True Crime On This Day August 22nd

August 22nd

On August 22nd in true crime, serial killer John Joubert, robbery, mystery disappearance, child murderer, cold cases, unsolved crimes.

1978

Slovenian serial killer Jozef Slovak killed his first victim, a Yugoslavian girl he’d met on a train.

They went into the Bratislava Woods together and he tried unsuccessfully to have sex with her. She refused and fought back so he choked her to death.

He then dragged her body deeper into the forest and covered it in light foliage and branches.

He burned some of her clothing but gave some of his victim’s belongings as gifts to his girlfriend. He would kill at least five women from 1978 to 1991.

1979

In Illinois, murderer, and child molester William ‘Freight Train’ Guatney was arrested on three counts of murder. Guatney was suspected of having killed 5 to 15 young boys between 1975 and 1979.

His victims were between nine to 13-years-old and he would rape them before beating them to death.

Guatney had been ruled incompetent to stand trial in 1980 and later committed to a mental institution where he died in 1997. He claimed victims in Nebraska, Kansas and Illinois.

1980

In Montgomery County, Maryland, 24-year-old Ecuadorean native Zita Cecilia Gutierrez disappeared without a trace.

The Montgomery College student was last seen leaving her work at the Kenwood Country Club in the town of Bethesda She had left to see her friends and fiancé at a nearby nightclub but never made it there.

Her abandoned car was found one day later opposite a bus stop near the National Institutes of Health buildings.

Her fiancé and friends conducted a search in the early hours of the morning but found no trace of her. They reported a missing persons case to the police, but they had no luck either. Over 40 years later, no sign of Gutierrez has ever been found.

1981

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, 11-year-old Barry James ‘Bucky’ Kephart disappeared after leaving his family’s apartment.

His parents Josephine Kephart and Barry James Kephart claimed he had left a note saying he was going out and would be back soon, but they didn’t report him missing for another two days.

In 1994, Barry’s sister, Beverly, who was 12-years-old at the time of his disappearance, told investigators that her brother could not have written the letter as he was dyslexic.

She also claimed to have heard her brother being beaten by their alcoholic father on the night he was supposed to have vanished.

Cold case investigators suspect that Barry was beaten to death by his father and his body disposed of in a local dumpster.

Due to the body being taken away as refuge, they claim Barry’s remains will never be found. Barry’s mother died in 2005 and his father remains alive in New Mexico.

He maintains his innocence. No trace of Barry has ever been found and the disappearance remains unsolved.

1982

In Portland, Maine, 11-year-old Richard Stetson was jogging along the Back Cove Trail when he was assaulted, stabbed, and strangled to death.

His body was discovered the next day on the side of a highway. A suspect was initially arrested and held in custody for a year and a half before being found not guilty.

Then on January 12^th 1984, serial killer John J. Joubert was arrested after suspicious behaviour around a school. He then confessed to three murders of young boys between 1982 and 1983, and attacks on several others.

Despite his lawyers claiming insanity, Joubert was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair in Nebraska, on July 17^th 1996.

1983

In Yuma, Arizona, shortly after midnight, 57-year-old Charles Pray was shot dead during a robbery at the Low Cost Market where he was working.

He had been killed by Bernard Smith who went into the store and requested Kool cigarettes, paying with a $5 bill. When the transaction was rung up and the cash drawer opened, Smith pointed a pistol at Pray and demanded the money.

When Pray turned and called out the name of a fellow employee, Smith shot him in the head at point blank range. He walked around the counter and removed the paper money from the cash register before eloping.

Witnesses outside the store called the police and Smith was arrested less than half hour later. He was subsequently sentenced to death but died of natural causes on December 11^th 2002.

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