PA PA - Dana Bailey, 21, State College, 4 March 1987

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J. J. in Phila said:
I was in this article, which was cited, I think:

State College detective continues murder investigation nearly 30 years later
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J.J., have you read this article? It's a very nicely written, non-speculative information piece. Neither you nor any other non- LE former bloggers or internet case posters are mentioned at all in the article.

The writer stuck to quotes from the former detectives. Were you mistaken or were you meaning to link a different article?
BTW, there are some fairly positive general statements but this is also an older article, as the 30 year mark was in 2017, obviously.

What we need are published statements from the current investigator or investigators. Also, this unsolved crime has gone to the cold case detective or detectives at some point in the past 20 years... Ralston was a cold case detective and he was apparently actively working on the current DNA testing in 2014. Has the investigation stalled with his retirement, or is there an active attempt at GEDmatch and other DNA database searches with experts in the field?

We have a gap in the older comments of retired case detectives and current case news, most likely. I'm going to see if I can find anything more recently published.

Please feel free to add anything which post- dates Ralston's work in 2014-2015. Also, I'd like to recognize and applaud his diligent efforts on Dana's case. He seems to have worked very hard and also wasn't afraid to have her name in the public domain and to keep her case alive in the news.
My utmost respect for Sgt. R. Ralston ( Ret.) and for journalists who care enough to follow up on her unsolved murder case 31 years later.

If anyone else is searching for updated news, her full name is " Dana Lea Bailey".
Not to be confused with the female extreme bodybuilder of much fame, " Dana Linn Bailey". I keep getting info on the live person, so that's why I'm putting this info out there. Thanks to all my fellow sleuths who are still interested in her case and seeing it solved ! :)
 
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Ralston, I think, is the current investigator. There is no mention of bloggers because very few people ever mentioned it. I wrote three blogs, but it was on Gricar's role and on the benefits of releasing more information. It was more about how the case was handled.
 
Snipped for brevity only.

morf13 said:
I was interviewed and contributed to the documentary. I did write about the case here- A Murder at Penn State; The case of Dana Bailey - TRUECRIMEGUY.COM
I had hoped Dana's family would decide to take part in shining a bigger light on the case, but I think that it may be still to difficult for them
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Nice site!!!

I did several blogs on the Gricar's handling of the Bailey case. There were a lot of public relations mistakes. Both the DA's Office and SCPD improved in that respect.

With a lot of those family tree DNA tests accessible, they might find something.
 
morf13 said:
I was interviewed and contributed to the documentary. I did write about the case here- A Murder at Penn State; The case of Dana Bailey - TRUECRIMEGUY.COM
I had hoped Dana's family would decide to take part in shining a bigger light on the case, but I think that it may be still to difficult for them

new article: State College, PA - PSU Students Hope to Spur Interest in Murder Cold Case -

The Youtube video IS the documentary:
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Yes, your blogging on this case is good. I noticed one of the articles linked at your site says that Dana was murdered with a knife in her apartment. Do you know if that means she was killed with a knife she owned that was in the apartment? If so, it seems unusual that the killer would have broken in and attacked her without having brought a weapon with him. Did he attempt to murder her by other means (strangulation?), but couldn't and resorted to grabbing a knife from Dana's kitchen? Or was he inexperienced and didn't plan properly? Perhaps it was just the wording in the news article that is confusing. TIA if you know whether Dana was killed with her own knife.
 
Betty P said:
Yes, your blogging on this case is good. I noticed one of the articles linked at your site says that Dana was murdered with a knife in her apartment. Do you know if that means she was killed with a knife she owned that was in the apartment? If so, it seems unusual that the killer would have broken in and attacked her without having brought a weapon with him. Did he attempt to murder her by other means (strangulation?), but couldn't and resorted to grabbing a knife from Dana's kitchen? Or was he inexperienced and didn't plan properly? Perhaps it was just the wording in the news article that is confusing. TIA if you know whether Dana was killed with her own knife.
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It was her own knife. The guy could have brought his own weapon but decided for some reason to use her knife, or maybe he went there not intending to kill her and didn't bring any weapon
 
Image2.jpg

Dana Lea Bailey, murdered 4 March 1987

On March 5, 1987, Dana Lea Bailey was found murdered in her apartment. She had died of multiple stab wounds. Her mother discovered her daughter’s naked body. Dana was tied up and blindfolded.

Dana was stabbed multiple times in her left breast area. Police believes that she was stabbed in her bed and was then moved to the floor, placed in a posed position on top of bedding and sheets on the floor. She was visible from the bedroom window.

The murder weapon, a steak knife, was found in the bathroom. It belonged in the apartment and was not brought to the scene.

Police believe that someone had watched Dana’s comings and goings from another apartment building where remodeling gave Dana’s killer coverage. Upon checking the area, police found shoe prints that matched those found in the apartment as well as those found at the point of surveillance...

LINK:

Remembering Dana Lea Bailey - Defrosting Cold Cases
 
Thanks to everyone who is commenting on this thread and discussing this case. I'd like to make a few comments.

I think that much of the controversy about releasing her photo at the time happened because someone in law enforcement picked up a photograph at the time in her apartment and published that photograph as her. The feeling at the time was that the mistake spoke to the brutality of the murder because people felt that police couldn't recognize her well enough to have known that the person in the photograph wasn't the victim.

This case will always stay with me because I was walking down the street where she lived about the time of the murder. I had been working late in the lab that night and was going home to my apartment. I spent the next few days trying to jog my memory for anything that I might have seen during that walk. I often wondered whether the killer might have stepped into a shadowed doorway so that I wouldn't notice him as I walked past. When we learned that he broke into her apartment through a window screen in the alley, I realized that I couldn't have seen him.
 
Image2.jpg

Dana Lea Bailey, 21, murdered 4 March 1987






LINKS:



truecrimeguy.com

A Murder at Penn State; The case of Dana Bailey - TRUECRIMEGUY.COM

This March marks the 30th anniversary of the murder of 21 year-old Penn State student, Dana Bailey. As if her murder itself wasn’t mysterious enough, the case would see twists, turns, and dead ends along with mysteries within the mystery. On March 5th,1987 Shirley Bailey went to visit her...
truecrimeguy.com
 
I was recently reminded of this case. The killer would at least be in his or her late fifties by now. Many things can happen over all of these years. If they really have DNA, maybe those familiar DNA searches can identify the killer. Even if he (or even possibly she) is dead, knowing is a form of justice.
 
Thanks to everyone who is keeping Dana Bailey's name and story out there. She went to my high school. Her murder sticks with me for many reasons. It was so close to home. Same high school same college. We were one year apart in high school. I was at a different campus of Penn State when this happened but I felt the fear and the shock and terror of it. I felt like many of us were living a similar life and it could have been any of us. She was always nice and smiling. My heart hurts for her family and close friends as much today as it did when it happened. Seems like it should be simple, like a clue right in front us that we are just missing. But, I know its not. I bet that's how a lot of people feel. God bless all the Detectives still investigating this.
 
As another woman named Dana who’s within a relaxed drive from State College: MOO, I cannot imagine this case did not involve SA, given the voyeuristic posting. I’m curious. Is there confirmation of that in MSM? If SA occurred this case is so prime for @othram.
 
caradana said:
As another woman named Dana who’s within a relaxed drive from State College: MOO, I cannot imagine this case did not involve SA, given the voyeuristic posting. I’m curious. Is there confirmation of that in MSM? If SA occurred this case is so prime for @othram.
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They have the killer's DNA, all they need is to do forensic genetic genealogy.
 
Betty P said:
They have the killer's DNA, all they need is to do forensic genetic genealogy.
Click to expand...
What a case - this is the kind of case that makes modern-day LE heroes, once they’re filled in on the possibilities and what, procedurally, needs to happen. Do we have a sense of who in LE is holding this file tonight?
 
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