True Crime On This Day March 10th

March 10th

On March 10th in true crime, attempted hijacking, shop murder, murder in New York and Virginia, endangered missing and cold cases.

1978

In China, a Boeing 737 was making its final descent into Hong Kong when flight engineer Shih Ming-cheng leapt up and hit the pilot in the head with a hammer.

He ordered the pilot to head to China but the co-pilot managed to broadcast a cry for help. A plain-clothes air marshal broke down the cockpit door and shot Ming-cheng dead.

The pilots had to make emergency adjustments to land safely at Hong Kong. It wasn’t until the plane landed that most passengers realised what had happened.

1979

In Washington D.C, 18-year-old Georgetown university student Maureen McGrath was brutally murdered by career criminal George B. Kebe.

McGrath was working at a Regent’s Place men’s shop when she was attacked. Kebe strangled her with a scarf before stabbing her to death with a pair of scissors. Kebe was later sentenced from 26 years to life in prison.

1980

In Scarsdale, New York, Jean Harris shot dead her 69-year-old ex-lover Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris was the headmistress of an exclusive all-girls school and Tarnower was a well-known cardiologist and author of ‘The Scarsdale Diet’.

The case drew widespread media attention. Tarnower was shot dead after an argument with Harris at his home.

Harris claimed that the gun had gone off accidently after a struggle but was later found guilty of second-degree murder in a trial in early 1981. She was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison and released in 1993.

1981

In Grundy, Virginia, 19-year-old Wanda McCoy was raped and stabbed to death in her own home by her brother-in-law Roger Keith Coleman.

He had attacked her so violently that she had nearly been beheaded. Coleman became a prime suspect and was arrested shortly after. He maintained his innocence but was found guilty in 1982 and sentenced to death.

Appeals were mounted by the anti-death penalty movement and his case garnered nationwide attention. Despite international calls for clemency, Coleman was executed in the electric chair on May 20^th 1992.

In 2006, an inquiry re-tested DNA evidence found at the scene and conclusively confirmed that Coleman had indeed murdered McCoy.

1982

In Hennepin County, Minnesota, police arrived at a residence belonging to Craig D. Jackson, after receiving concerned calls from family members.

When they entered the property, they found the bodies of Jackson’s girlfriend, Ramona Yurkew, Jackson’s two sons, aged one and three, and another woman named Gwendolyn Johnson.

All four of them had been strangled to death. Jackson was arrested on April 8^th and convicted of three counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder.

Despite an insanity plea, Jackson was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences and an additional 20 years.

1983

In Fayetteville, North Carolina, 18-year-old Frankie Darlene Horsley disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

She was last seen headed to a local pharmacy to pick up some medicine for her 18-month-old son, and never returned home.

One week later, her vehicle was found abandoned on Interstate 20. Some of her clothes were inside the car and the keys were missing.

Her family told investigators that she was not the type to leave home without telling people where she was going and that she would have contacted them.

She never did and no trace of her has been found since. Investigators have long suspected foul play. Her case remains open and unsolved.

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