Defrosting Cold Cases

More details have appeared in the Hartford Courant about Elizabeth Heath‘s violent death. Dr. H. Wayne Carver, the chief state medical examiner, was in charge of Elizabeth’s autopsy. It was not easy for him. Elizabeth’s remains covered 188 separate envelopes. “Gough Heath’s maxilla — the upper jaw — had been traumatically amputated from the skull, the [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Connecticut, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Elizabeth Heath, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Prisons, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Police have arrested John Heath for murder in connection with the killing of his wife, Elizabeth Gough Heath, 28 years ago. Elizabeth was reported missing in 1984. Her skeletal remains were found beneath the subflooring in a barn in April 2010. Heath, 68, of Bridgewater was arrested by warrant last Monday. He was charged with murder and [...]

Tags: Autopsy, Connecticut, Crime Scene, Cruelty, Dental Records, Elizabeth Heath, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses

Missing 411, a message from David Paulides from the CanAm Missing Project: “Several years ago I received information that people were missing from a national park. The informant stated that the staff was giving the disappearances little public exposure and almost no follow-up. This tip led down a path of 3+ years and 7000 hours of research into missing [...]

Tags: Canada, CanAm Missing Project, David Paulides, Evidence, Forensics, Missing Person, USA, Victim

So good to be back! Again, the hour moved fast and our friends on their mobiles had quite a struggle to keep up. But that does not matter. I am very glad they were all there. We discussed some DCC news and the “no progress” in the Zeigler case to move over to so many [...]

Tags: Alice Hawkes, Autopsy, Crime Scene, Finger Printing, Forensics, Identification, Missing Person, Nancy Grunwaldt, Police, Unsolved Homicide, William Thomas Zeigler

JOSEPH HALPERN DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR, Part 3 © by Silvia Pettem 2012 Joseph’s nephew had started his search for his uncle, Joseph Halpern, missing since 1933, by contacting the sheriffs’ offices in the four Colorado counties that border Rocky Mountain National Park. The nephew asked about unidentified remains that might be identifiable with DNA [...]

Tags: Illinois, Joseph Halpern, Missing Person, Silvia Pettem

JOSEPH HALPERN DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR, Part 2 © by Silvia Pettem 2012 For six days in August 1933, park authorities searched drainages and followed all possible trails for the missing 22-year-old hiker, Joseph Halpern. Authorities also checked the registers on Taylor and nearby peaks, but none showed Joseph’s signature––a customary procedure for climbers, once [...]

Tags: Illinois, Joseph Halpern, Missing Person, Silvia Pettem

JOSEPH HALPERN DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR, Part 1 © by Silvia Pettem 2012 In the summer of 1933, twenty-two-year-old Cook County, Illinois, resident Joseph Halpern was vacationing in Rocky Mountain National Park with his parents and Samuel Garrick, a college friend. The motorists had driven Joseph’s Ford sedan and had stopped in the Black Hills [...]

Tags: Illinois, Joseph Halpern, Missing Person, Silvia Pettem

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Candace J. Beason scheduled an April 3, 2012, pre-trial hearing in the case of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller a.k.a. Christopher Chichester a.k.a. Christopher Crowe. Gerhartsreiter is acccused with the murder of John Sohus, his then-landlady’s son. John and his wife Linda disappeared in the mid-1980s. John’s skull and remaining skeleton were found [...]

Tags: Autopsy, California, Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, John and Linda Sohus, Missing Person, Victim

Forty-six years ago, Jim and Nancy Beaumont were confronted with a nightmare that has been ongoing ever since. Their beloved children, all three of their children, vanished without a trace. It broke their hearts, their hopes, and their marriage. Over the years, South Adelaide Police did investigate more leads. They checked into child serial rapist [...]

Tags: Austria, Beaumont Children, DNA, DNA Database, Evidence, Forensics, Identification, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, South Adelaide, Victim, Witnesses

  Rockford Police (IL) are going to set up a cold case website next year! “Over the years in Rockford, hundreds of murder cases have gone unsolved and many leads have now gone cold. The Rockford Police are in the process of setting up a new website they hope will help them close the book [...]

Tags: Crime Scene, DNA, Evidence, Forensics, Illinois, Investigations Division, Missing Person, Police, Rockford, Unidentified, Unsolved Homicide, Victim, Witnesses