True Crime On This Day July 31st

Last Updated on September 27, 2022 by Ben Oakley

July 31st

On July 31st in true crime, unsolved murders, attack in Paris, assassinations, cold cases, missing persons, unsolved crimes.

1978

In Paris, an Arabic gunman arrived at the Iraqi Embassy and began opening fire, forcing his way into the building.

He took hostages and held them most of the day before surrendering to French officials.

As the French police led him away, Iraqi security forces within the Embassy began opening fire on the man. They ended up killing him along with a French officer and a French Police Inspector.

1979

In Yolo County, California, 45-year-old school secretary Dolores Wulff disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

The Woodland High School employee was last seen leaving her home in the middle of the night. Her husband, Carl L. Wulff became the sole suspect as he was the only person to have seen her on the night of her disappearance.

He claimed that he had gone to bed early and when he woke up, Dolores was gone. After a five-year investigation, the case went to trial but was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

1980

In Athens, Greece, an Armenian gunman attacked a vehicle with Turkish Embassy Administrative Attaché, Galip Ozmen, and his family inside.

Ozmen and his 14-year-old daughter, Neslihan Ozmen, were killed in the attack. His wife and 16-year-old son were seriously injured but went on to survive.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) claimed responsibility for the attack. No one was arrested for the shooting.

1981

In Harare, Zimbabwe, African National Congress representative and former member of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, Joe Gqabi, was assassinated as he backed out of his driveway.

Gqabi was one of the Pretoria Twelve, and part of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), which was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s.

It was suspected he was killed due to his involvement with the group. In February 2010, the Ukhahlamba District Municipality changed its name in recognition of Gqabi.

It is now known as the Joe Gqabi District Municipality.

1982

In Littleton, Colorado, the nude body of 59-year-old Helen Burton was discovered by a father and his child, while playing in a park on Deer Creek Canyon Road.

Burton had disappeared on July 10^th in Denver and was last seen at a bus stop. Investigators learned that she never boarded the bus and never showed up for work.

She had been killed by an unidentified assailant and was suspected to have been picked up at the bus stop by her killer. Her murder remains unsolved and an active cold case investigation in the State of Colorado.

1983

In Knox County, Tennessee, 31-year-old Diana Kay Smith was kidnapped and shot dead by Terry Lynn King and his cousin, Don King.

They had been driving around when they met Diana walking along a road. They picked her up and went back to Don’s trailer to do drugs and drink.

The men claimed that after sex, Diana said they had raped her and would go to the police.

They tied her up and put her in the trunk of their car. They drove to the house of a friend named Randall Joe Sexton, who owned a rifle, and said it was best to kill her.

They waited until the following morning, drove to a remote wooded area, and ordered Diana face down on the ground. Terry shot her in the head at point blank range and threw her body into a quarry lake.

The body was discovered three days later and the men were arrested. Sexton and Don were sentenced to life. Terry was sentenced to death and remains on death row, as of 2022.

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