30-year-old Janice Christensen on a hike-and-bike trail in Hudson Township. Christensen had gone for a morning run and opted to keep her dog, Wolf, at home. Her husband, Ken, and Wolf found her body the next day.

Jordan also has been identified as the man who three months earlier — on May 25, 1987 — raped 17-year-old Michelle Puett-Howard at a Metropark in Cuyahoga Falls. The teen escaped with her life when she fought back and fled to the parking lot, where a police officer was ticketing her car.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Hudson Police Chief Perry Tabak and Cuyahoga Falls Police Chief Christopher Norfolk recently announced the finding, which allowed authorities to close the book on the 37-year-old cold cases.

Although police recognized similarities in the two cases, evidence conclusively connecting them proved elusive.

“The dedicated investigators in these cases were passionate about pursuing justice,” Yost said. “Their determination never wavered. When the technology was up to the task, they pounced.”

At the time of the crimes, the DNA revolution in crime-solving was still in its infancy. It was just the year before, in 1986, that DNA fingerprinting was first used in a police forensic test, in Leicestershire, England. And it would be several more years before CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, was introduced as a pilot project, and more than a decade before CODIS became operational.

In both cases, biological evidence had been obtained, but forensic scientists were unable to develop usable DNA profiles at the time. The cases eventually went cold but weren’t forgotten.

In 2020, Hudson detectives, buoyed by an arrest made in a decades-old cold case in neighboring Cuyahoga Falls, realized that advances in DNA technology might yield fresh insights into the Christensen homicide. So they turned to BCI’s newly formed Cold Case Unit for help.

Just months before the Hudson PD came knocking, Attorney General Yost had directed BCI to create a team dedicated full-time to re-examining cold cases involving homicide and/or sexual assault.

Previously, such cases were worked as time permitted, losing priority to new criminal cases.
Working with Hudson detectives, BCI’s Cold Case Unit reviewed similar sexual assaults and homicides throughout northeastern Ohio to determine whether Christensen’s killer was a repeat offender. That’s when they hit on the Cuyahoga Falls case of Michelle Puett-Howard.

The similarities between the Puett-Howard and Christensen cases were striking: Both victims were female, attacked on walking trails, bound by shoelaces and sexually assaulted. Also in both cases, a knife was used and the victim’s car keys were taken.

The evidence from the Puett-Howard case was resubmitted to BCI’s Richfield laboratory in 2022 and retested using the latest DNA technology. Thankfully, the evidence produced a full DNA profile, which was then entered into CODIS, yielding a match to the offender profile of Thomas Collier Jordan.

Jordan was born in Cleveland in 1926 and is believed to have arrived in Yuma around 2003. He died under hospice care in 2009 at age 83. Indigent, he was buried on the county’s dime in a barren, out-of-the-way patch of Yuma’s Pioneer Cemetery.

To confirm the DNA match, BCI agents traveled to Yuma in April 2024 to exhume his body and collect some of his remains for DNA testing. It matched DNA evidence recovered in both the Puett-Howard and Christensen cases.

In reviewing Jordan’s criminal history in Ohio, BCI agents learned that he was a career criminal. He was sentenced to prison in 1959 in Trumbull County for grand larceny; in 1961 in Cuyahoga County for burglary; in 1972 in Geauga County for malicious entry; and in 1976 in Geauga County for rape, stabbing and burglary — a conviction for which he remained in prison until 1985.

Two years later, he would attack both Puett-Howard and Christensen.

Authorities suspect that Jordan, given his criminal record, likely committed additional sexual assaults during his life. Besides Ohio and Arizona, he is known to have had ties to Nevada, California, Louisiana and Michigan. BCI has issued a bulletin to law enforcement nationwide in hopes that additional cases might be solved.

Special-Agent-In-Charge Roger Davis, who heads BCI’s Cold Case Unit, called the case “a perfect example of teamwork and dedication from investigators, analysts and scientists working together to find answers for Michelle and Janice and their family and friends.”

“This multidisciplinary approach brought together myriad perspectives, ideas, expertise and experience, all with the single focus of finding the person responsible for these heinous crimes.”

[vivazapata]

Not typically the kind of thing that intrigues me as far looking into but so insane that it was "solved" and so heart warming when I stumbled across it, it is easily one of my favorites...so very,very cool.


OAKLAND, Calif. -- Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing at an Oakland, California park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.

The Bay Area News Group reported Friday that Albino's niece in Oakland - with assistance from police, the FBI and the Justice Department - located her uncle living on the East Coast.

Albino, a father and grandfather, is a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, according to his niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin. She found Albino and reunited him with his California family in June.

On Feb. 21, 1951, a woman lured the 6-year-old Albino from the West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother and promised the Puerto Rico-born boy in Spanish that she would buy him candy.

Instead, the woman kidnapped the child, flying him to the East Coast where he ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son, the news group reported. Officials and family members didn't say where on the East Coast he lives.


For more than 70 years Albino remained missing, but he was always in the hearts of his family and his photo hung at relatives' houses, his niece said. His mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that her son was alive.

Oakland police acknowledged that Alequin's efforts "played an integral role in finding her uncle" and that "the outcome of this story is what we strive for."

In an interview with the news group, she said her uncle "hugged me and said, 'Thank you for finding me' and gave me a kiss on the cheek."

Oakland Tribune articles from the time reported police, soldiers from a local army base, the Coast Guard and other city employees joined a massive search for the missing boy. San Francisco Bay and other waterways were also searched, according to the articles. His brother, Roger Albino, was interrogated several times by investigators but stood by his story about a woman with a bandana around her head taking his brother.

The first notion that her uncle might be still alive came in 2020 when, "just for fun," Alequin said, she took an online DNA test. It showed a 22 percent match with a man who eventually turned out to be her uncle. A further search at the time yielded no answers or any response from him, she said.


In early 2024, she and her daughters began searching again. On a visit to the Oakland Public Library, she looked at microfilm of Tribune articles - including one that had a picture of Luis and Roger - which convinced her that she was on the right track. She went to the Oakland police the same day.

Investigators eventually agreed the new lead was substantial, and a new missing persons case was opened. Oakland police said last week that the missing persons case is closed, but they and the FBI consider the kidnapping a still-open investigation.

Luis was located on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Alequin's mom.

On June 20, investigators went to her mother's home, Alequin said, and told them both that her uncle had been found.

"We didn't start crying until after the investigators left," Alequin said. "I grabbed my mom's hands and said, 'We found him.' I was ecstatic."


On June 24, with the assistance of the FBI, Luis came to Oakland with members of his family and met with Alequin, her mother and other relatives. The next day Alequin drove her mother and her newfound uncle to Roger's home in Stanislaus County, California.

"They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked," she said, discussing the day of the kidnapping, their military service and more.

Luis returned to the East Coast but came back again in July for a three-week visit. It was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August.

Alequin said her uncle did not want to talk to the media.

"I was always determined to find him, and who knows, with my story out there, it could help other families going through the same thing," Alequin said. "I would say, don't give up."


abc7news.com/post/boy-abducted-oakland-california-1951-age-6-found-alive-east-coast-more-70-years-later/15340995/

[Jay7777]

A 19-year-old disappeared from her Illinois village in 1979. Almost half a century later, the cold case has been solved

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-19-year-old-disappeared-from-her-illinois-village-in-1979-almost-half-a-century-later-the-cold-case-has-been-solved/ar-AA1sNSTI?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=1b502710c4b74a4ea3935ab264f2019e&ei=19

Nearly 50 years after the cold case murder of a 19-year-old who went missing from her Illinois village, authorities have identified her killer through new DNA evidence.

In March of 1979, Kathy Halle disappeared while heading to pick up her sister from a nearby shopping center in North Aurora, according to local authorities.

Police initially investigated the case as a missing person, but three weeks later, Halle’s body was discovered in the Foxe River, Ryan Peat, a detective with the North Aurora Police Department, said during a news conference Wednesday.

After years of investigations, authorities determined there was not enough evidence to identify a suspect and the case went cold.

It was not until 2020 that authorities revisited the case after linking DNA from Bruce Lindhal, a suspected serial killer who killed himself in 1981, to the murder of another woman named Pamela Maurer, Peat said.

North Aurora authorities used new forensic technologies to connect DNA evidence found on Halle’s clothing to Lindhal’s DNA collected while solving Maurer’s case.

“Lindhal has been connected to several other cases in this area from that timeframe,” Peat said. “With this new evidence, along with the evidence from similar cases involving Lindhal, we are able to conclude Lindhal was responsible for death of Kathy Halle.”

Authorities now believe Lindhal, who would often go to the shopping center where Halle worked, abducted the victim from the parking lot of her apartment complex and drove her to the area where her body was later discovered.

“While revisiting this case has been incredibly difficult, we are deeply grateful to finally have closure after 45 long years,” a statement from Halle’s family read during the news conference said. “Thanks to advancements in DNA technologies and groundbreaking tools, we are hopeful that other families won’t have to endure the same pain and uncertainty that we faced for so many years.”