True Crime On This Day July 16th

July 16th

On July 16th in true crime, double murder in Florida, cold case disappearance, cop killers, robbery, unsolved crimes, and serial killers.

1978

American serial killer Phillip Carl Jablonski killed Linda Kimball, his former partner. She was stabbed, strangled, and beaten to death.

On July 6^th 1978, he went to her mother’s house as he wished to rape her but didn’t go through with it. Kimball left Jablonski a few days after, and he killed her on July 16^th. He was arrested and released in 1990.

In 1991 he would kill another four people. His new wife, her mother and two unrelated murders. He would sexually assault all his victims and either shoot or strangle them. In the case of Fathyma Vann, he had carved the words; ‘I Love Jesus’ into her back.

When her body was found, her eyes and ears were missing. Some label Jablonski as a spree killer but his crimes and the sexual satisfaction he gained from them cannot be underestimated.

As of 2022, he remains on death row and shockingly accepts and replies to pen-pal letters. He was convicted of killing five people in total.

1979

In Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, 51-year-old Cora Andersen went missing. She had last been seen leaving the Eureka Lodge on Glenn Highway.

Nine days later, her car was found abandoned near the Moose Creek Campground. Investigators suspected she had been a victim of foul play, but no trace of Andersen has ever been found.

1980

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police officer Ernest Wilson Davies Jr. was shot and killed after responding to reports of a shooter at a restaurant.

When he arrived, he noticed the suspect had just climbed into a van. As he approached the van, one of the occupants opened fire and shot him. Davis was able to shoot back as the van sped away but died of his injuries shortly after.

A detective caught the suspect just an hour later and he was subsequently sentenced to death for the murder. The killer died of natural causes on July 24^th 2010, while on death row.

1981

In Dade County, Florida, officers were called to an apartment block where two bodies had been discovered. When they first arrived, they were led to the body of Grisel Fumero who had been shot four times and was lying in a pool of blood.

In an upstairs apartment, they found the body of Olga Elviro, who had been raped and stabbed to death. Both had been murdered by Mario Albo Lara.

Elviro was his girlfriend and Fumero was a prosecution witness in an upcoming trial, where Lara was accused of sexually attacking Fumero’s 13-year-old sister. Lara was arrested the next day and subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

1982

In San Francisco, California, 35-year-old Police Sergeant John S. Macaulay died from a gunshot wound he had sustained 10 days earlier. Macaulay had spotted a vehicle that was wanted in connection with an armed robbery of a supermarket the week before.

As he approached the vehicle, the suspect pulled a gun on him, but Macaulay managed to fight him off. At some point during the struggle, the suspect managed to get hold of another gun and shoot Macaulay in the chest.

The suspect then went to a local hotel and killed his wife before taking his own life. Macaulay died after 10 days in hospital, he left behind nine siblings.

1983

In Nueces County, Texas, 21-year-old Christine Sanchez was killed during a robbery at the Greenberg Jewellery Store. A lone gunman had entered the store, robbed it, and shot Sanchez with a single gunshot to the head.

The investigation went cold until 1988 when Jermarr Carlos Arnold, who was already imprisoned in California for another robbery, wrote a letter to the District Attorney and to the media, confessing to the crime. He claimed to have accidentally killed Sanchez during a struggle for his gun.

Arnold was later extradited from California and ultimately sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in Texas on January 16^th 2002.

Check out the Mega List of True Crime Podcasts