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HPD reopens cold case involving 12-year-old strangled in bathroom
50 years ago this December, a 12-year-old boy accompanied his mother to work at an East End café and never came home. Kirk Douglas Gaskin was found murdered - hanging in the restaurant bathroom in what police call a hate crime.
ByCourtney Fischer December 14, 2023
''HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- On December 8, 1973, Kirk Douglas Gaskin, 12, walked into the bathroom at the Early Roberts Famous Foods restaurant in Houston's East End, and was killed. Fifty years ago, the fifth grader's murder barely made news. Now, one cold case detective hopes to change that.
"They literally put a towel around that baby's neck and they hung him," says Detective Darcus Shorten, with Houston police.
According to investigators in 1973, Gaskin was found dead, strangled with a towel drying roll, which was nailed to the bathroom wall. Officers interviewed one witness who said she saw two boys follow Gaskin into the restroom, though the report provides no description. Police took just three photos of the crime scene, showing the little boy on the bathroom floor.''
''Kirk's brother, Kenneth Gaskin, who was 11 years old at the time of the murder, says he was supposed to be the one at the Early Roberts restaurant the day Kirk was killed. Their mother and grandmother were short order cooks at the diner and would often bring one of the boys for a Saturday shift to "keep us out of trouble," Kenneth says.''
''If you know something about Kirk's cold case, contact Houston police cold case detectives at 713-308-3618.''
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