Here's a news story about Nancy O'Sullivan, who is mentioned in the original post.
Cold Case : Without a trace: 15-year-old disappeared in 1974
By Patrick Ferrell, The Star
Cold Case : Part of an occasional series about unsolved crimes in
south suburban communities. From time to time over the next several
months, The Star will report on similar cases, describing law
enforcement's efforts to revisit these crimes and solve them.
Every few years, Kathy O'Sullivan's phone would ring. A
police department far away has found a girl's body.
Could the body be that of Kathy's younger sister, Nancy?
Some calls are easier to accept than others.
One from New Jersey in 1984 really stands out. When Kathy received
the call, it was 10 years since Nancy went missing in South Holland.
The young girl found this time was stabbed, shot in the head, painted
with black paint and then set on fire.
"I went the whole weekend thinking something really horrible happened
to Nancy," Kathy said. "You don't want it to be her. The cause of death is
so horrific."
It turns out the body was not that of Nancy. No trace of the
15-year-old has turned up since she went missing on March 7, 1974.
"Over the years you just start to lose hope. You know that things
have pretty much run their course," Matt O'Sullivan, a brother who lives
in St. Charles, said.
The O'Sullivan family was a typical South Side Irish clan with 11
siblings. In 1972, the family moved from South Holland to Homewood. On
March 7, 1974, Nancy, then 15, went to visit some former friends and
neighbors in South Holland. She never returned home.
Her parents reported her missing the next day; the Homewood police
department has a one-page report, which says simply that Nancy went out
and never returned home.
Some considered Nancy a simple runaway, but the family feels
differently.
"We have always suspected some sort of foul play," Matt said.
Kathy said her sister was an attractive teen who was into boys and
makeup. One of the three neighbors she went to meet had a drug problem.
Another had a violent streak, she said.
The boys said Nancy left their house, "walked to the end of the
driveway, put out her thumb and got into a blue Cadillac," according to
Kathy.
It's a plausible story (Kathy admits the siblings were prone to
running away for a few days at a time). But the story loses some
credibility when one considers Nancy's purse was left at the boys' home,
the family says.
"She wouldn't go anywhere without her makeup or her purse," said
Kathy, who now lives in Tampa Bay, Fla.
Kathy said police never interviewed any of the neighbor boys. One was
later killed in an auto accident in South Holland. Another died at an
early age a few years ago, Kathy said. The third is apparently living near
Las Vegas, but investigators with the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children have been unable to find him, Kathy said.
The Nancy O'Sullivan case received renewed interest in Homewood
recently after Sgt. Roy Janich received a call from a South Dakota woman
who thinks she used to live in Homewood in the 1970s.
"She was having recollections of her father harming a kid," Janich
said. "She was describing going into a wooded area and seeing her father
harm somebody. She remembers hanging around with a girl about
(O'Sullivan's) age."
The woman and her husband eventually financed their own trip to
Homewood, but after spending days driving to various sites in the South
Suburbs, neither Janich nor the lady could make a connection to the
O'Sullivan case.
"She came across this case somewhere on the Internet," Janich said.
"After investigating it, she was trying to make the crime fit her memory.
"It's just frustrating. You're trying to get closure for everybody,
but I couldn't find a connection between her and Homewood."
Until somebody comes forward, Nancy O'Sullivan's whereabouts could
stay unknown.
"We have nothing on this case," Janich said.
Nancy O'Sullivan would now be 46.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts or fate of Nancy
O'Sullivan is encouraged to call Homewood Police Sgt. Roy Janich at (708)
206-3433. Callers may remain anonymous, if they wish.
Patrick Ferrell may be reached at
pferrell@starnewspapers.com or
(708) 802-8832.
