- 9 months ago
This chilling true crime case remained unsolved for years—until Reddit users cracked it wide open. 🕵️♂️ Dive into one of the internet's most shocking investigative victories as we break down how online sleuths solved an impossible cold case using clues, crowdsourced theories, and digital detective work.
In this video, we explore:
The mysterious disappearance that baffled police
The clues Reddit users uncovered
How the internet brought justice to light
In this video, we explore:
The mysterious disappearance that baffled police
The clues Reddit users uncovered
How the internet brought justice to light
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Christina Skates thought she was killing time.
00:03The 23-year-old biology student was scrolling through cemetery records on a quiet afternoon in 2014
00:08when the line 82483 stopped her cold.
00:13And on that line was a date of death, February 5th, 1975.
00:18And beside the date was a name, but it wasn't a name.
00:22It just said, unknown white female bones.
00:26So Christina just stared, puzzled.
00:28Someone had been murdered, buried, without identity, and completely forgotten.
00:34As she later put it, quote,
00:35It was in the back of my mind for a couple months every day, thinking this isn't right.
00:40This isn't how things should be.
00:42What Christina couldn't know was that her inability to let go would set off a chain reaction spanning years and continents.
00:50A single college student's curiosity would mobilize internet strangers, expose massive system failures,
00:57and ultimately solve a decades-old cold case that stumped police for generations.
01:04So this is that story.
01:05How one haunting line in a cemetery ledger became a digital crusade to give a nameless murder victim her identity back.
01:12Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder.
01:17All things that I love to consume.
01:18And I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually-minded...
01:24And today, we are doing just that.
01:26We are getting into a case that is extremely interesting,
01:30because my good friends over at Reddit solved a dang cold case.
01:35And it is an extremely interesting case.
01:38So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go Mach 5 down the highway,
01:41slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into this solved cold case together.
02:00So Christina Skates had always been drawn to mysteries, hiding in plain sight.
02:06And as a biology major at Cleveland State University,
02:09she spent her free time tracing family histories and connecting dots across generations.
02:14But this wasn't casual hobby work.
02:17Christina had developed serious genealogy skills,
02:20using advanced database searches, DNA analysis, and cross-referencing techniques
02:25that would make professional researchers envious.
02:28So genealogy just satisfied something in her methodical mind.
02:32The puzzle-solving, the detective work of uncovering forgotten stories.
02:37And she'd become known in genealogy communities for her thoroughness,
02:41her ability to track down records others missed,
02:43and her persistence in cases where the trails had gone cold.
02:48But line 82483 was different.
02:52Because the entry appeared clinical.
02:54Routine, even.
02:55Because beside the name was unknown white female bones.
02:59And most people would have just scrolled past it.
03:02But Christina couldn't.
03:03And the geography of this particular case made it personal to Christina.
03:08Because she had grown up in Strongsville,
03:11which was just 20 minutes from where the remains were discovered.
03:14So this wasn't some distant tragedy.
03:17This was her backyard.
03:19Someone murdered, buried, nameless, and forgotten just miles from her childhood home.
03:24So to understand how a murder became a footnote,
03:27we need to rewind back to February 15th, 1975,
03:31when three teenage boys were exploring along Rocky River in Millstream Run Reservation,
03:37when they made a grim discovery.
03:39Scattered among the winter debris were partial skeletal remains,
03:44clearly human and clearly old.
03:46Or that's what they thought.
03:47And the boys would call the police eventually.
03:50It took them a minute.
03:52But, you know, whether they were scared of admitting it to their parents,
03:56or they were just scared in general, we won't know.
03:58But they did end up calling the police.
04:00And the excavation that followed yielded more questions than answers.
04:04But the skull told the story.
04:06Because there was a .24 caliber bullet lodged in the left temple.
04:10And on February 12th, 1975,
04:12the death was ruled a homicide.
04:14But the skeleton was incomplete.
04:17Weathered by months of exposure.
04:20And animal scavenging had scattered bones throughout the woods.
04:23So crucial pieces were entirely missing.
04:26And the jawbone was completely gone.
04:28Along with most of the teeth, there was only five left.
04:31Plus one interrupted wisdom tooth.
04:34And the age estimate was about 20.
04:37But without the completed remains, that was even educated guesswork.
04:40So investigators knew they had a young white woman murdered and dumped along Rocky River.
04:45And someone had executed her with a single shot to the head.
04:49Then abandoned her body in the woods.
04:51But without identification, without family coming forward, the case grew cold fast.
04:56So the investigation tried everything 1975 had to offer.
05:00They even compared the skull to photos of Patty Hearst.
05:03She was actually making headlines at the time.
05:05So the police just thought, you know, the most famous person in the United States right now.
05:10It's not even near this location.
05:12Maybe it's Patty Hearst.
05:14You know, they're kind of crossing their fingers that they could solve one of the biggest cases in the United States at the time.
05:19But alas, the dental records did not match.
05:22And it was just far-reaching anyway.
05:24So they couldn't find a match.
05:25And no missing persons reports fit with this case.
05:29And no families claimed her.
05:30So on May 15th, 1975, three months after discovery, the identified remains were buried in Potter's Field at Memorial Garden Cemetery.
05:40And Memorial Garden Cemetery was basically where bodies that were unclaimed went.
05:45And her headstone was unmarked and unremarkable.
05:49And there was no grieving family, no friends, just another unclaimed body in an anonymous section reserved for those with nowhere else to go.
05:58And that cemetery entry would be what caught Christina's attention all those years later.
06:03Unknown white female bones.
06:05So someone was looking for her once again.
06:07But since 1975, years had passed and the case files just gathered dust.
06:12And detectives were tired.
06:14And evidence was just boxed away.
06:16So the young woman murdered along Rocky River became truly forgotten.
06:20Existing only in that ledger.
06:22But in 2014, Christina decided to do something about it.
06:26Because Christina's biology training had taught her to question, to dig deeper when something didn't add up.
06:32And her genealogy hobby had shown her how to research, how to connect seemingly unrelated information.
06:38And her naturally inquisitive personality, what friends called her amateur detective streak,
06:44wouldn't abandon someone so completely forgot by the system meant to protect them.
06:48So staring at the cemetery entry, Christina had no idea she was about to trigger a chain of events that would captivate online communities,
06:56engage professional forensic artists, expose system-wide failures,
07:00and give a name back to someone erased from history for 44 years.
07:05So Christina made the decision that would consume the next several years of her life.
07:09An unknown white female bones would get her name back because of it.
07:14So she started where any good researcher would.
07:16The newspaper.
07:17So hours at local libraries, hunched over microfiche machines, scrolling through decades-old archives,
07:24she searched for any mention of February 1975 discovery along the Rocky River.
07:30Just hoping contemporary coverage might reveal details missing from official reports.
07:35But what she found was worse than silence.
07:37There was virtually nothing.
07:39A young woman murdered remains discovered by children, and it barely rated as a news brief.
07:44So in 1975, this case was treated as just another Jane Doe, another unidentified body worth little public interest.
07:52So without media coverage, there'd be no public awareness at all.
07:55No tips, no pressure on investigators, and the young woman had been forgotten by the press as thoroughly as by the system.
08:02And next came the police departments, and Christina called everyone.
08:06The Cleveland Police, the Akron Police, the Cowahoga County Sheriff's Office, and she hit wall after wall.
08:13And some departments had no records at all.
08:15And others had incomplete files.
08:18But most simply told her cold case information wasn't public, or she'd need formal requests, which would take weeks or even months.
08:24So the digital age had just spoiled Christina.
08:27And here was a decades-old murder with no apparent ongoing investigation.
08:33Yet accessing basic information required navigating bureaucracies that seemed designed to discourage inquiry.
08:40She was actually starting to learn why so many cold cases stayed cold.
08:44And institutional barriers can be as formidable as investigative challenges.
08:50But then she caught her first break.
08:52Lieutenant Don Silvis of Cleveland Metro Parks Police was different.
08:56And when Christina explained her interest in Strongsville Jane Doe, Silvis, surprisingly, didn't dismiss her like the other ones.
09:03He would actually recognize something in her persistence, and her genuine concern for a forgotten victim,
09:09and her demonstrated genealogy expertise from their phone conversation.
09:14So Silvis would do something extraordinary, and he gave Christina copies of the original case files.
09:20Crime scene photos, forensic reports, investigative notes that hadn't seen daylight in decades.
09:25And this was not standard procedure.
09:27You know, just ask the police, hey, can I have some f***ing crime scene photos?
09:30And they give it to you.
09:31Because sharing active case files with civilian researchers broke protocol.
09:35But Silvis saw an opportunity.
09:37If Christina's genealogy skills and online networks could generate new leads on a stone-cold case,
09:43why not take a chance?
09:44And those files would change everything.
09:47And the photos were haunting.
09:49Images of the muddy skull discovered by three teenagers,
09:52and forensic shots of the b*** in the temple,
09:55and documentation of scattered remains.
09:58So this wasn't just a cemetery ledger entry anymore.
10:00This was a real person who'd suffered real violence.
10:05And Christina was staring at the evidence now.
10:07So she would work on it for a while by herself, but she would start to hit a wall.
10:11And she had taken her solo investigation as far as possible.
10:15So she needed help.
10:16And she needed to get other eyes on this case.
10:18The kind of collective intelligence only a community could provide.
10:22And that's when Christina turned to Reddit.
10:25Shout out to Reddit.
10:26And she would choose r slash unsolved mysteries.
10:29A community of over 400,000 members dedicated to cold cases.
10:34And missing persons.
10:35I have spent many an hour on this subreddit.
10:39And the people in it are awesome.
10:42And she would actually use the username callmeice.
10:45Her name's Christina.
10:46My name's Christina.
10:47I say call me Chris.
10:48She said call me Ice.
10:49I don't know.
10:50I feel like we need to be friends.
10:51Anyway.
10:52So Christina would share everything.
10:54The cemetery record that started it all.
10:56Details from Silvis' case files.
10:58Crime scene photos.
10:59Her theory that this case had fallen through the cracks.
11:02And more.
11:03And the response was immediate and overwhelming.
11:07Christina would say I posted on Reddit because I figured other people could do more than I could at that point.
11:12And she was right.
11:13So the community was fascinated but not for the typical true crime reasons.
11:18As Christina noted, people were actually interested in the case because they were amazed that there wouldn't be something in a database.
11:25And these weren't just armchair detectives seeking entertainment.
11:28They were genuinely outraged that a murder victim could be so completely erased from official records.
11:35And the case represented everything wrong with cold case handling.
11:39Jurisdictional confusion, poor record keeping, communication failures, and casual dismissal of searching families.
11:45So users immediately began deploying sophisticated research techniques.
11:49And some would cross-reference the Strongsville's discovery with missing persons databases from the 1970s.
11:56And others used advanced Google searches to hunt for newspaper mentions that Christina might have missed.
12:02And digital archives, genealogy databases, military records, social security death indexes.
12:07The community just cast a research net wider than any individual could manage.
12:13And the case would spread beyond Reddit even.
12:15With Christina's permission, a websleuths.com username, Migmoo, cross-posted her research.
12:21And Websleuths was purpose-built for public involvement in missing persons cases.
12:26And it had 115,000 members, 12 million posts, and proven track record of matching over 20 unidentified bodies with missing people.
12:35Which is crazy.
12:37My kind of people.
12:38But the platform had specific forms for different types of cases.
12:41Unidentified persons, missing persons, cold cases, and members included retired law enforcement,
12:48genealogy experts, former military investigators, and amateur sleuths with specialized knowledge.
12:54And when this case appeared, it just triggered systemic investigation by people who knew how to research exactly such mysteries.
13:01So Christina had accidentally created a perfect storm.
13:04A storm of crowdsourced investigation.
13:07So the collaboration between Reddit and the websleuths became seamless.
13:11And users on both platforms shared their theories.
13:15And divided research tasks and cross-posted significant findings.
13:18And some focused on newspaper archives from the 1970s.
13:23And others specialized in genealogy research, building family trees from potential matches.
13:28And others reached out through professional networks, sharing information with colleagues in law enforcement or forensic sciences.
13:35So this collective effort kind of wielded a power traditional law enforcement just couldn't match.
13:40Because while individual detectives juggled dozens of cases, these online communities could focus entirely on one single mystery.
13:48And while official investigations faced jurisdictional boundaries and bureaucratic constraints,
13:54internet sleuths could follow leads anywhere, regardless of geographic or institutional limits.
13:59Thank God for the internet.
14:00So Christina just watched in amazement as her solitary obsession became a collaborative investigation involving dozens of people across the country.
14:09Because one college student's inability to forget a cemetery entry had become a community effort to restore identity to someone systemically erased from memory.
14:18So hundreds of miles away from Christina's Ohio investigation was a 54-year-old former CPA in California.
14:26And he was just browsing the same forums that had become captivated by the Strongsville's Jane Doe case.
14:32And this man was Carl Kopelman.
14:34And he was not your typical forum user.
14:36No, no.
14:37Nay, nay.
14:38This was a man who discovered an unusual calling.
14:41And that calling was creating facial reconstructions of unidentified remains.
14:47Very niche, but very cool.
14:50And Kopelman's path to forensic artistry was unconventional.
14:53Because after retiring from accounting, he developed an interest in unidentified remains cases.
14:59And initially just following them online.
15:01But his analytical mind and natural artistic ability led him to try something ambitious.
15:07Which was learning to create facial reconstructions using computer software and anatomical knowledge acquired through intensive self-study.
15:17Which is so impressive.
15:19Like, I like to, I can paint, you know?
15:21But this guy's like, hmm, you know what I'm going to do?
15:23I'm going to be a f***ing hero, basically.
15:27So it started as a hobby had become something much bigger.
15:31And Kopelman had already helped solve high-profile cases, including the identification of Tammy Jo Alexander, known for decades as Caledonia Jane Doe.
15:40And his reconstructions combined artistic skill with forensic science, using skull measurements, tissue depth markers, and anatomical knowledge to build faces that could spark recognitions from families and friends.
15:53So when he encountered Christina's research, he was immediately intrigued.
15:59But intrigue and action are different things, obviously.
16:02So Kopelman's initial reaction to the Strongsville case was professional skepticism.
16:08Because the photos Christina had obtained were challenging.
16:11Because the skull was caked with mud after months of exposure and damaged by decomposition and animals.
16:17So crucial facial features were missing entirely.
16:21And he would say,
16:21So for a forensic artist, these weren't inconveniences.
16:37They were fundamental obstacles.
16:39Because the mandible determines facial structure and jawline.
16:42And hair color affects perception and memory.
16:45And teeth influence lip positioning and facial symmetry.
16:48So without these elements, Kopelman was being asked to create a face from fragments.
16:53And to restore humanity to someone whose most distinctive features had been lost.
16:59So the technical challenges were immense.
17:01And Kopelman would need to estimate mandible size and position based on what remained of the skull's attachment points.
17:07So for months, the photos sat in his files.
17:10A constant reminder of an impossible challenge.
17:13But something about the case wouldn't let him go.
17:16And maybe it was Christina's persistence documented in forum posts.
17:20Maybe it was institutional failure that had left the murder victim nameless for 40 years.
17:26And maybe it was just recognition that if he didn't try, no one else would.
17:30So finally, Kopelman made his decision with characteristic directness.
17:35And he would say,
17:36Eventually, I came along and said,
17:38What the hell?
17:39I'll give it a shot.
17:40And thank God he did.
17:41So using sophisticated 3D modeling software, typically employed by professional forensic anthropologists,
17:48Kopelman began to painstakingly process a digital reconstruction.
17:53And he studied the skull photographs from every available angle,
17:57taking precise measurements and noting anatomical landmarks.
18:01And using tissue depth data from the FBI's forensic database,
18:04he calculated how flesh would have sat on the bone structure.
18:08Which, again, just feel like crazy that people can do this.
18:10But anyway.
18:11So the missing mandible was the one that required educated guesswork based on skull proportions and attachment points.
18:18And Kopelman studied similar cases and consulted anthropological references
18:22and made careful estimates about jaw size and position.
18:26And for the missing teeth, he estimated lip positioning based on remaining dental structure.
18:30Because remember, she had five teeth left.
18:33So not a lot to work with.
18:34And the hair presented another challenge.
18:37With no DNA to indicate color or texture,
18:40Kopelman chose a neutral brown that wouldn't bias recognition one way or another.
18:45So the goal was creating a face people could see as their missing loved one,
18:49regardless of specific details that might have changed.
18:52So using digital reconstruction techniques and years of studying facial anatomy,
18:56Kopelman began rebuilding a face from the damaged skull in those muddy crime scene photos.
19:02And the result was remarkable.
19:04Because despite limitations, Kopelman had created a facial reconstruction
19:08that looked like a real person rather than a medical illustration.
19:12And the digital artwork showed a young woman with soft features,
19:17kind eyes, and an approachable face.
19:20Someone who could have been anyone's daughter or sister.
19:23So for the first time in over 40 years, the Strongsville's Jane Doe had a face people could
19:29connect with emotionally.
19:31But creating the reconstruction was only half the battle.
19:34The real challenge was getting it before the right people.
19:37And those people were investigators and family members who might recognize those carefully
19:41reconstructed features.
19:42And this is where Christina's internet community proved invaluable.
19:46Because the facial reconstruction spread across Reddit, web sleuths, and other platforms,
19:52reaching thousands who might have information.
19:54Yet even with this breakthrough, the case might have stayed in internet forums indefinitely,
19:59if not for a completely unrelated phone call Kopelman made in 2016.
20:05So he'd been working on another case and needed to contact
20:08Cahuahoga County Medical Examiner's Office about different remains entirely.
20:12And during that conversation, he mentioned the Strongsville's Bones case,
20:16describing his facial reconstruction and his frustration with a lack of progress.
20:20And the response was shocking because on the other line, the person said,
20:24what bones?
20:25Because the officials had no record of the Strongsville Jane Doe case in their system at all.
20:30So this wasn't an oversight or misfiled report.
20:34The case had never been entered into NAMUS, the National Missing and Unidentified Person System,
20:40which was the primary database for cross-referencing unidentified remains with missing persons reports
20:45nationwide.
20:46So the revelation was stunning because for over a decade,
20:49NAMUS had been solving cold cases by allowing investigators to search for matches between
20:54missing persons and unidentified remains.
20:57But the system was specifically designed to prevent cases like Strongsville Jane Doe
21:01from falling through bureaucratic cracks.
21:04But as we know, it did.
21:06And none of that mattered if the case was never entered to begin with.
21:09So it all ended up being a simple clerical error, likely a spelling mistake or a jurisdictional
21:17confusion from the 1970s.
21:19And it had prevented this murder victim from being included in modern tools designed to
21:24identify her.
21:25So the discovery exposed systemic failure beyond one tragedy.
21:29And how many other cases were lost to similar errors?
21:33And how many families were still searching for missing loved ones whose cases had never made
21:38it into databases that could provide answers?
21:41But once discovered, correcting the error was pretty straightforward.
21:45And the Strongsville Jane Doe case was finally entered into NAMUS, complete with Coppelman's
21:50facial reconstruction and all the forensic details gathered over decades.
21:56So for the first time since 1975, this person, this victim, was officially part of the system
22:02designed to help identify her.
22:04And the impact was almost immediate.
22:06So in December of 2016, Sergeant Jeff Smith of Akron Police was conducting routine NAMUS
22:13database searches when he came across the newly entered Strongsville case.
22:18And something caught his attention.
22:20The age estimate, the time frame, and the location.
22:23So Smith began cross-referencing with missing persons reports from the same period, looking
22:28for potential matches.
22:30And that's when he found her.
22:31A missing person report from September 1974.
22:35A 17-year-old girl who had disappeared from Akron just months before the Strongsville remains
22:41discovery.
22:42And the age was right.
22:44And the timing was right.
22:45And the geographic proximity made sense.
22:48But what really convinced Smith he might have found a match was Coppelman's facial reconstruction.
22:53Because when Smith pulled up the missing person photo and compared it to the digital artwork,
22:59the resemblance was unmistakable.
23:02Which is wild.
23:04Especially based off of how little evidence he had to work off of.
23:07And Coppelman's reaction when he saw the photograph for the first time was immediate and definitive.
23:13And he would say,
23:14So after months of painstaking work reconstructing a face from fragmentary remains,
23:21and after years of the case languishing in digital obscurity,
23:25the breakthrough had finally come.
23:28And the forgotten murder victim finally had a name.
23:31And that name was Linda Marie Pagano.
23:34So at this point, having a potential match was one thing.
23:37Proving it scientifically was another thing entirely.
23:40So what followed Sergeant Jeff Smith's discovery would require months of legal consultations,
23:46forensic planning, and scientific precision to finally answer questions
23:50that had haunted a family for over four decades.
23:53And this was nothing less than the resurrection of Linda Marie Pagano,
23:57both literally and figuratively.
23:59So the first step was dental records.
24:01Because Linda's 1974 missing persons file included dental record charts from regular checkups.
24:07And detailed records documenting her teeth's unique characteristics.
24:11So when investigators compared these to the Strongville's Jane Doe's remaining dental structure,
24:16they found promising similarities.
24:18But as we know, the skeletal remains were incomplete.
24:21And only five teeth plus one interrupted wisdom tooth was available for comparison.
24:26So while encouraging, the dental evidence wasn't conclusive enough for definitive identification.
24:31So for that, they needed DNA.
24:33So obtaining DNA samples meant exhuming remains buried in an unmarked grave for over 40 years.
24:41So in October of 2017, the investigators returned to Memorial Garden Cemetery with court orders
24:47and ground penetrating radar from the University of Akron.
24:50And the technology would let them conduct magnetic surveying of Potter's Field,
24:55searching for the exact 1975 burial location among dozens of unmarked graves.
25:00Very difficult.
25:01And the exhumation proved more challenging than anticipated.
25:05Because Potter's Field is notoriously difficult.
25:08Because with the minimal record keeping, graves were poorly marked or just not marked at all.
25:14So the first attempt yielded wrong remains entirely.
25:17And it was just another stark reminder of how easily the dead were forgotten.
25:22Especially when the proper documentation was lacking.
25:25But with multiple attempts and careful surveying, they were finally able to find the correct location.
25:32And they were able to successfully exhume the remains buried as unknown white female bones in 1975.
25:39So once recovered, samples were extracted and sent to the University of North Texas DNA Laboratory for forensic identification.
25:46And the lab would conduct mitochondrial DNA testing, comparing genetic materials from the remains with cheek swabs from Linda's surviving siblings.
25:55And this type of DNA is ideal for degraded remains.
25:58Because it's more stable than regular DNA and passed through the maternal line.
26:02So perfect for sibling comparisons.
26:04So while science was working, investigators pieced together who Linda Pagano had been in life.
26:10So born April 11th, 1957, Linda was the youngest of three children.
26:16And friends and family called her Mitch, short for Midget.
26:20A playful reference to her petite stature.
26:22Which is not okay to say now, but it's, it's, that's what they called her.
26:26It's not me saying it, it's what they called her.
26:28And it was a different time.
26:29And it's terrible.
26:29But anyway, it was based on her petite stature of about 4'10 and about 100 pounds.
26:35But Linda's small size belied a big personality.
26:38And those who knew her described her as honest, hardworking, and surprisingly independent for someone so young.
26:44And she had blonde hair and blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with mischief.
26:48And despite being naturally shy, Linda was well liked among her classmates at Springfield High School in Akron.
26:55And she worked part time at the A&W restaurant in Talmadge.
26:59Earning her own money and just saving it for the future.
27:01So Linda was the kind of teenager who followed the rules.
27:05And she stayed out of any serious trouble.
27:07But had dreams beyond her small town circumstances.
27:10So what investigators discovered about Linda's final night alive was magical and heartbreaking.
27:16So on August 31st, 1974, Linda had tickets to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young at Cleveland Stadium.
27:23I absolutely love them.
27:26So good.
27:27Wish I could have seen them in concert.
27:28But it was one of the biggest concerts of the year.
27:31It was three hours of music, 26 songs, and two encores.
27:36And the crowd of 80,000 was electric.
27:39And Linda was having the time of her life.
27:42And the final song of the evening was Ohio,
27:45Neil Young's haunting tribute to the Kent State shootings just a few hours away from Cleveland Stadium.
27:51And the irony in that would become heartbreaking.
27:53As Linda Marie Pagano's final night alive ended about a song about young people dying in Ohio.
28:00And within 12 hours, she would become another Ohio tragedy.
28:04So Linda was particularly close to her mother.
28:08And her relationship with her stepfather, Byron Claflin, had always been tense.
28:13Because Claflin was a strict disciplinarian with a volatile temper.
28:18Especially when he'd been drinking.
28:20And as Linda approached 18, the household tensions were escalating.
28:25And she was starting to assert independence that Claflin saw as defiance.
28:29So the last weekend of August 1974 started Ordinary for Linda.
28:34She had tickets to her favorite band.
28:36And she drove there with her prized gold Mustang she saved up to buy.
28:40And she would pick up her boyfriend, Steve Wilson, along the way.
28:43And her friends.
28:44So they would all go to the concert and enjoy it.
28:47And as one friend later recalled, Linda seemed on top of the world.
28:51But the evening would run late.
28:53And the concert didn't end until after 11 p.m.
28:57And then there was traffic, dropping off friends, and the drive back to Akron.
29:01So Linda didn't return home until about 4 a.m. on September 1st.
29:05And her father, Byron Claflin, was waiting for her.
29:08Claflin was a bartender with a reputation for heavy drinking and a temper, as we know.
29:14That made him unpredictable when angry.
29:16And he'd been drinking that night, stewing over Linda's absence.
29:20Working himself into a rage about her independence and perceived disrespect.
29:24And the argument that followed was heated and final.
29:29And in his fury, Claflin threw Linda out of the apartment, telling her to never come back.
29:34And those were the last words anyone would officially hear Linda Pagano speak.
29:39And after that night, Linda was reported missing September 2nd of 1974.
29:44Just one day after the confrontation.
29:46And she had nowhere to go.
29:48No money beyond what was in her purse.
29:50And few options for someone her age in 1974.
29:53And unlike today, no cell phones to track, no social media to monitor, no digital footprint providing clues.
30:01So Linda Pagano had simply vanished.
30:03And despite her family's efforts, she remained missing for 44 years, as we know.
30:08And Byron Claflin, the last person to see Linda alive, remained a person of interest until his death in 1990.
30:15Though never charged with any crime.
30:17So he took whatever knowledge he had about Linda's fate to his grave.
30:21And the investigation always suspected Linda's disappearance connected to that final argument.
30:27But without a body, evidence, or witnesses, nothing could be proven in court.
30:32So flash forward to 2017 again, with the DNA matches going on.
30:36So if the Strongsville remains were Linda's, the mitochondrial DNA would match exactly.
30:42But the test had limitations because mitochondrial DNA is less discriminating than nuclear DNA.
30:47Because thousands of people might share the same mitochondrial profile.
30:50So the test could rule Linda out definitively if it didn't match.
30:54But a positive match would only indicate family relationship, not absolute identification.
30:59But fortunately, in Linda's case, other evidence supported the DNA match.
31:03The age, height, timing, and geographical proximity all aligned.
31:09So when combined with that positive mitochondrial DNA result, investigators had scientific confirmation
31:14of what Carl Koppelman's facial reconstruction had suggested months earlier.
31:19So on June 29th, 2018 now, those questions finally received their scientific answer.
31:25And the DNA results from the University of North Texas came back with a definitive confirmation.
31:31And the remains discovered by three teenage boys along Rocky River in 1975 were indeed Linda Marie Paganos.
31:39So after 44 years, the girl thrown out of her home after a late night had finally been found.
31:45And Christina Skates learned the news while gaming at home.
31:49Receiving a phone call that validated years of obsessive research and sleepless nights.
31:54wondering about a forgotten murder victim.
31:56And as she later described her reaction, quote unquote,
31:59I got choked up when I got the news.
32:02I can't even imagine, like, just doing a hobby, like, to look for somebody's name
32:08that just got forgotten by bureaucratic bullshit.
32:12And then being able to solve the case with the help of so many people.
32:16Like, that's, it's just amazing.
32:17It's amazing to me.
32:18So the cemetery ledger entry that had haunted her for months finally had resolution.
32:23An unknown white female bones now had a name, a family, and people who never stopped loving her.
32:29And the official announcement came July 12, 2018, at a press conference marking the end of one of Ohio's longest running Jane Doe cases.
32:38And Linda Marie Pagano was no longer a mystery.
32:41She was a murder victim who deserved justice.
32:43And her case immediately transferred to the Cleveland Metro Parks Police as an active homicide investigation.
32:49So for Michael Pagano, Linda's brother, who had called the police in 1975, only to be dismissed,
32:55the confirmation was overwhelming.
32:57Because back in 1975, Michael heard about the remains that were found, and he thought they were his sisters.
33:05But the police just said,
33:06Nah, nah, it doesn't sound right.
33:08And the case was, as we know, filed away and forgotten.
33:11So I can't even imagine the relief her brother has felt.
33:15And also, just the betrayal at the same time.
33:18But what he said about the case was,
33:20I thought I was in a dream.
33:21I thought I would never see this.
33:24I thought this day would never come.
33:26I thought I would die wondering.
33:28I am amazed how this came to light like it did.
33:31So the man who had spent over four decades wondering what happened to his little sister finally had his answer.
33:38And Michael made sure to meet Christina Skates in person.
33:42To thank the young woman whose curiosity and persistence had accomplished what the official system failed to do for nearly half a century.
33:49And it was a meeting between strangers whose lives had been connected by tragedy and determination.
33:55And recognition that sometimes the most important justice work happens outside official channels designed to provide it.
34:03So in January 2019, Linda Marie Pagano was finally laid to rest properly.
34:08And her remains were cremated and buried next to her mother in Holy Cross Cemetery.
34:13Ending a journey from an unmarked Pottersfield grave to a final resting place surrounded by family who would never stop searching for her.
34:21But finding Linda Pagano's identity was only half the battle.
34:24Because now investigators face the daunting challenge of proving who killed her.
34:29So when the case transferred to Cleveland Metroparks Police as an active homicide investigation in July 2018,
34:36detectives inherited a murder nearly 44 years old.
34:41Degraded evidence with deceased suspects and witnesses scattered to the winds over four decades.
34:47So the primary suspect had always been clear.
34:50Byron Claflin, Linda's stepfather.
34:52Who'd thrown her out after the final argument in the early morning hours of September 1st, 1974.
34:58So these circumstances just painted a disturbing picture.
35:02A young woman with nowhere to go, kicked out by her angry stepfather in the middle of the night.
35:07But as we know, Byron Claflin had died in 1990.
35:09So whatever knowledge he had about that night had died with him.
35:12So even if investigators could have built a strong case against him, there would be no trial, no conviction, no formal acknowledgement of guilt.
35:21The most likely suspect had escaped earthly justice by nearly three decades.
35:26But the other key figure was Linda's boyfriend, Steve Wilson.
35:30Because he had also vanished from the official record.
35:34Wilson had been with Linda at the concert, drove her home that night, and would have been crucial to understanding the final hours.
35:42But decades of dead ends had failed to locate Wilson.
35:45So by 2018, investigators weren't even certain if he was still alive.
35:50So without testimony, crucial details about Linda's final hours remained forever lost.
35:55And for Michael Bogano, who'd waited 44 years for answers, the investigation's limitations were deeply frustrating.
36:02And the family finally knew what happened to Linda, but legal accountability remained painfully unresolved.
36:08And as Michael put it, with weary resignation,
36:11We'll know in our hearts who did it, but we'll never be able to prove it.
36:16Which is so heartbreaking.
36:17The challenges facing Linda's case were symptomatic of broader problems plaguing cold case work nationwide.
36:24Because evidence degrades, witnesses die or disappear, and suspects escape accountability through death or time's passage.
36:32But Linda's case also exposed systemic failures beyond normal cold case difficulties.
36:37And the clerical error that kept Linda's case out of the national database for over a decade
36:42raised troubling questions about the entire missing person system.
36:45is how many families were waiting for answers prevented by similar bureaucratic failures.
36:51And NAMUS had been operational since 2009, designed specifically to prevent cases like Linda's from falling through the cracks.
36:59Yet, as of 2016, thousands of older cases have never been entered into the system.
37:04So if a spelling mistake or jurisdictional confusion could erase a murder victim from identification systems,
37:11how many other Linda Paganos were buried in unmarked graves,
37:14lost to administrative incompetence rather than investigative limitations?
37:19The revelation sparked audits of missing person databases across Ohio and beyond.
37:24And investigators found hundreds of cases that have never been properly entered into modern systems.
37:29And Jane and John Doe's from 1970s and 1980s, who'd been forgotten,
37:34not because they were unsolvable,
37:36but because they'd never been dignitized or cross-referenced with missing person reports.
37:41So the interagency communication breakdown that dismissed Michael Pagano's 1975 inquiry
37:46just revealed how easily crucial information falls through the cracks
37:50when police departments fail to coordinate effectively.
37:53And Akron police, who took Linda's missing persons report,
37:57apparently never received proper notification about Strongsville's remains discovery.
38:02Or if they did, the information was never processed or cross-referenced.
38:06And in the pre-computer era, a 20-mile jurisdictional gap might have well have been 2,000 miles.
38:12So it took a volunteer forensic artist working from his home computer
38:16to finally give Linda a recognizable face.
38:19Technology that cost thousands of dollars in the 1970s
38:22was now accessible to dedicated amateurs with modern software and internet tutorials.
38:28But Linda's case also demonstrated the transformative potential of modern technology
38:32and community collaboration.
38:34And Christina Skates accomplished what decades of official investigation had failed to achieve.
38:39Not because she had special training or resources,
38:43but because she had persistence, curiosity, and access to digital tools
38:47that let her connect with like-minded investigators worldwide.
38:50And more importantly, Linda's case revealed how internet communities
38:53could serve as force multipliers for justice.
38:57The collective intelligence of Reddit and WebSleuth's users
39:00provided research capacity that no individual detective could match.
39:04Because when hundreds of people could simultaneously research different aspects of the case,
39:08cold cases that had been dead for decades suddenly became solvable.
39:12So Christina's approach became a model for responsible amateur investigation.
39:17Because she'd been meticulous in research, respectful,
39:20and careful to verify information before sharing publicly.
39:24And her success inspired other amateur investigators to tackle similar cases,
39:28always understanding that responsible sleuthing required the same attention to evidence
39:32and accuracy that professional investigators demanded.
39:35And law enforcement agencies began recognizing the value of work of amateur investigators
39:40rather than dismissing them as interfering busybodies.
39:44And Linda's case showed that citizen involvement, when properly channeled,
39:49could provide additional investigative capacity
39:51that cash-strapped police departments desperately needed.
39:55Because cold case units overwhelmed by decades of unsolved mysteries
39:58suddenly had access to volunteer researchers.
40:01And for Christina herself, Linda's case resolution was both ending and the beginning.
40:06And when asked about her role in solving the 44-year-old mystery,
40:09Christina remained characteristically modest and said,
40:12I was perfectly fine just bringing the case interest back to the case.
40:17And she'd never sought fame or recognition,
40:20only knowledge that a forgotten murder victim had finally received deserved attention.
40:25And what began as a haunting line,
40:26unknown white female bones, had become Linda Marie Pagano.
40:30Not just a name, but a life restored to memory.
40:34A 17-year-old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes,
40:37who loved music and worked at A&W,
40:40who saved money for a gold Mustang,
40:42whose friends called her Midge,
40:44which was questionable,
40:45and who spent her final night singing along to Crosby,
40:48Stills, Nash & Young,
40:50feeling on top of the world.
40:51So the faceless victim had become someone's daughter,
40:54someone's sister,
40:55someone who mattered.
40:56And Christina and Carl Kopelman and all the other researchers accomplished something remarkable.
41:02And somewhere today or tonight,
41:04other families are still searching.
41:06And other victims wait in unmarked graves for someone who won't give up.
41:11And someone who believes every person deserves to be remembered by name.
41:16And every person deserves to come home.
41:18And that is it for today's case.
41:22I think it is incredible what Christina and Carl were able to accomplish,
41:27along with everyone else involved.
41:30I think it's so wonderful that Linda was able to be put to rest,
41:34and her family was able to breathe a sigh of relief,
41:37even though they weren't able to get the justice they deserved.
41:40But I just think it's pretty amazing.
41:42And obviously, you know, there's a responsible way to go about it.
41:45I'm not saying, go solve cold cases, do it.
41:47But I think it's important to talk about cold cases and the potential to solve them.
41:52Yeah, let me know what other cold cases you want me to go over,
41:56ones that haven't been solved yet.
41:58I think that's really important.
41:59And until next time, I will see you beautiful face.
42:01All right?
42:02Bye.
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