31 Cold Cases That Have Been Solved In 2023
By MIKE FLOORWALKER
History - Science
Debbie Lynn Randall
Nine-year-old Debbie Lynn Randall vanished without a trace in January 1972. Her body was discovered two weeks later, dumped far from home.
The police had few leads, but they preserved the evidence collected. Over 50 years later, police used the evidence and advanced technology to identify the killer as William Rose.
Laura Kempton
Laura Kempton, a 23-year-old hairdressing student, was found murdered in her apartment in 1981. DNA evidence only revealed that her murderer was a man.
However, thanks to the continued efforts of law enforcement and the use of modern genetic genealogy technology, her killer was identified as Army veteran Ronney James Lee.
Sharron Prior
The 1975 murder of 16-year-old Quebec resident Sharron Prior was a complex case to crack. In 2022, investigators uncovered a DNA link to a West Virginian family.
Investigators were able to confirm with certainty the perpetrator was Franklin Romine, an ex-convict who had died in 1982, finally giving the victim’s family closure.
Rita Curran
Rita Curran, 24 years old, was sexually assaulted and strangled in her home in Burlington, Vermont, by an unknown assailant in 1971. The killer left behind a cigarette.
Police didn’t find a DNA match from the evidence until they examined it with modern technology in 2022. They then identified the perpetrator as William DeRoos, a neighbor.
Carol Sue Klaber
It took multiple generations of Boone County, Kentucky, investigators to finally close the case on the sexual assault and murder of Carol Sue Klaber in 1976.
After securing a match with familial DNA, investigators were able to identify her killer as Thomas Dunaway, a then-19-year-old who had died in 1990.