5 Cold Cases SOLVED In 2020: True Crime & Solved Mysteries Documentary

a common statement among the loved ones of the victims of crimes that become cold cases is that they thought the cases would never be solved but in recent years it appears that this is less and less the fate for many of these cases where the trail of information had long run cold because new advances are capable of digging up clues which had evaded detection and leading investigators right to the truth even in cases that go back multiple decades what is up ewoo crew over the past few years more cold cases than ever are finally being solved bringing relief and closure to the bereaved families today we are going to talk about five amazing solved cold cases in 2020 christine jessop one of canada's most notorious and troubling cold cases was finally solved in 2020 the case of christine jessop rocked the country as a whole leaving many parents disturbed and terrified after the nine-year-old's fate became public knowledge today however the infamous case has a conclusion but it is one that leaves many feeling that true justice will never be served on october 3rd 1984 christine jessup was kidnapped from her home in queensville near the greater toronto area christine's mother and older brother kenny left christine at home on her own when they traveled to visit her father bob where he was in custody at a detention center as christine was only nine her mother had deemed that she was too young to see her father behind bars and to be exposed to the other inmates of the detention center but later that day they returned home to find that christine was missing when she couldn't be found her mother called the police saying that her daughter had been taken once the police were notified about the abduction searches were organized and much of the community rallied together to find the little girl sadly no trace of her could be found for months but still her family didn't give up hope unfortunately in this case there would be no happy ending her body was discovered on new year's eve three months after she disappeared 31 miles from her home she had been assaulted and stabbed at first there were no leads in finding christine's killer yet it was less than a year after christine's death that the police had an enormous break in the case in april 1985 they arrested and charged gee paul morin with her murder morin was her next-door neighbor and had become a suspect during the investigation because of his close proximity though the public was initially relieved to have someone they regarded as a horrific killer behind bars morin's trial did not go as expected first there was a mistrial which then resulted in an appeal that spanned over multiple years it wasn't until 1992 a full seven years after his initial conviction that morin was charged with first-degree murder he was sentenced to a life term in prison but the saga of christine's death did not end there and though no one knew it at the time the frustrations of the case were only just beginning after morin spent 18 months in prison evidence from christine's body was examined and it was shockingly determined that morin couldn't have been her killer he was officially proven to be innocent and released from prison after the wrongful conviction following mourin's release an inquiry began to understand how an innocent man had been convicted of a crime he didn't commit the inquiry showed that the police had mismanaged the case in their eagerness to find and arrest a culprit for the crime that had garnered the attention of the entire nation resulting in morin being awarded 1.25 million dollars for his wrongful conviction the inquiry also led to many alterations in how the police in canada operated during murder investigations after morin was cleared of the crime a task force was assigned to the case which interviewed over 300 men each time collecting and comparing dna against a siemens sample found in christine's underwear though the task force initially appeared promising the case soon went completely cold police ran out of suspects and the task force was disbanded in 1998. christine's family wasn't sure if they would ever receive any more leads and maybe never learned the identity of her killer however in october 2020 it was a genetic genealogy website that finally brought a suspect's name to light police sent the degraded residue of the semen stains they found to the american lab author incorporated to verify the dna and create a full profile of their suspect the lab then uploaded the results to ged match and family tree dna where they established a family tree as well as compared to the dna against a sample taken from the center for forensic science after six months of research they finally had a match and a name for a suspect 36 years after christine had died calvin hoover has since been named as the main suspect interestingly during the initial investigations hoover was never even considered to be a possible suspect both of christine's parents were understandably relieved to finally receive this update and said that they had worried they wouldn't live to see the day their daughter's killer was caught hoover had been 28 at the time of christine's death and christine's brother kenny revealed that hoover's wife at the time heather had worked with their father bob and that she was a friend of their mothers during the period before christine's death kenny also said that hoover had been considered a friend of their family and even visited their home even more shocking kenny recalled that hoover had been present at the many searches for christine over the first few months when she vanished and that he had even attended her funeral and come to their house for the wake after morin the man who had been wrongfully accused of the crime said that he had been notified of the development in the case by police who came to his house he revealed i can say that i'm happy that there's closure for the jessop's peace of mind it's something i was always expecting morin's family has been speaking out about the relief to see him fully exonerated by science though he had been completely cleared the shadow of suspicion had still followed him for decades until now that the real killer has been named though there was finally a break in one of the most notorious canadian cold cases few people are celebrating hoover died by in 2015. if he had been alive when the

investigation broke he would have been arrested and questioned but as he is deceased the investigation is meeting many roadblocks for now hoover is being referred to as the main suspect and the presumed killer as he cannot be formally charged posthumously though the public has condemned hoover as christine's killer the police investigation is still underway and they are attempting to build a timeline of hoover's whereabouts in accordance with christine's death there are many questions that are still left unanswered though the case is finally closer to being concluded detective steve smith from the homicide cold case unit has said that the investigation has actually really kicked into full steam now police are now looking into the details of hoover's life over these past three decades and specifically trying to find any other possible victims as they are not ruling out the chance that he could have been involved in other crimes the investigation has also revealed that they have been flooded with tips hoover's own family his ex-wife heather and their sons have been cooperating as best they can with the police though they themselves were shocked and devastated with the news they have provided help with everything the police have asked of them bob jessop christine's father spoke out recently and said that he doesn't really remember hoover or how he was involved in their lives saying it seems to me that he must have had some reason for it i can't figure it out what would it have been i really don't know the conclusion of this case may bring some closure to christine's family as they now know the name of her killer but they may never receive some of the answers they desperately want nor see justice fully served in the sense of hoover having to acknowledge his crimes and face the consequences carla jan walker one of texas's oldest cold cases was solved in 2020 for 46 years the shocking death of carla jan walker was left unsolved february 16 1974 was a day of celebration and joy that took a shocking and tragic turn seventeen-year-old carla walker a popular cheerleader was getting ready for the valentine's day dance at her high school in fort worth texas described by many to be an outgoing spitfire her family was excited to see her off with her date her boyfriend rodney rodney mccoy was a year older than carla and as he was the football team's quarterback the two of them made the perfect high school couple they apparently had a great time at the school dance where they met up with friends though the dance was supervised the couple reportedly managed to sneak a few sips from a flask and each smoked what was reported to be a small amount of pot though they were having fun the couple left the dance early to get food with their friends at a local eatery carla and rodney eventually left their friends in search of some alone time and went to the well-known hangout for local teens a bowling alley however instead of going inside the two decided to sit in the back of their vehicle in the mostly empty parking lot as teens do they were talking and laughing in the back seat before the couple started kissing because of the angle at which carla was sitting her back was up against the car door and because they were both in the back seat occupied with each other they didn't notice as a stranger approached the vehicle people rarely lock their doors while they're inside the vehicle and rodney was no different so when the stranger pulled at the door behind carla it opened easily and she tumbled outside onto the ground rodney tried to grab carla from where she had fallen but the stranger pulled out a gun and pointed it at rodney threatening to kill him carla reportedly screamed i'll go with you just don't shoot him rodney heard the gun fire and he panicked thinking he was being shot but then the stranger pointed the gun into his face and pulled the trigger again but this time nothing happened rodney realized the gun wasn't loaded but before he had time to think further he was struck in the head repeatedly which knocked him unconscious when he woke up he was still in his vehicle with a bleeding gash on his head but carla was missing the last thing that rodney remembered was that carla had shouted to him go get my dad covered in blood rodney raced to carla's house and told her parents what happened horrified the walkers called the police and carla's shocked father went back to the bowling alley police met him there and they found a magazine for a 22-caliber ruger pistol the search for carla walker was enormous including police and volunteers who went by foot horseback and helicopter to try to find any sign of her rodney had given the police an incredibly clear description of the stranger he said the man was caucasian and slender clean-cut with short wavy hair and had been wearing a shiny green sleeveless vest and a white cowboy hat rodney was also sure that he had heard the man speak with a texas accent at first rodney himself had become a suspect but more because the police had no other leads carla's body was found after three days of searching in a ditch near lake benbrook through her autopsy it appeared that she had died 24 to 36 hours after she was taken and that she had been held captive for that period during which she was tortured and assaulted it was also revealed that she had been injected with morphine her death was believed to be caused by strangulation as soon as she was found the police were flooded with tips and suggested suspects by the general public in fact the police recorded about 200 calls containing possible information it seemed like the case would be easily solved as there were several viable suspects one suspect who caught the police's attention was glenn samuel mccurley who lived less than a mile from the bowling alley was off work from his truck driving job and didn't have anyone to vouch for his alibi because his wife was away the night carla was taken mccurley had become a person of interest when he bought bullets for a gun matching the magazine found in the parking lot where carla was abducted when police asked to see his gun he said that it had been stolen around the time that carla was taken and that he never reported it because he had a criminal record from a previous car theft though mccurley was clearly suspicious the police had no conclusive evidence to link him to the crime and so they had to release him the police followed up on other suspects and some people even came forward to confess they were involved but each person was ultimately eliminated for years police revisited carla's case and frequently they had leads but none resulted in finding her killer however the investigators were sure they would one day ultimately solve carla's murder as they had collected dna evidence from carla's body and her clothing the only problem was the technology to accurately sequence the dna samples didn't exist in the 1970s it wasn't until 2019 decades after carla's horrific murder that her case received a renewed interest when a letter related to her death was discovered and shared to social media with more recent awareness on her case the dna found on carla's bra was sent to author incorporated using the most cutting-edge technology that hadn't previously been available othram created a full dna profile of a suspect the profile was compared in codis combined dna index system which failed to find any results but when added to ged match the dna sequence came up with a narrowed search to three brothers with the last name mccurley on july 7th 2020 investigators took the bin from outside of 77 year old glenn samuel mccurley's house as he had been the police's primary suspect they were quick to narrow down his name from his brothers who appeared in the dna match items from his bin were examined and his dna was collected on september 4th 2020 it was determined that mccurley's dna matched the dna on carla's bra a few days later the police approached mccurley where they spoke to him and his wife he told them the exact same story that he had recited years prior that he hadn't killed anyone and that he never knew carla walker mccurley even provided a dna sample and consented to having it analyzed these swabs of mccurley's dna once again matched the sample found on carla and he was finally arrested mccurley is charged with capital murder and is being held on a one hundred thousand dollar bail while he awaits trial the details of mccurley's life over the past four decades are still being examined jim walker carla's brother spoke at a news conference announcing the development in the case saying finally after 46 years five months and three days we have a name a face and are working toward a complete resolution though jim says they are praying for mccurley's family he wants to see full justice served in his sister's death however carla's case took a dramatic turn when mccurley spoke from prison no longer denying having anything to do with carla's death mccurley is now claiming that he saved her in an interview mccurley explained that he had been heavily drinking the night he randomly came across carla and her boyfriend in the parking lot of the bowling alley mccurley alleged quote he was hitting on her and i was drinking beer in the parking lot and i saw him he was screaming and i went over there and opened the door and knocked him off of her he then went on to claim that he pulled carla to his car where they talked until she calmed down and she had apparently thanked him for getting her boyfriend off of her mccurley then described she just gave me a hug i gave her a kiss i mistook her for something else i didn't mean to do it he refused to explain anything more about carla's murder but many people are looking at his statement with skepticism more details are expected to be revealed when a trial date is finally set for 2021. fawn cox occasionally when a murder is solved it brings both a resolution as well as a reckoning sometimes the long-awaited answers end up being something you never expected this was the case for the family of fawn cox on july 26 1989 16 sixteen-year-old fon cox came home late after finishing work at worlds of fun in kansas city she normally worked until 11 pm and so it was not unusual for her family to not hear from her as she often went directly to bed when she had to work the next day fawn was known to be a normal teenager one who went to church and stayed out of any trouble the next morning fawn's little sister felisa heard fawn's alarm going off within her room but she wasn't getting up or turning it off felisa went in to rouse her sister and shake her awake but instead she found her dead felisa remembered that she had been gone for a while by the time she had discovered her her mother beverly also came into the room sure that fawn simply had to still be sleeping during the night someone had entered fawn's room through the window she was assaulted and then strangled and left in her bedroom for her family to find her family noted that they hadn't heard anything alarming that night which would have indicated something was wrong but the house was running loud air conditioners which likely hid any sound although they did recall hearing the dog barking that night which sounded as though it was agitated but because the animal was pregnant it was explained away police were sure that the attack was targeted and because the perpetrator chose fawn's exact window and was able to remain undetected it was clear to investigators that the killer for her death and were even charged but there wasn't enough evidence at the time to convict them as they couldn't be definitively placed at the scene one of the teens spent eight months in jail for the crime but as the case fell apart the three teens were ultimately released and the charges dropped crime stoppers eventually joined the search for fawn's killer an enormous billboard with fawn's face was put up along with a ten thousand dollar reward for any tips that would lead to an arrest but nothing was uncovered as fawn's case went cold many within the police department were left feeling disturbed a few had expected that whoever killed fawn would strike again and then they would be able to catch the killer but no one ever surfaced sergeant benjamin caldwell previously commented on the case's unsolved status saying whoever killed her either has never been charged with a felony or is no longer alive people don't start killing and then quit and stay out of trouble as if they fell off the face of the earth but that is exactly what appeared to have happened as for 31 years fawn's killer was never found her family never gave up them as fawn's death haunted them for decades they were determined that they would one day find her killer and over the years they hosted fundraisers to garner support for fawn's case to receive the advanced dna testing that would name her killer her case was solved in 2020 through a partnership between kansas city police and the fbi the advanced dna testing needed was too expensive for the police department and though fond's family offered to pay the bill it was the fbi which paid for the analysis it took only a few weeks to have the answers her family had been waiting for but what they discovered was completely unexpected and shook them to their core the testing revealed that fawn's attacker and killer had been her own cousin donald cox jr cox died from an overdose in 2006. at first the police refused to release cox's name as he is deceased and cannot be charged but fawn's family came forward to the public with the news as they had always spoken publicly about the case it didn't appear right to them to withhold the conclusion because the truth was disturbing fawn's family had spoken openly about how painful the lack of answers was but uncovering the truth adds another level of hardship for their closure font's sister felisa commented saying it's a relief there's closure the answers aren't always what we are asking for but there's closure margaret peggy back the oldest case we have for you today was left unsolved for a shocking 56 years like many of the other cases we have talked about today it was solved with the use of a revolutionary dna testing and investigators think that it is likely the oldest cold case to be solved with the use of genealogical databases even though it has finally been solved many unanswered questions still swirl around this case back in august 1963 margaret peggy beck was on a trip with her girl scouts the 16 year old was at the flying g ranch girl scouts camp near decker's where she was a counselor after having joined the girl scouts when she was nine when she wasn't at camp peggy lived in edgewater colorado with her parents and three sisters on august 18th around midnight peggy went into her tent alone the girl scouts had been on a five-day long trip and this was the last night so peggy was likely looking forward to some sleep on normal nights she would be accompanied by her tentmate claudia schreid but the girl had come down with a cold and was sleeping in the infirmary the tents were spread out leaving peggy alone and about 30 feet away from anyone else when peggy didn't show up for breakfast the next day her tentmate went to find her and found peggy zipped in her sleeping bag she tried to wake her up but nothing worked shocked claudia alerted the scout leaders who discovered that peggy had died sometime during the night initially the scout leaders believed that peggy had died from natural causes and so they told claudia to pack up both hers and peggy's belongings while they took down her tent and cleared up the area as was normal after a camping trip it took the leaders eight hours to finally contact police with no explanation except that they believed that the otherwise healthy sixteen-year-old had died naturally that is until they saw bruises forming on her neck police saw the bruises as proof that she had died from strangulation after an investigation it was determined that someone had entered peggy's tent that night and assaulted her before killing her and zipping her back into the sleeping bag the police believed that the calculated nature of zipping her body into the sleeping bag was an indication that this was not her attacker's first time killing peggy had put up a fight though and there were skin cells discovered under her fingernails the scout leaders unintentionally created a huge obstacle for the police investigation when they contaminated the crime scene by cleaning everything up much of the evidence was lost or disrupted and so investigators had a harder than usual time creating a profile to find peggy's killer however later the same day she was found a tip was called into the police that said there was a man at a bus stop who had scratches on his face similar to the ones that peggy may have inflicted on her attacker however when police interviewed the man they let him go another suspect was james sherbondi who had been in prison for 25 years for the murder of an eagle county sheriff's deputy he had stopped contact with a parole officer at the time of peggy's death but sherbondi was eventually cleared for years there were multiple suspects and even a few confessions to the crime but none that were real both of peggy's parents passed away without seeing their daughter's killer brought to justice but her case wasn't forgotten even after five decades had passed so by 2007 when technology was able to accurately create a profile from the skin cells originally collected from under peggy's fingernails investigators opened her case again the dna profile was placed in codis but it didn't find a match however the case was once again revisited in 2019 when a complete profile could be created and this time it pointed to a family police believed that their suspect had to be related to the family and so they were contacted the family cooperated to provide dna samples to help pinpoint the killer in 2020 56 years after the crime the police had a name james raymond taylor taylor would have been in his early 20s at the time of peggy's death he worked as a tv and radio repairman and he lived in edgewater it is believed that taylor had a familiarity with the remote area where the girl scouts would camp as he had been to the area to build ham radios it is thought that he was out that night seeking a victim and saw that peggy was alone but there is still a huge problem with the case taylor's family haven't seen or heard from him since the 1970s his only last whereabouts dates back to 1976 when he was in las vegas taylor would be around 82 now and investigators have said that they have been searching for any trace of him for several months with no luck they have no idea where he is or what happened to him currently they aren't even sure if he's still alive however the search for him has not stopped as jefferson county sheriff jeff schrader has said nothing would give us greater pleasure than to actually put handcuffs on james taylor peggy's three sisters finally have the closure they thought they would never see but reopening the wound of their siblings untimely death has been painful for them though it isn't exactly what they may have wished for the police are actively searching for taylor so that peggy's death will see justice the sisters issued a joint statement upon hearing the news of taylor's name being released saying peggy was a beautiful young girl who loved life she was loving and protective of her family and we will cherish our memories of her forever a warrant for taylor's arrest has been issued by the jefferson county sheriff's office and anyone who has any information about taylor is asked to call 303 271-5612 case 631 christopher alvin daly the most unusual of all of these recently solved cases is that of 26 year old christopher alvin daly april 26 1995 in huntsville alabama an hour before he was reported missing christopher daly's body was found near an abandoned logging road by two 17-year-olds who were out in the remote area collecting leaves it appeared that christopher had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head close by his 1983 tan toyota tercel was found partially submerged in the nearby tennessee river when investigators opened the vehicle they found a large rock tied to the accelerator they also found his wallet and id and were able to verify that the body four miles away was that of christopher daly christopher was only reported missing a full day after he had last been seen while at an employee meeting for the huntsville hilton hotel where he worked as a server the police investigators began an intensive inquiry to find christopher's killer but the case struggled to find any leads they didn't have the same access to surveillance footage or even the location cell phone data that police rely heavily on today in fact they never found any suspects in the case as there were no clues to who could have killed the young man at the time decatur police sergeant john bradford reportedly referred to the case as a real whodunit the case was frequently revisited by investigators hoping to find new information that would reveal a suspect in christopher's death but over the decades nothing else ever emerged though never officially closed the case quickly fell into the doomed category of a cold case christopher's murder would remain unsolved for 25 years on november 18 2020 the violent crimes detective sean mccadem answered the phone to one of the most bizarre calls of his 15-year career at first he thought it had to be a prank as the caller told him i want to confess to a murder i did years ago mckaydem couldn't help but be skeptical when he asked for more details and the caller claimed he couldn't remember exactly when he had committed the murder but thought it was in the 80s it isn't often the police receive confessions and have to work backwards to match the crime with the killer but that is exactly what mckaydem had to do he and other detectives gathered unsolved cases from the 1980s in order to narrow down the location and year to one that sounded similar to what the caller had described mccadem said they had to scramble to find cases similar but sure enough it soon sounded like the caller was describing christopher daly's death 25 years prior mckaedum tested the caller asking questions about the case that only someone involved could satisfactorily answer it was only then that the detectives knew the caller was credible and actually confessing to the murder the caller 53 year old johnny dwight whited agreed to meet up with detective mccadem and from the back of a patrol car directed him to the murder scene including getting out of the vehicle and walking to the exact spot where christopher's toyota had been partially submerged when whited described to make him some of the details of how the vehicle entered the river in ways that only the investigators would know as well as reenacting the crime the detective was officially convinced whited had been 28 at the time of christopher's death which was his explanation for not remembering the exact year he took christopher's life as the investigation continued mckaydem said that white had appeared to express his remorse for his crime and that he was embarrassed about what he had done mccadem said that he could tell it had been weighing on him for a long time and that he wanted to get it off his chest whited then revealed that he was terminally ill and it was his illness that sparked his confession decades after the crime he killed somebody he could have come forward all those years ago mkadam clarified though neither the detective nor white it himself ever clarified what his terminal diagnosis was a few local media outlets stated it as stage 4 lung cancer whited was charged with christopher's death soon after his confession he is being held on a 15 000 bail until his upcoming trial after 25 years christopher's family finally has some answers and like many other families of cold case victims they never thought they would know what truly happened what is often most crucial when cold cases are finally solved is that families are finally given some semblance of an answer as to why this tragedy befell their loved one according to mccadem providing closure to christopher's family was part of whitedid's motive for calling in his confession however white had refused to ever discuss his motive but did reveal that he didn't know christopher before he killed him and he had only met him moments before mckaydem spoke he said he was sorry and he wished it never happened he blamed it on his state of mind at the time obviously that's not an excuse for killing somebody there's really no excuse for killing somebody else the missing motive still frustrates investigators however some details about the killer have been revealed such as whited having consistent drug-related arrests throughout his life he had been arrested for possessing a crack pipe not even three weeks after christopher's body was discovered in a strange twist whitehead is currently awaiting a second trial in may 2021 this time for a methamphetamine charge it is unclear if whited's patterns of drug offenses is in any way related to his killing of christopher daly with whitedid's upcoming trial likely sometime in mid-2021 more details about the crime will be revealed and hopefully provide more answers and closure for christopher's family lately more cold cases than ever are finally being solved and dna evidence continues to be utilized to hunt down the perpetrators and serve long-awaited justice however it appears that closure and justice do not always turn out as expected we can only hope that even more crimes continue to be solved even decades later

2021-02-20 00:37

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