True Crime On This Day March 24th

Last Updated on September 22, 2022 by Ben Oakley

March 24th

On March 24th in true crime, drug war murder in Miami, assassination, cold case murder, cold-blooded murder, and mystery disappearance.

1978

In Cincinnati, Ohio, Cheryl A. Thompson disappeared on a walk into town. She was reported missing a day later. On April 8^th, her body was discovered face down on the banks of the Little Miami River in Loveland.

She had been strangled and beaten to death. The investigation turned up no suspects and no leads. As of 2022, Thompson’s murder remains an active cold case in the State of Ohio.

1979

In Miami, the rising cocaine business was leading to widespread murders that would lead to the Miami Drug Wars of the 1980s.

On this day, a group of men broke into the home of Jose Gutierrez and shot him dead. They staged the murder to look like a home invasion and robbery.

His murder was part of a rising level of violence that led to the Dadeland Mall Massacre on July 11^th 1979.

1980

In El Salvador, the Archbishop of San Salvador, Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, was assassinated on the orders of right-wing politician Roberto D’Aubuisson.

Galdámez had spoken out against poverty, social injustice, and torture during the beginning of the Salvadoran Civil War, which lasted from 1979 to 1992.

At the funeral of Galdámez a few days later, an estimated 31 people were killed in a gun and grenade attack on the streets near to the cathedral. No arrests have ever been made.

1981

In Conway, Arkansas, officer Robert W. Martin was shot and killed by Ricky Ray Rector during a custody attempt.

Three days earlier on the 21^st, Rector had dined at Tommy’s Old-Fashioned Home-Style Restaurant in the city and had become outraged at the entry fee for a friend.

He pulled out a gun and shot three men, killing one of them named Arthur Criswell. Rector eloped but his family convinced him to surrender.

He agreed but only if he could surrender to Officer Martin, who he had known since he was a child. Martin turned up at the residence and sat on the couch waiting for Rector to retrieve his personal belongings.

Suddenly, Rector pulled a gun on Martin and shot him dead at point blank range, once in the neck and the other in the face. Somehow, Rector managed to shoot himself but survived his injuries.

He was later convicted of both murders and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in Arkansas on January 24^th 1992.

1982

In Baltimore, Maryland, eight-year-old City Springs Elementary School student Toya Katrina Hill disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

She had exited her mother’s residence at the Lafayette Homes public housing projects to play outside. She was last seen at a grocery store talking to her mother’s ex-boyfriend and one of his male friends.

Despite the ex-boyfriend being a suspect in the disappearance, no trace of Hill has ever been found. Investigators believe she may have been abducted and murdered. Her case remains open and unsolved.

1983

In Hillsborough County, Florida, Wayne Tompkins was living with Barbara Wallace and her 15-year old-daughter, Lisa Lea DeCarr, when Lisa went missing and was reported to have runaway.

In 1984, DeCarr’s decomposed body was found buried in the grounds of the Wallace residence. She had been raped and strangled to death by Tompkins, who admitted to her death in 1986, while in prison on unrelated rape charges.

He was sentenced to death for her murder and executed by lethal injection in Florida on February 11^th 2009.

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