Aug 12, 2009 7:18 pm US/Central
Phone Call Tapes Released In O'Connell Cold Case
(WCCO)
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Kristin O'Connell was a college student from Burnsville, Minn. In 1985, she was visiting a friend in Ovid, N.Y. She went missing after taking a walk alone on Aug. 14. Two days later, searchers found her body in a cornfield. Her throat had been slashed.
New York State Police
It will be 24 years this weekend since Kristin O'Connell was brutally murdered in Ovid, New York. She left a party in a trailer for a walk and never returned. Two days later, her nude body was found by searchers in a cornfield. Her throat was slashed.
More than two decades later, Kristin's killer has not been caught. As another deadly anniversary approaches, New York Police investigators today released an anonymous phone call they received from a tipster back then, claiming he knew the person who killed the 20-year-old Burnsville, Minnesota college student.
The call came in on August 23, 1985, eight days after Kirstin was found. The man told police to look for a green Chevy in Waterloo, New York. That's about fifteen miles from Ovid.
The caller said, "Do you want that guy that killed guy, or ah, that girl?" he also said, "If you open the trunk, you'll find what you want." Before hanging up, the caller told the officer, "I am getting out of town because I told him not to do it. I told him not to do it. I am getting out of town."
The tape was recently found by New York state cold case investigators who have been working on the unsolved murder. They hope by making it public it will help them get a break in the decades-old case.
Over the years. Kristin's mother has always kept in close contact with the detectives. She hopes the taped call released today finally gets someone to come forward.
"Whoever these people are, I believe they are still out there and somebody, maybe that guy who made that call, may have a change of heart to call the police and say hey, it was me." said Phyllis O'Connell.
She also hopes New York state health officials will allow a husband and wife Dutch forensic team to conduct touch DNA tests on the clothes Kristin wore the night she was murdered.
"I just want this for Kristin and I want it for our family. I just want to resolve this. I really, really do so I can put this to rest," said Phyllis O'Connell.
Anyone with information should call Investigator Jeff Arnold who with the New York State Police, His direct number is 585-398-4123.
Cold Case: Kristin O'Connell
Kristin O'Connell Anonymous Call (.wav)
Kristin O'Connell Anonymous Call Transcript (PDF)
Kristin O'Connell Timeline
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