True Crime On This Day January 11th

January 11th

On January 11th in true crime, serial killer in California, cold case mystery, murder in Indiana, missing persons, and an unidentified body.

1978

Investigators in Atascadero, California, discovered the body of 28-year-old Patricia Dwyer on the floor of her home. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the chest with a knife from her kitchen drawer.

Her murder was linked to the death of 30-year-old Jane Antunez whose body was found on November 18^th 1977, in the back seat of her car. She too had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been cut.

The two murders remained a cold case for many years until 2005. Investigators had continued to follow leads as DNA technology advanced. On April 17^th 2019, a press conference was held by the investigators.

Familial searching of a DNA database had led them to one Arthur Rudy Martinez, a convicted criminal who died in a Washington prison in 2014.

A DNA match from an old razor his ex-girlfriend had kept linked him to both crime scenes. He had previously been arrested on rape charges prior to the murders.

1979

In Bakersfield, California, 28-year-old Linda Sue Adkinsdisappeared from McGuffey’s Bar. Her body was discovered in a field on January 16^th 1979 beside a Hilton Inn.

An investigation into her death lasted for years but did not turn up a culprit. Until 1983 when serial killer Henry Lee Lucas admitted to multiple murders in the region, and so the Adkins case was closed.

In 2019, after reviewing unsolved murders in the area, the case of Linda Sue Adkins was re-opened, due to Lucas’s fake confessions.

The Bakersfield Police Department now consider the murder investigation open and active.

1980

In Indianapolis, Indiana, a 19-year-old black man was shot dead while standing in front of a Church’s Fried Chicken takeaway. He had been murdered by Joseph Paul Franklin, AKA: The Racist Killer.

Franklin took the shot with a 30-calibre rifle from over 400 feet away, in a sniper-style attack. Franklin killed between seven and 21 people with the intention of inciting a race war.

He also shot and paralysed magazine publisher and pornographer Larry Flynt in 1978. He was arrested in 1980 and confessed to numerous murders including the ‘Church’s Fried Chicken murder’ but he was never indicted due to the lengthy process of extraditing him to Indiana.

Franklin was sentenced to death for other murders and executed by lethal injection on November 20^th 2013.

1981

In Los Angeles, California, the body of an unidentified white man was found by Highway Patrol after reports he had been walking on 110 Freeway wearing only his shirt.

Reports started coming just before midnight but when the patrol arrived, they found his body on the side of the freeway. He had had been hit and run over by multiple vehicles, causing massive injuries that meant he was completely unrecognisable.

It remains unclear why the man was on the freeway and why he was wearing only a shirt. There was a theory put out by a researcher, that suggested he was the victim of an abduction and had been thrown out of a van on the freeway, already injured, but it has never been proven.

Despite a campaign to identify the man, his case remains unsolved.

1982

In West Palm Beach, Florida, the decomposing remains of an unidentified black male between the ages of 25 to 35-years-old, were discovered by a hiker in a remote wooded patch.

The victim was known in the area for collecting aluminium cans along nearby roads. Despite being known to locals, no one knew his name and he has never been identified.

Investigators have long suspected foul play. The case remains open and unsolved.

1983

In Mesa, Arizona, 19-year-old Richard Wayne Sammons vanished without a trace. After being informed by Richard’s fiancé that she didn’t know where he was, Richard’s parents went to his apartment where they discovered nothing out of place and no sign of foul play.

His vehicle, cash, and personal belongings had been left behind. Despite investigators interviewing multiple people who may have been involved in Richard’s disappearance, no trace of him has ever been found. His case remains unsolved.

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