Nancy Marie Shomette, 17, and Michael Ann Ryan, 14, were found shot to death in Northwest Branch Park in Prince Georges County, Maryland on 15 June 1955.
The slayings stunned and petrified the Washington region. News of the case ran on the front pages of local newspapers for two weeks straight, elbowing aside the Cold War. Someone had gunned down two innocent young girls in the peaceful suburbs, but even more frightening was the fact that the killer was on the loose. Parents refused to let their children out of their houses for days...
Prince George's police, the FBI and D.C. police interviewed 5,000 people, identified hundreds of suspicious characters and obtained three false confessions. They drained a pond and searched every inch of Northwest Branch Park, where the girls were shot. But they could not find the murder weapon, much less the killer.
For decades, the case haunted Prince George's homicide detectives, who refused to drop the investigation, even though the few fresh leads and tips that tantalized over the years invariably failed to bring resolution.
That changed on Jan. 23, 1997, police say, when they received a phone call out of the blue--from a town called North Pole, Alaska...
LINKS:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-06/15/089r-061500-idx.html
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, June 27, 1956, Page B-16, Image 61
https://www.amazon.com/Briar-Patch-Murder-That-Would/dp/0764337823
The slayings stunned and petrified the Washington region. News of the case ran on the front pages of local newspapers for two weeks straight, elbowing aside the Cold War. Someone had gunned down two innocent young girls in the peaceful suburbs, but even more frightening was the fact that the killer was on the loose. Parents refused to let their children out of their houses for days...
Prince George's police, the FBI and D.C. police interviewed 5,000 people, identified hundreds of suspicious characters and obtained three false confessions. They drained a pond and searched every inch of Northwest Branch Park, where the girls were shot. But they could not find the murder weapon, much less the killer.
For decades, the case haunted Prince George's homicide detectives, who refused to drop the investigation, even though the few fresh leads and tips that tantalized over the years invariably failed to bring resolution.
That changed on Jan. 23, 1997, police say, when they received a phone call out of the blue--from a town called North Pole, Alaska...
LINKS:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-06/15/089r-061500-idx.html
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, June 27, 1956, Page B-16, Image 61
https://www.amazon.com/Briar-Patch-Murder-That-Would/dp/0764337823
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