True Crime On This Day June 14th

Last Updated on November 9, 2022 by Ben Oakley

June 14th

On June 14th in true crime, Rich Duck Club skeleton, murder in Florida, missing person, the Dating Game Killer, unsolved homicide.

1978

In the city of Warner in New Hampshire, Betty Place vanished without a trace. She had last been seen on Joppa Road in the morning of the 14^th and was never seen again.

Betty’s body has never been found and her disappearance is being treated as suspicious. As of 2022, her disappearance is an active cold case in the State of New Hampshire.

1979

In Burbank, California, the body of 21-year-old computer program operator Jill Parenteau was discovered in her apartment.

She had been killed by Rodney Alcala, AKA: The Dating Game Killer. Alcala raped and killed at least eight victims but is suspected of killing over 100 more.

He had been compared to Ted Bundy numerous times, not least because of his appearance on The Dating Game TV show in 1978.

He had a collection of over 1,000 photographs of women and young boys, many in sexually explicit poses. It is speculated that some of them could have been other victims.

1980

In La Paz, El Salvador, 57-year-old Italian Roman Catholic priest and member of the Order of Friars Minor, Cosma Spessotto, was shot dead in an assassination.

He had been in El Salvador since the 1950s, where he aided in the construction of churches in the country. Spessotto was known for speaking out against the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador which caused him to receive constant death threats.

In the early hours of the morning, as he was preparing Mass in his own church, he was shot in the head at point blank range. No suspect has ever been arrested.

On May 26^th 2020, Pope Francis approved Spessotto’s beatification, which is the first step towards canonisation.

1981

In Denver, Colorado, 39-year-old Casimiro Villalobos was shot dead at the Elbow Room Lounge. The Mexican national had visited the lounge to have some drinks with friends.

At some point in the evening, he left to use the restroom, where an unidentified assailant shot him. When he was discovered, he had already died of his injuries.

Despite multiple witnesses, no suspect has ever been found. The motive and the murder remain unsolved.

1982

In Bay County, Florida, 24-year-old Janet Renee White was kidnapped from her office, sexually assaulted then stabbed to death.

She had been killed by Kayle Barrington Bates who took her to a wooded location behind her office building. He attempted to rape her but failed and decided to kill her by stabbing her multiple times.

He stole her diamond ring as she lay dying. Bates was arrested shortly after and subsequently sentenced to death on July 25^th 1995. Despite numerous appeals, with one as recent as 2017, he remains on death row.

1983

In Solano County, California, the partial skeletal remains of an Asian male in his Fifties was found on the shoreline of Simmons Island, near the Rich Duck Club.

More bones were found when the waterway was dredged. An autopsy of the remains showed that he had suffered injuries consistent with propeller damage.

As such, his case has long been treated as suspicious and remains open to this day. He has never been identified.

1985

In Neath, sex shop worker Sandra Phillips was found dead in her shop by area manager Anthony Williams. It was a busy Friday afternoon when Williams discovered Sandra’s body.

She had been raped and beaten to death. Within days, two brothers, Paul and Wayne Darvell were arrested for the attack. They were later found guilty and sentenced to life in jail based on Wayne’s confession.

But the story didn’t end there. Wayne had a history of confessing to crimes he didn’t commit to make himself appear more notorious than he was.

The brothers were freed seven years later in 1992. The police investigation into Sandra’s death came under fire for accepting Wayne’s false confession.

It meant the real killer or killers had a seven-year head start on the investigation. The case was reopened in 2002 but nothing new came of it. In 2009, the case was put on hiatus until new evidence is submitted.

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