Austin musician Mike Cahill, as pictured on his album. (Matt Cahill)
Photo of Mike Cahill's guitar that showed up in New Jersey 41 years after his death
July 21 2023
Missing in Texas: Clue in cold case murder mysteriously turns up decades later
In this "Missing in Texas", FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen speaks with the nephew of Austin musician Mike Cahill about the unsolved 1979 murder and a surprising piece of evidence that turned up four decades later.
April 13, 1979 was the day Mike was shot and killed after chasing a burglar who'd gotten away with his guitar.''
"It's kind of shocking to know that something so casually violent can happen. You come home one night, and somebody is walking out of your apartment with your Guild D-40, your pride and joy, and you try to get it back, and you get shot in the head," his nephew Matt Cahill said.
2007
Sketching an old crime scene
A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist is lending his talents to a crime-fighting television show in an attempt to track down the killer of a young musician who was slain nearly three decades ago. Ber…
www.telegram.com
Berkeley Breathed, best known for the 1980s political cartoon “Bloom County” and the quirky “Opus” comic strip, has more than a passing interest in the 1979 case. Authorities believe the killer may have burglarized Breathed’s home when Breathed was a student at the University of Texas in Austin.''
''In Austin, Michael Cahill’s slaying is remembered as the “Book of Days” murder because the killer was suspected of breaking into the homes of Breathed and several other student photographers who contributed black-and-white pictures to a 1978 desk calendar by that name.
Cahill, 28, was shot to death April 13, 1979, when he confronted a burglar leaving his apartment with his guitar. The University of Texas dropout worked as a cook, but his main pursuit was a music career.''
