MD MD - Kathy Beatty, 15, Aspen Hill, 24 July 1975
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GA GA - Atlanta, WhtMale 1029UMGA, 50-70, w/ photo of young girl, Dec'80
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A lot of good observations. What is clear is that Kathy was basically home alone and just keeping occupied around her close neighborhood. She was seen BY a lot of kids, but all stated that they were not WITH her. There are a lot of questions about how she ended up - near death in a field next to the KMart parking lot.
Personally, I doubt that she ever made it alive to the KMart. Nobody who worked there claimed to have seen her, and nobody who shopped there that evening came forward to say that they had seen her either. Certainly, other kids would have been hanging out at Kmart who could have known Kathy, but none ever came forward to place her there.
As I have mentioned before, there are many different scenarios which could have taken place. Given the absence of solid evidence or witness testimony, almost anything is possible. But when you throw a Serial Offender into the mix, and given his choice of child victims, his close proximity, and his sudden exit from the state following the attack on Kathy, and the later lying about his reasons for leaving, the coincidences start to add up.
:+:MrTT:+:
Cold Case Files
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I understand about the serial killer leaving town and all that. And that certainly does raise a red flag. But it could be he left after the killing because he assumed they were going to pin it on somehow so he left in a state of being paranoid. Just guessing on that though..........She was known to visit that kmart store. Her mother said she liked to go look at the mini bikes there i believe it was. If she was not at that kmart for some time that would mean she was abducted somewhere else and taken to that kmart lot and dragged into the woods and left by the rocks. I dont think she was killed then then taken to the kmart lot then dragged up into the woods and left at the rocks. I think she was already at the rocks with someone before being killed. All her stuff was found around there, around the rocks and not in different places if i remember correctly. I think she met someone at that kmart or was going to meet someone whom worked at that kmart and they ;went into the woods together and walked to the rocks and something happened that led to her being killed.
It certainly seems like an area with quite a few apartments, offices, Kmart, kids, foot/bike/car traffic etc. Would have been risky to move her there. If you’re going to do a body dump, most would find more remote location. So I agree- she was probably attacked right where her sister found her. I wish we could see photos of the area- from 1975 for a better idea.
Overhead views are available, from different time frames. However, I can say that the developed area just north of the Kmart parking lot was not there in 1975, and it was pretty much vacant land. Not sure if there was much woods there, but an overhead view from around 1975 would show it.
The area around Kathy's neighborhood is pretty much the same as to houses, streets, school, etc. So is the Kmart and 7-11 part of the map posted earlier. That was all there in 1975. The roads and parking lots around the Home Depot today are the same ones around "old" Vitro and the large building south of them was the "new" Vitro building.
The area around Kathy's neighborhood is pretty much the same as to houses, streets, school, etc. So is the Kmart and 7-11 part of the map posted earlier. That was all there in 1975. The roads and parking lots around the Home Depot today are the same ones around "old" Vitro and the large building south of them was the "new" Vitro building.
I think that a very significant fact to consider is that Kathy had NOT died before Fred Coffey left town. He left immediately after the papers reported that she was ALIVE and in the hospital. Yes, he probably left because he was afraid that she might regain consciousness and identify him.
Kathy's aimless wanderings around the neighborhood would indicate that her movements were very random. While it is possible that she might have specifically left her immediate neighborhood to meet someone, there is no evidence of that. Rather it seems a higher possibility in this case that her abduction and murder were the result of a random encounter.
There is a very long thread (10 pages) on Kathy Lynn Beatty's murder in the Websleuths topic about the missing Lyon Sisters who disappeared exactly four months before the attack on Kathy and only four miles away.
LINK:
The Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty
LINK:
The Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty
oviedo
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The Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty
Can these be merged? He is a horrible killer and I hope he never gets out.
JMO
Can these be merged? He is a horrible killer and I hope he never gets out.
JMO
Vitro Laboratories
Vitro Labs was a defense contractor, located in the heart of Aspen Hill...
History
In 1957, Vitro built a large building in the middle of the former Gill property. This was thereafter referred to Building One. In roughly 1996, Building One was razed and rebuilt as Home Depot.
Approximately 1968, they acquired offices in the so-called "Grant's Tomb", which is now a part of Acorn Self-Storage.
In 1968 or so, Building Four was built near Aspen Hill Road. It still remains. It was the offices of a division of BAE Systems until April 30, 2010, when all BAE Systems personnel relocated to a new facility in the Redland Corporate Center on the King Farm property in Rockville.
Sometime in the late 1970s, another building was constructed between Building One and Building Four, called Building Twelve...
Vitro's ownership changed hands several times over the years, though it remained engaged mostly in contracts with the Federal government and the military establishment. In the early 1980s it was Montgomery County's largest civilian employer, with somewhere around 5000 employees in the area.
Eventually, the main headquarters shifted out of Aspen Hill.
Building Twelve was razed sometime in the early 1990s, and Building One was converted to the needs of Home Depot sometime thereafter.
Building Four wound up in the hands of BAE Systems until they relocated at the end of April 2010... "Building Four" embraces a smaller corner lot, and has a dual address of 4115 Aspen Hill Road / 13900 Connecticut Avenue....
Land Use
Vitro Labs used to be set apart from the surrounding residential area by a fairly large second-growth forested zone. In roughly the late 1960s, most of that area was cut down and replaced mostly by parking lots. A stream which ran through the woods was diverted into an underground five-foot diameter pipe. Part of that original stream valley which used to be quite near to Building One still remains next to the northwest corner of the Home Depot, near the entrance to the gardening center.
At the time that Building One was razed and rebuilt for Home Depot, the vast majority of the main parking lot was removed and most of that expanse has been replaced by a stormwater retention and cooldown pond. The remaining second-growth forest is starting to return between the edges of the property and the areas used by Home Depot or BAE Systems...
LINK:
Vitro - Aspen Hill, Maryland, USA
Vitro Labs was a defense contractor, located in the heart of Aspen Hill...
History
In 1957, Vitro built a large building in the middle of the former Gill property. This was thereafter referred to Building One. In roughly 1996, Building One was razed and rebuilt as Home Depot.
Approximately 1968, they acquired offices in the so-called "Grant's Tomb", which is now a part of Acorn Self-Storage.
In 1968 or so, Building Four was built near Aspen Hill Road. It still remains. It was the offices of a division of BAE Systems until April 30, 2010, when all BAE Systems personnel relocated to a new facility in the Redland Corporate Center on the King Farm property in Rockville.
Sometime in the late 1970s, another building was constructed between Building One and Building Four, called Building Twelve...
Vitro's ownership changed hands several times over the years, though it remained engaged mostly in contracts with the Federal government and the military establishment. In the early 1980s it was Montgomery County's largest civilian employer, with somewhere around 5000 employees in the area.
Eventually, the main headquarters shifted out of Aspen Hill.
Building Twelve was razed sometime in the early 1990s, and Building One was converted to the needs of Home Depot sometime thereafter.
Building Four wound up in the hands of BAE Systems until they relocated at the end of April 2010... "Building Four" embraces a smaller corner lot, and has a dual address of 4115 Aspen Hill Road / 13900 Connecticut Avenue....
Land Use
Vitro Labs used to be set apart from the surrounding residential area by a fairly large second-growth forested zone. In roughly the late 1960s, most of that area was cut down and replaced mostly by parking lots. A stream which ran through the woods was diverted into an underground five-foot diameter pipe. Part of that original stream valley which used to be quite near to Building One still remains next to the northwest corner of the Home Depot, near the entrance to the gardening center.
At the time that Building One was razed and rebuilt for Home Depot, the vast majority of the main parking lot was removed and most of that expanse has been replaced by a stormwater retention and cooldown pond. The remaining second-growth forest is starting to return between the edges of the property and the areas used by Home Depot or BAE Systems...
LINK:
Vitro - Aspen Hill, Maryland, USA
If there was SA, should be perp’s dna too. I hope they have something to compare to Coffey- or put through ancestry dna. Might be some hope there!
I do not know what kind of DNA might be in evidence. My guess is that they probably have tried to match it with Coffey at some point.
Fred Coffey came to the attention of Montgomery County Police as a potential suspect in Kathy's murder back in late 1986, when he was on trial in North Carolina for nine separate offenses against children.
Because he was incarcerated and awaiting trial and had a lawyer, MCP probably had little opportunity to interview him at the time, and then after his conviction on all charges, he was brought to trial for the abduction and murder of another little girl - for which he was convicted and given a death sentence.
After two retrials, his death sentence was eventually commuted to a life sentence with him immediately eligible for parole. All that took years. Coffey had other convictions for crimes against children and he is suspected (strongly) of having murdered at least two others.
As a convicted child predator and murderer, Coffey's DNA should be in the national data base, but who knows what hits there may have been on it over the years since DNA technology emerged.
Fred Coffey came to the attention of Montgomery County Police as a potential suspect in Kathy's murder back in late 1986, when he was on trial in North Carolina for nine separate offenses against children.
Because he was incarcerated and awaiting trial and had a lawyer, MCP probably had little opportunity to interview him at the time, and then after his conviction on all charges, he was brought to trial for the abduction and murder of another little girl - for which he was convicted and given a death sentence.
After two retrials, his death sentence was eventually commuted to a life sentence with him immediately eligible for parole. All that took years. Coffey had other convictions for crimes against children and he is suspected (strongly) of having murdered at least two others.
As a convicted child predator and murderer, Coffey's DNA should be in the national data base, but who knows what hits there may have been on it over the years since DNA technology emerged.
Hi there MrTT! Thank you for posting your thoughts! I think it is a good possibility that Coffey was involved or it could have been some local kids. Just wanted to make one correction to your post (albeit a minor one). I lived on Southend Road in 1975 (mine was one of the houses that backed directly up to Vitro). I grew up in Aspen Hill leaving at 20ish years old. There used to be a sort of BMX-type bike store to the right of the Kmart back then. I believe it was that bike shop Kathy's mother said she liked to frequent rather than the Kmart but I could be wrong. My sister and I were in that cool bike shop all the time looking at the bikes as kids. I was only 5 years old at the time of Kathy's murder but know the area well as I ran through the woods and surrounding areas and was all over the place all the time growing up. I sure hope the investigators and LE are able to solve this case. It is always in the back of my mind and haunted me since childhood. Closure would be so wonderful, although bittersweet, it is so needed. Thank you for posting!!!
Great post- welcome to WS! Do you recall how late that bike shop would have stayed open?Hi there MrTT! Thank you for posting your thoughts! I think it is a good possibility that Coffey was involved or it could have been some local kids. Just wanted to make one correction to your post (albeit a minor one). I lived on Southend Road in 1975 (mine was one of the houses that backed directly up to Vitro). I grew up in Aspen Hill leaving at 20ish years old. There used to be a sort of BMX-type bike store to the right of the Kmart back then. I believe it was that bike shop Kathy's mother said she liked to frequent rather than the Kmart but I could be wrong. My sister and I were in that cool bike shop all the time looking at the bikes as kids. I was only 5 years old at the time of Kathy's murder but know the area well as I ran through the woods and surrounding areas and was all over the place all the time growing up. I sure hope the investigators and LE are able to solve this case. It is always in the back of my mind and haunted me since childhood. Closure would be so wonderful, although bittersweet, it is so needed. Thank you for posting!!!
Wow! Great question. I would be just taking a wild guess maybe could have been open until 8pm or could have been 6pm?
Thank you!
I believe the store was called Cycles USA if I remember correctly if that helps any. It is no longer there.
Just a few points to comment on. Kathy was not "killed" before being dumped in the rock strewn field near the K-Mart, as she was alive when left there. She remained unconscious in a coma for 12 days before she died in the hospital.
The area popularly known as "The Rocks" was up hill a few hundred yards from the K-Mart parking lot. The normal access to it was a side road a bit north on Highway 97/Georgia Ave. There has been speculation, but no definite evidence that Kathy was ever up there that night.
She was found in a rock strewn field near a stream that ran between the K-Mart parking lot and "The Rocks", but much closer to the parking lot. Her belongings and some other items possibly connected with the assault on her were found in that same area near the parking lot.
Investigators have never stated where the attack on Kathy took place. It could have been anywhere between her house and K-Mart, or in a vehicle that she might have been taken into and driven elsewhere.
Lanatara, perhaps you can confirm that there was a regular path or walking route from the neighborhood into the VITRO property for kids who walked to K-Mart or to the Cycle shop?
The area popularly known as "The Rocks" was up hill a few hundred yards from the K-Mart parking lot. The normal access to it was a side road a bit north on Highway 97/Georgia Ave. There has been speculation, but no definite evidence that Kathy was ever up there that night.
She was found in a rock strewn field near a stream that ran between the K-Mart parking lot and "The Rocks", but much closer to the parking lot. Her belongings and some other items possibly connected with the assault on her were found in that same area near the parking lot.
Investigators have never stated where the attack on Kathy took place. It could have been anywhere between her house and K-Mart, or in a vehicle that she might have been taken into and driven elsewhere.
Lanatara, perhaps you can confirm that there was a regular path or walking route from the neighborhood into the VITRO property for kids who walked to K-Mart or to the Cycle shop?
Many K Mart stores around the country have either become Sears stores (the two companies were bought and merged), or have simply been closed. The K Mart in Silver Spring, MD (near where Kathy was found) is one of the few still in existence.
The link below has a map which shows its location and information:
Kmart
The link below has a map which shows its location and information:
Kmart