True Crime On This Day October 18th

October 18th

On October 18th, in true crime, killed in the line of duty, cold cases, macabre discovery, and murder of a Hollywood actress.

1978

In western Pennsylvania, police officers Allen Capozzi and Carl Shifko were called to a bar to break up a fight between two men.

Shortly after separating them, Capozzi collapsed when the stress of the situation caused him to have a heart attack. He died later that evening.

Almost 42 years later, in early 2020, his name was placed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1979

In Black Hawk County, Iowa, 27-year-old Richard Neil Forsyth disappeared in suspicious circumstances. It was speculated that Forsyth had been involved in the 1978 disappearance of Steven Dick Kirchhoff, who also vanished.

Forsyth had apparently paid cash for a Cadillac just a week after Kirchhoff vanished. Kirchhoff’s family members allegedly tracked Forsyth to a relative’s home in Arizona.

It remains unclear what happened to Forsyth after that. No trace of him has ever been found.

1980

In a remote fenced off area in Atlanta, the skeletal remains of seven-year-old LaTonya Wilson were discovered. She had disappeared on June 22^nd when witnesses had seen her being abducted by two men.

Although a cause of death could not be determined, she had been a victim of the infamous Atlanta Murders. They were a series of murders committed in Atlanta from July 1979 to May 1981 and included the deaths of at least 28 children and adults.

Despite 23-year-old Wayne Williams being charged in 1981 with two of the adult murders and linked to some of the child murders, the real killer has never been caught.

In 2019, Atlanta police reopened all the Atlanta murder cases to use new technology that may lead to the culprit of the crimes.

1981

On the same day, across the United States, three bodies of unidentified males were discovered. There was no obvious connection between the three aside from the fact they had been found on the same day.

In Los Angeles County, California, the body of a white adult male in his thirties was discovered in a remote location. There are very few details available in his case, but the death remains unsolved.

In Twenty-Nine Palms, California, the skeletal remains of a white male in his thirties were recovered from a shallow grave in the desert. He had been murdered but the details surrounding his death remain unsolved.

In League City, Texas, an injured Asian man in his thirties was walking in the inside traffic lane northbound on Interstate Highway 45 when he keeled over and died. The circumstances of his unusual death remain a mystery.

To this day, all three men remain unidentified and their cases unsolved.

More unsolved cases.

1982

In Alexandria, Virginia, on October 18th, 33-year-old martial artist and Hollywood actress Anne Winton was stabbed to death by her husband, Marcos Kusanovic. Winton was at a friend’s apartment when the attack happened.

Kusanovic stabbed her and their five-year-old son to death before killing himself with the same knife, his motive remains unknown.

A neighbour alerted police immediately who initially suspected they had stumbled across a triple murder, until investigators determined that Kusanovic was the killer. Winton was known for her film role in Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story (1974), opposite Bruce Li.

1983

In Newton County, Indiana, the bodies of two young men were discovered in shallow graves in Lake Village. Despite a large investigation and forensic analysis, they have never been identified and are referred to as the Newton County John Does.

In 1994, following the release of a posthumous confession, both men were confirmed to have been killed by American serial killer Larry William Eyler, AKA: The Highway Killer.

Eyler confessed to the murders of 21 teenage boys and young men between 1982 and 1984. He was captured on August 21^st 1984 and sentenced to death. He later died of AIDS-related complications on death row in 1994.