MD MD - Goldie Fritz, 19, Clear Spring, 13 March 1979

[UMfanforever]

Can't find anything beyond this and the fact that it wasn't solved as of 2004 (in an article with Lori Zimmerman, another thread I've posted).

CRIME SOLVERS from The Morgan Messenger

"This week Crime Solvers will take a look at the events and circumstances surrounding the mysterious homicide of 19 year old Goldie Elizabeth Fritz, RFD 2, Clear Spring, MD.

This incident occurred in March, 1979 and the case has not been solved. All present information has been exhausted. Investigators working on the case need new leads to help identify the person or persons responsible for this crime.

The circumstances of this case are as follows: On March 13, 1979, Goldie Elizabeth Fritz and a male companion were parked along the Tow Path near the Potomac River in the area known as Park Head. This is a remote area approximately five miles East of Hancock in Washington County, Md.

At about 10:00 p.m. , a white male subject approached the vehicle and at gun point forced the victim and her companion to get out of the vehicle. The two victims were robbed of about $60 and were then later forced to walk a distance of approximately of half a mile to the bank of the Potomac River.

At this location, the male companion of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was told by the suspect to jump into the river and swim to the other side. He was instructed not to look back and if he should do so he stood a chance of being shot.

The subject did as instructed and upon arriving on the West Virginia side of the Potomac River he heard a series of shots. The subject immediately contacted the West Virginia State Police and then in turn contacted the Maryland State Police. He was returned to the point where he entered the Potomac River.

The body of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was located and retrieved from the river a short time later. There were no bullet holes in her body and the Medical Examiners Office advised the cause of death was drowning. It is surmised by the investigating officers that Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was forced into the river at gun point and drowned in the swollen Potomac River.

The suspect in this particular case is described as being a white male, six feet tall, 175 pounds, 25-28 years of age, shoulder length dark hair and having a mustache. He was wearing a green Army type shirt or jacket and was believed to be operating a 1970 or 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix. This vehicle is believed to be light green in color and having a dark vinyl top. It is also believed to have side by side dual headlights with parking lights located on the front of the fenders.

Crime Solvers is offering a $1,000.00 reward for the information which leads to the arrest and Grand Jury Indictment of the subject or subjects responsible for the death of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz.

Investigators feel someone knows or has information about the person responsible for the death of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz and this information could be used in the apprehension of the person or persons responsible.

Crime Solvers also pays cash rewards for information about other unsolved homicides, rapes, burglaries, aggravated assaults, and the capture or apprehension of wanted persons .

All information will be kept confidential and you may remain anonymous . Information can be given by calling 733-4141."

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...pQMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UmUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5543,1096521

 

[UMfanforever]

DNA test doesn't aid bid to crack 1979 crime

by PEPPER BALLARD
September 29, 2004

Clothing taken from the scene of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz's 1979 drowning recently was tested for DNA but did not turn up any new leads, Maryland State Police Cold Case Investigator Sgt. John Cook said Tuesday.

Cook said police have no plan on how to further investigate the 25-year-old case, but he said, "a plan will have to be developed."

Fritz, who was 20 at the time of her death, drowned in the Potomac River near Hancock in March 1979. Cook said officers were told at the time that Fritz and her boyfriend were in a vehicle near the river when they were accosted by a gunman.

After being forced to the river's edge, Fritz's boyfriend managed to swim to the West Virginia shore, where he called police, but Fritz was not as lucky: Her nude body was pulled from the Potomac River on March 13, 1979.

Cook, who pulled Fritz's case file in the spring, said in May that sexual assault was not listed in the original case file, "but it was also 1979 and things are different now."

Cook said clothing found on the bank of the river and in the vehicle were tested but, "out of the items examined, there was nothing of evidentiary value."

Fritz's case is among 10 cold cases in Washington County and among more than 100 cold cases in Maryland, Cook, local investigators and a detective have said.

Cook, who is one of two cold-case investigators with the Maryland State Police homicide unit in Columbia, Md., said he was in the process of investigating a few cold cases outside Washington County, but has plans to investigate the unsolved death of 15-year-old Loraine Zimmerman at the end of this year.

Zimmerman's body was found on April 14, 1984, under large pieces of cardboard weighted down by rocks 3.6 miles south of Boonsboro and about 70 yards south of Reno Monument Road. She had been beaten, raped and strangled.

Zimmerman was last seen leaving her aunt's house in downtown Hagerstown eight days before her body was found.

Cook said that police likely will reinterview witnesses in Zimmerman's case toward the end of this year.

"We have the file pulled," he said.



http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=91074&format=html

 

[UMfanforever]

Bumping

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Bumping

The circumstances of this case are as follows: On March 13, 1979, Goldie Elizabeth Fritz and a male companion were parked along the Tow Path near the Potomac River in the area known as Park Head. This is a remote area approximately five miles East of Hancock in Washington County, Md.

At about 10:00 p.m. , a white male subject approached the vehicle and at gun point forced the victim and her companion to get out of the vehicle. The two victims were robbed of about $60 and were then later forced to walk a distance of approximately of half a mile to the bank of the Potomac River.

At this location, the male companion of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was told by the suspect to jump into the river and swim to the other side. He was instructed not to look back and if he should do so he stood a chance of being shot.

The subject did as instructed and upon arriving on the West Virginia side of the Potomac River he heard a series of shots. The subject immediately contacted the West Virginia State Police and then in turn contacted the Maryland State Police. He was returned to the point where he entered the Potomac River.

The body of Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was located and retrieved from the river a short time later. There were no bullet holes in her body and the Medical Examiners Office advised the cause of death was drowning. It is surmised by the investigating officers that Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was forced into the river at gun point and drowned in the swollen Potomac River.

(And this)...


The suspect in this particular case is described as being a white male, six feet tall, 175 pounds, 25-28 years of age, shoulder length dark hair and having a mustache. He was wearing a green Army type shirt or jacket and was believed to be operating a 1970 or 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix. This vehicle is believed to be light green in color and having a dark vinyl top. It is also believed to have side by side dual headlights with parking lights located on the front of the fenders.

UMfanforever....
​

......................................Theirs something about this, that just doesn't set right with me.......makes no sense to me.

​

remote area?

10:00 p.m?

​

++forced to walk a distance of approximately of half a mile to the bank of the Potomac River.??

jump into the river and swim to the other side.?

he heard a series of shots?

no bullet holes in her body and the Medical Examiners Office advised the cause of death was drowning.!?

It is surmised by the investigating officers that Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was forced into the river at gun point and drowned in the swollen Potomac River.????

**believed to be operating a 1970 or 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix. This vehicle is believed to be light green in color and having a dark vinyl top. It is also believed to have side by side dual headlights with parking lights located on the front of the fenders.???

**If this was giving to the police, by the boyfriend, who was told to swim accross the water, at 10 pm at night, in a remote area, after hearing gunshots, though his girlfriend had not been shot, but later confirmed drown.......I find it amazing, he was able to give such a descriptive description of the vehicle involved, in this remote area, after 10pm, and being forced to walk half a mile to the rivers edge??

And all he got was 60 dollars!

I'm not making any assumptions here, all speculations, but if i was in LE , and working again on this cold case, i would find out what this boyfriend is up to these days.........

because, its my sense that all he told LE about this attacker, is all lies!!
she jumped into the river, because this attacker was shooting his gun at her feet, and yelling jump in now???????? Is that what he wanted them to believe back then

i find this story, unbelievable, but in 79 probably feasible to imagine by LE....I do believe the part about she drowned, which was proven to be true.......but the method, and by whom, i have some serious doubts!!!.....

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=158588&edition_id=713&format=html


FROM the link above...

Body recovered:March 13, 1979

Investigating agency: Maryland State Police

Nearly three years after she graduated from Clear Spring High School, the body of 20-year-old Goldie Elizabeth Fritz was pulled from the Potomac River west of Indian Springs. Police said she had drowned.

Ganley has said Fritz was with her boyfriend before she drowned. The boyfriend told police that while the two were on the banks of the Potomac River in a remote area near Hancock, they were accosted by a man with a gun. The boyfriend told police he was ordered to swim across the Potomac River and Fritz was forced at gunpoint to walk to the river's edge, Ganley has said.

Ganley said the boyfriend said he heard two gunshots after he made it to the West Virginia shore.

In 2004, clothing taken from the crime scene was tested for DNA, but didn't turn up any new leads, Maryland State Police Cold Case Unit Detective Sgt. John Cook has said.

Maryland State Police Cold Case Unit Sgt. Otis Whitaker said Wednesday that the Fritz homicide will be reviewed.



Body found: April 14, 1984

Investigating agency: Maryland State Police

Loraine Zimmerman, 15, wearing a South Hagerstown High School embroidered varsity jacket, left her aunt's house in downtown Hagerstown on April 6, 1984. She was seen walking in the areas of East Franklin Street and North Cannon Avenue.

Her body, hidden under large pieces of cardboard, weighted down by rocks, was found eight days later, 3.6 miles south of Boonsboro and about 70 yards south of Reno Monument Road, Ganley has said. She had been strangled, raped and beaten.

According to published reports 10 years after Zimmerman's death, retired Maryland State Police Sgt. Keith Wattenshaidt said the investigation never turned up any solid leads. In an attempt to solve the case, Wattenshaidt appeared in 1988 with nationally known psychic Dorothy Allison on the television show "Unsolved Mysteries."

Whitaker said Fritz's homicide will be reviewed.
​

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=158556&format=print

small article about both girls at the above link.

 

[dearmont]

I wonder just how long Goldie had been "dating" her "boyfriend" - something not right about this story -IMO:waitasec:

 

[Cymro]

Got to say that Goldie Fritz's case reminds me somewhat of the Zodiac Killer, particularly the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard...

That was another attack in a remote area, with a car involved, a staged robbery that doesn't appear to be the primary motive, control with a gun but a different killing method and a surviving male victim. Zodiac is likely to have been at least a decade older than this killer and struck on the west coast, so I'm not suggesting for a second that it's the same perp.

Of course the circumstances are pretty damn unusual and the boyfriend needs to be looked at closely.

I wonder whether the description of the car given might have been added to by LE - i.e., they know what a 71 Grand Prix looks like, others might not but might recognize the description of the car, particularly if the perp actually drove something similar like a slightly newer Mercury Cougar.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Got to say that Goldie Fritz's case reminds me somewhat of the Zodiac Killer, particularly the attack on Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard...

That was another attack in a remote area, with a car involved, a staged robbery that doesn't appear to be the primary motive, control with a gun but a different killing method and a surviving male victim. Zodiac is likely to have been at least a decade older than this killer and struck on the west coast, so I'm not suggesting for a second that it's the same perp.

Of course the circumstances are pretty damn unusual and the boyfriend needs to be looked at closely.

I wonder whether the description of the car given might have been added to by LE - i.e., they know what a 71 Grand Prix looks like, others might not but might recognize the description of the car, particularly if the perp actually drove something similar like a slightly newer Mercury Cougar.

thanks for the picture, visual aids always helpful.....

Ill just assume, the description was given to police, by others and not the so called victims in this case.........if it was me, and i was going to rob someone there, i would have parked somewhere out of the way, and walked around the area, until i found a victim to rob and so forth, i would not allow the person i was going to rob know what i was driving, especially if i let one live, after one died, which in this case would be voluntary manslaughter, or something for the girl drowning, if what he said happened , actually happened, which i doubt very very much........

i like to know whom this boyfriend was, to see if hes been out oF jail, or been doing time over the years, for various charges??.........I hope they do reconsider this person, if he is still alive?.......because i just don't believe that is what happened, i think he may have killed her himself, by drowning somehow..........but its all


MOO, AND SPECULATION ON MY PART, NOTHING FOR SURE!!
​

 

[UMfanforever]

thanks for the picture, visual aids always helpful.....

Ill just assume, the description was given to police, by others and not the so called victims in this case.........if it was me, and i was going to rob someone there, i would have parked somewhere out of the way, and walked around the area, until i found a victim to rob and so forth, i would not allow the person i was going to rob know what i was driving, especially if i let one live, after one died, which in this case would be voluntary manslaughter, or something for the girl drowning, if what he said happened , actually happened, which i doubt very very much........

i like to know whom this boyfriend was, to see if hes been out oF jail, or been doing time over the years, for various charges??.........I hope they do reconsider this person, if he is still alive?.......because i just don't believe that is what happened, i think he may have killed her himself, by drowning somehow..........but its all


MOO, AND SPECULATION ON MY PART, NOTHING FOR SURE!!
​

Didn't even really question the boyfriends story, but, thanks for all the insights, now I really do wonder...

 

[UMfanforever]

This one has a lot of details too on Zimmerman, Fritz and more:

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=79830&format=html

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

Didn't even really question the boyfriends story, but, thanks for all the insights, now I really do wonder...

QUOTE...At about 10:00 p.m. , a white male subject approached the vehicle and at gun point forced the victim and her companion to get out of the vehicle. The two victims were robbed of about $60 and were then later forced to walk a distance of approximately of half a mile to the bank of the Potomac River...END OF QUOTE.

Or was it this!

QUOTE...Ganley has said Fritz was with her boyfriend before she drowned. The boyfriend told police that while the two were on the banks of the Potomac River in a remote area near Hancock, they were accosted by a man with a gun. The boyfriend told police he was ordered to swim across the Potomac River and Fritz was forced at gunpoint to walk to the river's edge, Ganley has said...END OF QUOTE!


They were either forced out of car, and made to walk half mile to the banks, or they were already on the bank, and he was forced to swim.
WHICH IS IT!!!

I feel really strong about this, and LE really needs to check this person out again, if he is still with us?
I hope someone sends these two statements to the officer in charge, and ask them themselves which story is it!


​

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

This one has a lot of details too on Zimmerman, Fritz and more:

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=79830&format=html

for that link from 2004......it was very good to read something different on the Zimmerman case especially as you know.
It has been an assumption on my part awhile now, that she was not the killers first victim,.......as far as being the first one they killed, he killed.
diffinately has a history of crime against women.
but i sense Lori was not the first to be killed by this person.
just speculation of course, but feel strongly about it nevertheless.
Thanks again for posting the link.

I wonder if there were any witnessess that seen her get into a vehicle on her own?
perhaps she new the person, but more then likely she was forced into a vehicle and taken somewhere near by where she was picked up at?
​

 

[Julessleuther]

I agree that something is not right with the boyfriend, and am surprised that he was not considerede a suspect. How much time did this supposed suspect have with the victim that she was possibly sexually assaulted and then made to walk into the river naked? Was a rape kit done? Why kill only her and not the bf? If this was a remote area, I would think there would be less auto activity...did LE take tire track samples, footprint samples? I too am curious as to the BF's conduct since this happened...

 

[txsvicki]

A half mile seems like a long way for some gun toting robber to walk behind a couple of people. The story sounds really off to me, too. There was no reason to force Goldie into the water, naked at that , because all she could have done was chase after the attacker or swim, and the boyfriend had already started swimming. The attacker could have, or should have taken their car keys I'd think.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Hancock+Md%3E&daddr=39.695663,-78.157167+to:I-70+E+to:Washington+County,+Md.&hl=en&geocode=%3B%3BFYjQXQIdzUlX-w%3B&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=15&via=1,2&sll=39.699395,-78.171072&sspn=0.017302,0.045104&ie=UTF8&ll=39.69464,-78.178883&spn=0.017303,0.045104&t=h&z=15


I cannot find the exact spot, maybe someone else can?
but seems to me, to be able to swim across this river at 10pm in march, when the weather was still cold i assume, without checking weather/river conditions at that time, or the conditions of the river itself on the date mentioned, one must had been in excellent shape, and one hell of a swimmer to cross this river at that time?

maybe he crossed the 522 instead?

 

[dearmont]

I believe that the "BF" did swim across the river - it would have been about 300' across at the point of entry -what better way to remove any evidence. The river might not have been that "swollen" as reported. Goldie's body was found only half-mile down river from the point of entry.

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

I believe that the "BF" did swim across the river - it would have been about 300' across at the point of entry -what better way to remove any evidence. The river might not have been that "swollen" as reported. Goldie's body was found only half-mile down river from the point of entry.

thanks for posting that picture
if that is the actual spot or close to it, it was very nice that the perp had them walk to what looks like the narrow-less part of the river at that time, at 10pm in the dark?........that was a long walk indeed to get to that narrow-less part...300 feet or 300 yards, makes no difference to me, if you want to murder someone, taking them somewhere at night, in a remote area away from the public is a way to do it.

that plus the statements he gave to LE, as posted above, ill post here again.

QUOTE...At about 10:00 p.m. , a white male subject approached the vehicle and at gun point forced the victim and her companion to get out of the vehicle. The two victims were robbed of about $60 and were then later forced to walk a distance of approximately of half a mile to the bank of the Potomac River...END OF QUOTE.

Or was it this!

QUOTE...Ganley has said Fritz was with her boyfriend before she drowned. The boyfriend told police that while the two were on the banks of the Potomac River in a remote area near Hancock, they were accosted by a man with a gun. The boyfriend told police he was ordered to swim across the Potomac River and Fritz was forced at gunpoint to walk to the river's edge, Ganley has said...END OF QUOTE!


They were either forced out of car, and made to walk half mile to the banks, or they were already on the bank, and he was forced to swim.
WHICH IS IT!!!

Its still my belief, the boyfriend a t the time, needs to be looked at again, if he is still with us.

after the swim accross, did he hitchhike to a pay phone to call police, or was there one near bye to use , if he had change to call that is, or was there a home nearby he knocked on the door and asked to use the phone?

anyways, Im done posting on this case, until there are some updates from LE about the current investigation and where it stands.
I am probably violating TOS, without checking first, and if so, please just delete this comment or all statements if you like, but i will say almost without doubt, I am about 99.9 percent sure, this boyfriend at the time is responsible for the drowning of this young woman,.....could have been a moment of rage, but probably preplanned in advance after some confrontation earlier, especially perhaps days before or whenever she may have been planning on breaking up with him, maybe told him that that night, but uncertain..

UNLESS KNOWN AS FACT, THE ABOVE ALL MOO AND SPECULATION ON MY PART.
​

 

[dearmont]

Concur - without any further information available it seems likely that the "BF" is most probably the person resonsible.

 

[txsvicki]

Yes, the boyfriend sounds odd. Why wasn't he ordered to take off his clothes and where were the car keys......Why was Goldie's clothes right there by the river's edge .