True Crime On This Day September 16th

September 16th

On this day, throughout true crime history, there have been missing persons, murders, serial killers, and mystery disappearances. Those born on September 16th are Virgos.

1978

In Salt Lake County, Utah, pregnant 29-year-old Linda H. Peterson vanished without a trace. She was reported missing by her husband almost two weeks later. An investigation discovered no trace of Peterson, who may have hitched a ride to Kentucky.

1979

In Macomb County, Michigan, 12-year-old Kimberly Alice King disappeared from her hometown of Warren. She had spent the night at a friend’s house and was last seen crossing the road to use a telephone. She was never seen alive again.

It has long been suspected that she may have been a victim of a serial killer known as ‘The Babysitter’. So-called because they would bath and feed children before killing them. The Babysitter was never caught and his or her identity remains a mystery. Despite numerous suspects, King’s disappearance is unsolved.

1980

In Guatemala, 34-year-old judge Héctor Augusto Valdez Díaz was assassinated on his way to work by multiple gunmen in cars and on bikes. His murder came one week after another judge, Jaime Rafael Marroquín Barrido, was killed in a similar fashion.

Díaz had recently taken over the workload that Barrido was working on. On the same day as Díaz was assassinated, another judge was killed as he was leaving his office. Their deaths were just three of many in Guatemala in 1980, against public officials. No suspects have ever been arrested in any of the murders.

1981

In York County, South Carolina, 81-year-old Melva Niell was sexually assaulted and then killed in her own home. She was the second victim in a three-victim series of murders that shocked the region of Clover. At the time, Sterling Spann, was arrested and convicted of Niell’s murder.

He was sentenced to death on May 26^th 1982 but was not connected to the other two murders. In 1999, an appeal overturned his death sentence and in 2002 it was commuted to 20-years to life in prison, while a retrial was ordered.

A new investigation claimed a serial killer had killed all three of the victims, with the first two, including Niell, being left in their own bathtubs. The new evidence surrounded Bowling Green man Johnny Hullett who was convicted of murdering 69-year-old Bessie Kate Alexander, the third murder in the series.

Later forensics experts, including Robert Ressler, claimed that all three victims had suffered similar deaths and that Hullett fitted the profile to have killed all three.

Spann was released on parole in 2006 as a free man. Despite the Hullett connection, no one has ever been convicted of the first murder in the series; 57-year-old Mary Ring. Her death is still listed as unsolved.

1983

In Long Beach, California, on September 16th, 19-year-old Tiffany Frizzell checked into the Ramada Inn on Pacific Highway, on her way to register for college the next day. The following morning, when cleaners entered her room, they found her beaten and nude body splayed out on the bed.

She had been raped, punched, and strangled to death by Martin James Kipp, a Blackfoot Indian known as Dr. Crazy. The murder went unsolved until a second murder on December 29^th, 1984, when 19-year-old Antaya Howard was raped and strangled to death in Los Angeles.

Her body was found in her car in January 1985, she had suffered the same fate as Frizzell. Witnesses claimed Antaya had been talking to Kipp the evening of her death, and he was arrested and charged with murder.

While in custody, they linked Frizzell’s murder and numerous other rapes, but Kipp was only ever convicted of Antaya’s murder, despite having pawned a radio that belonged to Frizzell. He was ultimately sentenced to death which was reaffirmed in 2007.