True Crime On This Day March 16th

March 16th

On March 16th in true crime, British serial killer, armed robbery, macabre discovery, missing person, and a body on the side of the road.

1978

British serial killer, Stephen Akinmurele, who would become known as the Cul-de-sac Killer, was born. He would go on to murder five elderly women between 1995 to 1998.

He confessed to the murders and then wrote a suicide note stating he feared he’d kill again. He killed himself in prison before the case went to trial in 1999.

1979

In Madison County, Florida, Larry Joe Johnson shot dead 67-year-old service station attendant James Hadden during a robbery. Johnson was arrested the same day and charged with the murder.

Veterans groups later claimed that Johnson had been suffering from extreme PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) due to his time in the military.

Despite calls of leniency, Johnson was sentenced to death. He was executed in the electric chair in Florida on May 8^th 1993.

1980

In Alameda County, California, the decomposed body of an 18 to 30-year-old black female was found floating in the San Francisco Bay.

Police were called to the site just before noon. It was suggested that she may have been placed into the water around the Coyote Creek area, near a series of powerlines.

Investigators have never ruled out foul play. Her identity and the circumstances surrounding her death have long remained a mystery.

1981

In Arizona, 24-year-old U.S. Air Force Airman Joseph Edward Doerfler disappeared after he failed to show up for work at Luke Air Force Base (AFB).

Shortly after his disappearance, his motorbike was recovered on the side of a road in New Mexico. Despite some people suggesting he went AWOL, others stated it would have been out of character.

The Air Force Special investigations file remains open as a missing persons case but they’re not ruling out foul play.

1982

In Arapahoe, Colorado, the body of restaurant worker Ronald David Tompkins was discovered on the side of a road, by a passer-by who assumed he was simply resting.

An autopsy showed he had been shot 12 times at a different location, and his skull had been fractured.

Tompkins had vanished two weeks earlier and was known to frequent Denver’s burgeoning gay nightlife scene. Despite numerous suspects, the murder remains unsolved and the case remains open.

1983

In Boise, Idaho, two-year-old Jason Keith Cannon was suspected to have been abducted from the front porch of his family’s residence.

His mother was keeping an eye out for him and went inside for two minutes to get his jacket. When she returned, Jason had disappeared. Despite an extensive search of the areas close to his home, no trace of him has ever been found.

It has long been suspected that he had been abducted by an unidentified assailant but investigations have hit dead ends at every turn. His case remains unsolved.

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