Bowen never felt quite right about the suicide ruling, and enough evidence was eventually gathered to indict Hendrick in October 2012 with a trial set for September 2013. Investigators initially ruled her death a suicide, but the case was re-opened seven years later at the insistence of investigator Carl Bowen, who had been on patrol and responded to the initial incident, according to the Victoria Advocate. Not long before, she had split up with her husband, and moved with her two children from Arkansas to Texas into the home of Ronnie Joe Hendrick, an old family friend. Pamela Shelley died en route to a hospital in 2001 after she was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the Texas home that she shared with her boyfriend. Death of Pamela Shelley, 2001 : Solved through a guilty plea. Even though it looks like this 42-year-old cold case may be solved, it might never be known what happened to lead to the Studebaker ending up in the creek. Indeed, as NPR reports, the creek was less than half a mile from the gravel pit that the girls were headed to and the license plate and a hubcap from the vehicle, although badly decomposed, matched the vehicle the girls were driving. NPR reports that the vehicle was removed from the creek the following day, and skeletal remains, thought to be of the two girls, were found inside. In September of 2013, a fisherman near the state’s Brule Creek noticed a car submerged upside down in the water. In that year, Sherri Miller and Pam Jackson, both 17, disappeared while driving on rural roads to a party at a gravel pit in a 1960 Studebaker Lark. The Disappearance of Sherri Miller and Pam Jackson, 1971 : Solved by a fisherman.Īn alert fisherman may have helped solve this cold case, which has been unresolved since 1971.
Simpson, now 46, was arrested in Florida in September of this year.
#Cold case files driver
The DNA matched to a Joseph Michael Simpson, who had been a resort bus driver in the area at the time.
In fact, a tool called a forensic vacuum allowed for the DNA extraction.
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Leads at the time only led to dead-ends, but investigators finally got somewhere in 2013, when new forensic technologies, taking a full day, were used to extract touch DNA from the granite rock that crushed her skull. A prostitute, her body was found in 1995 along the Provo River. Beslanowitch was 17 years old when she died from a crushing blow to the skull. As The Huffington Post reports, Sheriff Todd Bonner just couldn’t let the case go. Cold Case Murder of Krystal Beslanowitch, 1995 : Solved through forensic technologies.Ī determined cop who was the original investigator into the murder of Krystal Beslanowitch 18 years ago in Utah helped bring resolution to this case. You’ll see how forensics techniques help to bring closure to many cases, but also how, occasionally, other things propel a case toward resolution. Take a look at our list of 10 solved cold cases below. The good thing is that families can reach better closure about what has happened, even though this can mean re-living many painful details at a trial or hearing.Ĭonvictions can result, and prison sentences be given, and, as in the case of three cold cases included on this list, inmates already in prison can receive much longer sentences. A witness or suspect may decide to talk, or people might be more forthcoming about details after time has passed. Sometimes it’s forensic evidence and sometimes it’s merely re-examining clues, but cold cases do occasionally get solved.