Cases Old and Cold

[RJs-Ex]

Links to info
Wikipedia: Disappearance of Asha Degree
Finding Asha Degree blog **
Archive of articles by the Shelby Star
Reddit thread (where I first learned of her)
** (regarding the Finding Asha blog) While Iquilla Degree (Asha's mother) characterized the blog as containing "half truths" and said she did not take it too seriously, she allowed that it might prove to be of assistance in ending the mystery of Asha's fate. Local law enforcement were more welcoming. "People wanting to help doesn't burden the case whatsoever," said county sheriff Alan Norman.

Asha Degree

[*]When the 5:00 nightly news hits the airways, two motorists call investigators and report seeing Asha in the wee hours of the morning walking alone in a near-freezing, raging rainstorm on dark, dark Hwy 18. One witness reports a 3:45 sighting and the other a 4:15 sighting.
[*]Asha is seen wearing only a white t-shirt, white jeans and white sneakers, carrying her bookbag
[*]She has no hat or coat and no flashlight. There are no highway lights in this rural community.
[*]One witness reported a ‘torrential downpour’ at the time of his seeing Asha. He turns around three times only to see Asha run into a patch of woods

Did either of these witnesses say why they didn't call 911 right then? Did either of them stop or try to talk to Asha, to ask if she was ok or needed help? Were these witnesses men? I can't imagine any woman NOT stopping for the girl at this time of the day.

[BigMark]

Is English not your first lanquage?

[Duchess]

Did either of these witnesses say why they didn't call 911 right then? Did either of them stop or try to talk to Asha, to ask if she was ok or needed help? Were these witnesses men? I can't imagine any woman NOT stopping for the girl at this time of the day.

Hey! Nice to see you! Don't be a stranger.

[HairOfTheDog]

UTAH -- 40 Year Old Murder Solved



On Dec. 5, 1977, 16-year-old ^ Sharon Schollmeyer was found dead in the bathtub in her apartment at 125 E. First Ave in Salt Lake City.

"She was in 6 inches of water, a gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes," the arrest warrant states. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be "strangulation and suffocation."

Schollmeyer was discovered by her mother Sally Kadleck, who went to the apartment to check on her daughter after she did not show up for work. Patrick McCabe was the apartment manager and he let the mother into the apartment, according to the affidavit.

In 2013, the halter top that was used as the gag in Schollmeyer's mouth was finally submitted for DNA testing. In 2016, that DNA was submitted to a national sex offender database. In December, the database came up with a match to Patrick McCabe, the landlord who'd casually opened the door for Sharon's mom and let her discover her teen daughter like that. Heartless asshole.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

^ McCabe's DNA was in the criminal sex offender database because he served time for a sexual assault committed in 1999.

When LE interviewed him after the DNA match to Sharon's halter top in December 2016, McCabe confessed to letting himself into Sharon apartment, raping and killing her.

McCabe is charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary.

Sharon's mother Sally is still alive and expressed relief that she won't have to live another day or go to the grave not knowing who or why. She still remembers McCabe's face as he let her into Sharon's apartment that day almost 40 years ago.

Refs:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dna-on-halte...7-killing/
http://fox13now.com/2017/03/05/suspect-a...s-in-utah/
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86567...s-ago.html

[koko]

Did either of these witnesses say why they didn't call 911 right then? Did either of them stop or try to talk to Asha, to ask if she was ok or needed help? Were these witnesses men? I can't imagine any woman NOT stopping for the girl at this time of the day.

(Asha Degree case)
- I believe they were both men. Could be wrong.
- As for not calling right away, it was early 2000, I don't know what it was like down in that area of NC at the time...but what I remember is that cell phones were way less common. So I assume either they didn't have one or possibly had one but couldn't get a signal.
- One of the drivers at least slowed their car down enough that she supposedly saw them and ran off into the woods/wooded area

[HairOfTheDog]

Break in case of Maryland Missing Sisters - 40 Years Later?



It was the start of Easter break from school and the 12-year-old and 10-year-old sisters, whose birthdays were only a day apart and were approaching, had walked to the pizza parlor to celebrate, as was common back in 1975.

The girls' brother, Jay Lyon, was 15 at the time and had seen them eating pizza at the shopping center before they were later spotted walking home by another witness. Jay Lyon became an LEO a few years later and fought to keep the investigation alive. The girls haven't been seen since that day nearly 40 years ago and no remains were ever found.

Today, LE is expected to hold a press conference identifying a possible sex-offender suspect and will ask the public for help in compiling information about him. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/11/justice/ma...?hpt=ju_c2

I love it when old cold cases are solved and loved ones finally get some answers.

In this case, the perpetrator is still alive and will have to pay for his terrible crimes - even better.



Lloyd Welch was set to stand trial this week. Instead, a guilty plea will be entered.


(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

Welch, now 60 ^, a former carnival worker, was charged two years ago in the 1975 killings. He was already in prison in Delaware, having pleaded guilty in 1998 to molesting a 10-year-old girl.

If convicted at trial in Bedford of two counts of first-degree felony murder during "the commission of abduction with the intent to defile," he faced the possibility of the death penalty. That will probably be taken off the table with a guilty plea, but he'll never walk free again.

Welch was prosecuted in Bedford because authorities believe he dumped the girls' bodies there, on a remote mountain where his family owned land. The mountain has been the subject of several searches. However since the bodies of the sisters were never recovered, prosecutors may have had a difficult time getting a jury conviction and thus more open to a plea deal.

The Post reported that the plea agreement also would resolve two unrelated sexual assault cases in Prince William County in northern Virginia. In 2016, Welch was indicted there in the rape of a 6-year-old girl in 1996. Earlier this year, he was indicted for allegedly sexually abusing another girl about the same time.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-susp...ad-guilty/

[BigMark]

Wood-chipper.

[Midwest Spy]

Wood-chipper.

I don't know if I like putting him into the wood chipper (alive, of course) or letting him be hunted by lions or tigers at a zoo exhibit (where folks would get to watch).

Unfortunately, though, he'll live out his days in complete comfort, with cable tv, friends and a gym.

He'll probably end up with a law degree and somehow get his guilty plea thrown out and be released to roam the streets again.

[HairOfTheDog]

I'll be shocked if Welch gets less than 35 to life in exchange for a guilty plea. He won't walk free again, in my opinion.

[HairOfTheDog]

Wood-chipper.

Could be. But police have reason to believe Welch took the little girls' bodies to a remote mountain and burned them. :(

He hasn't fessed up to the location of remains even though he entered a guilty plea because the plea was made under a “concert of action” legal theory. That means Welch took responsibility for his role in the crime but not for actually murdering the Lyon sisters.

Welch provided law enforcement with a “final proffer” of evidence in the case, but he did not divulge further details.

Unfortunately, though, he'll live out his days in complete comfort, with cable tv, friends and a gym.

He'll probably end up with a law degree and somehow get his guilty plea thrown out and be released to roam the streets again.

He got sentenced to 48 years. He'd be 108 years old at the end of his sentence and I don't think his sentence included the possibility of parole.

He'll die behind bars. Hopefully, at some point before he does, he'll divulge the location of the remains so the family and LE aren't left with that open question. But, I doubt he'll ever tell. A coward through and through.

[HairOfTheDog]

Fremont, California


Michelle Xavier, 18 (top right), and Jennifer Duey, 20 (bottom right), had attended a birthday party one night in 1986 and were last seen together later that evening at a convenience store.

The nude bodies of the two young women were later found stabbed and shot to death on road in Fremont, southeast of San Francisco. The case went unresolved for three decades.

Then, in 2016, the Fremont Police Department established a cold case unit. The detective focused on the unsolved double murder in hopes of bringing some closure to the women's families. The detective succeeded.

This week, Fremont Police announced that they arrested David Misch, 57 (left), on suspicion of two counts of murder.

Officials say investigators recently re-examined the files and used new DNA test results to identify Misch as the main suspect.

According to a statement released by the Fremont Police Department Monday, "Misch lived in the area at the time and was a known commercial burglar and drug user." Police do not believe he had any prior history or contact with the two women.

Misch was already serving 18 years to life for an unrelated homicide in 1989 when he was arrested for the 1986 double murder.

Refs:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/man-charged-in-...st-friends
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dna-leads-t...ung-women/

[SIXFOOTERsez]

WOW. I remember those murders, I lived in Freemont at that time.
Its not a big place, wasn't then at least so it was a pretty big deal

[HairOfTheDog]

WOW. I remember those murders, I lived in Freemont at that time.
Its not a big place, wasn't then at least so it was a pretty big deal

Big WOW for me too Six. I freakin' love DNA testing and advancements.

I was in So Cal at the time and remember coverage of these sad murders when I was just entering junior college. The coverage was even more extensive, of course, here in Nor Cal where the crime went down.

The family is reportedly so grateful to the new cold case unit. I can imagine how good it must feel to have some answers and some justice 32 years later.

[HairOfTheDog]

'Buckskin Girl' Identified 37 Years After Murder



DNA and other forensic science advancement over the last few decades were used to identify the body of Marcia King, who was 21-years-old when her body was found on an Ohio roadside back in 1981. Rest in Peace.

The body was fully clothed and the unidentified young woman was wearing a distinct fringed buckskin jacket.

She was a Jane Doe up until now. Her family had never reported her missing and I haven't seen any indication that LE has a suspect.

However, knowing her identity and being able to do a victim profile makes identifying suspects more likely, I imagine.

Marcia King was from Arkansas. LE reportedly doesn't know why she was in Ohio. She was strangled to death, suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had lacerations on her liver. She had only been dead a few hours when her body was discovered.

Her mother has asked for privacy, but did confirm that she plans to update the Jane Doe headstone with her daughter's name.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

This is a timeline of how scientific development and forensic individuals and organizations were able to solve the mystery of Buckskin Girl's identity.

April 24, 1981: The fully-clothed body of an unnamed female homicide victim is discovered in a ditch alongside Greenlee Road in Troy, Ohio.

2001: The Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab generates the victim’s nuclear DNA profile.

2008: The profile of ‘Buckskin Girl’ is entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

2009: Victim’s mitochondrial DNA profile is developed at the NamUs DNA lab at the University of North Texas. Both the nuclear and mitochondrial genetic profiles are then entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.

2010: NamUs case management is assigned to Dr. Elizabeth Murray, a forensic anthropologist and Professor of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati.

February 2016: A new facial image is generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

April 2016: Pollen studies are conducted on the victim’s clothing by the US Customs and Border Protection Agency.

June 2016: Stable isotope studies are conducted on victim’s hair in an effort to trace the victim’s location and geographic movements in the last year of life.

April 9, 2018: The Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab makes DNA confirmation and positively identifies victim as Marcia King, 21, from Arkansas.

Full story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z5CUS6vOY1

[Duchess]

That's pretty awesome & interesting. I wonder why her family didn't report her missing. That's curious to me.

[HairOfTheDog]

That's pretty awesome & interesting. I wonder why her family didn't report her missing. That's curious to me.

It's curious to me too.

I wonder if Marcia had a history of running away, or hitchhiking across country, or drug abuse...?

Maybe the family tried to track her down without getting the police involved or figured she was a free-spirited adult who didn't want to stay in contact.

Still..........after all those years, you'd think someone in the family would reach out to LE. It is weird that they reportedly never did.

Crossing my fingers LE will be able to figure out who killed her so brutally all those years ago.

[HairOfTheDog]

California Serial Killer Suspect Arrested after 40 Years

This is really exciting news.



-- The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department arrested Joseph James DeAngelo Jr, 72, late Tuesday night. He is the suspected Golden State Killer, East Area Rapist, and Original Night Stalker.

--The serial rapist and murderer is suspected of 12 homicides, nearly 50 rapes, and dozens of home burglaries in Sacramento County from 1976 to 1986. It's one of the most prolific unsolved crime sprees in the country.

--The arrest comes nearly two months after the release of journalist and author Michelle McNamara's posthumous crime novel about the Golden State Killer titled I'll Be Gone In The Dark.

The book, released in March, was co-authored by McNamara's husband, actor Patton Oswalt, and fellow journalist Billy Jensen after McNamara's death in 2016 and was #1 on the NYT Best Selller list. I don't know if the book had anything to do with the arrest though.

--DeAngelo is believed to have been fired from the Auburn Police Department for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent.

--Surviving victims have said they're relieved and waiting anxiously for today's LE press conference; me too. I'm interested to know how LE finally traced the crimes back to DeAngelo. I did not believe this mystery would ever be solved.

https://heavy.com/news/2018/04/joseph-james-deangelo/