Cold Cases Heat Up, To Suspect
Every Monday, The Early Show will give details on a criminal case gone cold -- unsolved crimes, victims' families desperately looking for a break, and police needing help from viewers.
Check here for numbers to call if you have any possible leads on these cases to share with authorities.
Monday, July 10, 2006
JEETA LYNN GRABER, CERELLE BELT
A suspect is being held in two rape-murders in Austin, Texas that had gone unsolved for years.
On The Early Show Monday, Hattie Kauffman reported that young, vivacious flight attendant Jeeta Lynn Graber was raped, beaten and strangled in her apartment in June of 1984. Police were stumped.
Six years later, another murder of a woman living alone: Nineteen-year-old college student Cerelle Belt was killed in an almost identical attack. Police say both victims were bludgeoned, both were sexually assaulted, and the final cause of death in both cases was strangulation.
The probe of Belt's death also hit a wall, Kauffman says.
Over the decades, hundreds of leads were noted, investigated, and filed away.
Finally, authorities say, new DNA testing in 1999 proved both women were killed by one man.
Nineteen years after her slaying, police re-tested items found in Graeber's apartment and came up with a fingerprint. Then, detectives, going through boxes of police notes, found a list of all people living in Belt's apartment complex at the time of her murder. They ran those names against the print, and got a match.
According to police, Martin Torres lived in Belt's apartment building, and left his fingerprints in Graeber's apartment. Police say his DNA is also a match.
By the time Torres as a suspect, Kauffman adds, he was living in Mexico. It took intense lobbying by Austin police and the United States Justice Department to get him back to the U.S., where he's now in custody, awaiting trial later this year.
To watch Kauffman's complete report,
Monday, June 26, 2006
JOHN RIGGINS, SABRINA GONSALVES
Twenty-five years ago, in the sleepy, northern California college town of Davis, two 18-year-old freshmen, John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves, were brutally murdered. The killings, which had baffled investigators, may finally have been solved, with DNA tests done three years ago.
48 Hours correspondent Troy Roberts reports that Sacramento County's "Cold Hit" program ran DNA from the crime scene through a national data bank that included samples taken from state prisoners.
A match described as a one-in-240 trillion hit led to the arrest of Richard Hirschfield, who was already in jail in Washington state for a sex offense. He is now behind bars in Sacramento, awaiting a trial that may still be two years away, for both murders.
To watch Roberts' report,
Monday, June 19, 2006
JULIE WILLS
Julie Wills, 32, was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Boca Raton, Fla. on April 14, 1996. Police call David Michael Miller, currently in jail for the attempted murders of three other women, and Julie's former boyfriend, Steven Flacco, a Boca Raton stockbroker, "persons of interest." Due to advances in forensic technology, police reopened the case, but authorities say initial DNA test results that came back last week were inconclusive. Those tests continue, as does the wait by Julie's parents, Art and Nancy Crum of Austin, Texas, to learn who killed their daughter.
48 Hours correspondent Harold Dow reported on murder on The Early Show Monday. To see Dow's report,
There is a $50, 000 reward for information leading to an arrest in this case. If you have any tips, call Detective Brice Allen of the West Palm Beach, Fla. Police Department at 561-338-1283.
Monday, June 12, 2006
KRISTIN SMART
Kristen Smart was a 19-year-old freshman at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, Calif. when she vanished a decade ago. On The Early Show Monday, Hattie Kauffman reported on the case-gone-cold. Police hope you can help them reopen it.
To watch Kauffman's report,
If you have any information about Smart's possible whereabouts, contact San Luis Obispo police at 805-781-4550.
Also, a concerned local businessman, Terri Black, has put up $100,000 in reward money in the case. For more on that, click here.
Monday, June 5, 2006
GWENDELL GREENBLATT
Three years and four months ago, 35-year-old dancer Gwendel Greenblatt was shot and killed in her West Palm Beach, Fla. apartment. The case is unsolved and, as 48 Hours correspondent Harold Dow reported on The Early Show, her family in Bethlehem, Pa. still can't believe it.
To see Dow's report,
If you have information about the murder of Gwendel Greenblatt, please call Detective Don Iman of the West Palm Beach Police Department at 561-822-1668, or your local FBI office.