Breakthroughs: 5 Cold Cases With Recent Developments | Mr. Davis

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given the number of cold cases we've been covering lately I wanted to take a minute to talk about why we covered these cases no one knows when a case will be cracked open but giving up should never be an option we've covered tons of cases some that haven't had a lead in over 40 years and yet some of the families involved still find closure someone is arrested a body is found no matter what it is questions are answered these are some of those cases on the afternoon of July the 6th 1973 Linda O'Keefe was on her way home from summer school in Corona del Mar California unfortunately she never made it home Linda was abducted on her way home and to the absolute despair for friends and family her body was discovered in a ditch the next day she was wearing the dress her mother had made for her and she'd been sexually assaulted before being strangled to death of course a manhunt was put under way immediately with police searching for a van she was allegedly seen standing by before the abduction but the case quickly felt cold after all the leads were exhausted it would be 46 years before Linda and her loved ones got the answers they deserved On February 19th 2019 72 year-old James Allen Neal was arrested at his home in connection to the crime police said he lived in the area of Linda's disappearance around that time and soon after it was committed he moved to Florida soon after this he was arrested for an undisclosed crime leading him to change his name around this time while there was DNA found on Linda's dress it was never matched with anything that was in the system it wasn't until police submitted the DNA sample to a genealogy website that they were able to get a hit from this they created a facial profile of what the man would have looked like today eventually they connected it to James he's set to stand trial soon this video was being written the day after the discovery and as of now there are no new updates to their suspect in Colorado 72 year-old James Neal our investigators used forensic DNA testing and an online genealogy website to identify the suspects DNA as being consistent with DNA left at the crime scene Sofie was a twenty-year-old students studying marine biology at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks until she left to save up for orthopedic work in 1993 the night she was attacked she taken three flights back to Fairbanks where the procedure would take place while there she stayed with an old friend named Shirley was sue Lee and Shirley's boyfriend the three were hanging out in a room on the second floor of the Bartlett hall taking time to catch up sometime later Sophie stepped out to smoke a cigarette but since it was cold Shirley suggested huddling near an exhaust vent in the bathroom according to witness reports Sophie's still smoked outside but with a group of people by 1:30 in the morning Shirley and her boyfriend left leaving a note on the door that they'd headed to a different dorm for the night the following morning Shirley saw the note was still on the door and the band left for Shirley had not been touched after calling the office where Shirley's appointment was supposed to take place she found out that she'd never shown up later that afternoon the school's janitor discovered Sophie's body in the bathroom she'd been sexually assaulted stabbed and then shot to death with a 22 caliber pistol they interviewed everyone who stayed in the building along with the student who worked security at the school him and his friend stephen downes both denied having any involvement even after hours of investigation the case was cold there was DNA at the scene but at the time the DNA processing technology had not been introduced in Alaska leaving it useless until further advances it wasn't until 2000 that they determined it was in fact male DNA ten years after that they interviewed everyone who was there at the time for a second time including Stephen downs they asked him about his guns but he claimed to not have one that fired 22 caliber bullets he said his friend may have one but that too led to nothing the case again was cold that was until December 18th of 2018 police entered the DNA into a system known as jet match that is a large database of DNA profiles submitted through things like 23andme while they didn't find a perfect match they found one that was very similar to the DNA of someone who was related to the suspect that suspects was Stephen Downes the DNA submitted was a partial match to his hands with this information they retrieved a new sample from Stephen and it was a match to the DNA found over 20 years ago on the body of Sophie he was arrested on February 15th of 2019 at his home in Maine Stephen is sent to be extradited to Alaska where he will face his charges the culmination of years of effort and tenacious attention by this department to solve a horrendous murder Downes was taken into custody and is being held without bail Jeannie was 35 years old and staying in an apartment in south Minneapolis when an unknown man stabbed her to death on June 13th 1993 it was sometime in the late afternoon when the unknown man made his way in and killed her the police were able to collect trace amounts of DNA at the scene that was in Jenny's Bunce for years it wasn't identified now after 26 years police made a huge break in the case the unidentified DNA sample was sent to a forensic lab for the second time in 2018 when they were unable to find a match it was run through a database on a private genealogy website it was then police found two possible suspects including a man named Gerry westrom once he was a suspect the police began to survey him eventually while at a hockey game police retrieved a discarded napkin from him and ran against the DNA found at the scene it was consistent with the sample found over 10 years ago Gerry westrom is a 52 year old married father of two who now faces a murder charge firm reports there was no known relationship between him and Jenny but that story could change as more information comes out he had a short history with police with various traffic violations and DWI charges the one that sticks out is the charge of him agreeing to pay a woman for sex as of now he's been held on 1 million dollars bail and his attorney refuses to make a statement in an online genealogy website investigation the suspects DNA was identified as being consistent with the DNA left at the crime scene the victim 35 year old Jean Yan child's was found in the bedroom of a Minneapolis apartment in 1993 Michael Williams was reported missing in December of 2000 after not returning home from a duck hunting trip with a close friend Brian Winchester after a lengthy investigation and canvassing of the Lake Seminole area an area around it he was nowhere to be found he was presumed dead by investigators who said he was most likely eaten by alligators in the following years Michael's wife Denise would go on to marry Brian Winchester who also happened to be her insurance agent the two worked together to get his life insurance policies paid out to her immediately it was paid out in late 2001 the two would eventually divorce after she claimed Winchester attempted to kidnap her for just under 17 years Michael's body was believed to be lost eaten by alligators however in October of 2017 his body was discovered covered in mud he hadn't been eaten he'd been murdered his body was found the day after Winchester was given 20 years for the kidnapping of Denise given that he was the last person known to be with him and the fact that Michael was killed with a shotgun police went to him first he took a plea deal to give them all the information in return for immunity for the crime he told police that he'd shot Michael while they were out hunting and attempted to make it look like an accident Denise and he had agreed to take the insurance money together [Music] we launched the boat it was just like a hunting trip was supposed to be the plan that was discussed and come up with was that he was going to be wearing waders and the belief was somebody falls in the water with waiters you're going now we went out like we were going hunting we got to the area where his waders and jacket were found I got him to stand up and I pushed him into the water he got his jacket off and his waders off and he was in a panic obviously I was in a panic I was dropping the boat and I yeah I didn't I didn't know what to do and I ended up shooting him he went under the water and so I found him in the water and drug into the shoreline the kidnapping in 2016 took place because he was afraid she was going to turn herself and him in for the murder Denis was put on trial in 2016 and the jury convicted her after deliberating for less than a day she was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder it was back in 2013 that John Fay retired postal worker and Vietnam vet was brutally murdered during his morning run in Warwick County Park in Rhode Island John's body wasn't found for another 36 hours after someone reported seeing it in a nearby trash can his body had been dragged from the trail into it's moments after being killed the murder shocked all the residents and police put in countless hours of work to find the ones responsible it took just under six years but police believe they have found the man who took John's life according to reports the police are crediting a california-based genealogy research lab for the recent development using the DNA sample that was found at the scene and crossing it with the DNA database from sites like ancestry in 23andme the genealogy lab was able to narrow it down until only one person had a perfect match a man named Michael ASA res was arrested in early February of this year and is currently charged with first-degree murder police say that without these sites like ancestry and the recent scientific developments that are taking place this case would have been far from solved for a very long time strangely enough Michael was said to have no previous criminal record and so a motive hasn't been determined of course they haven't released any results for Michael's psychiatric test won't take a minute to say thank you for taking some time to listen to this video today or watch this video rather cases like these are very very important to talk about I know sometimes we feel discouraged talking about cases that go unsolved for 10 20 even 50 years but as we've seen today even the coldest of cases can be cracked wide open just a little bit of good police work and some determination thank you all again for watching and of course stay safe out there [Music] [Music]

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Channel: Mr. Davis

Views: 409,527

Rating: 4.8941002 out of 5

Keywords: True Crime, True Stories, Cold Cases, Cracked Cold Cases, True Crime Documentary, Crime Stories

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Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019

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