I saw this case on unsolved mysteries a few years ago, and then again a few days ago. Her story struck me as so sad....
Katherine's father, Paul Korzilius, was the personal manager for rock star Jon Bon Jovi. The two families were quite close (you could say they were even freinds) and often took vacations together, Paul's family going along on several of Bon Jovi's tours, as well.
Katherine's family lived in Texas in an area not quite upper-class, but not the typical suburb (somewhere near Austin, I believe). The mailboxes for the houses in that part of town were roughly one-eighth of a mile from the Korzilius house. Six-year-old Katherine often liked to walk from the house to the box assigned to their family, get the mail, and return home. The trip took somewhere around half an hour when she was in no hurry to reach home.
On August 7,1996, Nancy, Katherine's mother, had taken Katherine and her brother, Chris, for a day of shopping. Paul was out of town helping Bon Jovi to promote his new tour and the subsequent album. As they approcahed the mailboxes, Katherine asked if she could get out, pick up the mail, and walk the rest of the way home. Seeing no harm in this, Nancy let her daughter do as she wished. She left Katherine at the mailbox with the key, then headed for home. It was 4:15 P.M.
An hour later, Katherine had still not returned home. By this time, Nancy was in a panic. She had called the police, but was informed that, unless she had been missing for at least twenty-four hours, they could not declare Katherine missing. Angered and upset, Nancy pulled Chris into the family car and drove out to the mailboxes. When she did not see her daughter anywhere, she made a wide circle around the neighborhood.
She found Katherine's battered body laying in the middle of the road over a half a mile away from the house, obviously not on the path she normally took home. Frantic, Nancy pulled her daughter into the car and headed for the local hospital. Around six hours later, at 11:30 P.M., Katherine was pronounced brain-dead.
Hospital examinations before her death revealed a fractured skull and several bruises and uneven cuts on one hip, both knees, both elbows, the left shoulderblade, and the small of her back. The coronrer corroborated this, saying that it was most likely caused by either falling, jumping, or being thrown froma moving vehicle. There was no evidence of sexual assault; only physical trauma.
Later, the police sent the K-9 unit to track the girl's scent. Startng at the mailboxes, they had walked for perhaps five or six minutes when the trail veered off into a vacant lot, then disappeared, only to be picked up again where the body was found. Police and private detectives surmised that she encountered her attacker, ran into the lot to escape, but was then picked up and thrown into a vehicle. Whether she jumped out of the vehicle or if she was thrown was never discovered. But the coroner said that the fracture in her skull was of greater size and severity to have been caused by the fall; she had obviously been struck, possibly several times, in the head.
To this day, almost ten years later, this innocent girl's brutal murder goes unavenged and the killer walks free. The family has moved on, but there is a hole in their hearts and their lives that cannot and will not ever be filled.
Shortly after the incident, Jon Bon Jovi penned the song August 7, 4:15, a ballad about the fateful events of that day, and dedicated it to her memory. He said it was the least he could have done for the family, but wished he could have done so much more.
I have heard several theories about this case. One is that Katherine grabbed onto the back of her mother's car and fell off, and that her mother lied about finding her. This theory doesn't hold up with me for several reasons. another one I hear is hit and run, but then why would her body look so peaceful? hit and run victims do not USUALLY look that pleasent, and why would her scent have been picked up near the lot and her body not found near there?
