WI WI - Donna Willing, 9, Milwaukee, 26 Feb 1970

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hoppyfrog

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http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/41637847.html

21 March 09

Virginia Davis still remembers the details of that afternoon nearly 40 years ago.

She was just 4 then, snuggling on the sofa with her 9-year-old sister, Donna, the girls engrossed in their favorite book.

Their mother had told Donna to run to the bakery for bread, but Virginia kept pleading for her to stay.

"I remember my mom saying she had to go before it gets dark," Davis said. "She must have told her four times."

"I just kept asking her to read one more."

Donna read one last page, then headed from their house near N. 33rd and W. Lloyd streets to Grebe's Bakery a few blocks away.

She would never return.

Donna Willing was found less than two hours later, face down beneath a car in a garage on N. 51st St. Her body was scraped and bruised and bloodied. She'd been raped and strangled. It was Feb. 26, 1970.

In the days and weeks that followed, police and FBI agents fanned out across the city. Leads poured in, and more than 1,000 people were interviewed, from family members to neighbors to strangers on the street.

Detectives actively worked the case for more than a decade.

much, much more at link
 
COLD CASE # 11 - HOMICIDE

VICTIM: DONNA I. WILLING

OCCURRED: 02/26/1970On February 26, 1970 at approximately 5:15 PM, Donna I. Willing, DOB 9-18-60, left her home at 2106 N. 33rd St. to go to Grebe's Bakery on N.35th and W. North Avenue to buy a loaf of bread for her mother. She never made it to the bakery, and her lifeless body was found in a garage in the 2400 block of N. 51st Street approximately an hour later. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

LINK:
http://www.milwaukee.gov/coldcases#Cold_case_13
 
The case is still up on the Milwaukee Police Cold Cases site linked by Richard.

I do wonder about this post under "Updates" on the family's site for Donna (http://donnawilling.webs.com/updates.htm):

Update - June 2010

Now that we know the "who", the "why", the "where" and "how", all we can do is wait for this man's death, and for God's judgment. He will fortunately remain in prison until then.

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'" ~ Matthew 5:21
It sounds like perhaps the police have told the family who the prime suspect is?

I read the family's memories for Donna on their memorial website after reading the news article and could only sit here teary eyed afterward. This family has suffered so much with so much guilt.
 
snipped from link given in the above post:

He just completed a 10-year prison term for sexually assaulting four young girls

Ten years... for four young lives indelibly scarred.

That, IMO, is a crime in itself. This is a classic case of the 'justice' system allowing incurable pedos to keep harming children time after time by releasing them to offend over and over again.

If he'd been locked away for good on his first offense, or his second, Donna would still be alive, and all his other victims would not have suffered the trauma he inflicted on them, assuming he did not actually murder any other kids we don't know about - which I kinda doubt.

It just disgusts me, no end.
 
What's also disgusting is police losing evidence. Someone should go to jail for that.

I would be wary of stories like this, though, that say "and gave other critical information linking himself to the crime..." The source for this rather ambiguous statement is not LE or someone in the legal system but a petition?

C'mon. If the guy had unpublished information that puts him at the crime scene the cops would likely say it.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/sex-offender-suspected-1970-wis-child-murder-155145714.html

Robert Hill is going on trial for this murder tomorrow. I wish we could spread this article all over the forum-I wish we werent bound by the 10% copyright rule.

This survivor speaks for thousands of family members who struggle with cold cases, who struggle with missing loved ones and who have been victimized by violent crime. She is right-there should be a name for it but no one has thought of one yet.

I hope there is some justice for Donna and I hope there is some peace for those she left behind.
 
Bumping this case up. Back in 2012 there was going to be a trial charging Robert Hill with the murder of Donna Willing.

Below are some results from a search for news stories about the upcoming trial. All are dated to 2012 with nothing more. Does anyone know the outcome?

  • Milwaukee sex offender suspected in girl's 1970 murder - ...

    www.twincities.com/.../milwaukee-sex-offender-suspected-girls-1... -Milwaukee sex offender suspected in girl's 1970 murder - ...
    Nov 18, 2012 ... Police have identified Donna's childhood neighbor Robert Hill, 3, ... With evidence in the case lost or destroyed, they will argue that Robert Hill, 73, is a ... Willing, who was killed in 1970, in front of her home in Milwaukee.
  • New cold case investigation may solve killing of girl in 1970 ...
    Nov 19, 2012 ... Milwaukee police said Robert Hill recently confessed to sexually assaulting and killing Donna, a next-door neighbor. Hill watched and listened ...
  • Sex offender suspected in 1970 Wis. child murder - Yahoo News

    news.yahoo.com/sex-offender-suspected-1970-wis-child-murder-155... - Similar to Sex offender suspected in 1970 Wis. child murder - Yahoo News

  • Nov 18, 2012 ... This 1970 handout photo shows Donna Willing. ... MILWAUKEE (AP) — Virginia Davis describes says the pain left behind by her 9-year-old ... say the will argue under the state's sex offender law that Robert Hill, 73, is a sexually violent ... A cold case unit that formed in 2007 did, and soon focused on Hill.
 
UPDATE

Bumping this cold case up. It has been 44 and a half years since Donna was brutally murdered.

Here is an update from her website:

Update - May 29, 2014 The next trial date is scheduled for November 3rd. Please pray for our family as we continue to endure
 
The Milwaukee Police Department lists this case as "cleared", so I believe it has been solved.

https://milwaukeecoldcase.wordpress.com/1970/02/26/donna-i-willing/

"Highly-publicized child murder case finally comes to an end" - October 13, 2014

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/prime-suspect-in-1970-death-of-9-year-old-to-spend-life-in-state-commitment-b99370032z1-279054821.html

Robert Charles Hill may never be charged in the 1970 death of his 9-year-old neighbor, but he was ordered Monday to spend what is likely the rest of his life in custody in part because of what happened to Donna Willing.

"The detectives told me they were 110% confident he did it," Davis said of Hill. "That's good enough for me."

During a massive initial investigation of Donna's murder, detectives did question Hill, who at the time worked in an auto-parts store and drove a car that matched a description of one a witness had seen in the area. Hill was "a person of interest," but was never charged.

Over the course of several interviews, he confessed to killing Donna, said he had been molesting her for years, and apologized for not coming forward sooner. Hill said he had tried to confess indirectly by talking about her.

From the Donna Willing website, posted October 13, 2014:

There was a sudden change of events last week. The finality is overwhelming at the moment. Being able to share this news with everyone and get this, or any, conclusion after almost 45 years of waiting and wondering...we are grateful, thankful, heartbroken, blessed, humbled, amazed...there are no completely adequate words.
 

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