True Crime On This Day March 29th

Last Updated on January 23, 2023 by Ben Oakley

March 29th

On March 29th in true crime, cold case murder, mystery disappearance, vanishing in Nevada, missing person, and unsolved mysteries.

1978

In Alton, Illinois, 58-year-old Ann Brewer was raped and stabbed in her own home.

She had arranged for a man to visit the house to look at a motorcycle she was selling but the man attacked her. Brewer survived the attack and crawled to a neighbour’s house.

Despite only circumstantial evidence, 25-year-old David Gray was arrested and charged, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

20 years later, new DNA evidence showed that Gray was innocent of the crime, and he was released in 1999 with a large amount of compensation.

The true perpetrator of the attack has never been caught.

1979

In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, high school student Holly Brannigan was brutally murdered in her home. She was last heard of when speaking to a friend on the phone.

She hung up to answer a knock at the door but did not ring her friend back. In the half hour that followed, Brannigan was stabbed 18 times and died on the kitchen floor where her brother found her the next morning.

There was no sign of forced entry and no sign of sexual assault. Despite various leads popping up over the years, the murder remains unsolved.

1980

In Shasta County, California, 44-year-old Bettina Minnie Antone disappeared after going camping with two unidentified men.

She had phoned her sister and said that she was going with the men to Clear Creek and even left a note about the trip on her calendar.

Antone was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and was suffering depression on top of that. Antone’s sister visited the motel where she had been staying and found money with a note that said; ‘please save’. it meant that she had the intention of returning.

The identity of the two men remains a mystery. Her family reported that she may have been admitted to a mental health facility but no one matching her description was found.

There have never been any other leads in her disappearance and no trace of her has ever been found.

1981

In Maryland, 68-year-old Evelyn Dietrich was found bludgeoned to death in bushes near her home. She had been beaten to death by Vernon Lee Clark.

He was a handyman who had helped Dietrich out on numerous occasions and at the time was never considered a suspect. The murder remained unsolved for almost two decades when new DNA technology linked Clark to the murder.

He was already serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of 23-year-old Kathleen Gouldin, who had been found beaten to death in her own apartment.

Clark was also linked by DNA to the 1984 death of Myrtle Watson. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Watson and Dietrich murders. It is suspected that he killed up to six people from 1979 to 1989.

1982

In Las Vegas, Nevada, 25-year-old University of Colorado-Boulder student, Douglas Meer, vanished without a trace. He had left Boulder three days earlier and arrived in Las Vegas on the 27^th.

He phoned his mother on the 29^th to let her know he was out of funds and was heading back to Boulder the same day. Meer never made it home and was never seen again.

On September 9^th in Baja, Mexico, his vehicle was found abandoned on the side of the road. It remains unclear what happened to Meer but investigators have long suspected foul play. His disappearance remains unsolved.

1983

In Ventura, California, 46-year-old Maurice Salin Loze vanished without a trace. He was last seen walking down a highway and was wearing a gold necklace with gold medal at the time of his disappearance.

Despite an investigation into his disappearance, no trace of Loze has ever been found and his case remains open and unsolved.

1994

At 11pm in St Kilda, Australia, the body of young mother Samantha Mizzi was discovered in shrubs at the rear of a property. She had been beaten and violently raped before being stripped and left to die.

She died of her injuries the following morning. Police noted that her belongings had been stolen. Her death remains one of the most well-known cold cases in Victoria.

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