This day in history: On this day in 1969, the fully clothed body of a white female was located in a dense bushland off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, California by a 15-year-old boy who had been birdwatching. The victim had died of multiple stab wounds—predominantly inflicted to her neck—approximately two days before her body was discovered dumped in the ravine at the side of the drive. A tree branch had prevented her body from rolling fully down the ravine and into a 699-foot-deep canyon, and her body lay against this branch just 15 ft down the ravine.
In total, the victim had been stabbed 157 times.
The body had been informally known as "Sherry Doe" and officially as "Jane Doe 59."
In June 2015, the body had finally been identified as Reet Silvia Jurvetson, a Swedish-born Estonian-Canadian woman.
This day in history: The body of Faith Hedgepeth, an undergraduate student in her third year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), was found in her apartment by a friend on this day in 2012. She had been beaten over the head with a blunt instrument, later found to be an empty liquor bottle, and evidence of semen and male DNA was present at the crime scene. The last time she was known for certain to be alive was much earlier that morning, when she went to bed after returning from a local nightclub with her roommate.
Police have recovered considerable forensic evidence in the case, but so far it has served to eliminate one likely suspect, a former boyfriend of her roommate who reportedly expressed anger and resentment toward Hedgepeth, even supposedly threatening to kill her if he could not reunite with her roommate. His DNA, however, did not match that left at the scene. A note left at the scene, suggesting the writer was jealous, is also believed to have been written by the killer; it was among a large group of documents released by police two years after the crime, following a court action brought by several local media outlets.
Four years after the killing, a Virginia DNA testing company prepared and released, at police's behest, an image showing what the suspect might look like based on his genetic phenotype. A voicemail possibly accidentally recorded by Hedgepeth may also capture some of the events that led to her death.
On September 16, 2021, the Chapel Hill Police Department arrested Miguel Salguero-Olivares, 28, of Durham, on a first-degree murder charge in Hedgepeth's death. He had not been a suspect originally, but was identified through DNA samples after he had been arrested on a drunken-driving charge in Wake County the preceding month. According to court documents released in January 2022, the DNA found at the scene and the palm print on the murder weapon match Salguero-Olivares. In a statement, the police asked the public to bear with them as they sorted the details out. "This story will take time to completely unfold", said Chief Blue.
This Day in History: The Lake Bodom murders occurred in Finland on this day (June 5) in 1960. The Lake Bodom murders is one of the most infamous unsolved homicide cases in Finnish criminal history. On 5 June 1960, at Bodom Lake, 15-year-old girls Maila Björklund and Anja Mäki and 18-year-old man Seppo Boisman were killed by stabbing and blunt-force trauma to their heads, while sleeping inside a tent. The fourth youth, Nils Gustafsson, then 18 years old, was found outside the tent with broken facial bones and stab wounds. Despite extensive investigations, the perpetrator was never identified and various theories on the killer's identity have been presented over the years. Gustafsson was unexpectedly arrested on suspicion of committing the murders in 2004, but he was found not guilty the following year.
"No further suspect has been named, no further evidence has been found, and the Lake Bodom Murders remain Finland’s most horrifying and longest unsolved crime." Source
"Another mysterious element to the Lake Bodom murders comes from a peculiar funeral photograph. During his initial questioning, Nils Gustafsson was put under hypnosis and asked to retrace the events in as much detail as possible. Having recalled what his alleged attacker looked like, he dictated the description to an artist who created a composite sketch of the man. Later, during one of the Bodom victims’ funeral, someone took a picture that showed a man greatly resembling the composite. The identity of this mysterious man remains unknown." Source
