The 10 murder mysteries that haunted families for decades finally saw light as modern forensics and relentless detectives cracked cold cases one by one.
10 murder mysteries: A chilling look at cold cases
10 Sheila And Katherine Lyon
In 1975, sisters Sheila and Katherine Lyon had plans to hang out with friends at a Maryland shopping center. Yet they vanished that day, and their families never saw them alive again.
More than four decades later, two cold‑case investigators reopened the file, treating it like a brand‑new homicide. While sifting through the archives, they zeroed in on testimony from Lloyd Welch, who asserted he had witnessed the girls’ kidnapping. A subsequent polygraph failure branded him an untrustworthy source.
Probing Welch’s four‑decade‑long history, the detectives uncovered a substantial rap sheet dominated by child‑sex offenses, prompting them to bring him in for another interview.
Over an exhaustive eight‑hour questioning, Welch’s narrative shifted repeatedly. He never confessed to murder, but claimed he’d helped abduct the sisters and had observed one being dismembered. He further alleged that both corpses were transported to family‑owned property in Bedford County, where they were set ablaze.
Although Welch pointed the finger at his father and uncle as the perpetrators, investigators found no corroborating proof. Ultimately, Lloyd Welch entered a guilty plea for the murders of the Lyon sisters and two additional child‑sex offenses.
9 Edmund Schreiber
In 1983, 92‑year‑old veteran Edmund Schreiber lived alone in Buffalo after earning a Purple Heart for wounds sustained in World War I. He hoped to enjoy a quiet twilight, but tragedy struck.
A teenager named Saundra Adams, who ran errands for the elderly man, teamed up with an accomplice to break into his home. They bound Schreiber, and Adams strangled him using several of his own neckties before robbing the house and leaving his body on the bed, where friends later discovered him.
More than thirty years passed before DNA evidence linked Adams to the murder. By then, her partner was dead, and Adams had become a librarian and mother of two. In 2016 she pled guilty to a reduced first‑degree manslaughter charge and received a sentence of seven to twenty‑one years.
8 Melanie Road
Seventeen‑year‑old Melanie Road was discovered stabbed to death in the early morning of 1984 in Bath, Somerset. Detectives at the time had few leads and forensic science was still developing, yet they meticulously collected blood and semen swabs from the scene.
The case went cold until the 1990s, when a DNA profile of the perpetrator was generated and entered into the national database, yielding no match. In 2014 a woman involved in a domestic dispute had her DNA added to the system, prompting a 2015 re‑run of familial testing that finally linked the sample to her.
Police then focused on the woman’s father, Christopher Hampton, who consented to a mouth swab. His DNA matched the crime‑scene profile, leading to his arrest and a life sentence in 2016.
7 Kylie Maybury
Six‑year‑old Kylie Maybury was sent by her mother to buy sugar and never returned. Her body was found the next day in a gutter, the victim of rape and murder.
After thirty‑three years of fruitless investigations, police re‑interviewed Gregory Keith Davies, an early suspect who had previously evaded conviction. During the new interview, Davies agreed to provide a DNA sample.
The sample matched the DNA recovered from Kylie’s remains, leading to Davies’s charge and eventual guilty plea.
6 Jacob Wetterling
In October 1989, 11‑year‑old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman while biking with his brother and a friend. Decades elapsed with no trace until the 25th anniversary prompted renewed scrutiny of early suspect Danny Heinrich.
Advances in forensic technology allowed investigators to match sweat samples from a separate sexual assault to Heinrich, securing a search warrant that uncovered child‑pornography in his home.
Heinrich entered a plea bargain: disclose Jacob’s whereabouts and confess in exchange for facing only child‑porn charges. The Wetterling family consented, and Heinrich received a 20‑year sentence.
5 Marlene Warren
In 1990, Marlene Warren opened her door to a clown bearing balloons and flowers, only to be shot in the face as she reached for the gifts.
For twenty‑seven years, suspicion fell on her husband Michael Warren, but a twist emerged when his current wife, Sheila Keen Warren, was arrested.
Investigators uncovered an affair between Michael and Sheila, and over the years compiled circumstantial evidence against her. Only after DNA retesting from the crime scene could they finally charge Sheila Keen Warren with first‑degree murder.
4 Lisa Ziegert
During the spring of 1992, teacher’s aide Lisa Ziegert also worked nights at a gift shop. One evening she vanished from the shop, and days later her body was discovered, revealing rape and multiple stab wounds.
Friends noted she had felt watched in the weeks before her disappearance, and the Springfield, Massachusetts community was left reeling.
After twenty‑five years, a breakthrough in forensic DNA allowed analysts to construct a male DNA profile from crime‑scene evidence. Comparing this profile to suspects highlighted Gary E. Schara, who was arrested in late 2017 for Lisa’s murder.
3 Karen Sue Klaas
In 1976, after dropping her son at school, Karen Sue Klaas was attacked, tied, raped, and left barely alive. She lingered in a coma for five days before succumbing to her injuries.
Initial suspicion centered on Kenneth Eugene Troyer, believed to have committed two other local sexual assaults. Troyer was later killed by Santa Ana police during a prison‑break chase.
Forty‑plus years later, familial DNA testing provided a breakthrough. A relative of Troyer, incarcerated, had their DNA entered into the database, yielding a partial match to evidence from Karen’s body, finally giving her family closure.
2 Angela Kleinsorge
On February 29, 1992, Hedy Kleinsorge called her mother Angela and received no answer. Concerned, she drove to the house and found Angela, 84, on her bedroom floor, sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times in the neck.
It took a quarter‑century for investigators to solve the case using familial DNA testing. A partial match linked the crime to a convicted offender’s family; further DNA work cleared one brother and implicated the other, who had died in a 2006 motorcycle crash.
The deceased neighbor, Jeffrey Falls, was identified as the perpetrator, bringing long‑awaited justice to Angela’s family.
1 Freddie Farah
Freddie Farah, a father of four and grocery‑store owner, was confronted on May 22, 1974 by an armed robber demanding cash. When Farah attempted to swipe at the gun, the assailant fired, mortally wounding him.
Forty‑three years later, the case was cracked when Johnie Lewis Miller, a street performer in New Orleans, was linked to the crime through fingerprints left on the checkout counter.
Advances in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System enabled authorities to positively identify Miller, who was just 17 at the time of the murder, leading to his arrest.