Crime Immemorial

In the late spring of 1970, in Norman, Oklahoma, a double homicide with decidedly Zodiac-like characteristics would take place on a remote lover’s lane. It was the evening of Saturday, May 9th, 1970, and twenty-one-year-old David Sloan had taken his nineteen-year-old girlfriend Sheryl Lynn Benham to a party at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house … More Sheryl Lynn Benham & David Sloan: The Ten Mile Flat Murder

Only weeks before Christmas of 1984, a young schoolgirl would be waylaid on the way home from a holiday party in England, and her murder would remain unsolved nearly four decades later. Fourteen-year-old Lisa Hession had been attending a small celebration with friends, as well as her sixteen-year-old boyfriend Craig Newell, in the town of … More Lisa Hession

A few days before Christmas of 1970, an Iowa woman would turn up dead in circumstances that involved a nasty divorce and an illicit affair. Thirty-seven-year-old Mary Bernice Lange worked as a clerk at the Burlington Municipal Court and was also the mother to three children aged eleven, fourteen, and eighteen. In 1970, Mary and … More Mary Bernice Lange

Only a couple of days after Christmas of 1966, two boys enjoying their school holidays were happily scrounging through some abandoned buildings on Spa Lane in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. In a derelict warehouse that had once been part of the Scarsdale Brewery, the boys suddenly came upon an appalling sight: the mostly-nude body of a … More Mavis Hudson

In the winter of 1995, a little girl in Ohio would vanish while walking to school. She would not be found until two months into the following year. Thirteen-year-old Barbara Barnes was a quiet, conscientious child who volunteered at the Salvation Army and was a favorite of her teachers at Harding Middle School in Steubenville, … More Barbara Barnes

Fifty-eight-year-old Alma Preinkert had been the Registrar at the University of Maryland campus in Washington DC since the mid-1930s, and was much loved by the student body, who referred to her affectionately as “Miss Preink.” It was Saturday, February 27th, 1954, and Alma and her sister Margaret had been out at a friend’s house playing … More Alma Preinkert

It was a midsummer evening in June of 1956, and forty-nine-year-old Louise Welk was relaxing with a beer in her Rice Lake, Wisconsin apartment. Shortly after pouring herself a glass, she heard a knock at her front door. Apparently with no hesitation, Louise went to answer it. As soon as she swung the door open, … More Louise Welk

It was the early summer of 1970. Harvey and Jeanette Crewe lived on a modest farm in Pukekawa, a town about forty miles south of Auckland, New Zealand. Harvey, who was twenty-eight, and Jeannette, who was thirty, had an eighteen-month-old daughter named Rochelle. The previous few months had apparently been difficult for the Crewes, as … More Harvey & Jeannette Crewe

On July 9th, 1970, in Lansing, Michigan, sixteen-year-old Laurie Murninghan was working her part-time job at Gallaghers Gift and Antiques Shop when an armed assailant stormed through the front door demanding money. The robber first grabbed at store owner Mrs. Gallagher, hitting her in the head with his pistol. The impact caused the firearm to … More Laurie Murninghan

In the early fall of 1988, in the Midwestern United States, a little girl would vanish in the middle of the night from her own bedroom, and her own parents would later be suspected in her murder. Seven-year-old Jaclyn Dowaliby lived in Midlothian, Illinois with her family. She had gone to bed as usual at … More Jaclyn Dowaliby