MI Gaetana "Donna" Serra, 17, St Clair Shores, Sept 29, 1972

[Nina Michigan]

On Sept 29, 1972, a rainy day in suburban Detroit, 17 year old Donna Serra is waiting for a ride home from school. She speaks briefly to her sister, Kathy, but when her family arrives to pick her up at South Lake High School, she's gone.

Three weeks later, on October 20, 1972, her body is found in Ray Township. The discovery of Serra's remains by pheasant hunters is an unpleasant update to the case. Donna was wearing the same clothing she'd worn to school the day she disappeared. Blue jeans, a blue and white top and brown shoes.

It appears that Donna was held captive for several days and drugged "with barbiturates" according to a 1993 news story. The cause of death was strangulation.

The murder of Donna Serra is an open investigation and tips should be given to the Detective Bureau at the Macomb County Sheriff

News clipping is from the October 24, 1972 Times Herald (Port Huron) newspaper.

 

[Nina Michigan]

 

[Jim_M]

This article, from September 5, 1993, can actually be read (for free!) which is unusual for one of these Newspaper web sites. Anyway, if you cannot read the tiny print, I've included the file below. They received a tip about the case, and a snippet of the article is haunting:

"Detectives believe that Serra, 17, was picked up or kidnapped near South Lake High School, on a rainy day three weeks earlier, held captive, sexually assaulted and then fatally strangled with a lace from her brown hiking boots about three or four days before the body was found."

That was in 1993! This is so heartbreaking IMO.

Still looking for other information "out there..."

Donna Serra - Newspapers.com

 

[Richard]

47 Years have gone by...

Could her murder be related to others of the era?


Donna Serra
Birth 2 Oct 1955
Death 15 Oct 1972 (aged 17)
Burial
Resurrection Cemetery
Clinton Township, Macomb County, Michigan, USA

 

[Nina Michigan]

We missed the anniversary of her murder a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Richard]

Bumping this thread up. The two newspaper reports (1972 and 1993) are very different.

 

[Nina Michigan]

Thinking of Donna today