Elizabeth Ann Metzler
Abducted, molested, and murdered 6 December 1971
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Below is an excerpt from a news article about this case and others from the same area.
------------------------------------------------
The Capitol
Mon, Sept. 17, 1973
Annapolis, MD
5 MURDERS UNSOLVED
2 girls, 2 D.C.men, woodcutter victims.
When the body of 10-year-old Elizabeth Ann Metzler was found buried under a pile of trash along a litter-strewn deserted lover's lane in December 1971, Anne Arundel County Police Lt. Bernnard Kiessling pledged to work fulltime on the case until the little girl's murderer was found.
Now, nearly two years later, Kiessling is no longer putting in the seven-day-a-week schedule he kept up for six months but he is still hopeful the young girl's killer will be found.
That case is one of five murders unsolved by the County Police, not counting one dating back to 1948.
In addition to the Metzler case, county police still have to solve the murder of Pamela Lynn Conyers, a pretty Glen Burnie High School student who disappeared in October 1971 while returning from a shopping trip to the Harundale Mall, the murder, a week earlier of a 40-year-old woodcutter, and the gangland style execution of two Washington men.
The Metzler girl was last seen alive by neighbors walking along a dirt driveway to her home off Quarterfield road in the Ridgeway section of the county after leaving the Ridgeway Elementary school December 6, 1971.
After searching the rest of that day and for the next three days, her nude body was found about five miles from her house alongside an abandoned car off Harmons road.
The little girl had been strangled to death after being viciously assaulted.
Kiessling believes a man in his mid-forties may be the killer. A man spotted near the Metzler driveway by several persons leads police to believe their prime suspect may have brown or possibly dyed hair cut fairly short and combed forward. He may have bulging pale blue eyes and a ruddy complexion, similar to that of an outdoorsman.
In addition, a dirty white station wagon, probably fairly old, was seen in the vicinity of the girl's home.
Since the little girls abduction and death, police have questioned dozens of suspects and, according to Kiessling, have been within five minutes of charging two different persons with the slaying. Those cases fell apart at the last minute.
One person confessed to the killing on three occasions to three different persons, but police, after investigating, decided he could not have committed the crime.
Kiessling has sent investigators to seven states, checking into similar crimes and possible suspects.
To date, nothing has panned out.
Kiessling even recieved aid from a Virginia man who claims to have clairvoyant powers. "I don't believe in clairvoyants, but I can't completely discount them either," Kiessling said, adding that the man predicted to police that a girl with long black hair would be found murdered along Capitol Beltway. A few days later, such a girl was found dead. Police have ruled out the clairvoyant as a suspect, however.
The liutenant has worked with the image of the Metzler girl's killer now for nearly two years and is convinced that whoever killed her has a mentally depraved mind.
"I'm very much afraid," he said," that this person committed a crime like this before or since."
One event which may have led Kiessling to that statement occurred just a few weeks after the Metzler murder, in Marietta Ga, where a 9-year-old girl was walking home from a laundromat disappeard and her body was found a few days later. The victim had wounds similar to those of the Metzler girl and police here believe that Elizabeth Ann's killer could easily have gone to Georgia after the Metzler slaying and committed the other crime.
The driveway from which the little girl was abducted led at one time to a nudist colony known as Hidden Village.
Her disappearance from that driveway was not the first such occurrance. In 1958, a 58-year-old man, William Brooks, was walking along the driveway when he was seized by two men who later killed him and stole his car.
Both men were found, convicted and sentenced to death, but after a lengthy legal battle, their sentences were reduced to life in prison.
Brooks lived in a one room cabin about 100 yards from the ...Metzler home. Keissling investigated that case too....
Article continues to talk about Pamela Lynn Conyers (see separate WS thread), the woodcutter murder, 2 men gunned down, and 1948 murder.
Link below shows a composite sketch of a suspect in the Metzler case:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k235/fireangeldancer/conyers1.jpg?t=1173731814/
Abducted, molested, and murdered 6 December 1971
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Below is an excerpt from a news article about this case and others from the same area.
------------------------------------------------
The Capitol
Mon, Sept. 17, 1973
Annapolis, MD
5 MURDERS UNSOLVED
2 girls, 2 D.C.men, woodcutter victims.
When the body of 10-year-old Elizabeth Ann Metzler was found buried under a pile of trash along a litter-strewn deserted lover's lane in December 1971, Anne Arundel County Police Lt. Bernnard Kiessling pledged to work fulltime on the case until the little girl's murderer was found.
Now, nearly two years later, Kiessling is no longer putting in the seven-day-a-week schedule he kept up for six months but he is still hopeful the young girl's killer will be found.
That case is one of five murders unsolved by the County Police, not counting one dating back to 1948.
In addition to the Metzler case, county police still have to solve the murder of Pamela Lynn Conyers, a pretty Glen Burnie High School student who disappeared in October 1971 while returning from a shopping trip to the Harundale Mall, the murder, a week earlier of a 40-year-old woodcutter, and the gangland style execution of two Washington men.
The Metzler girl was last seen alive by neighbors walking along a dirt driveway to her home off Quarterfield road in the Ridgeway section of the county after leaving the Ridgeway Elementary school December 6, 1971.
After searching the rest of that day and for the next three days, her nude body was found about five miles from her house alongside an abandoned car off Harmons road.
The little girl had been strangled to death after being viciously assaulted.
Kiessling believes a man in his mid-forties may be the killer. A man spotted near the Metzler driveway by several persons leads police to believe their prime suspect may have brown or possibly dyed hair cut fairly short and combed forward. He may have bulging pale blue eyes and a ruddy complexion, similar to that of an outdoorsman.
In addition, a dirty white station wagon, probably fairly old, was seen in the vicinity of the girl's home.
Since the little girls abduction and death, police have questioned dozens of suspects and, according to Kiessling, have been within five minutes of charging two different persons with the slaying. Those cases fell apart at the last minute.
One person confessed to the killing on three occasions to three different persons, but police, after investigating, decided he could not have committed the crime.
Kiessling has sent investigators to seven states, checking into similar crimes and possible suspects.
To date, nothing has panned out.
Kiessling even recieved aid from a Virginia man who claims to have clairvoyant powers. "I don't believe in clairvoyants, but I can't completely discount them either," Kiessling said, adding that the man predicted to police that a girl with long black hair would be found murdered along Capitol Beltway. A few days later, such a girl was found dead. Police have ruled out the clairvoyant as a suspect, however.
The liutenant has worked with the image of the Metzler girl's killer now for nearly two years and is convinced that whoever killed her has a mentally depraved mind.
"I'm very much afraid," he said," that this person committed a crime like this before or since."
One event which may have led Kiessling to that statement occurred just a few weeks after the Metzler murder, in Marietta Ga, where a 9-year-old girl was walking home from a laundromat disappeard and her body was found a few days later. The victim had wounds similar to those of the Metzler girl and police here believe that Elizabeth Ann's killer could easily have gone to Georgia after the Metzler slaying and committed the other crime.
The driveway from which the little girl was abducted led at one time to a nudist colony known as Hidden Village.
Her disappearance from that driveway was not the first such occurrance. In 1958, a 58-year-old man, William Brooks, was walking along the driveway when he was seized by two men who later killed him and stole his car.
Both men were found, convicted and sentenced to death, but after a lengthy legal battle, their sentences were reduced to life in prison.
Brooks lived in a one room cabin about 100 yards from the ...Metzler home. Keissling investigated that case too....
Article continues to talk about Pamela Lynn Conyers (see separate WS thread), the woodcutter murder, 2 men gunned down, and 1948 murder.
Link below shows a composite sketch of a suspect in the Metzler case:
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k235/fireangeldancer/conyers1.jpg?t=1173731814/
