True Crime On This Day June 21st

June 21st

On June 21st in true crime, cold case mystery, murder in San Jose, serial killer capture, unsolved disappearances, and missing persons.

1978

In Belfast, four people were killed in a shoot-out between Provisional IRA bombers and the British Forces at a post office depot. One civilian and three IRA shooters were killed in the attack.

1979

In East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio, pregnant 17-year-old Evelyn Louise Davis vanished during a day out in her hometown.

She had been accompanied by Robert Wooten, who was a friend of hers at the time. According to Davis’ family, Wooten joked that he knew more about her disappearance than he would let on.

A friend of theirs, Debbie Taylor, lied to the police by saying that she had never met Davis, but she had. Four days after Davis’ disappearance, Taylor and her three children were slaughtered by Wooten.

He was arrested and convicted of the four murders to serve life in prison. There was still no evidence that he was implicit in Davis’ disappearance. In fact, he claimed that he helped her run away with a truck driver named Frank Grimm.

Despite links to Wooten, no trace of Davis has ever been found and her death is an active cold case.

1980

In San Jose, California, the body of 30-year-old Arnetta Oakes was found in a creek. She had been strangled and stabbed to death by John Norris Hanks.

Hanks had previously served almost six years for the second-degree murder of his sister-in-law in 1966. He was arrested in 1982 for assaulting his wife but police initially found no connection to the Oakes murder.

It took another year, and a new investigation team, to link him to the Oakes murder. In 1986, Hanks was convicted of the Oakes murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

1981

In Atlanta, Georgia, Wayne Williams was arrested in connection with the Atlanta Child Murders. They were a series of murders committed in Atlanta from July 1979 to May 1981 and included the deaths of at least 30 children and adults.

Williams was charged with two of the adult murders and sentenced to life in prison. Over the years, police have attributed 22 of the murders to Williams but he has never been charged with them and has maintained his innocence ever since.

In 2019, Atlanta police reopened all the Atlanta murder cases so that they could re-test the evidence available and begin a new investigation.

Investigators still believe that Williams was responsible for most of the murders but there are some that remain unsolved.

1982

In Bangor, Prince Edward Island, Canada, 31-year-old Theresa Ann Gregory disappeared from her home. Her sister spoke to her the day before and never heard from her again.

Gregory’s husband was the last person to see her alive. Her bank accounts and social security number have never been used since. It was suspected that her husband had murdered her and buried the body in a remote location but he has since died.

Any secrets he may have had were taken with him to the grave. No trace of Gregory has ever been found and her case remains open and unsolved.

1983

In Utah, two years after his previous victim, serial killer and sex offender Arthur Gary Bishop struck again. He abducted six-year-old Troy Ward from a park near his home and took him to a remote area.

As with all his victims, Bishop sexually assaulted Ward, bludgeoned him and drowned him in his bathtub. Bishop was captured a month later and confessed to the murders of five young boys.

He was sentenced to death for his crimes and executed by lethal injection in Utah on June 10^th 1988.

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