The Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty
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By GAIL OBER
gober@citizen.com
Thursday, August 20, 2009
GLODDY
A one-time Franklin resident who died a week ago in Florida was a suspect in the still unsolved murder of 13-year-old Kathy Lynn Gloddy, the state Attorney General's Office has confirmed.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Neals-Eric "Will" Delker said Wednesday that Edward E. Dukette was a "person of interest" in Gloddy's murder 38 years ago.
Dukette, 66, of Old Town, Fla. died on Aug. 13, but in 1971 he was the upstairs tenant in the School Street home owned by Earl Gloddy, Kathy's father. Kathy Lynn disappeared on the evening of Nov. 21, 1971. Her body was found the next day. She had been raped, beaten, strangled and run over by a car.
"Karen [Gloddy Beaudin] and I used to baby-sit for him," said Janet Gloddy Young of Northfield, one of Kathy's three sisters.
In March 2006, Dukette walked into a jail in Florida and told the sheriff "he needed to be arrested." He allegedly told the sheriff he was with a girl named Gloddy when she died but he "couldn't remember if he raped her."
Dukette later recanted his story and told police he was ill and, because of a recent spinal tap, was "confused."
Delker said Wednesday that Dukette had definitely been a person of interest since 2006 and, as a result of Dukette's statements to Florida law enforcement, Kathy Lynn's body was exhumed and the case was reopened with the hopes that new technology such as DNA would shed some light on the cold case murder.
Merrimack County court records indicate Dukette pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl in 1969 and on June 1, 1970, was sentenced to a minimum of one year and one day and a maximum of three years in the N.H. State Prison, with six months of the minimum sentence suspended.
Delker said Dukette's name came up during the initial investigation of the rape and murder of Kathy Lynn, but declined to comment further.
Both Delker and Franklin Police Lt. Stephanie Clough said Dukette's statements were part of their 2006 investigation but neither would comment directly on any new revelations or confirm if they ever spoke directly to him.
"Like I said in 2006, we don't know if one or more people committed this crime," Delker said Wednesday.
When asked what Dukette's death means to the investigation, Delker said he still considers it an open homicide.
"I guess we'll regroup and decide where we go from here," he said.
In recent months, the Gloddy sisters have brought the unsolved murder of their sister into the media spotlight by publicly advocating before the state legislature for the creation of a dedicated cold case unit and working with private investigator Thomas Shamshak — a former Massachusetts police chief who is also involved in the investigation of the 2000 disappearance and murder of life guard Molly Bish in the central part of that state.
Last month, the Gloddy's held a vigil for Kathy Lynn on the front steps of the Franklin High School and led a procession of mourners holding daisies — Kathy Lynn's favorite flower — to the West Side Bridge.
They were guests of honor when Gov. John Lynch signed the cold case bill into law at the N.H. Statehouse last month.
In addition, the ABC News magazine "20/20" is working on a story about the murder and has twice filmed in Franklin — once at the vigil and a few days earlier when Shamshak took them to the actual place where police found her body.
Young said she and her sister Karen Gloddy Beaudin were interviewed by them in Boston while her sister Ann Gloddy Ring and brother Roger Gloddy were interviewed in Franklin.
Delker said he had been contacted by "20/20" and had agreed to an interview but said he didn't know "what will happen [with the news segment] with this new information."
Young said she had hoped Dukette "would tell us what he knew before he died, but I guess he took all that to the grave."
She said she prays that the police continue to investigate her sister's death despite Dukette's death.
"I just hope they don't give up now that this guy is dead," Young said.
"As far as I'm concerned this is still an open homicide," Delker said. "No warrants have been issued and we have not solved this case."
gober@citizen.com
Thursday, August 20, 2009
GLODDY
A one-time Franklin resident who died a week ago in Florida was a suspect in the still unsolved murder of 13-year-old Kathy Lynn Gloddy, the state Attorney General's Office has confirmed.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Neals-Eric "Will" Delker said Wednesday that Edward E. Dukette was a "person of interest" in Gloddy's murder 38 years ago.
Dukette, 66, of Old Town, Fla. died on Aug. 13, but in 1971 he was the upstairs tenant in the School Street home owned by Earl Gloddy, Kathy's father. Kathy Lynn disappeared on the evening of Nov. 21, 1971. Her body was found the next day. She had been raped, beaten, strangled and run over by a car.
"Karen [Gloddy Beaudin] and I used to baby-sit for him," said Janet Gloddy Young of Northfield, one of Kathy's three sisters.
In March 2006, Dukette walked into a jail in Florida and told the sheriff "he needed to be arrested." He allegedly told the sheriff he was with a girl named Gloddy when she died but he "couldn't remember if he raped her."
Dukette later recanted his story and told police he was ill and, because of a recent spinal tap, was "confused."
Delker said Wednesday that Dukette had definitely been a person of interest since 2006 and, as a result of Dukette's statements to Florida law enforcement, Kathy Lynn's body was exhumed and the case was reopened with the hopes that new technology such as DNA would shed some light on the cold case murder.
Merrimack County court records indicate Dukette pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl in 1969 and on June 1, 1970, was sentenced to a minimum of one year and one day and a maximum of three years in the N.H. State Prison, with six months of the minimum sentence suspended.
Delker said Dukette's name came up during the initial investigation of the rape and murder of Kathy Lynn, but declined to comment further.
Both Delker and Franklin Police Lt. Stephanie Clough said Dukette's statements were part of their 2006 investigation but neither would comment directly on any new revelations or confirm if they ever spoke directly to him.
"Like I said in 2006, we don't know if one or more people committed this crime," Delker said Wednesday.
When asked what Dukette's death means to the investigation, Delker said he still considers it an open homicide.
"I guess we'll regroup and decide where we go from here," he said.
In recent months, the Gloddy sisters have brought the unsolved murder of their sister into the media spotlight by publicly advocating before the state legislature for the creation of a dedicated cold case unit and working with private investigator Thomas Shamshak — a former Massachusetts police chief who is also involved in the investigation of the 2000 disappearance and murder of life guard Molly Bish in the central part of that state.
Last month, the Gloddy's held a vigil for Kathy Lynn on the front steps of the Franklin High School and led a procession of mourners holding daisies — Kathy Lynn's favorite flower — to the West Side Bridge.
They were guests of honor when Gov. John Lynch signed the cold case bill into law at the N.H. Statehouse last month.
In addition, the ABC News magazine "20/20" is working on a story about the murder and has twice filmed in Franklin — once at the vigil and a few days earlier when Shamshak took them to the actual place where police found her body.
Young said she and her sister Karen Gloddy Beaudin were interviewed by them in Boston while her sister Ann Gloddy Ring and brother Roger Gloddy were interviewed in Franklin.
Delker said he had been contacted by "20/20" and had agreed to an interview but said he didn't know "what will happen [with the news segment] with this new information."
Young said she had hoped Dukette "would tell us what he knew before he died, but I guess he took all that to the grave."
She said she prays that the police continue to investigate her sister's death despite Dukette's death.
"I just hope they don't give up now that this guy is dead," Young said.
"As far as I'm concerned this is still an open homicide," Delker said. "No warrants have been issued and we have not solved this case."
http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_24_aug_06/vol24_ref19.html
Police exhume girl's body
Investigators yesterday exhumed the body of a 13-year-old Franklin girl who was slain 35 years ago, in the hopes that new DNA evidence will identify her killer.
Kathy Lynn Gloddy, a pretty tomboy known for her compassion and skills at sandlot baseball, was raped, beaten, run over with a motor vehicle and left on a dirt road in West Franklin in November 1971. No one has ever been arrested for her death.
A break in the case came in March, when a Florida sex offender named Edward Dukette walked into his local jail and said he was with Gloddy when she died, according to a police report. Dukette, 63, formerly of Franklin, was one of several original suspects in 1971, according to court papers.
In seeking court permission to disinter Gloddy's body, the investigators' petition focused almost exclusively on Dukette, pointing to several parts of his account that matched the facts of the case.
Yesterday morning, Gloddy's family gathered at St. John's Cemetery in Tilton as her casket was unearthed. The painstaking process began about 8 a.m. and took more than five hours.
The state's medical examiner and a forensic anthropologist from Maine began examining the body yesterday afternoon, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker. Gloddy could be reburied as early as today, he said.
"We're hopeful that forensic evidence will help identify the killer,"Delker said.
The police uncovered a number of promising leads after Dukette came forward, Delker said. Two state police detectives are on the case, he said, along with Franklin police Lt. Stephanie Clough.
The forensic pathologist who conducted an autopsy on Gloddy in 1971 noted semen was present in her body, but he did not collect a sample of it at the time, according to court documents.
In seeking court permission to exhume Gloddy's body, an investigator wrote that a medical examiner told him that "additional DNA from the perpetrator may be recovered from Kathy Gloddy's body, even after 35 years."
But one expert said that, while the body may contain useful evidence, it's unlikely that traces of the killer's DNA can be found now.
"Chances are slim" that the semen will help investigators now, according to Max Houck, a former FBI forensic anthropologist who has written textbooks on the science.
"It may be there, but it's probably going to be degraded to a point where it wouldn't be useful for DNA analysis," Houck said.
Some of the rapist's mitochondrial DNA could have survived for three decades, Houck said. That form of DNA lasts longest, but it provides less information, narrowing the suspect pool only to the rapist's maternal line.
A focus on Dukette
Dukette has not been charged in connection with Gloddy's death, and investigators have not ruled out any suspects or the possibility that more than one person was involved in the killing, Delker said.
And Dukette has told reporters that he was confused when he told officers at the Dixie County Sheriff's department in Florida that he was with Gloddy when she died.
Doctors "did something to my back, a spinal tap is what they call it, and I had some very strange thoughts, and I thought I was guilty about something, but I am not sure that is so," Dukette told the Gainesville Sun this month.
But according to court papers, several pieces of his story have checked out.
Dukette told the officers in Florida that he got to know Gloddy when he lived in an apartment above her family's home in Franklin, New Hampshire state police Detective Scott Gilbert wrote in his affidavit.
The affidavit lays out the following similarities between Dukette's account and the police record:
q Gloddy's father, Earl, told investigators in 1971 that he had rented an apartment to Dukette. Earl Gloddy told the police that he evicted Dukette after he served as a juror in a case in which Dukette's father was convicted of statutory rape.
q Dukette told the Florida police he had gone fishing with Gloddy in East Andover on the day she died. Gloddy's body was found near a brook in West Franklin, close to the East Andover town line, according to the affidavit.
q Dukette also told the Florida police that the day Gloddy died, the two had engaged in "lovemaking"and "petting," the affidavit says. Dukette was 28, and Gloddy was 13.
"He told the investigators that he did not remember engaging in sexual intercourse with her but stated it was possible," the affidavit says.
"Dukette denied that he would force Kathy to have sex with him if she resisted and claims he would never have beaten her because 'he would never beat another woman.'"
Dukette's account of Gloddy's death is hazy.
"Dukette claims that he does not remember what happened next but he found her lying in the water," the affidavit says. "She was dead."
Dukette told the Florida police that he panicked, drove away and then came back. He said he put Gloddy's body in the trunk of his convertible and "buried" her somewhere in Franklin, although he later told New Hampshire investigators that he may have dug a hole without ultimately burying her, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit casts doubt on Dukette's claim of nonviolence.
In the summer of 1971 - a few months before Gloddy's murder -Dukette repeatedly beat and raped a 14-year-old girl in California, according to the affidavit. He was convicted of that crime but did not go to jail until the winter of 1973, because the police could not locate him.
People who drank and rode motorcycles with Dukette in Franklin in the early 1970s told the Monitor that he had a reputation for being rough with women and went by the nicknames "Filthy McNasty" and "Dirty Eddie."
Dukette left New Hampshire shortly after Gloddy was killed, his girlfriend at the time told the police.
In 1971, investigators considered Dukette one of several suspects in the crime.
"The police never interviewed Dukette at that time because they could not locate him," the affidavit says.
"The police focused on several other suspects at the time but no one was ever arrested for the murder of Kathy Gloddy."
Police exhume girl's body
Investigators yesterday exhumed the body of a 13-year-old Franklin girl who was slain 35 years ago, in the hopes that new DNA evidence will identify her killer.
Kathy Lynn Gloddy, a pretty tomboy known for her compassion and skills at sandlot baseball, was raped, beaten, run over with a motor vehicle and left on a dirt road in West Franklin in November 1971. No one has ever been arrested for her death.
A break in the case came in March, when a Florida sex offender named Edward Dukette walked into his local jail and said he was with Gloddy when she died, according to a police report. Dukette, 63, formerly of Franklin, was one of several original suspects in 1971, according to court papers.
In seeking court permission to disinter Gloddy's body, the investigators' petition focused almost exclusively on Dukette, pointing to several parts of his account that matched the facts of the case.
Yesterday morning, Gloddy's family gathered at St. John's Cemetery in Tilton as her casket was unearthed. The painstaking process began about 8 a.m. and took more than five hours.
The state's medical examiner and a forensic anthropologist from Maine began examining the body yesterday afternoon, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Will Delker. Gloddy could be reburied as early as today, he said.
"We're hopeful that forensic evidence will help identify the killer,"Delker said.
The police uncovered a number of promising leads after Dukette came forward, Delker said. Two state police detectives are on the case, he said, along with Franklin police Lt. Stephanie Clough.
The forensic pathologist who conducted an autopsy on Gloddy in 1971 noted semen was present in her body, but he did not collect a sample of it at the time, according to court documents.
In seeking court permission to exhume Gloddy's body, an investigator wrote that a medical examiner told him that "additional DNA from the perpetrator may be recovered from Kathy Gloddy's body, even after 35 years."
But one expert said that, while the body may contain useful evidence, it's unlikely that traces of the killer's DNA can be found now.
"Chances are slim" that the semen will help investigators now, according to Max Houck, a former FBI forensic anthropologist who has written textbooks on the science.
"It may be there, but it's probably going to be degraded to a point where it wouldn't be useful for DNA analysis," Houck said.
Some of the rapist's mitochondrial DNA could have survived for three decades, Houck said. That form of DNA lasts longest, but it provides less information, narrowing the suspect pool only to the rapist's maternal line.
A focus on Dukette
Dukette has not been charged in connection with Gloddy's death, and investigators have not ruled out any suspects or the possibility that more than one person was involved in the killing, Delker said.
And Dukette has told reporters that he was confused when he told officers at the Dixie County Sheriff's department in Florida that he was with Gloddy when she died.
Doctors "did something to my back, a spinal tap is what they call it, and I had some very strange thoughts, and I thought I was guilty about something, but I am not sure that is so," Dukette told the Gainesville Sun this month.
But according to court papers, several pieces of his story have checked out.
Dukette told the officers in Florida that he got to know Gloddy when he lived in an apartment above her family's home in Franklin, New Hampshire state police Detective Scott Gilbert wrote in his affidavit.
The affidavit lays out the following similarities between Dukette's account and the police record:
q Gloddy's father, Earl, told investigators in 1971 that he had rented an apartment to Dukette. Earl Gloddy told the police that he evicted Dukette after he served as a juror in a case in which Dukette's father was convicted of statutory rape.
q Dukette told the Florida police he had gone fishing with Gloddy in East Andover on the day she died. Gloddy's body was found near a brook in West Franklin, close to the East Andover town line, according to the affidavit.
q Dukette also told the Florida police that the day Gloddy died, the two had engaged in "lovemaking"and "petting," the affidavit says. Dukette was 28, and Gloddy was 13.
"He told the investigators that he did not remember engaging in sexual intercourse with her but stated it was possible," the affidavit says.
"Dukette denied that he would force Kathy to have sex with him if she resisted and claims he would never have beaten her because 'he would never beat another woman.'"
Dukette's account of Gloddy's death is hazy.
"Dukette claims that he does not remember what happened next but he found her lying in the water," the affidavit says. "She was dead."
Dukette told the Florida police that he panicked, drove away and then came back. He said he put Gloddy's body in the trunk of his convertible and "buried" her somewhere in Franklin, although he later told New Hampshire investigators that he may have dug a hole without ultimately burying her, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit casts doubt on Dukette's claim of nonviolence.
In the summer of 1971 - a few months before Gloddy's murder -Dukette repeatedly beat and raped a 14-year-old girl in California, according to the affidavit. He was convicted of that crime but did not go to jail until the winter of 1973, because the police could not locate him.
People who drank and rode motorcycles with Dukette in Franklin in the early 1970s told the Monitor that he had a reputation for being rough with women and went by the nicknames "Filthy McNasty" and "Dirty Eddie."
Dukette left New Hampshire shortly after Gloddy was killed, his girlfriend at the time told the police.
In 1971, investigators considered Dukette one of several suspects in the crime.
"The police never interviewed Dukette at that time because they could not locate him," the affidavit says.
"The police focused on several other suspects at the time but no one was ever arrested for the murder of Kathy Gloddy."
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Gloddy's father, Earl, told investigators in 1971 that he had rented an apartment to Dukette. Earl Gloddy told the police that he evicted Dukette after he served as a juror in a case in which Dukette's father was convicted of statutory rape.
i find that so interesting....son like father!?
could they had worked together on some of these crimes?
only time will tell!
http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/REPOSITORY/607160369/0/STATICPAGES0502
Yesterday, Dukette said he does not want to talk about his life in the 1970s.
"I have no response. My sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ," he said. "Can you change the past?"
Delker asked anyone familiar with Dukette and his connection with the Gloddy family to call the state police. Additionally, Delker said, investigators are looking for information about two people who may have known Dukette: Gerry Tassler and Terry Richardson.
In 1970, according to records at the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, Dukette served four months in prison for attempted statutory rape of a girl in Franklin. In 1973, Dukette was convicted of a rape in Los Angeles County, and he served nearly four years in prison, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Now, Dukette lives in a trailer in Old Town, Fla., a Panhandle town where he and his wife are known as regular churchgoers. In his front lawn, a blue-and-white sign lists the Ten Commandments. He relies on an oxygen tank, he said this week, and has for more than 20 years. He declined to speak with the Monitor yesterday, saying: "God bless you, bye-bye."
http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060714/REPOSITORY/607140304/0/STATICPAGES0502
ALL THIS TIME, I THOUGHT THIS PERSON DIED IN PRISON, I WAS SO WRONG ABOUT THAT!
I am pretty certain, 99.9% sure he did it, and they are just trying to confirm that with DNA.....that is why im assumping they exhumed the body, to confirm it.
It could have been in retaliation for being evicted, and for the father convicting his father of rape.
but just speculating on that.
These postings are more off topic, and if you like to have them deleted by me or a mod, its fine i understand.
looks like, he was in prison in 75?
i find that so interesting....son like father!?
could they had worked together on some of these crimes?
only time will tell!
http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060716/REPOSITORY/607160369/0/STATICPAGES0502
Yesterday, Dukette said he does not want to talk about his life in the 1970s.
"I have no response. My sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ," he said. "Can you change the past?"
Delker asked anyone familiar with Dukette and his connection with the Gloddy family to call the state police. Additionally, Delker said, investigators are looking for information about two people who may have known Dukette: Gerry Tassler and Terry Richardson.
In 1970, according to records at the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, Dukette served four months in prison for attempted statutory rape of a girl in Franklin. In 1973, Dukette was convicted of a rape in Los Angeles County, and he served nearly four years in prison, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Now, Dukette lives in a trailer in Old Town, Fla., a Panhandle town where he and his wife are known as regular churchgoers. In his front lawn, a blue-and-white sign lists the Ten Commandments. He relies on an oxygen tank, he said this week, and has for more than 20 years. He declined to speak with the Monitor yesterday, saying: "God bless you, bye-bye."
http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060714/REPOSITORY/607140304/0/STATICPAGES0502
ALL THIS TIME, I THOUGHT THIS PERSON DIED IN PRISON, I WAS SO WRONG ABOUT THAT!
I am pretty certain, 99.9% sure he did it, and they are just trying to confirm that with DNA.....that is why im assumping they exhumed the body, to confirm it.
It could have been in retaliation for being evicted, and for the father convicting his father of rape.
but just speculating on that.
These postings are more off topic, and if you like to have them deleted by me or a mod, its fine i understand.
looks like, he was in prison in 75?
Something does not sound right. If Earl Gloddy was renting an apartment to Dukette, would it not have been a conflict of interest for him to sit on a jury hearing a case against the older Dukette?
Dukette sounds like a rather strange bird. But if he was convicted of rape in California in 1973 and then jailed for four years, it would seem that he was otherwise engaged in 1975 when the Lyon Sisters disappeared and Kathy Lynn Beatty was attacked.
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yes, seems we can take him out of the 75 area, when there seemed to be several missing young women coming up missing around that time.....and that's good, it is nice to be able to subtract one from a list, when investigating a case.
but from 71 on back, i would diffidently look at him and his to comrades at the time....
without knowing the fathers story on the trial.....i can only assume, words were exchanged before, during or after the trial, verdict.
i still say he killed her, and as far as i am concerned, its just a matter of time, before they confirm that beyond a doubt, and it will finally be closed. and that is why they are trying the DNA tests, from exhuming Kathy's body.........
1975 cases, in and around the area.....I still have a focused on
John Brennan Crutchley. Hes still a prime candidate for some of these cold cases involving young girls.........I am hoping to read about some updates, on the new cold case squad that was developed.....to get an idea, on new possible suspects on these cases...........Those keys, they found, i wish they could try again, any property belonging to this person,.....once again, we need to see what these cold case detectives come up wit5h, and perhaps they will share some things, that has not been released.....that would help soooooo much, in placing some pieces to each puzzle, to get a better look at were we are out.........all i am trying to do right now, is to open up another path, on a long road, that they be able to travel down, if they actually read here, or would be interested in what has been posted.
quote...Dukette sounds like a rather strange bird...end of quote.
from what i read, he was, and his father to......in his young days, he was a biker i believe i read, from the 60s.....involved in all times of weird stuff.
including murder.......i would not be surprised , one day to read, him and his dad, committed together, or knew of each others crimes........
what we could really use right now, what would really help.
\if we could find some remains, of these missing young women!
THAT'S, what i want to do more then anything right now.......that would open up new doors, and paths, and close old ones, and end chapter for families, and love ones.
as time goes on, more often then not, any of these cases get resolved, it will be from remains found, and bodies exhumed for DNA testing etc.
because some of the perps, whom committed several murders over the years, wont be found, unless they exhumed the bodies, but that is fine, if it brings closure, to the family and love ones left behind, after all, that is why we are doing this, to bring that closure, that has been left open for so long...............................
addon ....n the summer of 1971 - a few months before Gloddy's murder -Dukette repeatedly beat and raped a 14-year-old girl in California, according to the affidavit. He was convicted of that crime but did not go to jail until the winter of 1973, because the police could not locate him.
seems, he mayhad been envolved in some kind of murder spree, while on the run after 1971 conviction, and not found until 73
but same MO..........beat and raped young girl....
July 2010 will mark the 35 year anniversary of the Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty. Hopefully there will be some resolution in her case or at least some more information made available.
Kathy was 14 years old, a beautiful young girl looking forward to starting high school and enjoying a warm summer evening the night that she was abducted and brutally assulted and left for dead.
The question persists of who did this terrible thing.
Kathy was known to have been walking around outside that evening. She was seen by other children near Parkland Middle School which was only a block or so from her home. She was also visited at her home by the young boy from next door who came over to give her a T shirt. It is possible that she called a girl friend that night to arrange a "cover story" of being at the girl's house prior to going to visit a boy whom she had a crush on.
Whether or not she saw the boy that night has never been establsihed with certainty. It would be nice to know who that boy was and exactly what he had to say to investigators at the time. And what he might say today.
It is not known for certain where Kathy went that night or what route she took, but it is known that early the next morning, she was found beaten nearly to death across Georgia Ave, near the K-Mart in a rocky and trash strewn field near a stream bed. Her mother had stated that Kathy loved to walk to the K-Mart to look at bikes, and this was one of the first places that she went to look for her daughter that night.
It is quite possible that Kathy did indeed walk toward K-Mart that night. If she did, there were basically two routes she could have taken. One would be to walk on the roads that a car would be forced to drive in order to get out of her subdivision. She may have been picked up by someone in her neighborhood and driven on that route, but there is no evidence of that.
The other route would be much more direct and shorter. It would require cutting through at least one yard to get on the more direct road to K-Mart.
The more direct route would take her through or next to two parking lots belonging to Vitro Laboratories. Those parking lots still exist today and are used by the Home Depot, which was built years later on the same site of one of two Aspen Hill Vitro Buildings.
Working at Vitro Laboratories in Aspen Hill was a man named Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. He had been hired by Vitro in April 1975 and had spent the previous 12 years in the Navy. The Navy had discharged him because he had been convicted of raping a 13 year old girl in Virginia Beach, VA. Coffey is currently incarcerated in the North Carolina Prison System for the abduction and murder of a 10-year-old girl named Amanda Ray. He was also convicted of numerous other crimes against children and a prime suspect in the deaths of others.
Immediately after the attack on Kathy and after the newspapers announced that she was still alive in a hospital, Fred Coffey left town. He did not tell anyone that he was leaving - not even his boss at Vitro. Some time later, after Kathy died, Coffey wrote to Vitro explaining that his wife and daughter had been in a Kentucky car accident and asked that his last paycheck be mailed to him. He was paid through 31 July 1975.
It was later learned that the car accident was a total lie and that he used the same lie when leaving another job under suspicious circumstances.
Kathy was 14 years old, a beautiful young girl looking forward to starting high school and enjoying a warm summer evening the night that she was abducted and brutally assulted and left for dead.
The question persists of who did this terrible thing.
Kathy was known to have been walking around outside that evening. She was seen by other children near Parkland Middle School which was only a block or so from her home. She was also visited at her home by the young boy from next door who came over to give her a T shirt. It is possible that she called a girl friend that night to arrange a "cover story" of being at the girl's house prior to going to visit a boy whom she had a crush on.
Whether or not she saw the boy that night has never been establsihed with certainty. It would be nice to know who that boy was and exactly what he had to say to investigators at the time. And what he might say today.
It is not known for certain where Kathy went that night or what route she took, but it is known that early the next morning, she was found beaten nearly to death across Georgia Ave, near the K-Mart in a rocky and trash strewn field near a stream bed. Her mother had stated that Kathy loved to walk to the K-Mart to look at bikes, and this was one of the first places that she went to look for her daughter that night.
It is quite possible that Kathy did indeed walk toward K-Mart that night. If she did, there were basically two routes she could have taken. One would be to walk on the roads that a car would be forced to drive in order to get out of her subdivision. She may have been picked up by someone in her neighborhood and driven on that route, but there is no evidence of that.
The other route would be much more direct and shorter. It would require cutting through at least one yard to get on the more direct road to K-Mart.
The more direct route would take her through or next to two parking lots belonging to Vitro Laboratories. Those parking lots still exist today and are used by the Home Depot, which was built years later on the same site of one of two Aspen Hill Vitro Buildings.
Working at Vitro Laboratories in Aspen Hill was a man named Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. He had been hired by Vitro in April 1975 and had spent the previous 12 years in the Navy. The Navy had discharged him because he had been convicted of raping a 13 year old girl in Virginia Beach, VA. Coffey is currently incarcerated in the North Carolina Prison System for the abduction and murder of a 10-year-old girl named Amanda Ray. He was also convicted of numerous other crimes against children and a prime suspect in the deaths of others.
Immediately after the attack on Kathy and after the newspapers announced that she was still alive in a hospital, Fred Coffey left town. He did not tell anyone that he was leaving - not even his boss at Vitro. Some time later, after Kathy died, Coffey wrote to Vitro explaining that his wife and daughter had been in a Kentucky car accident and asked that his last paycheck be mailed to him. He was paid through 31 July 1975.
It was later learned that the car accident was a total lie and that he used the same lie when leaving another job under suspicious circumstances.
In 1975, one Kathy Lynn Beatty was found, beaten and unconscious, in a ditch behind the local K-Mart store. Taken to hospital, she never recovered consciousness and died from her injuries some days later. The case remains unsolved, despite many long years of speculation, conjecture, and follow-up.
Some suggest that locals had to be responsible, and others have suggested -- plausibly -- that this might have been the work of convicted pedophile and murderer Fred Howard Coffey, who was, in this timeframe, working at Vitro Labs, now BAE Systems Subsurface Weapons division. This theory is considered widely supportable yet local investigators are in no way convinced.
Alternatively, a less circulated theory posits the potential involvement of John Brennan Crutchley, sensationalized in the Florida media in 1985 as "the Florida Vampire Rapist". Coffey remains in prison yet is not cooperative with investigators; Crutchley died in prison in 2002, supposedly of auto-erotic asphyxiation.
Interestingly, Crutchley was employed, in the DC area in the mid-1970s and later in Florida until the time of his arrest, by weapons-systems contractor Harris Corporation. He's not particularly infamous in the DC region, where even most police investigators have never heard of him unless they've read certain classic textbooks such as the memoir of Robert K Ressler, known to posterity as "the father of serial-killer profiling". In that memoir, Ressler conveys his deep unease about both the known facts surrounding Crutchley, and the probably orchestrated lack of facts surrounding damning circumstantial association to Crutchley of a long string of unsolved heinous crimes and assorted highly suspicious disappearances.
Yet despite Ressler's suspicions, the only major crimes for which Crutchley was ever convicted were rape and kidnapping, and even that was a plea-bargain arrangement to escape from a drug possession charge and a charge of "grevious bodily harm". It might be alleged that Crutchley was so easily persuaded to accept the plea bargain because that would be the course of action that would most quickly end direct official inquiries. Shortly after his arrest, various Federal agencies were contemplating charging him with espionage. At the time of his arrest, he was in possession of a wide range of highly-classified documents and materials... weapons-research, and rocket science....
Source:
More Mental Mojo: [Mythos X] Sacrifices of Blood and Soul
LINK:
http://blog.thomashardman.com/2010/04/mythos-x.html
Some suggest that locals had to be responsible, and others have suggested -- plausibly -- that this might have been the work of convicted pedophile and murderer Fred Howard Coffey, who was, in this timeframe, working at Vitro Labs, now BAE Systems Subsurface Weapons division. This theory is considered widely supportable yet local investigators are in no way convinced.
Alternatively, a less circulated theory posits the potential involvement of John Brennan Crutchley, sensationalized in the Florida media in 1985 as "the Florida Vampire Rapist". Coffey remains in prison yet is not cooperative with investigators; Crutchley died in prison in 2002, supposedly of auto-erotic asphyxiation.
Interestingly, Crutchley was employed, in the DC area in the mid-1970s and later in Florida until the time of his arrest, by weapons-systems contractor Harris Corporation. He's not particularly infamous in the DC region, where even most police investigators have never heard of him unless they've read certain classic textbooks such as the memoir of Robert K Ressler, known to posterity as "the father of serial-killer profiling". In that memoir, Ressler conveys his deep unease about both the known facts surrounding Crutchley, and the probably orchestrated lack of facts surrounding damning circumstantial association to Crutchley of a long string of unsolved heinous crimes and assorted highly suspicious disappearances.
Yet despite Ressler's suspicions, the only major crimes for which Crutchley was ever convicted were rape and kidnapping, and even that was a plea-bargain arrangement to escape from a drug possession charge and a charge of "grevious bodily harm". It might be alleged that Crutchley was so easily persuaded to accept the plea bargain because that would be the course of action that would most quickly end direct official inquiries. Shortly after his arrest, various Federal agencies were contemplating charging him with espionage. At the time of his arrest, he was in possession of a wide range of highly-classified documents and materials... weapons-research, and rocket science....
Source:
More Mental Mojo: [Mythos X] Sacrifices of Blood and Soul
LINK:
http://blog.thomashardman.com/2010/04/mythos-x.html
Here are some comments regarding the Kathy Lynn Beatty case:
------------------------------------------------
... Kathy Lynn Beatty, who was sexually assaulted, brutally beaten, and left to die behind the K-Mart on Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill. At that time, the area was relatively undeveloped and covered with second-growth forest in parts, and lots of local teens and some young adults used to party in the woods with drugs and beer. Whether or not Tim Buzbee did in fact know of the "party place" is unknown to this writer, however "the Rocks" as a party place was very widely known. The case remains open, of course, and recently efforts have been escalated towards final solution of this Cold Case.
There is already a very old and well-developed "suspects list" in that case, but it seems reasonable to believe that through oversight -- probably based on a mistaken belief that Tim Buzbee wasn't raping anytime before 1981 -- Buzbee was never on the suspects-list for the Beatty case. If he was not, it's time to add him, due to the new information of a DNA match to rapes in the area just 2 years after the Beatty case struck fear into the neighborhood....
Source:
"Aspen Hill Rapist" Charged Again With More Crimes by Thomas Hardman
LINK:
http://oldblog.thomashardman.com/2009/10/aspen-hill-rapist-charged-again-with.html
------------------------------------------------
... Kathy Lynn Beatty, who was sexually assaulted, brutally beaten, and left to die behind the K-Mart on Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill. At that time, the area was relatively undeveloped and covered with second-growth forest in parts, and lots of local teens and some young adults used to party in the woods with drugs and beer. Whether or not Tim Buzbee did in fact know of the "party place" is unknown to this writer, however "the Rocks" as a party place was very widely known. The case remains open, of course, and recently efforts have been escalated towards final solution of this Cold Case.
There is already a very old and well-developed "suspects list" in that case, but it seems reasonable to believe that through oversight -- probably based on a mistaken belief that Tim Buzbee wasn't raping anytime before 1981 -- Buzbee was never on the suspects-list for the Beatty case. If he was not, it's time to add him, due to the new information of a DNA match to rapes in the area just 2 years after the Beatty case struck fear into the neighborhood....
Source:
"Aspen Hill Rapist" Charged Again With More Crimes by Thomas Hardman
LINK:
http://oldblog.thomashardman.com/2009/10/aspen-hill-rapist-charged-again-with.html
helpfulcharlie
Probably not the real Chuck Finley
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I met Buzbee's wife on a bus shortly after his capture. She was talking to anyone who would listen, still absolutely reeling from the news that she was married to the Aspen Hill rapist.
The area where Kathy was found was an area that my friends and I used to explore. We would walk up to the K-mart, and the 7-11 and motorcycle shop that was in the same lot, from our apartments down Bel Pre Road, frequently. In addition to the grounds around and behind K-mart, we spent a lot of time in the fenced-in back section of the Gate of Heaven cemetary. There were woods and more drainage ditches in there. I wonder if any of our graffiti that we left on the concrete drainage ditches is still there.
I don't remember hearing about Kathy's murder until much more recently, like within the last five to ten years or so, which is surprising, because I think I moved there just a few years after it happened. But then again, this whole area was apartments, with a very transient population, so it kind of makes sense.
The area where Kathy was found was an area that my friends and I used to explore. We would walk up to the K-mart, and the 7-11 and motorcycle shop that was in the same lot, from our apartments down Bel Pre Road, frequently. In addition to the grounds around and behind K-mart, we spent a lot of time in the fenced-in back section of the Gate of Heaven cemetary. There were woods and more drainage ditches in there. I wonder if any of our graffiti that we left on the concrete drainage ditches is still there.
I don't remember hearing about Kathy's murder until much more recently, like within the last five to ten years or so, which is surprising, because I think I moved there just a few years after it happened. But then again, this whole area was apartments, with a very transient population, so it kind of makes sense.
There is a very large disparity between the news coverage that the Lyon case received and the coverage that Kathy Lynn Beatty's case received.
The Lyon Case was front page news for weeks. It was mentioned every year and later every five years in anniversary articles and TV news bites. Every time there was a disappearance of a child it seems that it was compared to the Lyon case.
Kathy's news coverage, on the other hand, consisted of a small two or three paragraph article in the middle of a Saturday paper, followed two weeks later by another small article which stated that she had died in the hospital. About six months later, there was a larger feature article about her case. That was it for years until they more recently began to feature it as a cold case.
The two cases were never officially connected by police investigators or spokespersons. They did occur about four miles apart in distance and four months apart in time. The Lyon sisters have never turned up, while Kathy was left for dead and found the next morning.
------------------------------------------------
From Kathy Lynn Beatty website:
Timeline of Events (July 24, 1975)
4:00 PM : Her mother last saw her.
6:30 or 7:00 PM : A boy who lived next door had seen Kathy at home. He had brought her a shirt from Ocean City, chatted with her awhile, then left, said her mother.
8:30 PM: There were several persons who saw her the night she disappeared near Parkland Junior High School. Several of them, youngsters Kathy's age, refused to take polygraph tests.
Around 11:00 PM: Mrs. Beatty returned home to a dark house.
It was July 24, 1975, when Kathy received the fatal blow to her head and was left lying behind the K-Mart at Georgia and Connecticut Avenues. During a search the next morning, Kathy's partially clad body was found lying in aditch that runs through the wooded area behind the store with a depressed fracture of the skull. It had rained that night. Kathy didn't die until 11 days later in the intensive care unit at Suburban Hospital. Kathy died of complications,including blood poisoning.
"Everyone liked her. I don't understand why they had to kill her" said Mrs. Beatty.
I think somebody knows.....I have a feeling somebody knows who's responsible and is not talking. I hope somebody will come forward.
Excerpts from the Washington Post Newspaper 6 January 1997. The Beatty murder: "we have ideas about who was involved", By Martha M. Hamilton Washington Post Reporter
Source:
Kathybeatty.com - Solving Kathy's Murder
LINK:
http://www.kathybeatty.com/
From Montgomery County Police Website...
Cold Case 1975: Kathy Beatty
On July 25,1975, 15-year-old Kathy Beatty was found unconscious in a wooded area in the rear of the Kmart department store located at Georgia Avenue and Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, Maryland.
The hospital examination revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and hit on the head with a blunt instrument. Kathy never regained consciousness and died on August 8, 1975.
Kathy was a student at Parkland Junior High School. In 1975, the surrounding area near Georgia Avenue and Connecticutt Avenue was referred to as the "hill" or the "rocks".
Parkland Junior High School, the Aspen Hill shopping center, and the "hill" were a gathering place for local teenagers that lived and grew up in the neighborhood. Kathy was known to frequent these areas.
She was last seen on July 24, 1975 at approximately 9:00 p.m. walking on West Frankfort Street near Parkland Junior High School. She was alone at the time.
The keys photographed above were found next to her purse at the time of her discovery. The keys do not belong to her. The automobile key is from a 1972 General Motors vehicle. The house key was from a door knob type lock approximately 10 years old. The leather strap was probably made as a school project.
At the time of the homicide, investigators interviewed numerous friends and acquaintances of Kathy Beatty. Several of those interviewed gave inconsistent statements to police as to their whereabouts on the night that Kathy was last seen.
Two witnesses observed two male suspects carrying the body of a white female fitting the description of Kathy Beatty. The suspects were seen heading eastbound crossing Georgia Avenue towards the 7-Eleven convenience store and continuing on towards the "hill" area.
Suspect one is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing a dark-colored jacket. He was taller than suspect two.
Suspect two is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing dark clothing. He had fluffy, light brown hair that had grown below his ears.
Investigators believe that the information obtained from the witness is consistent with the chronology of events leading up to the discovery of Kathy in the area of the "hill".
Source:
MC Department of Police: Major Crimes Division
LINK:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/p.../majorcrimes/ColdCase/ColdCaseKathyBeatty.asp
Cold Case 1975: Kathy Beatty
On July 25,1975, 15-year-old Kathy Beatty was found unconscious in a wooded area in the rear of the Kmart department store located at Georgia Avenue and Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, Maryland.
The hospital examination revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and hit on the head with a blunt instrument. Kathy never regained consciousness and died on August 8, 1975.
Kathy was a student at Parkland Junior High School. In 1975, the surrounding area near Georgia Avenue and Connecticutt Avenue was referred to as the "hill" or the "rocks".
Parkland Junior High School, the Aspen Hill shopping center, and the "hill" were a gathering place for local teenagers that lived and grew up in the neighborhood. Kathy was known to frequent these areas.
She was last seen on July 24, 1975 at approximately 9:00 p.m. walking on West Frankfort Street near Parkland Junior High School. She was alone at the time.
The keys photographed above were found next to her purse at the time of her discovery. The keys do not belong to her. The automobile key is from a 1972 General Motors vehicle. The house key was from a door knob type lock approximately 10 years old. The leather strap was probably made as a school project.
At the time of the homicide, investigators interviewed numerous friends and acquaintances of Kathy Beatty. Several of those interviewed gave inconsistent statements to police as to their whereabouts on the night that Kathy was last seen.
Two witnesses observed two male suspects carrying the body of a white female fitting the description of Kathy Beatty. The suspects were seen heading eastbound crossing Georgia Avenue towards the 7-Eleven convenience store and continuing on towards the "hill" area.
Suspect one is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing a dark-colored jacket. He was taller than suspect two.
Suspect two is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing dark clothing. He had fluffy, light brown hair that had grown below his ears.
Investigators believe that the information obtained from the witness is consistent with the chronology of events leading up to the discovery of Kathy in the area of the "hill".
Source:
MC Department of Police: Major Crimes Division
LINK:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/p.../majorcrimes/ColdCase/ColdCaseKathyBeatty.asp
:+:MrTT:+:
Cold Case Files
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the kids whom refused to take the polygraph tests back then, i wonder if any of them came forward after all these years and agreed to voluntarily take it to clear there name?..........That is a question for LE i know, but it would help to know that, and if any have not, what have they been up to, these last 35 years?
And Richard, you are God-sent on cold cases
And Richard, you are God-sent on cold cases
Soulmagent
On Time Out
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I have always wondered if Hadden Clark had anything to do with this Jane doe. He often worked as a painter. He also has CT ties as well as Maryland and New Jersey. Thomas Meade' is a possiblity for her as well.
Hadden clark would have been 22-23 in 1975. His birthday is July 31 1952.
After researching all the known serial killer to have maryland ties it scares me to think about the ones they dont know about.
I
Hadden Clark would be a good possible suspect in these cases. He is mentioned in the thread "Possible Suspects" of the Lyon Sisters topic, and there is also a thread on him in the Cold Cases topic titled "Meet Hadden Clark, Not So Sweet Transvestite".
Clark was convicted of two abduction-murders in Montgomery county, Maryland and is currently serving life sentences in the Maryland prison system. In 1974, he was attending a school in culinary art to become a chef at a school not too far from West Point, NY and Connecticut.
He actually admitted to having murdered women in Connecticut and tried to lead investigators to graves and crime sites up there, but if they found anything, he never went to trial for it.
Thomas Hardman
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As someone living in the community at the time -- Kathy Beatty was maybe two or three grades behind me in school -- I remember the shock and consternation that followed this event. The community remains unsettled to this day.
As mentioned in some of the articles, there's been a lot of rumor-mongering since that time. And with so much time having passed, a lot of people have passed on who conceivably could have been witnesses, involved, or had knowledge that could shed light on this.
From the 1977 Washington Post article:
[Major Wayne] Brown thinks that it may not have been meant to end the way it did. "We're still working on that. We still have some investigative techniques to apply," he said. "I have always felt that someone should come forward on that case."
Kathy had been sexually assaulted but not raped. More specifically than that, police will not say. "I have a feeling that the person or persons who did it didn't intend to kill her," said Brown. "It's highly possible that she ran from her assailant and fell against a blunt object. I've always felt the result wasn't intended, and that would be mitigating, if a person came forward to ease his or her conscience," he said.
I do recall that the night of the event, probably most of the young adults and teens in the area went to see a concert by the band "Yes" which played at the Capital Centre. A lot of people saw their friends and acquaintances there, and that provided alibi. Yet a lot of the people who were questioned by police gave answers that the investigators classified as "evasive". It's not stated anywhere as to when the police started asking questions, but remember it was almost two weeks from the time that Kathy Beatty was found unconscious to the time that she died of her injuries.
Perhaps a lot of the people being questioned were questioned before the police started investigating this as murder. Perhaps they thought that Kathy would recover. Note that Mrs Beatty herself thought of this:
She headed for the friend's house, but when she arrived, Kathy wasn't there. "The children said she had been there but had left," said Mrs. Beatty. As it happened, Kathy had not been there at all. "I think they were trying to cover for her".
The teen and young-adult culture of this suburb, at the time, was rife with drug use, at levels ranging from experimentation or occasional use, to fairly hard-core daily use or at least marijuana, with occasional forays into other "recreational chemicals". I didn't know Kathy well at all, and doubt she even "partied" as the slang would say it. But quite likely the same people who gave "evasive" answers did, and they were covering for themselves, for their friends, conceivably for Kathy also.
This was something most of the teens would do; if someone was drinking under age, it would be explained as a simple accident, not as a drunken misadventure. Depending on which kids and which drugs and which situations and which accidents, sometimes the "partiers" would simply go on their way and let the affected individual(s) find their own way home.
I can't think of how that fact could apply to this situation but it has to be mentioned because it's in the circumstances of the neighborhood and that time-frame of neighborhood culture of the teens and young-adults.
Very near where Kathy's body is said to be found -- I do not know the exact location although rumors have circulated for years they are still just rumors -- was where a lot of young guys rode their motorcycles. These were not mini-bikes. The article is mistaken about that. These were what would be called "motocross" in later years. These were things like "Honda Trail 70" and similar brands of Yamaha or Suzuki. They had top speeds of probably 60 miles per hour and a lot of the young guys would drive them that fast. I know her boyfriend at the time, he and I and a lot of that circle of guys were in Boy Scouts together. I cannot even imagine that any of them could have hurt Kathy Beatty. I can imagine that they'd fight as hard as they could to protect her. Like I said: Boy Scouts. Good ones.
Reading the time line... it's possible, I guess, that Kathy could have gone to see her boyfriend, and that they all went up to "the trails" to ride and race. And I can imagine that they had a certain time to meet up with some friends with cars in order to get rides to the concert. It's possible that the boys told the parents they were camping out in the yard. Lots of us guys did that, it was like girls having slumber parties. Maybe they said they'd be camping and actually went to the concert. The police might know this. If they do, they haven't publicly said so.
Imagine that they're all up there at the trails, the guys see the time approaching to go meet their rides to the concert, they walk with, or give a motorcycle ride to, Kathy to get her to the KMart parking lot. Then they hurry away to catch their rides. Kathy isn't allowed out past dark and probably not to go to a concert, either.
This sets a time-frame for Kathy's encounter with her sexual assailant. Whenever the other kids left to take their motorcycles home and catch a ride, that's the earliest. Call it maybe 7:00PM or so since the concerts usually were scheduled for 8:00 or 8:30 PM and the Capital Centre was about 40 minutes away around the Beltway.
But this presupposes that Kathy was in any condition to walk home.
Remember, Major Wayne Brown suggested that there could have been an element of accident involved. Nobody's ever seen the hospital report except for the investigators, I guess. But are any of Kathy's reported injuries inconsistent with falling off of a speeding motocross trail bike, riding barefoot and without a helmet?
Even if this is the case, I can't think of any way to explain away the sexual assault. Other than maybe some kids doing something stupid, maybe seeing a couple making out, trying to jump a bike over them, and clipping someone in the head. But that's even more unlikely than a chance encounter with Fred Coffey or John Crutchley.
The police seem convinced that this was murder, perhaps not intended to be a killing. But Maryland law makes it murder if someone committed any crime and the consequent events left someone dead and the original crime was committed with intent, with "mens rea". If this was something to do with kids playing risky games and someone got hurt, there's no "mens rea" (or criminal intent).
Keep in mind that these were kids. Kids will run around and get hurt, kids on drugs might run around and run into trees and laugh about it, or lay there for a while before they get up and laugh about it. "What a rush" we used to say back in the day.
I realize everyone wants to lay this death at the door of a serial killer or serial rapist. But what if it's a case of some kids who were riding too fast and hard, one fell off of the back of her boyfriend's bike? And the rest of the kids all said "we gotta catch that ride to the concert," and figured that their friend left behind wasn't hurt all that bad? That they'd get up and walk it off, walk home? That they didn't know that it was a depressed skull fracture?
And that they'd let endless speculation go on about a murder, with a murderer that nobody has found leads on even after 35 years... just so that they wouldn't have to face the shame that they would rather run off to see a really cool concert by a really cool band, rather than miss the show by going back to see if their friend was okay? And that because of this a friend DIED.
As mentioned in some of the articles, there's been a lot of rumor-mongering since that time. And with so much time having passed, a lot of people have passed on who conceivably could have been witnesses, involved, or had knowledge that could shed light on this.
From the 1977 Washington Post article:
[Major Wayne] Brown thinks that it may not have been meant to end the way it did. "We're still working on that. We still have some investigative techniques to apply," he said. "I have always felt that someone should come forward on that case."
Kathy had been sexually assaulted but not raped. More specifically than that, police will not say. "I have a feeling that the person or persons who did it didn't intend to kill her," said Brown. "It's highly possible that she ran from her assailant and fell against a blunt object. I've always felt the result wasn't intended, and that would be mitigating, if a person came forward to ease his or her conscience," he said.
I do recall that the night of the event, probably most of the young adults and teens in the area went to see a concert by the band "Yes" which played at the Capital Centre. A lot of people saw their friends and acquaintances there, and that provided alibi. Yet a lot of the people who were questioned by police gave answers that the investigators classified as "evasive". It's not stated anywhere as to when the police started asking questions, but remember it was almost two weeks from the time that Kathy Beatty was found unconscious to the time that she died of her injuries.
Perhaps a lot of the people being questioned were questioned before the police started investigating this as murder. Perhaps they thought that Kathy would recover. Note that Mrs Beatty herself thought of this:
She headed for the friend's house, but when she arrived, Kathy wasn't there. "The children said she had been there but had left," said Mrs. Beatty. As it happened, Kathy had not been there at all. "I think they were trying to cover for her".
The teen and young-adult culture of this suburb, at the time, was rife with drug use, at levels ranging from experimentation or occasional use, to fairly hard-core daily use or at least marijuana, with occasional forays into other "recreational chemicals". I didn't know Kathy well at all, and doubt she even "partied" as the slang would say it. But quite likely the same people who gave "evasive" answers did, and they were covering for themselves, for their friends, conceivably for Kathy also.
This was something most of the teens would do; if someone was drinking under age, it would be explained as a simple accident, not as a drunken misadventure. Depending on which kids and which drugs and which situations and which accidents, sometimes the "partiers" would simply go on their way and let the affected individual(s) find their own way home.
I can't think of how that fact could apply to this situation but it has to be mentioned because it's in the circumstances of the neighborhood and that time-frame of neighborhood culture of the teens and young-adults.
Very near where Kathy's body is said to be found -- I do not know the exact location although rumors have circulated for years they are still just rumors -- was where a lot of young guys rode their motorcycles. These were not mini-bikes. The article is mistaken about that. These were what would be called "motocross" in later years. These were things like "Honda Trail 70" and similar brands of Yamaha or Suzuki. They had top speeds of probably 60 miles per hour and a lot of the young guys would drive them that fast. I know her boyfriend at the time, he and I and a lot of that circle of guys were in Boy Scouts together. I cannot even imagine that any of them could have hurt Kathy Beatty. I can imagine that they'd fight as hard as they could to protect her. Like I said: Boy Scouts. Good ones.
Reading the time line... it's possible, I guess, that Kathy could have gone to see her boyfriend, and that they all went up to "the trails" to ride and race. And I can imagine that they had a certain time to meet up with some friends with cars in order to get rides to the concert. It's possible that the boys told the parents they were camping out in the yard. Lots of us guys did that, it was like girls having slumber parties. Maybe they said they'd be camping and actually went to the concert. The police might know this. If they do, they haven't publicly said so.
Imagine that they're all up there at the trails, the guys see the time approaching to go meet their rides to the concert, they walk with, or give a motorcycle ride to, Kathy to get her to the KMart parking lot. Then they hurry away to catch their rides. Kathy isn't allowed out past dark and probably not to go to a concert, either.
This sets a time-frame for Kathy's encounter with her sexual assailant. Whenever the other kids left to take their motorcycles home and catch a ride, that's the earliest. Call it maybe 7:00PM or so since the concerts usually were scheduled for 8:00 or 8:30 PM and the Capital Centre was about 40 minutes away around the Beltway.
But this presupposes that Kathy was in any condition to walk home.
Remember, Major Wayne Brown suggested that there could have been an element of accident involved. Nobody's ever seen the hospital report except for the investigators, I guess. But are any of Kathy's reported injuries inconsistent with falling off of a speeding motocross trail bike, riding barefoot and without a helmet?
Even if this is the case, I can't think of any way to explain away the sexual assault. Other than maybe some kids doing something stupid, maybe seeing a couple making out, trying to jump a bike over them, and clipping someone in the head. But that's even more unlikely than a chance encounter with Fred Coffey or John Crutchley.
The police seem convinced that this was murder, perhaps not intended to be a killing. But Maryland law makes it murder if someone committed any crime and the consequent events left someone dead and the original crime was committed with intent, with "mens rea". If this was something to do with kids playing risky games and someone got hurt, there's no "mens rea" (or criminal intent).
Keep in mind that these were kids. Kids will run around and get hurt, kids on drugs might run around and run into trees and laugh about it, or lay there for a while before they get up and laugh about it. "What a rush" we used to say back in the day.
I realize everyone wants to lay this death at the door of a serial killer or serial rapist. But what if it's a case of some kids who were riding too fast and hard, one fell off of the back of her boyfriend's bike? And the rest of the kids all said "we gotta catch that ride to the concert," and figured that their friend left behind wasn't hurt all that bad? That they'd get up and walk it off, walk home? That they didn't know that it was a depressed skull fracture?
And that they'd let endless speculation go on about a murder, with a murderer that nobody has found leads on even after 35 years... just so that they wouldn't have to face the shame that they would rather run off to see a really cool concert by a really cool band, rather than miss the show by going back to see if their friend was okay? And that because of this a friend DIED.
Thomas,
Welcome to Websleuths and thank you for your views and insight into Kathy's case.
It certainly is possible (in fact likely) that other folks who were kids at the time know something and that many were evading questions to cover up their own activities that night.
My feeling regarding Officer Brown's comments to the press is that he was trying to get someone to come forward by suggesting that it might have been an "accident", rather than an expression of a true belief that it really was an accident. At the time he made the statement, several months had gone by and police had not developed any solid leads from eyewitnesses.
As you point out, Kathy's medical condition and autopsy reports are not public knowledge. A review of them by competant authorities might very well provide more information regarding her activities that last night. For instance; what was the condition of her bare feet? What were the nature of her injuries?
Crime scene photos might help as well. Where exactly was she found and what was the condition of the area around her? Was there evidence of a struggle, or was she dumped there? What was the condition/location of her clothing and personal items?
I have heard that her assult and murder was particularly violent. If it took place in an open field near the K-Mart Parking lot, someone must have witnessed it. More likely, she was murdered elsewhere and dumped at that location, along with all of her scattered clothing, her assailant thinking that she was dead.
At this late date, some 35 years later, there could be no possible reason for anyone to continue to cover for their own juvenile activities that evening. Hopefully someone will come forward to assist investigators with any part of the puzzle that they could provide - however seemingly small or insignificant.
In regard to the possible serial killers mentioned in your post and in the posts of others, perhaps a photo line-up could be shown to anyone who was in the neighborhood or at K-mart that night. Someone who was there who may not have actually seen Kathy or any kind of confrontation, might recall having seen one of the potential suspects that evening.
Welcome to Websleuths and thank you for your views and insight into Kathy's case.
It certainly is possible (in fact likely) that other folks who were kids at the time know something and that many were evading questions to cover up their own activities that night.
My feeling regarding Officer Brown's comments to the press is that he was trying to get someone to come forward by suggesting that it might have been an "accident", rather than an expression of a true belief that it really was an accident. At the time he made the statement, several months had gone by and police had not developed any solid leads from eyewitnesses.
As you point out, Kathy's medical condition and autopsy reports are not public knowledge. A review of them by competant authorities might very well provide more information regarding her activities that last night. For instance; what was the condition of her bare feet? What were the nature of her injuries?
Crime scene photos might help as well. Where exactly was she found and what was the condition of the area around her? Was there evidence of a struggle, or was she dumped there? What was the condition/location of her clothing and personal items?
I have heard that her assult and murder was particularly violent. If it took place in an open field near the K-Mart Parking lot, someone must have witnessed it. More likely, she was murdered elsewhere and dumped at that location, along with all of her scattered clothing, her assailant thinking that she was dead.
At this late date, some 35 years later, there could be no possible reason for anyone to continue to cover for their own juvenile activities that evening. Hopefully someone will come forward to assist investigators with any part of the puzzle that they could provide - however seemingly small or insignificant.
In regard to the possible serial killers mentioned in your post and in the posts of others, perhaps a photo line-up could be shown to anyone who was in the neighborhood or at K-mart that night. Someone who was there who may not have actually seen Kathy or any kind of confrontation, might recall having seen one of the potential suspects that evening.
Thomas Hardman
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Richard, I need to add some clarity. Please understand that I have lived in this neighborhood for almost 50 years. I am very cognizant of the various stages of subdivision and development here. Perhaps you might want to read what I write here as you look at a googlemap of the area. The image you see from modern satellite photos is far different from what was there at the time of this incident.
Richard writes:
I have heard that her assult and murder was particularly violent. If it took place in an open field near the K-Mart Parking lot, someone must have witnessed it. More likely, she was murdered elsewhere and dumped at that location, along with all of her scattered clothing, her assailant thinking that she was dead.
At this late date, some 35 years later, there could be no possible reason for anyone to continue to cover for their own juvenile activities that evening. Hopefully someone will come forward to assist investigators with any part of the puzzle that they could provide - however seemingly small or insignificant.
Speaking to the last, first, I don't know how the laws of the State of Maryland differ from other jurisdictions or from Federal law. But I do know that at the time it was the case that the age of consent was 16 and Kathy Beatty was 15. As to the sexual-assault aspect of the investigation, the case history made public says that she was sexually assaulted but not raped. At the time, the law was such that any sexual activity involving a minor under the age of 15 would have to be pursued as a sexual assault. In other states in comparable time frames this would be "statutory rape" regardless of the degree or kind of activity; the pivotal matter would be the age of the victim.
Comparably: Maryland law was (and I believe still is) such that if any violation of law occurs which results in a death, at the very least it is prosecuted as homicide. It could be any of several degrees of murder, or homicide (justifiable) or homicide (negligent), etc. But the fact is, if you dropped a banana on a sidewalk as a prank and someone slipped on it and fell under a bus, the potential charges are heavy. There's lots of incentive to cover up. And the statute of limitations for anything resulting in a human death are open-ended. 50 years after someone drops a banana peel and someone slips and dies under a bus, it's still homicide as a charging option for the prosecutors.
As to the level of violence: many rumors circulated. I don't want to repeat them but there was a significant rumor circulated about violence to hands and feet, with elaborations as time went on and rumors circulated. These were attributed to the heinous and perverted violence of the alleged perpetrator. Let's just say that the rumors came right out of twisted modern scream horror movies involving freaks with tool-kits. But let me say something else.
When I was 10 or so, we had an exercise bike in the basement. I was bored, and turned off the resistance brake, and pumped up the wheel to full speed. I got careless and one of the pedals kicked my heel and my foot went into the spoked wheel. When family rushed me to the hospital, my toe was hanging on by a thread. But it wasn't the result of diabolical torture. It was the result of someone getting caught in a machine. It was not the brutality of a criminal.
I once saw a man on a motorcycle get struck by a car in front of my house. He died on my lawn. What a simple and fairly low-speed traffic collision did to him, would have been an example of astonishing and insanely hateful brutality if a human person did that to him intentionally with whatever weapons (other than a car) came to hand. Again, the brutality was man versus machine. If you came upon this poor man and didn't know what happened, you might ask what sort of vicious monster could inflict that sort of damage on someone. But the "vicious monster" was a teenage girl who ran a stop-sign in her two-ton station wagon and clipped the motorcyclist. Man versus machine. Physics.
Now, I don't know for a fact that Kathy Beatty fell off of a motorcycle and was left behind with the expectation that she wasn't hurt all that bad. I do know that when I returned from out of town vacation back in 1980 or so, I asked someone from the neighborhood "did they ever catch Kathy Beatty's killer". They said, incredulously, "what do you mean, she fell off the back of her boyfriend's bike". I said something like "so why is everyone saying that she was murdered?" This person said something like "the people involved made an arrangement out of court to cover medical expenses and any lifetime care, all under the table, and then Kathy died. So they all just said it was murder because the lawyers had already signed everyone to silence". I don't know if I believe this or not but it's the way things were done in Maryland back in the day. And you can't question this person because he died of cancer about 8 years ago.
Look, I'm just offering this as an alternative viewpoint. Maybe it was a chance encounter with any of the 3 or so serial killers known to be active in the region at the time. Additionally there's that thing about Timothy Buzbee (allegedly) apparently having been active (according to alleged NA evidence which hasn't yet been admitted to court) in Aspen Hill as of 1977 and potentially earlier. And he was a local and very familiar with the area.
Speaking of familiarity with the area: Look at the google map of Aspen Hill and find the K-Mart at the intersection of Connecticut and Georgia Avenues. Or start with a page containing a map with outlines of older pre-subdivision tracts overlaid, here.
At the time, all of the apartments you see in the modern day were not there. That was all second-growth forest. The place you call a "field" was the area that was cleared for survey, but not yet constructed, of Connecticut Avenue north of the exit from the K-Mart parking lot seen at the most northeastern extreme of that parking lot. Connecticut Avenue ended right there, and would not be completed for a few more years.
There was a trail or set of trails and motorcycle jumps all along that area. No vehicular traffic other than trail bikes or kids driving up to hang out with the trail-bike riders ever went there. It was not a hang-out, and people up there would ride or run off into the woods as soon as any cars approached, on the theory that it was perhaps the police, someone's parents, or the so-called "ranger" who for a while was a guardian of a former property belonging to the Woodworth family that originally owned the property that included "the Rocks".
The route of the modern-day Grand Pre Road was one of the bike trails, cleared for survey but not yet constructed. It might have been possible to get a Jeep with 4-wheel drive up there but otherwise it was inaccessible. The same goes for the present-day Postgate Terrace or Chesterwood Drive. Trail bikes could get up and down those paths and very frequently did.
You're right about one thing, for sure. We'd love to have photos of all of the proscpective suspects such as Crutchley, Buzbee, and Coffey as they appeared back in 1975. As to who hung out up around "the trails" or "the rocks" back in the day, the local police know who are all such persons, and could certainly find those who are still alive to show them such photos to jog their memories.
All I personally want out of this is to see it finally laid to rest. Either a final inquest resolving this as "death by misadventure" (or perhaps as "accidental death without criminal intent") or with the conviction of a person or persons for any degree of homicide, that would satisfy the community and all involved. At least it would bring a sense of closure.
But let's say that just for a moment we accept a timeline of Kathy Beatty being injured falling off of a motorbike on the trails in the woods behind K-Mart. Let's say we accept the notion that her friends don't know how badly she's hurt, and they take off to go to the concert. How do we explain the clothes that the police say were left lying around her unconscious body?
And even more worrisome, how do we explain the police report of witnesses carrying a female back across Georgia Avenue towards the place that Kathy was found?
Could some of the clothing have been stripped off by a sexual assailant, or could it have been stripped off in an attempts to make field dressings? Remember that a lot of folks who hung out at "the trails" were Boy Scouts and had their first-aid Merit Badges.
At this point, it's all a lot of speculation. But from this speculation on a timeline that is an alternative to the scenario of "she was attacked by a serial killer" come a few scenarios that are fairly dark indeed. For example as a scenario, after the initial accident, Kathy struggles towards home, and manages to make it to the vicinity of (or all of the way to) her boyfriend's house. Fading fast from her depressed skull fracture, she camps out on their doorway in a state of dazed confusion, and when her companions come back from their night out at the "Yes" concert, they realize that they just can't have this, and so they decide to carry her back to where the accident occurred... and that would fit with the police report of a witness seeing two teen males carrying a teen female across Georgia Avenue in the direction of the place where Kathy's body was found.
By the way, if it's Crutchley, Buzbee, or Coffey -- all notorious for being lone actors -- how do you explain that police report of teen males carrying a teen female away from her boyfriend's neighborhood and towards the place her body was found?
Richard writes:
I have heard that her assult and murder was particularly violent. If it took place in an open field near the K-Mart Parking lot, someone must have witnessed it. More likely, she was murdered elsewhere and dumped at that location, along with all of her scattered clothing, her assailant thinking that she was dead.
At this late date, some 35 years later, there could be no possible reason for anyone to continue to cover for their own juvenile activities that evening. Hopefully someone will come forward to assist investigators with any part of the puzzle that they could provide - however seemingly small or insignificant.
Speaking to the last, first, I don't know how the laws of the State of Maryland differ from other jurisdictions or from Federal law. But I do know that at the time it was the case that the age of consent was 16 and Kathy Beatty was 15. As to the sexual-assault aspect of the investigation, the case history made public says that she was sexually assaulted but not raped. At the time, the law was such that any sexual activity involving a minor under the age of 15 would have to be pursued as a sexual assault. In other states in comparable time frames this would be "statutory rape" regardless of the degree or kind of activity; the pivotal matter would be the age of the victim.
Comparably: Maryland law was (and I believe still is) such that if any violation of law occurs which results in a death, at the very least it is prosecuted as homicide. It could be any of several degrees of murder, or homicide (justifiable) or homicide (negligent), etc. But the fact is, if you dropped a banana on a sidewalk as a prank and someone slipped on it and fell under a bus, the potential charges are heavy. There's lots of incentive to cover up. And the statute of limitations for anything resulting in a human death are open-ended. 50 years after someone drops a banana peel and someone slips and dies under a bus, it's still homicide as a charging option for the prosecutors.
As to the level of violence: many rumors circulated. I don't want to repeat them but there was a significant rumor circulated about violence to hands and feet, with elaborations as time went on and rumors circulated. These were attributed to the heinous and perverted violence of the alleged perpetrator. Let's just say that the rumors came right out of twisted modern scream horror movies involving freaks with tool-kits. But let me say something else.
When I was 10 or so, we had an exercise bike in the basement. I was bored, and turned off the resistance brake, and pumped up the wheel to full speed. I got careless and one of the pedals kicked my heel and my foot went into the spoked wheel. When family rushed me to the hospital, my toe was hanging on by a thread. But it wasn't the result of diabolical torture. It was the result of someone getting caught in a machine. It was not the brutality of a criminal.
I once saw a man on a motorcycle get struck by a car in front of my house. He died on my lawn. What a simple and fairly low-speed traffic collision did to him, would have been an example of astonishing and insanely hateful brutality if a human person did that to him intentionally with whatever weapons (other than a car) came to hand. Again, the brutality was man versus machine. If you came upon this poor man and didn't know what happened, you might ask what sort of vicious monster could inflict that sort of damage on someone. But the "vicious monster" was a teenage girl who ran a stop-sign in her two-ton station wagon and clipped the motorcyclist. Man versus machine. Physics.
Now, I don't know for a fact that Kathy Beatty fell off of a motorcycle and was left behind with the expectation that she wasn't hurt all that bad. I do know that when I returned from out of town vacation back in 1980 or so, I asked someone from the neighborhood "did they ever catch Kathy Beatty's killer". They said, incredulously, "what do you mean, she fell off the back of her boyfriend's bike". I said something like "so why is everyone saying that she was murdered?" This person said something like "the people involved made an arrangement out of court to cover medical expenses and any lifetime care, all under the table, and then Kathy died. So they all just said it was murder because the lawyers had already signed everyone to silence". I don't know if I believe this or not but it's the way things were done in Maryland back in the day. And you can't question this person because he died of cancer about 8 years ago.
Look, I'm just offering this as an alternative viewpoint. Maybe it was a chance encounter with any of the 3 or so serial killers known to be active in the region at the time. Additionally there's that thing about Timothy Buzbee (allegedly) apparently having been active (according to alleged NA evidence which hasn't yet been admitted to court) in Aspen Hill as of 1977 and potentially earlier. And he was a local and very familiar with the area.
Speaking of familiarity with the area: Look at the google map of Aspen Hill and find the K-Mart at the intersection of Connecticut and Georgia Avenues. Or start with a page containing a map with outlines of older pre-subdivision tracts overlaid, here.
At the time, all of the apartments you see in the modern day were not there. That was all second-growth forest. The place you call a "field" was the area that was cleared for survey, but not yet constructed, of Connecticut Avenue north of the exit from the K-Mart parking lot seen at the most northeastern extreme of that parking lot. Connecticut Avenue ended right there, and would not be completed for a few more years.
There was a trail or set of trails and motorcycle jumps all along that area. No vehicular traffic other than trail bikes or kids driving up to hang out with the trail-bike riders ever went there. It was not a hang-out, and people up there would ride or run off into the woods as soon as any cars approached, on the theory that it was perhaps the police, someone's parents, or the so-called "ranger" who for a while was a guardian of a former property belonging to the Woodworth family that originally owned the property that included "the Rocks".
The route of the modern-day Grand Pre Road was one of the bike trails, cleared for survey but not yet constructed. It might have been possible to get a Jeep with 4-wheel drive up there but otherwise it was inaccessible. The same goes for the present-day Postgate Terrace or Chesterwood Drive. Trail bikes could get up and down those paths and very frequently did.
You're right about one thing, for sure. We'd love to have photos of all of the proscpective suspects such as Crutchley, Buzbee, and Coffey as they appeared back in 1975. As to who hung out up around "the trails" or "the rocks" back in the day, the local police know who are all such persons, and could certainly find those who are still alive to show them such photos to jog their memories.
All I personally want out of this is to see it finally laid to rest. Either a final inquest resolving this as "death by misadventure" (or perhaps as "accidental death without criminal intent") or with the conviction of a person or persons for any degree of homicide, that would satisfy the community and all involved. At least it would bring a sense of closure.
But let's say that just for a moment we accept a timeline of Kathy Beatty being injured falling off of a motorbike on the trails in the woods behind K-Mart. Let's say we accept the notion that her friends don't know how badly she's hurt, and they take off to go to the concert. How do we explain the clothes that the police say were left lying around her unconscious body?
And even more worrisome, how do we explain the police report of witnesses carrying a female back across Georgia Avenue towards the place that Kathy was found?
Could some of the clothing have been stripped off by a sexual assailant, or could it have been stripped off in an attempts to make field dressings? Remember that a lot of folks who hung out at "the trails" were Boy Scouts and had their first-aid Merit Badges.
At this point, it's all a lot of speculation. But from this speculation on a timeline that is an alternative to the scenario of "she was attacked by a serial killer" come a few scenarios that are fairly dark indeed. For example as a scenario, after the initial accident, Kathy struggles towards home, and manages to make it to the vicinity of (or all of the way to) her boyfriend's house. Fading fast from her depressed skull fracture, she camps out on their doorway in a state of dazed confusion, and when her companions come back from their night out at the "Yes" concert, they realize that they just can't have this, and so they decide to carry her back to where the accident occurred... and that would fit with the police report of a witness seeing two teen males carrying a teen female across Georgia Avenue in the direction of the place where Kathy's body was found.
By the way, if it's Crutchley, Buzbee, or Coffey -- all notorious for being lone actors -- how do you explain that police report of teen males carrying a teen female away from her boyfriend's neighborhood and towards the place her body was found?
Thomas, thank you again for your comments and insight. You are right about there being several possible scenarios and much speculation regarding Kathy's death.
The eyewitness story about two boys carrying a girl across the street in the direction of where Kathy was found is a very recent one, as someone came forward only a few years ago to relay that. Before MCP seemed to accept that story as fact, they had been more inclined to believe that Kathy was attacked near the K-Mart where she was found and NOT transported there. So, even the Police have more than one scenario and tend to change their theories over time.
Here is what the MCP Currently have on their Cold Case website:
----------------------------
Cold Case 1975: Kathy Beatty
On July 25,1975, 15-year-old Kathy Beatty was found unconscious in a wooded area in the rear of the Kmart department store located at Georgia Avenue and Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, Maryland.
The hospital examination revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and hit on the head with a blunt instrument. Kathy never regained consciousness and died on August 8, 1975.
Kathy was a student at Parkland Junior High School. In 1975, the surrounding area near Georgia Avenue and Connecticutt Avenue was referred to as the "hill" or the "rocks".
Parkland Junior High School, the Aspen Hill shopping center, and the "hill" were a gathering place for local teenagers that lived and grew up in the neighborhood.
Kathy was known to frequent these areas. She was last seen on July 24, 1975 at approximately 9:00 p.m. walking on West Frankfort Street near Parkland Junior High School. She was alone at the time.
The keys photographed (see link) were found next to her purse at the time of her discovery. The keys do not belong to her. The automobile key is from a 1972 General Motors vehicle. The house key was from a door knob type lock approximately 10 years old. The leather strap was probably made as a school project.
At the time of the homicide, investigators interviewed numerous friends and acquaintances of Kathy Beatty. Several of those interviewed gave inconsistent statements to police as to their whereabouts on the night that Kathy was last seen.
Two witnesses observed two male suspects carrying the body of a white female fitting the description of Kathy Beatty. The suspects were seen heading eastbound crossing Georgia Avenue towards the 7-Eleven convenience store and continuing on towards the "hill" area.
Suspect one is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing a dark-colored jacket. He was taller than suspect two. Suspect two is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing dark clothing. He had fluffy, light brown hair that had grown below his ears.
Investigators believe that the information obtained from the witness is consistent with the chronology of events leading up to the discovery of Kathy in the area of the "hill".
Source:
MC Department of Police: Major Crimes Division
LINK:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/p.../majorcrimes/ColdCase/ColdCaseKathyBeatty.asp
The eyewitness story about two boys carrying a girl across the street in the direction of where Kathy was found is a very recent one, as someone came forward only a few years ago to relay that. Before MCP seemed to accept that story as fact, they had been more inclined to believe that Kathy was attacked near the K-Mart where she was found and NOT transported there. So, even the Police have more than one scenario and tend to change their theories over time.
Here is what the MCP Currently have on their Cold Case website:
----------------------------
Cold Case 1975: Kathy Beatty
On July 25,1975, 15-year-old Kathy Beatty was found unconscious in a wooded area in the rear of the Kmart department store located at Georgia Avenue and Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill, Maryland.
The hospital examination revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and hit on the head with a blunt instrument. Kathy never regained consciousness and died on August 8, 1975.
Kathy was a student at Parkland Junior High School. In 1975, the surrounding area near Georgia Avenue and Connecticutt Avenue was referred to as the "hill" or the "rocks".
Parkland Junior High School, the Aspen Hill shopping center, and the "hill" were a gathering place for local teenagers that lived and grew up in the neighborhood.
Kathy was known to frequent these areas. She was last seen on July 24, 1975 at approximately 9:00 p.m. walking on West Frankfort Street near Parkland Junior High School. She was alone at the time.
The keys photographed (see link) were found next to her purse at the time of her discovery. The keys do not belong to her. The automobile key is from a 1972 General Motors vehicle. The house key was from a door knob type lock approximately 10 years old. The leather strap was probably made as a school project.
At the time of the homicide, investigators interviewed numerous friends and acquaintances of Kathy Beatty. Several of those interviewed gave inconsistent statements to police as to their whereabouts on the night that Kathy was last seen.
Two witnesses observed two male suspects carrying the body of a white female fitting the description of Kathy Beatty. The suspects were seen heading eastbound crossing Georgia Avenue towards the 7-Eleven convenience store and continuing on towards the "hill" area.
Suspect one is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing a dark-colored jacket. He was taller than suspect two. Suspect two is described as a white male, mid to late teens, wearing dark clothing. He had fluffy, light brown hair that had grown below his ears.
Investigators believe that the information obtained from the witness is consistent with the chronology of events leading up to the discovery of Kathy in the area of the "hill".
Source:
MC Department of Police: Major Crimes Division
LINK:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/p.../majorcrimes/ColdCase/ColdCaseKathyBeatty.asp
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