Kimberly Dawn McClaskey was born on June 15, 1966. 17 years later, on June 16, 1986 (some reports say June 14), she disappeared while hitchhiking along Route 116 just outside London Mills, IL, where she had been visiting her cousin, and heading back home to Canton, IL.
Kimberly was eight months pregnant, the result of an acquaintance rape by two teenage boys. Kimberly’s mother, Elizabeth Murphy of Canton, IL, recalled that her daughter was in good spirits before she went missing, leading her to believe she did not leave of her own free will. Kimberly’s clothing and wallet was found in the Spoon River near Indian Ford Bridge on London Mills/Avon blacktop by local fisherman who called Knox County. There was no sign of Kimberly.
In 1988, a young boy found a skull in the woods in Northwest Fulton County. Four years later, the boy turned over the skull to the authorities, who contacted a local archaeologist to help piece things together.
In Kimberly’s case, Alan Harn said the remains’ facial structure was unmistakably similar to the missing 17-year-old. But older DNA technology indicated the remains weren’t McClaskey’s. Typically, Harn said bones don’t lie. Instead, they mirror many aspects of a persons life, from diet to stress.
Although there are now new technologies like DNA, he said century old methods still apply. “With all these new methods, when it comes to the fact that you only have human skeleton remains, you go back to the basics,” Harn said.
Harn has helped police with several murders in central Illinois (HOI News, Peoria, IL).
Back in 1989, Kimberly’s mother’s husband, Spencer Murphy, received a typed written, unsigned note with a Peoria postmark that read, “Spencer, since they found out about who killed Mary Clark, ask about your stepdaughter in the same location”.
Authorities have long believed that William “the Hammer” Reinbold, a convicted murderer, killed Kimberly. Reinbold has a history of violence towards women. In 1970, he was convicted for stabbing a woman in Elgin & burglarizing a cosmetology school. Then in 1979 and 1980, he was convicted on several assaults after spraying or dousing women with chemicals. Finally in 1991, he was convicted of the 1988 beating death of 21 year-old Mary Clark in a laundromat in Farmington, IL.
LINK:
Kimberly McClaskey, who at the time was 8 months pregnant, was hitchhiking along a highway in July, 1983 and has not been seen since. : UnresolvedMysteries
