11 Coldest Cases Solved

The List family lived the American dream in the 1960s. They owned an ornate Victorian mansion in Westfield, New Jersey, which included a ballroom. The family were devout Lutherans; they attended church every Sunday. John List, a 46-year-old accountant at the bank, also taught Sunday school.

In 1971, List lost his job. He did not tell his wife, Helen, he was going to work each day. List quickly spent most of the family's savings to maintain appearances. Later that year, List killed his wife, his elderly mother, and his three teenage children at the family's mansion.

List refused to admit his situation or ask for help.List carefully planned the murders.He left the bodies of his wife and children laid out in the home's ballroom. Before leaving, he cleaned the crime scene, cut his face out of all the family photos, and blasted church hymnals over the home intercom. He also left a long letter to his pastor detailing his actions. List had a month-long head start before the killings were found. At that time, the police had little doubt about who the killer was, but they could not find him for 18 years.

Police finally found a lead in 1989. They had a forensic artist create an age-progressed bust of what List looked like and put the sculpture onAmerica's Most Wanted.Tips flooded in. One came from a woman in Virginia who thought the bust looked like her neighbor, Robert Clark. The married, church-going accountant Clark was actually List.

List later explained he killed his family because he feared they would lose their religious faith if they lived in poverty. As it turned out later,the Tiffany skylight.The Tiffany skylight in the ballroom cost an estimated $100,000. This money could have covered much of his debt. List died in prison in 2008.

On April 24, 2018, police arrested 72-year-old former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. on eight counts of first-degree murder using DNA evidence. He is now known as theGolden State Killer.Golden State Killer, a name writer Michelle McNamara coined, DeAngelo is said to be responsible for crimes from 1974 to 1986. These crimes were initially blamed on three different unknown offenders: the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, and the Original Night Stalker. During that time, DeAngelo allegedly committed at least 120 burglaries, 50 sexual assaults, and 13 murders.

The crimes were separate before, as they occurred in different areas. Different police departments had difficulty sharing case information. ItThis happened in 2001.that a DNA match identified the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker as the same person, leading to the name EARONS.

Forensic genealogy provided the DNA match to DeAngelo. Police matched EARONS DNA to DeAngelo's relative who used a genealogy website, narrowing the suspect pool. Substantial evidence led DeAngelo to plead guilty before trial and now serves 26 life sentences.

Summer 1981: Police found Nova Welsh's body in a Birmingham, UK, cupboard. Welsh died three weeks prior. Doctors found neck pressure caused the death. Police questioned ex-boyfriend Osmond Bell, but filed no charges. Welsh left two children under six.

Late 2016 finally brought attention to the case.A piece of chewing gum was used to secure the cupboard latch.Forensic testing on the gum latch finally yielded results. The DNA matched Osmond's, leading to his arrest. After jury deliberation, Osmond received a manslaughter conviction and a 12-year sentence—nearly 36 years after the crime.

On February 24, 1986, John Ruetten returned home to find his wife, Sherri Rasmussen, shot three times, beaten on the face, and bitten on an arm. The home's ransacked state and recent local robberies made the Los Angeles Police Department quickly decide Rasmussen's murder was a botched burglary.The case went unsolved for more than twenty years.The case remained unsolved for over two decades.

In 2009, two detectives in a cold case unit re-examined the case and found evidence of a burglary that did not add up.The evidence did not add up.Many valuables remained in the home, yet the couple's marriage certificate was missing. Two shots hit Rasmussen at point-blank range, suggesting someone aimed to ensure her death. Bite marks usually come from women, unlike burglars who are typically men. DNA from the bite mark was later recovered, proving a female inflicted it.

Cold case detectives linked the case to Stephanie Lazarus, a fellow LAPD detective who appeared briefly in the original case notes. Lazarus dated Ruetten before his marriage to Rasmussen and repeatedly harassed her, trying to separate the couple.

Detectives arrested Lazarus after interviewing her under the guise of case assistance. Her DNA matched. Lazarus was convicted in 2012 and received a 27-year prison sentence.

Ronnie Hendrick called 911 on January 6, 2001, reporting his girlfriend, Pamela Shelley, shot herself in the head. An autopsy showed the medical examiner ruled the 32-year-old mother of two's death a suicide. The suicide ruling upset Shelley's family because she was packing her car to move back to Arkansas.Pamela Shelley was packing her car to move back to Arkansas.Shelley moved back to Arkansas. Her daughter Kayla told authorities Hendrick physically and verbally abused Shelley.

In 2012, new evidence showed Shelley secretly talked to her ex-husband in Arkansas. Hendrick told Shelley's ex that she would only return in a pine box. No DNA was on the gun, meaning someone wiped it. A grand jury then met. Hendrick pleaded guilty to Shelley's murder and received a 22-year prison sentence.

In 1974, Liz Carmichael appeared to sell the hottest new car. An OPEC embargo made customers want Carmichael's fuel-efficient Dale. No Dale prototype ever worked, and it never shipped. Customers and investors lost $1-3 million. Police found Carmichael was a transgender woman; her birth name was Jerry Dean Michael. Under that name, Carmichael faced counterfeit charges.

Carmichael escaped from Miami in 1975 while trying to leave a window. She went to trial and represented herself, claiming the Dale would work eventually. An auto engineer for the prosecution disagreed, stating, "It was literally held together with baling wire and coat hangers." The court found Carmichael guilty in 1977, butShe escaped while on bail.Carmichael remained unseen for nine years in 1980.

Police caught Carmichael in 1989 after she appeared on an episode ofUnsolved Mysteries.Carmichael lived in Texas as Katherine Elizabeth Johnson. Despite being transgender, Carmichael went to a men's prison and was paroled in 1993. She died in 2004.

In 1957, two young officers were shot in El Segundo, CA. The killer escaped and remained unfound. Authorities reopened the case in 2002 after a false lead pushed them.

Running fingerprints after 46 years led to an arrest in the murder of two cops.Running fingerprints., police traced the murder to Gerald Mason, 24 at the time. Mason shot both cops after running a red light. About 90 minutes before the murder, Mason robbed four teens and attacked one.

Mason reportedly lived a quiet life with his wife in South Carolina for 40 years after the crime. Mason apologized to the officers' families, saying his 1957 actions felt like a dream. He died in prison in 2017.

Irene Garza, a 25-year-old devout Catholic teacher, lived in McAllen, TX. The day before Easter in 1960, the former beauty queen went to confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The next week, her body surfaced in an irrigation canal.

A priest at the church, Rev. John Feit,admitted to taking Garza's confession., making him the last person to see her alive. Police had reason to suspect Feit (he had recently been accused of attacking another woman in a church, and his photo slide viewer was found near Garza's body). However, it took 56 years to bring him to justice.

In 2002, a former priest in Oklahoma City called the San Antonio Police Department. He reported hearing a confession from a Texas priest, later named Feit, who confessed to killing a young woman from his own parish decades earlier. An assistant pastor from Feit's church...He also reported this.Feit confessed to him shortly after the murder.

In 2016, Feit, who had left the priesthood, finally faced trial. Prosecutors claimed the case stalled because a deal between the district attorney and church leaders stopped the investigation to protect the church's image.

Feit was found guilty of Garza's murder and received a life sentence in 2016. He died in prison in 2020 at age 86.

Bonnie Haim vanished around 1993. Authorities reported her missing after her purse appeared in a garbage can outside an airport hotel. Then, Bonnie's 3-year-old son, Aaron Fraser, told police that Michael Haim hurt his mother.

Police could not prove Michael's guilt until 2014. Fraser found Bonnie's remains while removing a pool from his childhood home's backyard.Fraser found Bonnie's remains while removing a pool.Fraser won the home in a wrongful death settlement against his father. Adoptive parents raised Fraser after his mother disappeared.

Michael was found guilty of Bonnie's murder in 2019. The court sentenced him to life in prison.

In November 1985, investigators found the bodies of a young woman and a child in a 55-gallon metal drum at New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park. Investigators could not identify the remains.A tombstone was placed for the bodies.Reading:

Here lie the mortal remains known only to God of a woman aged 23-33 and a girl aged 8-10. The slain bodies were found on November 10th, 1985, in Bear Brook State Park. May their souls find peace in God’s loving care.

Fifteen years later, a second barrel at Bear Brook held the remains of two young children. Investigators concluded they died and were left in the drums with the first victims. A 1985 search missed the second drum.

Forensic imaging recreated the four Bear Brook victims, but no one identified the woman or the three girls. DNA testing later showed the woman was the biological mother of the oldest and youngest child, but not the middle child.

Investigators found a suspect for the murders over 30 years after the first drum was found. The Bear Brook case linked to Denise Beaudin, who disappeared in 1981 from New Hampshire with her boyfriend Bob Evans. Beaudin was not the woman found at Bear Brook; Evans' DNA proved he was the father of the middle child.

Beaudin remains missing. Evans reappeared. Investigators convicted him in 2004 for killing his wife, Eunsoon Jun. Jun was later found buried in cat litter in their basement after going missing soon after marrying Evans. Evans died in prison in 2010; investigators could not question him, but they suspected "Bob Evans" was an alias. DNA testing on one of his sons revealed his real name is Terry Rasmussen.

Rasmussen used many names over the years, eventually earning the nickname "The Chameleon Killer" Due to a DNA link with one of the Bear Brook children and past crimes, Rasmussen is believed to be responsible for the Bear Brook slayings. Researcher and librarian Rebekah Heath built a timeline of Rasmussen's movements, cross-referencing it with missing women and children. This process named the adult woman found at Bear Brook: Marlyse Honeychurch.

Honeychurch dated Rasmussen (AKA Evans), andher family last saw her.She left with Rasmussen and their two children at Thanksgiving in 1978. Mary Vaughn and Sarah McWaters were identified as the oldest and youngest girls at Bear Brook. Three of the four victims, plus their presumed killer, have been named; the middle child (Rasmussen's biological daughter) stays unidentified.

Sixteen-year-old Joyce McLain last jogged near her central Maine high school on August 8, 1980, around 8 p.m.Two days laterOn August 10, her body surfaced near the high school. Her hands were tied behind her back, and no DNA evidence existed at the scene.

In theearly morning hoursOn August 9, 1980, 19-year-old Philip Scott Fournier stole a fuel truck from a local garage and crashed it into another vehicle, sustaining a head injury. Fournier faced multiple questions about McLain's case over the years. Fournier had three burglary convictions from 1979 to 1984, and a later child pornography conviction made him a person of interest.

After more interviews, forensics, and re-examining the case, police arrested Fournier in 2016. During his trial, Fournier admitted to McLain's murder multiple times—to his parents and pastor in 1981, and to a coworker in 1989. Fournier's defense claimed his memory failed because the truck crash injured his brain, causing him to make false confessions.

In 2018, Fournier was found guilty andsentenced to 45 years