True Crime On This Day February 17th

February 17th

On February 17th in true crime, bomb attack, bank robbery, missing person cold case, war, the Wednesday Strangler, and police murder.

1978

In Northern Island, 11 civilians and one RUC officer are killed, with 30 wounded by an IRA bomb at the La Mon Restaurant near Belfast.

Children were among the dead and the Northern Irish Police mounted a massive manhunt resulting in multiple arrests the next day. The blast was the second worst in Northern Ireland at that point since 1969.

1979

The Sino-Vietnamese War, or the Third Indochina War, began and lasted until March 16^th. In response to the 1978 Vietnam invasion of Cambodia, China entered Vietnam and captured cities on the border, with a goal of persuading Vietnam to leave Cambodia.

The Chinese withdrew their forces after the Soviets failed to help the Vietnamese. It meant the Chinese had proven to the Vietnamese that the Soviets would not come running to their rescue.

Both sides claimed victory, but China was unsuccessful in stopping the war between Vietnam and Cambodia. The four-week war ended with an estimated 60,000 dead.

1980

In Marin County, California, 20-year-old Jorgen ‘Andy’ Andersen missed his plane and was never seen again. He had last been seen leaving his apartment in San Rafael, heading towards San Francisco International Airport.

He had purchased a flight ticket to visit his parents in Jamaica but was reported missing shortly after. A police investigation found no trace of him in his apartment of near the airport.

They learned that there was a warrant issued for his arrest for an automobile theft but it wasn’t so serious that he needed to elope. Despite the case still being open, investigators have long suspected foul play.

1981

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bank robbers Frank Owen Persinger and accomplice Chester Lawrence Peach held up and robbed the Sheraden Savings and Loan Association on Chartiers Avenue.

Persinger was arrested on October 9^th 1981 attempting to cash $1,700 (USD) in blank traveller’s cheques. He also had on his person $1,100 (USD) in cash.

When Peach was arrested shortly after, he claimed that Persinger had nothing to do with the robbery and pointed the finger at Thomas Milstine, who later died by suicide. Peach and Persinger were subsequently convicted of robbery and sentenced to an undetermined length of prison sentence.

They were known to have been released after just a few years. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

1982

In Kitagata, Japan, an 11-year-old girl was abducted and strangled to death as she was walking home from school.

She was a victim of an unidentified killer known as The Wednesday Strangler, who killed seven young women and girls between 1975 and 1989, in the Saga Prefecture of the country.

The moniker was given because six of the seven victims had disappeared on a Wednesday. The killings are also referred to as the Saga Women Murders.

A suspect was arrested and charged with the murders of the final three victims but he was later found not guilty and acquitted. The trial became known as the Kitagata Affair.

Despite being one of Japan’s most infamous serial killer cases, the murders have never been solved.

1983

In West Carrollton, Ohio, 35-year-old Patrolman Frederick Beard was hit by a truck and killed during the pursuit of a robbery suspect.

The suspect’s vehicle stopped on the I-75. When Beard exited his patrol car to apprehend the suspect, he was hit full-on by the truck and died of his injuries at the scene.

The suspect being chased was arrested and later sentenced to a total of 81 years in prison in connection with the robbery and also in relation to Beard’s death.

In March 2018, the city renamed the street that passes the local police department, to Officer Fred Beard Way.

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