“I have dreams about it … How was she murdered? What could have possibly happened?” Roth said. She was 29 years old at the time of her death.
She died of blunt force trauma to the head and body. “I always thought that something was going to happen and it did.”įreeman’s body was found near the tennis courts at Snyder Park by police on July 27, 2007. “I was always afraid something like that would happen to her, because she was always getting in cars,” Roth said. “They prey on prostitutes and drug addicts because they are easy targets.”Īmanda Roth, the sister of victim Buffy Jo Freeman, said she knew her sister’s choices were dangerous and worried constantly for her safety. “There’s more than one perverted mind out there,” Hill said. These women represent a vulnerable group in society who were frequently exposed to dangerous situations. “One of the greatest joys that I could have would be to let the family members know that the person who committed this crime has been arrested and is facing a trial,” Kelly said. The families of these women, who were all someone’s daughter and many of them someone’s mother, have gone years without closure. “What’s eventually going to solve some of these cases is someone saying something,” Springfield Police Division Capt. In some cases detectives have had their sights on suspects, while others have remained complete mysteries.īut all 10 homicides are still open, cold cases waiting for the one bit of information that could solve the puzzle. Investigators suspect a few might have died from drug overdoses, prompting their companions to panic and dump their bodies elsewhere. Some were strangled, some beaten, some were found so long after their deaths that an exact cause couldn’t be determined. Some were last seen in the same area of Springfield before their deaths, the West Main Street corridor.Īll of their bodies were found dumped outdoors - in parks, bodies of water or fields - although their causes of death differed. Investigators said it’s unlikely that all or even some of the murders were committed by the same person, but admit that some striking similarities exist.Īll of the victims were known to be involved with drugs and some of them worked as prostitutes. » TIMELINE: 10 Clark and Champaign County cold cases He’s resubmitted DNA evidence in several cases and said law enforcement keeps unsolved homicides open forever. “We never give up and we never forget,” Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said. Robin Hartman and Mary Frances Harris in the early 1980s Angela Hall, Thelma Gebert, Julie Freeman and Mary Vanculin in the mid 1990s Shakura Walker, Buffy Jo Freeman, Angela Kilgore and Angela Hanaway from 2006 to 2008 - all were found dead with no obvious answers.