True Crime On This Day October 24th

Last Updated on September 16, 2022 by Ben Oakley

October 24th

On October 24th in true crime, a cold case mystery, murder, unidentified bodies, and a prison escape.

1978

Cathy Millican was birdwatching in Chandler Brook Wetland Preserve in New Hampshire when she was stabbed 29 times in a vicious and sustained attack.

The next day, her body was discovered at the spot where she enjoyed photographing birds. She is said to have been the first linked victim of the Connecticut River Valley Killer.

1979

In Houma, Louisiana, Robert J. Rodrigue raped and killed a 51-year-old female accountant by strangling her to death. The victim had dropped her children off a football game and gone shopping but never returned to pick her children up.

Her car was found abandoned later in the evening. On November 3^rd, her decomposed body was found in a bayou just a few miles from where she had gone missing.

The investigation even brought in psychics to help on the case. Rodrigue was arrested on November 17^th and charged with ‘aggravated kidnapping’ and ‘aggravated crimes against nature’. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

1980

In Chittenden County, Vermont, 37-year-old Wilfred King III, disappeared under suspicious circumstances. He had last been seen alive at his residence in Essex, by his father.

King was separated from his wife and was recovering from a serious car crash when he disappeared. On the same day as he was reported missing, hunters in the woods near Colchester, found his bloodstained crutches.

Two weeks later, King’s clothes were found burned in a gravel pit in Williston. Despite having evidence of foul play, no arrests were ever made and no trace of King has ever been found.

1981

In Houston, Texas, the body of an unidentified white man in his fifties was discovered in a back alley off a main street. He was known in the area to have been a heavy drinker but no one knew his identity.

It was suspected he had been beaten to death a day earlier. Despite having a recognisable face, he has never been identified. His case remains unsolved.

1982

In Illinois, agricultural lead worker and corrections officer Joseph J. Cushman was found murdered at a prison farm. He had been bludgeoned to death by inmate Bruce Davis who stole Cushman’s pickup to make his escape. Cushman died at the scene.

Davis was already serving a 25 to 45 year stretch for murder and was recaptured a couple of weeks later. He was convicted of Cushman’s murder and given an additional life sentence.

He was later moved to the Menard Psychiatric Center where he hung himself in his cell on December 12^th 1988.

READ NEXT: The Black Dahlia.