On August 14, 1985, a young girl by the name of Kristin O'Connell was at a party in Ovid, NY when she went missing. She met a man in Florida on spring break, and he charmed her in all the right ways. This was why she had traveled to the Fingerlakes - to see him.
Kristin was from Minnesota, and this was her first trip to the Finger Lakes. She had set out to meet this man and stay with his parents, but plans changed, and bam they were staying in a trailer instead. According to the young man, Kristin decided to go for a walk on a rural road with no shoes on. Allegedly, while she was walking, two men in a car were talking to her as she walked down Country Road 139. The New York State Police allegedly made it out that these two men were definitely involved in her murder without any proof. A few witnesses said they heard blood-curdling screams that night. Unfortunately, 2 days later on August 16th, Kristin's naked body was found stabbed with her throat slit.
The day after her body was found, some of the evidence that was at the scene had been washed away by the rain. Fortunately, some of the evidence was left such as a pillowcase, a painter's hat, hair pieces, and blood-stained clothes. There were only a few pieces left to be tested. However, back in 1985, the proper equipment to test DNA wasn't up to par so that evidence sat in a bag for years.
The problem with this case was the speculation that the NYS police department might have had its hands in it. Phyllis O'Connell, Kristin's mom, did not trust the people up there. “I think there are people up there who know what happened but are afraid to come forward," Phyllis said. “I believe people are scared.” Therefore, Phyllis hired her own Private Investigators to help try to solve her daughter's murder. While this was going on, a documentary group by the name the Hammer Group decided to pick this mystery up.
Chris Pavlick, who is a part of the Hammer group, offered the NYS Police and the Seneca County District Attorney help to solve O'Connell's murder. Ironically, they declined. So Pavlick and the Hammer Group had a forensic lab test all the evidence for free. It was legitimate with modern technology to test all the evidence from the murder scene from 1985.
There were over 2000 leads and not one panned out to be anything more than an interview and a suspect who was cleared. This case is still a cold case and hopefully, Phyllis O'Connell will get Justice for Kristin. If you have any leads, please call homocode at (585)-398-4100.
Comments