The Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty

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Thanks for reminding us about Kathy Beatty, Richard. My heart and prayers are with her family hoping something might come up that will bring a solution to her case.
Richard, please check your messages again. Thanks.
 
Richard, I tried to IM you again just now. Same thing happened. Dog is on the way to pound in Frederick right now.
 
There's something wrong with this website. Now I can't log out. Thought it was me but I just logged out, exited the site and came back to see if I was still logged in. I am.
 
If Coffey killed the Beatty girl, & his car keys were included in the set of keys found at the murder site, what would he have done? He would have been at the scene with his car, & no keys. Unless he had a spare key hidden on the outside of the car you would think his spare key was back at his motel (a person relocating his job & residence would most certainly have a spare car key somewere).

In order to go from Aspen Hill to his Gaithersburg motel he probably would have chosen the fastest method, which would have been a round trip taxi ride. I understand 12 years have past before Coffey was a possible suspect, but even at that, taxi records may have been available if LE had inquired.

What if someone had taken a round trip taxi ride from Aspen Hill to the Holiday Motel in Gaithersburg? Also, what if that someone just happened to be Fred Coffey?
 
I origionally posted the still unsolved case of the Murder of Kathy Lynn Beatty on the Lyon Sister's thread because I felt that there could be a connection between the two cases.

Both cases occurred in Wheaton, Maryland in 1975, almost exactly four months apart.
- The Lyon girls disappeared on 25 March (A Tuesday) between about 2:30 and 4:30PM
- Kathy Beatty was abducted and assaulted on 24 July (A Thursday night), probably sometime after 8PM.
- Both incidents occurred during the same moon phase.

Both incidents involved young girls (ages 11 and 13, and age 14) out in their respective neighborhoods on their own.

Both probable abductions occurred in a parking lot, or in residential streets adjacent to parking lots and near shopping centers.

No witness reported seeing any of the girls being abducted.
The abductor(s) most likely used a ruse to lure the girls into his vehicle.

The distance between the two incidents is only about three miles.

The victims of these two incidents bear some physical resemblance.
 
Richard, that's the first time I think I've heard about a resemblence between the Lyon sisters and Cathy Beatty. Was there ever a picture of Cathy Beatty posted anywhere? Would it be possible to get her picture posted here or on Maryland Missing or one of the other websites...maybe all of them? Just a thought.
 
Richard, that's the first time I think I've heard about a resemblence between the Lyon sisters and Cathy Beatty. Was there ever a picture of Cathy Beatty posted anywhere? Would it be possible to get her picture posted here or on Maryland Missing or one of the other websites...maybe all of them? Just a thought.

In an earlier post on this thread, I quoted a Washington Post Newspaper story dated 6 January 1977. I found a copy of that article in microfilm files. That article contained a photo of Kathy. She was a pretty girl with long, straight hair.

Kathy is not missing, so the Maryland Missing site would not carry her story. Her murder remains unsolved, however, and the case is still open.
 
Thanks for your response, Richard. Have been out of state a couple weeks and will be leaving again tomorrow but will try to keep tabs on things from a library computer. Please keep up the good work.
 
Not mentioned in the previous posts is that Kathy was found in an area sometimes described as a "dump" or trash filled, rocky place, near a drainage ditch or stream. This was a large, vacant area adjacent to the K-Mart and its parking lot. Found beside Kathy's unconcious body was a set of keys. The keys did not belong to Kathy, and investigators suspected that they may have belonged to her assailant. ...

As Jeb has mentioned in a previous post, taking another look at the set of keys might provide new clues to the mystery of who abducted and murdered Kathy Lynn Beatty.

While they determined that the keys did not belong to Kathy, it was never determined who did own them.

As anyone who has ever had a key copied knows, there are many different types of keys. Perhaps a complete "inventory" of each key on the ring will give a picture of the man who carried them. For instance, house or appartment keys, vehicle keys, Mail Box keys, etc. can give investigators clues as to the interests or habits of the unknown assailant.

Sometimes locksmiths mark their keys with stamps, or codes. Keys for General Motors cars have a different line pattern for each model year. Certain types of padlocks are purchased mainly by the military, etc.

Other than the forensic evidence of the injuries that Kathy suffered, there is no evidence except this set of keys.
 
24 July 1975 (Thursday)

4 PM: Kathy is at home with her mother (Mrs. Beatty) . She had been inside all day watching television and asks her mother if she can go outside and ride her bike.

Her mother says yes she can, but invites her to travel to Baltimore to attend a Maryland Lottery dinner drawing that evening. Kathy declines, so her mother tells her to fix her own supper when she returns from her bike ride.

Her mother tells Kathy that she will be home by 9 PM. She expects Kathy to be home by 8:30 PM, because she was always in by sun down.

6:30 or 7 PM: A boy who lives next door stops by to see Kathy at home. He had brings her a shirt from Ocean City, chats with her awhile, then leaves.

About 8:30 PM: Near Parkland Junior High School, Kathy is seen walking alone by several known youngsters about Kathy's age. Although they later say that they saw her at the school, none of them claim that they were with her. They later refused to take polygraph tests.

Some time after 8:30 PM: Kathy receives a fatal blow to her head and is left lying behind the K-Mart at Georgia and Connecticut Avenues.

11 PM: Mrs. Beatty returns home. The house is dark and Kathy is not at home. When she turns on the lights there is a note from Kathy saying she has gone to a friend's and will be back at 10 PM. It is raining, and Kathy's mother assumes her daughter is waiting for a ride home.

All night long her mother searches for Kathy. Including contacting homes of some of her friends. Kathy is not located. The father of a "boyfriend" goes out to a camper in his backyard to ask his son if he has seen Kathy, but finds that his son and his son's buddy are not in the camper.


25 July 1975 (Friday)

7 AM: The "boyfriend" calls Kathy's home to state that he has not seen her.

Early morning, sometime after 7 AM: Kathy is found by her sister Theresa and Theresa's boyfriend in a trash-filled, rocky place, near a drainage ditch or stream. This was a large, vacant area adjacent to the K-Mart and its parking lot.

Kathy is unconscious, suffering from a with a depressed fracture of the skull. She is barely alive. Kathy had been sexually assaulted but not raped. Her purse is found nearby.

Found beside Kathy are a set of keys. The keys do not belong to Kathy, and investigators suspect that they may have been dropped by her assailant.

Kathy is taken to Suburban Hospital by ambulance. In the hospital, Kathy never regains conciousness.


5 August 1975 (Friday)

Kathy dies of complications from her injuries, including blood poisoning in the Intensive Care Unit at Suburban Hospital.


6 January 1977: Washington Post Article about Kathy's murder, which remains unsolved.

1987: Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. a convicted child molester and murderer comes to the attention of Montgomery County Police as a possible suspect in Kathy's murder, but lack of evidence prevents them from charging him. In July 1975, Coffey had been working for Vitro Laboratories, which had four offices in the Wheaton/Aspen Hill/Rockville Maryland area. The parking lot of one Vitro Office is located between Kathy's house and the K-Mart where she was found.
 
Didn't the police have a composite of the suspected abductor in the Lyons case? The guy in the brown suit with the microphone?
Does anyone know what Coffey looks like? Do these two men look similar?
 
The Murder Of Kathy Lynn Beatty
ASPEN HILL, MD(WUSA)--Karen Lynn Beatty was walking barefoot through her Aspen Hill neighborhood on a warm summer night in July 1975.

Her mother, Patricia Haberman, had told her to be home before dark.

Kathy's older sister found her the next morning in a wooded area near a K-Mart store by Connecticut and Georgia Avenues. Kathy was barely alive. She had been raped, beaten--her skull was fractured.

Patricia Haberman says she was driving to where her daughter was found when she had to pull over to the side to let the ambulance pass by. "...and I said, please don't let it go to K-Mart..but it did."

Kathy was taken to Suburban Hospital but she never regained consciousness. She died August 5, 1975.

"What jumps out the most is the brutality of it," says Montgomery County Police detective Joe Mordano--"it was really vicious."

Detective Mordano says Kathy's clothes were scattered all over the woods. This, he says, was a teen hangout where some drank and did drugs. They called it the rocks, the trails. Police believe Kathy's attacker knew her.

Mrs. Haberman remembers the call from a strange, older boy, claiming to know the killer. "A girl, and she's possessed by the devil," Kathy's mother says the caller told her. And then she says the caller said, "..could I have been so *advertiser censored**ed up that I could've done it?"

For Mrs. Haberman it's been a 32 year nightmare not knowing who did it and why. She said she hopes that somebody who was there and wants to get it off their conscience makes the one phone call that can bring her some measure of piece.

That's the same phone call detective Joe Mordano is waiting for--"it's not right that this person did such a gross, horrible thing..that he walks free today."

If you have any information that may help solve this case call Montgomery County Police at 866-411-8477.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Marylandmissing. I'm ecstatic over the news and fell like shouting it from the housetop.

To MRS Haberman, Steven Kerpelman, MCP and all others involved my thoughts and prayers are with you. God speed and please keep us informed whenever you can and with whatever you can...if you can without jeapordizing the case. Don't give up and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter if the solution leads to Coffey, as I would hope, or if it leads to someone else...just so the case is solved.
 
The Washington Post articles that were published on 13 June 2008 about the murder of Kathy Beatty gave the website address for the site that her family has set up.

http://www.kathybeatty.com/

There is not a lot of info on the site but thought that I would post it here for Kathy. The family seems hopeful that her killer will be caught.

MM ~
 

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