Phyllis Bohle
Found: 3/25/1974 She was the apple of her father’s eye.
As the oldest of four children, 23-year-old Phyllis Bohle, was everything he could have wanted from his daughter. She was beautiful, outgoing, and kind.
Phyllis and her husband were married in June of 1970. A few years later, they moved into his family home in a rural part of Severn on Locust Road off the WBNA.
It would be in that very house, a few years later, when Phyllis would take her last breath.
The day was March 25, 1974. It was Maryland Day and as an employee of the DMV in Glen Burnie, Phyllis had the day off. So, she and a friend decided to plan a shopping trip. It was that same friend who found her.
Phyllis’ father, Omer Gray, was at work that morning when he got the call.
“My sister-in-law called me and told me Phyllis was in an accident,” says Omer.
The first thing he was did was call Phyllis’ house.
“When I called the house and couldn't get no answer, I called police.”
An officer at the station asked him who he was. He told him he was Phyllis’ father. There was a pause on the other line before the detective told him he needed to come to the station.
When he got there the police told him what happened.
Phyllis had been found on the floor of her home, stabbed. His baby girl was dead.
Omer says he spent the rest of the morning at the station before asking if he could leave so he could pick up his son from school. He wanted to tell 16-year-old Erik what happened, before anyone else did.
“It was hard,” he remembers, “because they were close too.”
Thirty-seven years have passed since that day in 1974. Omer is 82 now and the case has been handed to cold case detective John Gajda.
He has spent the past three years pouring over the case files, rereading all the reports, looking for something that might have been missed. The house was ransacked, he says, but nothing was taken. It appears there was some sort of struggle between Phyllis and her killer. There were no signs the murderer broke into the home. Did Phyllis recognize the person and let them in unknowingly? Or, was their relationship more intimate than that? Was the killer someone she knew, someone she loved, someone who wanted her gone?
“It appears it was a crime of passion, or somebody who certainly had interest with her,” says Detective Gajda.
His main goal now is to resubmit evidence to be analyzed for DNA. Back in the 1970’s, he says, you needed a puddle of blood to find out someone’s blood type. Now, all you need is a prick from a needle.
“Technology now is a lot different from technology of 1974,” he says. “So, that’s one of the things we’ll see. What tests were done? What tests can we re-do that may be better?”
Omer and is family are putting their hopes in Det. Gajda. They pray he’ll be able to turn up something so they can finally move on.
“That's just been my whole life,” says Omer. “I can’t even sleep at nighttime without thinking about it, and as the years go on the worse it gets.”
He just hopes those answers won’t come too late.
“I'm 82-years-old and this has bugged me for thirty some years, and I would just like to see something happen before I'm gone."
If you have any information about the murder of Phyllis Bohle, please call Det. Gajda at 410-222-3460. You can also email him at
P00992@AACounty.org.
To leave an anonymous tip, call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7-LOCKUP. You can also text your tip to “CRIMES” or submit it online through metrocrimestopper.org.
http://www.abc2news.com/generic/news/crime_checker/cold_cases/Maryland_Cold_Cases_Phyllis_Bohle
