Valentine’s Day is well known worldwide to indicate love and affection in many alternative methods. Younger youngsters could go out Valentine’s Day playing cards to their mates at college or have a classroom get together. {Couples} usually select to alternate items, flowers, and sweet or exit for a particular dinner. Household and mates could collect for a particular meal, make holiday-themed treats collectively, and play video games. Nonetheless, regardless of whether or not the day is well known with a grand romantic gesture or only a quiet second collectively, the vacation serves as a reminder of the numerous methods we present simply how a lot we love and admire the particular folks in our lives.
Sadly, for the households of these on this record, Valentine’s Day grew to become a day that may perpetually be overshadowed by tragedy. As an alternative of spending the day surrounded by romance and celebration, their lives weren’t solely tragically minimize brief, however for years, the reality behind their deaths, and in some instances, even their identities, remained a thriller.
Nonetheless, regardless of the years, and in lots of of those instances, a long time that handed, the victims’ households and authorities refused to surrender and let these tragedies go unanswered. Because of the tireless efforts of legislation enforcement, advances in know-how, and long-awaited confessions, these once-cold instances have now been solved, proving that justice can nonetheless prevail, even whether it is a long time later.
Associated: Prime 10 Worst Valentines Day Breakups
10 Angela Perkins
Angela Perkins, 23, was described as lovely, very good, and somebody who had an infectious character. Sadly, her life was tragically taken on Valentine’s Day in 1994 as the results of a failed carjacking.
Perkins labored as a waitress at Newby’s in Memphis, Tennessee. Within the early morning of February 14, 1994, she left her job and gave a experience to a good friend after work. Nonetheless, as Perkins got here to a cease signal after dropping her good friend off, a single shot was fired at her automotive. The bullet shattered a window, nicking Perkins’s carotid artery and larynx. The automotive then coasted to a close-by car parking zone, the place Perkins tried to name 911 from her cellular phone. Sadly, regardless of making two requires assist, Perkins was unable to talk and finally misplaced consciousness.
With no solution to hint the cellular phone name, officers had been dispatched to look areas close to a busy intersection and look for a lady in hassle, however they by no means discovered Perkins. Nonetheless, two hours and 37 minutes after her 911 name, an worker at an area donut store known as the police and said he found a girl’s physique within the car parking zone with a cellular phone in her hand. Sadly, it was there {that a} Memphis police officer discovered Perkins face down on the pavement, useless exterior her crimson automotive.
Perkins’s homicide case remained unsolved for 20 years. That’s, till 2014, when a Texas prisoner advised a police detective he might resolve the thriller. Ngoc Baoco “Ice” Huynh, who was serving 40 years for an unrelated homicide cost, advised Memphis cold-case police detectives that Phanhsay “Kapoo” Phanivong and Sathit “Tee” Ep had been chargeable for Perkins’s loss of life. Each males had been 16 years outdated on the time.
In accordance with Huynh, days after the capturing, Phanivong confessed to him, exhibiting off a newspaper clipping and bragging that he had “made the information.” Apparently, Phanivong’s plan was to steal a automotive or a automotive radio to get cash to purchase his girlfriend a Valentine’s Day reward. Phanivong tried to carry up Perkins, however when she drove away in an try to flee, Phanivong shot her. Huynh claimed he stored quiet concerning the homicide as a result of he was afraid of Phanivong, his kin, and the Native Killer Boys- one of many first recognized Asian gangs in Memphis.
Thirty-six-year-old Phanivong, who, through the years, had turn into a Murfreesboro, Tennessee, soccer dad, former state worker, and aspiring police officer in graduate college, was arrested on April 23, 2014, and charged with tried aggravated theft and first-degree homicide. Ep was arrested on April 24, 2014, and charged with felony homicide.
On September 11, 2018, Phanivong pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide and was sentenced to fifteen years in jail. Nonetheless, as a result of his sentence was based mostly on legal guidelines in impact on the time of Perkins’s homicide, Phanivong was eligible for parole after serving 30% of his sentence. By this time, Phanivong had been in jail for nearly 5 years, so he was allowed to serve the remaining 10 years of his sentence beneath the supervision of the Neighborhood Corrections Program, which diverts felony offenders from the jail system whereas offering supervision to cut back future prison conduct.[1]
9 Terri McAdams
Terri McAdams’s fiancé was out of city on a enterprise journey, so she determined to make him a heart-shaped Valentine’s Day cake earlier than his return house on February 14, 1985. After the cake was completed, McAdams chatted on the cellphone along with her sister, however simply moments after hanging up the cellphone, somebody entered the Arlington, Texas, condominium by a sliding glass door. Sadly, McAdams, 22, was overwhelmed, sexually assaulted, and killed. Her $5,000 engagement ring was additionally stolen. A upkeep employee discovered McAdams’s physique within the condominium on Valentine’s Day.
Whereas McAdams’s fiancé was dominated out early on as a suspect, murder detectives labored across the clock for months, and McAdams’s dad and mom even provided a reward, pleading for assist to apprehend their daughter’s killed. Sadly, years of investigating led to useless ends; no arrests had been made, and the case went chilly.
Then, in 2021, a number of items of bodily proof from the case had been despatched to a lab for DNA testing. From that testing, a DNA profile for an unknown male suspect was developed and entered into the CODIS database, however sadly, it by no means produced a match. In August 2023, Arlington police reached out to the FBI Dallas Discipline Workplace to see if McAdams’s case can be candidate for investigative genetic family tree (IGG)—a course of that mixes unidentified crime scene DNA with meticulous family tree analysis and the usage of historic public information to establish new leads for legislation enforcement businesses. The FBI’s IGG crew agreed to help with the case. After a number of months of labor, they developed a possible suspect- Bernard Sharp.
Sharp, a registered intercourse offender who lived close by, was one among dozens who had been initially questioned. Nonetheless, on November 3, 1985, almost 9 months after McAdams’s homicide, Sharp shot and killed his spouse and her good friend, critically wounded her cousin, after which turned the gun on himself. With Sharp deceased, there was no obtainable DNA the IGG crew might use for comparability. Investigators (Hyperlink 8) had been, nonetheless, in a position to establish and find an in depth genetic relative of Sharp, who lived out of state and was keen to supply a DNA pattern. Lab outcomes confirmed that Sharp was a genetic match to the suspect DNA pattern recovered from the crime scene.
Though McAdams’s killer received’t spend any time behind bars, on August 14, 2024, the Arlington Police Division and the FBI made a proper announcement of the findings and that the almost 40-year-old chilly case had lastly been solved.[2]
8 Eric Darnell Noel
Round 1:13 a.m. on February 14, 2014, officers responded to a name in Port Arthur, Texas, for a “man down.” When Port Arthur Police arrived on the scene, they discovered a person, who was later recognized as 29-year-old Eric Darnell Noel, mendacity on the street affected by a number of gunshot wounds.
Noel was nonetheless alive, and Detective E.S. Thomason tried to ask Noel questions, however sadly, Noel’s responses weren’t rather more than a whisper. Hoping to study extra about who the assailant was, Thomason rode with Noel at the back of the ambulance as he was transported to the hospital. Noel, nonetheless, was unable to speak any additional and succumbed to the accidents sustained within the capturing later within the hospital. Whereas there was info that Noel had been concerned in a disturbance at BJ’s Comfort Retailer earlier than the capturing, for years, the case went unsolved.
Nonetheless, on June 14, 2024, 47-year-old Damond Lewis, who had been listed as a “individual of curiosity” by police in 2017, walked into the Port Arthur police station and confessed to capturing Noel. Lewis was arrested and is being held on the Jefferson County Jail on a single cost of homicide.[3]
7 Wanda Deann Kirkum
On Valentine’s Day in 1991, an unidentified feminine was overwhelmed, sexually assaulted, and strangled to loss of life within the Florida Keys. Round 8:15 a.m. on February 15, 1991, a bunch of windsurfers found the physique off a dust highway that results in an space recognized by locals because the “Horseshoe” recreation space. The younger lady was discovered face down and nude, aside from her bikini high, which she was strangled with.
The case grew to become often known as the “Valentine Jane Doe Murder.” It drew nationwide media consideration, significantly on true crime tv exhibits like Unsolved Mysteries. The case was even investigated by the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Kids. Sadly, regardless of numerous efforts to establish each the girl and her attacker, the feminine sufferer remained anonymous for 29 years.
It wasn’t till June 15, 2020, that Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay introduced that the case had lastly been solved. Sheriff’s Workplace Main Crimes Unit Detective Vince Weiner teamed up with the Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement. Utilizing superior DNA know-how and family tree, the younger lady was lastly recognized as 18-year-old Wanda Deann Kirkum of Hornell, New York. Kirkum’s ashes, which had been saved in a Florida Social Sevices vault, had been later returned to her closest dwelling relative, first cousin Brenda Chartraw, in order that she might have a remaining resting place.
In accordance with Chartraw, Kirkum was bodily and sexually abused by her father and mom and ran away from house at 18. Kirkum’s dad and mom, who’re each now deceased, apparently had little interest in discovering her and by no means even filed a lacking individual’s report.
Along with lastly figuring out Kirkum, investigators had been additionally in a position to establish her killer- Robert Lynn Bradley—who died because the sufferer of a murder in Tarrant County, Texas, in April 1992 on the age of 31. DNA from Bradley’s murder scene, together with DNA from Kirkum’s 1991 homicide, had been in contrast on the FDLE crime lab and decided to be a match.[4]
6 Terry Dolowy
Terry Dolowy, a River Forest, Illinois native, was a senior on the College of Wisonsin-La Crosse, the place she was learning finance. Following her shift at Piggy’s Restuarant, Dolowy returned house to a trailer park in Barre Mills, Wisconsin, the place she lived along with her fiancé, Russel Lee, someday between 12:30 and 1 a.m. on February 14, 1985. At the moment, Lee was on the point of head to his third-shift job on the Radisson Lodge, however provided that he didn’t have his personal automobile, Lee took Dolowy’s automotive and left for work.
Nonetheless, when Lee returned from work, he claimed that the entrance door was open and the lights had been on, however Dolowy was gone. Lee reported Dolowy lacking, as she and her white poodle, Suzie, had seemingly vanished and not using a hint. Provided that Lee was the final individual to see Dolowy alive, this, along with claims that Dolowy had confided in mates about her resolution to not marry Lee on account of his rumored playing and drug points, put him on the high of the suspect record.
4 days later, on February 18, 1985, the Vernon County Sheriff’s Division responded to a name about one thing burning in a culvert. Sadly, it was there that they discovered Dolowy’s burned physique. The DNA recovered from Dolowy’s physique cleared Lee as a suspect. Nonetheless, regardless of over 500 folks being interviewed and 20 totally different investigators engaged on the murder case over greater than 20 years, sadly, no arrests had been ever made, and the case appeared to go chilly.
It wasn’t till June 1, 2022, that the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory developed an STR (brief tandem repeat) profile from proof taken from Dolowy’s physique. The STR profile was then submitted for additional evaluation by Investigative Family tree. On September 23, 2022, they acquired a match—Michael Raymond Popp. In January 2023, authorities obtained a search warrant and picked up a DNA pattern from Popp, which was later additionally discovered to be a match to the DNA samples taken throughout Dolowy’s post-mortem on February 19, 1985.
Popp, initially interviewed by the La Crosse and Vernon County Sheriff’s Places of work on March 11, 1985, advised investigators that he and his then-girlfriend had been acquaintances with Dolowy and Lee. Popp said the {couples} participated in pool tournaments and that he had been to Dolowy’s trailer “10 to fifteen occasions up to now.” Nonetheless, when Popp was interviewed once more in March 2023, he contradicted his earlier statements, claiming Dolowy was solely an informal acquaintance and that he didn’t know the place she and Lee lived.
Popp additionally denied being concerned with Dolowy a number of occasions throughout interviews, however when authorities offered him with the DNA proof linking him to Dolowy, he modified his story as soon as once more, claiming he and Dolowy “possibly had a little bit affair” for six to eight months. Popp insisted, nonetheless, that he by no means harm Dolowy.
On September 23, 2024, 60-year-old Popp was arrested and charged with one depend of first-degree homicide.[5]
5 Adrienne McColl
Nineteen-year-old Adrienne McColl and Stéphane Mother or father, 12 years her senior, started relationship in 2000 once they each labored at Studio 82, a southwest Calgary bar owned by McColl’s stepdad, John McGee. There have been claims, nonetheless, that Mother or father had a historical past of attacking McColl, and in accordance with one witness, he had thrown McColl throughout a desk and choked her throughout a shift on the bar. Regardless of what seemed to be a tumultuous relationship, McColl finally grew to become pregnant. Sadly, simply two weeks earlier than the due date in October 2001, the child was stillborn, and McColl suffered one other failed being pregnant within the subsequent few months.
Sadly, by February 2002, the connection had much more cracks, and the 2 had been struggling financially. McColl acquired a brand new job at a downtown bistro and moved again in along with her stepfather, whereas Mother or father had turn into homeless and was dwelling in his automotive. Mother or father’s scenario seemingly acquired even worse when his momentary house was towed on February 14, 2002. Nonetheless, that very same day, McColl didn’t present up for her shift at work and didn’t meet up along with her mates that night as deliberate.
Nearly instantly after McColl went lacking on Valentine’s Day 2002, Mother or father additionally vanished, as did a automotive belonging to McGee. At 10:06 a.m. on February 15, 2002, Mother or father purchased a one-way ticket to Ottawa. McGee’s automotive was later discovered deserted at Calgary Worldwide Airport. McColl’s sneakers had been within the trunk and two stalls down, Mother or father’s denims had been discovered with blood on the pant leg.
On February 17, 2002, McColl’s physique was present in a rancher’s area 52 miles (85 km) exterior Calgary. McColl had no sneakers, coat, or pants and had been strangled and overwhelmed to loss of life.
Though Mother or father had been the one “individual of curiosity” in McColl’s loss of life, there wasn’t sufficient proof to file fees. The case went chilly for 16 years, however because of advances in DNA know-how, detectives had been in a position to revisit the investigation. On February 17, 2018—the sixteenth anniversary of the day McColl’s stays had been found—49-year-old Mother or father was arrested in Gatineau, Quebec, and later charged with second-degree homicide. In 2021, Mother or father was discovered responsible and sentenced to life in jail with no probability of parole for 17 years.
Mother or father, nonetheless, maintained his innocence and went on to enchantment his conviction, arguing that a few of the proof shouldn’t have gone to the jury, a protection skilled witness was denigrated, the trial choose erred in her instruction to the jury, and {that a} juror who knew McColl’s stepfather ought to have been dismissed. The Alberta Courtroom of Enchantment rejected Mother or father’s arguments.[6]
4 Jodine Serrin
Regardless of her cognitive challenges, 39-year-old Jodine Serrin was a extremely functioning lady who was energetic in a number of social organizations for the mentally ailing and lived on her personal in a ground-level condominium in Carlsbad, California. After being unable to achieve Serrin by phone, her dad and mom, Arthur and Lois Serrin, went to her condominium round 10 p.m. on February 14, 2007, to verify she was alright. Serrin, nonetheless, didn’t reply the door.
Serrin’s dad and mom had been in a position to get in by the entrance door and went inside, however when Arthur walked into his daughter’s bed room, he discovered {a partially} dressed man engaged in sexual exercise together with his daughter. Involved that the stranger was profiting from Serrin, Arthur advised him to dress and get out.
Serrin’s dad and mom then waited in the lounge to permit her a second of privateness, anticipating an embarrassed couple to finally emerge from the bed room. Nonetheless, when that didn’t occur, Arthur went again into the bed room solely to find Serrin had been sexually assaulted, overwhelmed, and strangled to loss of life. The person who had been in Serrin’s bed room was additionally gone. An post-mortem later revealed that Serrin had died of blunt-force head accidents.
An investigation of the crime scene didn’t reveal an entry or exit level for the killer. No home windows within the bed room had been damaged or pressured open, and there was no signal of pressured entry on the door, main investigators to imagine that Serrin’s killer could have been somebody she knew or somebody who knew she lived alone. In accordance with investigators, the suspect could have escaped by an open entrance door that wasn’t seen from the place Serrin’s dad and mom had been standing in the lounge. Unknown male DNA was discovered on the crime scene, however sadly, when run by the state database, it didn’t flip up any matches. Sadly, the chilling case finally went chilly.
Then, in February of 2018, investigators with the Carlsbad Police Division and the San Diego County District Legal professional’s Workplace sought the assistance of Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs. The corporate focuses on DNA “phenotyping”—the method of utilizing unidentified DNA proof left behind at against the law scene to foretell somebody’s bodily look and ancestry. Based mostly on genetic proof discovered on the homicide scene, the corporate produced a computer-generated mugshot and trait predictions for Serrin’s killer, which included the topic’s ancestry, eye shade, hair shade, pores and skin shade, freckling, and face form.
From there, investigators ran DNA proof discovered on the homicide scene in opposition to a DNA database. Because of DNA from kin within the system and the method of elimination, they had been in a position to zero in on a suspect—David Mabrito. Sadly, Mabrito, who was 38 years outdated on the time and a transient, dedicated suicide in 2011. Whereas Mabrito’s personal DNA wasn’t within the system, the Oceanside Police Division simply so occurred to have an unprocessed pattern of his DNA that was taken as a result of Mabrito matched the outline of a suspect in one other case. Fortunately, it was by no means discarded.
When Mabrito’s DNA was then run in opposition to crime scene proof from Serrin’s homicide, it got here again as a “1-in-64-quintillion match”, which means there was just about no chance it might be anybody else’s DNA however Mabrito’s.[7]
3 Heyzel Obando
At roughly 5:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day 2016, Earl “Tony” Joiner known as 911 to report that he had found his girlfriend, 26-year-old Heyzel Obando, bleeding and unresponsive of their Fort Myers, Florida condominium. When officers arrived, they discovered Joiner in the main bedroom making an attempt chest compressions. Cops, nonetheless, said that his efforts had been “futile as a result of (Obando) was very clearly useless and had been for a while.” Obando had been shot within the head.
Joiner claimed that he had simply returned from a visit with their daughters to see his household in Winter Haven, Florida, and found Obando’s physique when he returned. Regardless of Joiner’s declare, authorities seen a number of issues that didn’t appear so as to add up and behaviors that weren’t per somebody who simply found a deceased beloved one, equivalent to Joiner’s calm and impassive demeanor and the truth that he didn’t ask any questions on how Obando died.
An officer on the scene additionally seen that Joiner left him and Obando’s two daughters in a working automotive within the car parking zone. Joiner claimed he did so as a result of the youngest one was asleep, and he meant to get Obando to assist carry them into the condominium. Nonetheless, when the couple’s 3-year-old daughter later advised police that “poppy shoted mommy” and “mommy blood,” main them to imagine Joiner killed Obando in entrance of one among their daughters.
Sadly, there was not sufficient proof to make an arrest, and Joiner, a former College of Florida soccer participant, walked free to take a job at an area auto dealership.
Investigators continued to work the case over the following three years, whilst leads went chilly. Then, in Could 2019, Oxygen Community’s true crime TV sequence Chilly Justice got here to city and started investigating the case with native legislation enforcement. They spent 9 days engaged on nothing however Obando’s case, interviewing 50 extra witnesses, re-analyzing proof, paying for extra DNA testing, and uncovering allegations of home abuse and suspected affairs that finally linked Joiner to the homicide.
An arrest warrant was issued, and on June 8, 2019, 33-year-old Joiner was arrested for second-degree homicide on the auto dealership the place he labored. Joiner pleaded no contest, and on June 5, 2023, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Joiner was additionally ordered to don’t have any contact with the youngsters—now within the care of Obando’s mom, Isabel Martinez—or the Obando household ever once more.[8]
2 Christopher Scott Case
A person was strolling his canine in a area close to E. eighth Road and Weld County Highway 43 in Greeley, Colorado, when he stumbled upon a useless physique on February 14, 2000. Weld County deputies and investigators responded to the scene however discovered no proof of foul play.
Shortly after the invention, the person’s stays had been despatched to an anthropologist who decided they had been that of a white male, 35-50 years outdated and 5’4″ (1.62 meters) tall. The person’s weight couldn’t be decided, nevertheless it was believed he could have had a tattoo within the heart of his again. Nonetheless, as a result of superior state of decomposition and no indication of trauma, the trigger or method of loss of life couldn’t be decided. Investigators named the unidentified male John Doe 2000, and for 22 years, his stays had been locked away.
Then, in 2022, the stays had been taken out of storage and analyzed utilizing forensic family tree together with DNA from John Doe’s stays. This led investigators to kin in Nevada who willingly submitted their DNA to assist resolve the case. Weld County chilly case detective Byron Kastilahn “acquired the break he had been ready for” in December 2023, when the genetic check outcomes returned figuring out John Doe 2000 as Christopher Scott Case. Additional genetic testing additionally confirmed these findings.
Earlier than his loss of life, Case lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and was final seen by his half-brother in Nevada in 1998. Sadly, regardless of being lacking for twenty-four years, Case by no means confirmed up on the Wyoming Division of Prison Investigation lacking individuals record.[9]
1 Te’ore Terry
After receiving calls a few capturing on Coliseum Drive, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, cops discovered 35-year-old Te’ore Terry mendacity face down in a car parking zone at 8:01 a.m. on February 14, 2021. Terry was affected by a gunshot wound, and he had been robbed of his keys and jewellery. EMS pronounced Terry useless on the scene. Terry’s sister, Tori, believed her brother’s homicide was a part of a hate crime as a result of he was “brazenly homosexual.”
The case grew to become inactive in January 2023 on account of lack of proof, however in September 2023, the case was reassigned to Detective Boles. By gathering extra info by interviews and investigative leads, Boles was in a position to establish a suspect—28-year-old Jacquane Juarre Honest.
Honest was arrested on Could 17, 2024, and charged with felony homicide. Whereas Terry’s mom mentioned she was conscious of a relationship between her son and Honest, officers said that they might not share any extra info on Terry’s case.[10]
