Kristin O’Connell was only twenty years old when she was murdered. Her case is still unsolved.
Unfortunately, Kristin O’Connell only one of the 250,000 unsolved missing and murdered people cases throughout the United States. Each year, approximately 6,000 cases are added to that figure. These numbers are more than statistics; they are families seeking answers for what happened to their loved ones.
In August of 1985, twenty-year-old Minnesota college student Kristin O’Connell traveled to Ovid, NY, a small town in the Finger Lakes. She went to visit a young man at his trailer park she met on Captiva Island over Spring Break. The day after she arrived, Kristin called her mother from a nearby payphone and told her she was cutting her trip very short. She had suddenly planned to leave for home the following day. That same night on August 14th, Kristin disappeared.
Thirteen hours later, the young man she came to visit would report her missing to law enforcement.
He alleged that at around 11:30pm the previous night, Kristin left his trailer to take a walk alone down an unlit road, in an unfamiliar town, without shoes or a purse.
A team of local firemen would find Kristin’s rain-soaked naked body on August 16th,1985 in a nearby cornfield, less than a quarter of a mile away from the trailer where she was staying. Kristin had been stabbed multiple times, and her throat had been slashed. The full visualized timeline of Kristin O’Connell’s can be viewed here. Toxicology testing would prove her body was free of alcohol at the time of her death, and the coroner found no signs of sexual assault. There had been heavy rain the day she was reported missing, which is why the search was delayed until August 16th. It is possible that if Kristin was assaulted, the heavy rain could have washed away any DNA evidence that could have been left behind by her killer.
Kristin’s mother has not given up and still holds on to hope that her family will have closure for their daughter. Since 1985, her family has hired private investigators and retired law enforcement to work on her case and cooperated with the New York State police throughout the years.
What now for Kristin O’Connell?
The NYS Police recently rejected a new offer to participate in a documentary series about Kristin’s murder and failed to make a comment to the media about their decision. The documentary director, Christopher Pavlick has a NY certified DNA lab and former law enforcement experts (FBI) offering to test the materials in this case to see if they can find any DNA.
Seneca County District Attorney, Mark Sinkiewicz, has never returned a phone call or responded to an email from the victim’s mother.
In December 2009, a similar request was submitted to the NYS Department of Health. At that same time, NYS senator Mike Nozzolio, Senator Chuck Schumer and MN Senator Amy Klobuchar supported the efforts of then DA Barry Porsch and NYS Police Investigator Jeff Arnold to use new touch DNA technology offered by a Dutch team of touch DNA experts. This request was denied by NYS commissioner of health, Howard Zucker.
By signing this petition you can help put pressure on the state police to have the DNA evidence tested by an outside lab.
Here are some ways to help Kristin’s case:
- Be sure to check out the visualized case and share it on your social media. Every like, retweet and reshare puts more eyes on the case.
- By signing the petition you can put pressure on the state police to have the DNA tested by an outside lab.
- Check out the Gofundme and donate if you can. If you can’t, share it on social!
- Shortly after the homicide, a mysterious call was placed to the NY state police. Can you identify this voice? All tips will be handled confidentially.
I live in New York, representing the East coast portion of Words Between Coasts.
