True Crime On This Day October 28th

October 28th

On October 28th in true crime, an IRA attack, a fugitive, murder, mystery deaths, killed in the line of duty and missing persons.

1978

In Harris County, Texas, Martha Alice Hernandez was shot in the head at close range and died immediately of her injuries. Her body was discovered in the driveway of her brother’s residence.

An investigation led to Martha’s husband, Narciso Munoz Hernandez, being charged with her murder. When the warrant was issued for his arrest, Narcisco vanished without a trace and has never been caught.

1979

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacked the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

31-year-old British soldier David Bellamy and 26-year-old police officer Gerry Davidson were killed in the attack. During the shoot-out, Bellamy was killed instantly and Davidson died of his wounds a month later.

1980

In Riverside County, California, 15-year-old schoolgirl Susan Louise Jordan was abducted on her way to Arlington High School. She had been taken by Albert Greenwood Brown Jr., who had been posing as a jogger on Jordan’s route to school.

Brown dragged into an orange grove, raped her numerous times, and strangled her to death with her own shoelace. In the evening, Brown phoned the Jordan household and told Jordan’s mother where she could find the body of her daughter.

Brown was arrested on November 6^th after witness statements led investigators to his address. He was charged and convicted of the Jordan murder, and sentenced to death. Despite numerous appeals, he remains on death row.

1981

In Cleveland, Ohio, the body of 17-year-old Kurt Eugene Sova was found in a ravine approximately 500 metres away from a party he’d attended five nights earlier.

He had disappeared on October 23^rd and was reported missing by his parents when he failed to return home. He had been at a party on Harvard Avenue when he vanished.

According to investigators, there was no sign of foul play and his death was reported as an accident, however they later changed the cause of death to unknown. It has long been suspected that other guests at the party saw he had died of natural causes, panicked, and hid the body in the basement.

When police began an investigation, they moved the body to the ravine. Despite the theory, the case remains unsolved. It is currently an active cold case.

1982

In Hennepin County, Minnesota, on October 28th, 18-year-old Judy Gail Jurgens disappeared under suspicious circumstances. She left a note for her parents saying she was going to Texas with a male friend of hers.

The friend returned to Minnesota shortly after but Jurgens did not. Despite her friend being a suspect in her disappearance, no trace of Jurgens has ever been found.

It is believed she had been met with foul play but her disappearance remains a mystery to this day. The only image of Jurgens is a sepia photo of her when she was 14-years-old.

1983

In Mathis, Texas, Assistant Chief of Police Ricardo DeAlejandro was shot and killed while working an undercover narcotics operation at a bar in Robstown.

Three men, unrelated to the narcotics investigation, entered the bar and one of them shot DeAlejandro. The shooter was later arrested and convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

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