- 2 days ago
In 1964 a 12-year-old girl named Mary Theresa Simpson was murdered in Elmira, New York. The man who killed her died in 2004 at 72 years old — believing he had gotten away with it.
For 61 years — he had.
Until a DNA sample invisible to the naked eye — and an FBI agent who ran through a frozen warehouse in Memphis to save it — finally gave her sister Linda the name she had been waiting 62 years to hear.
1 in 320,000,000,000.
Full 30-minute documentary on The Dark Stories YouTube channel. Search: The Dark Stories Mary Theresa Simpson
cold case short, true crime short, DNA cold case, cold case solved 2026, forensic genealogy, cold case documentary short, Mary Theresa Simpson, murder solved DNA, cold case clip, true crime documentary, cold case 1964, justice cold case, DNA solved murder, cold case facts
For 61 years — he had.
Until a DNA sample invisible to the naked eye — and an FBI agent who ran through a frozen warehouse in Memphis to save it — finally gave her sister Linda the name she had been waiting 62 years to hear.
1 in 320,000,000,000.
Full 30-minute documentary on The Dark Stories YouTube channel. Search: The Dark Stories Mary Theresa Simpson
cold case short, true crime short, DNA cold case, cold case solved 2026, forensic genealogy, cold case documentary short, Mary Theresa Simpson, murder solved DNA, cold case clip, true crime documentary, cold case 1964, justice cold case, DNA solved murder, cold case facts
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NewsTranscript
00:00On March 19, 1964, a man was hiking through the woods near Combs Hill Road in Southport, New York.
00:07He had his two young sons with him.
00:10It was a Tuesday afternoon.
00:11The boys were walking ahead, and then the man stopped.
00:15Something was wrong.
00:17Under four heavy stones, the largest weighing more than 100 pounds,
00:22buried under branches and leaves and dirt,
00:25only a small hand and the edge of a sneaker visible.
00:30There was a 12-year-old girl under there.
00:33Her name was Mary Teresa Simpson.
00:36She was 12 years old.
00:38She had been missing for four days.
00:41On the Sunday afternoon before, on March 15,
00:44she had told her father she was going to visit her cousin.
00:47She kissed him goodbye.
00:49She walked out the door.
00:51She never came home.
00:53The Elmira Police Department had been searching for her for four days.
00:57Four days of knocking on doors and checking empty buildings
01:01and walking the streets between her cousin's house and the apartment her father had just moved into.
01:06Four days of a father waiting by a phone.
01:09It would take 61 years to answer the question of what happened to Mary Teresa Simpson.
01:1761 years.
01:19Three generations of detectives.
01:21Thousands of pages of investigation files.
01:24A DNA sample so small, it was invisible to the naked eye.
01:29A historic ice storm in Memphis, Tennessee that nearly destroyed the last surviving piece of evidence.
01:36A forensic genealogy process that built a family tree from the dead.
01:41And the exhumation of a man who had been buried for 20 years, believing he had gotten away with it.
01:48He had.
01:50Until science caught up.
01:53And this is The Dark Stories.
01:56Tonight's video covers nine chapters.
01:59Who was Mary Teresa?
02:00The day she vanished.
02:02What they found in the woods.
02:0460 years of silence.
02:07The 0.4 nanogram miracle.
02:09The Memphis crisis.
02:11The family tree built from the dead.
02:14The man who died thinking he got away.
02:18And Linda's 61-year wait.
02:22Before we begin, everything in this video is sourced from verified public records,
02:27court documents, official press conference statements, and confirmed reporting.
02:32This channel does not speculate beyond the established evidence.
02:36This is the truth, as the record tells it.
02:42Elmira, New York, 1964.
02:45A small city in the southern tier of upstate New York.
02:49Known for its tree-lined streets, its close-knit neighborhoods,
02:52and the kind of community where everybody knew everybody.
02:56Mark Twain is buried in Elmira.
02:59He called it his home.
03:00The kind of place that produced writers, workers, families.
03:05A city that had seen hard times and come through them.
03:09In the spring of 1964, American life had a particular texture to it.
03:15The war in Vietnam was still a distant murmur.
03:18The Beatles had just arrived on American television for the first time.
03:22Children clipped metal roller skates to the soles of their shoes
03:26and raced each other down the pavement.
03:28They played kick the can until the streetlights came on.
03:32They roamed their neighborhoods freely.
03:34Because that was what childhood was in 1964 in Elmira, New York.
03:39Safe.
03:41Or so everyone believed.
03:43Mary Teresa Simpson was born in 1951,
03:47the second youngest child of Ellsworth and Rose Simpson.
03:51Her older sister Linda described her as shy,
03:55quiet, the kind of child who kept to herself.
03:58But who felt everything deeply.
04:01She was 12 years old.
04:02She wore glasses.
04:04She had a fan club card.
04:06The kind that children collected in 1964
04:09with pictures of their favorite musicians or movie stars.
04:13She had a pair of canvas sneakers she wore everywhere.
04:17She was in that particular phase of childhood
04:19that sits just at the edge of adolescence.
04:22Old enough to be trusted to walk places alone.
04:25Young enough to still be completely vulnerable.
04:29Her parents had separated in May 1963.
04:32It was a difficult time for the whole family.
04:35Mary and her father Ellsworth moved to Hammonsport,
04:39a small town nearby.
04:40Which meant she could only see her mother once a month.
04:44Once a month.
04:46For a child who felt everything deeply,
04:48that was a long time between visits.
04:52In early March 1964,
04:55just six days before she disappeared,
04:58her father Ellsworth found a new job.
05:00They moved back to Elmira.
05:02She was finally home.
05:04Finally close to her mother again.
05:06Close to her cousins.
05:08Close to her sister Linda.
05:10Six days.
05:12That is how long she had been back home
05:14before March 15th.
05:16Six days of finally feeling like things were going to be okay.
05:21She had no idea.
05:23She had six days left.
05:26Linda Galpin was 16 when her little sister was killed.
05:30She was out of town when Mary disappeared.
05:32When she came home and learned what had happened,
05:35she went to the funeral.
05:36Right now I do feel very happy
05:39that it finally got solved after about 62 years.
05:42It's going to take me a little while
05:44for it to sink in.
05:45And I thank everybody
05:47for all their help,
05:49how they did it.
05:50You know,
05:51I'm just happy.
05:53And she remembers rushing to the casket.
05:56She said,
05:56I tried to jump in.
05:58I wanted to be in there with her.
06:01She was 16 years old.
06:03And that memory,
06:04the memory of a 16-year-old girl
06:07trying to climb into her 12-year-old sister's casket,
06:11stayed with Linda Galpin
06:12for the next 62 years.
06:15Every single day.
06:18March 15th, 1964.
06:21A Sunday afternoon.
06:22At 3 o'clock p.m.,
06:25Mary told her father
06:26she was going to visit her cousin.
06:27What her father didn't know
06:29was that she first made a secret detour.
06:33She went to see her mother.
06:34They had been separated by distance for months.
06:37She missed her.
06:38She wanted to see her.
06:40So she went.
06:42She spent an hour there.
06:43Then she went to her cousin's house,
06:45just as she had told her father.
06:47At 6.30 p.m.,
06:49her cousin watched her leave
06:51and walked toward home.
06:53At 7 o'clock p.m.,
06:54a friend spotted her
06:56at the corner of East Market
06:57and Harriet Streets.
06:59Mary said she was heading home.
07:01Those were the last words
07:03anyone who loved her
07:04would ever hear from her.
07:07By 11 o'clock that night,
07:09Ellsworth Simpson could not wait any longer.
07:12He called the Elmira Police Department
07:14and reported his 12-year-old daughter missing.
07:17The search began immediately.
07:20It would last four days
07:21and end in the worst possible way.
07:27When investigators arrived
07:29at Combs Hill Road
07:30on March 19, 1964,
07:32what they found was a scene
07:34that would haunt
07:35the Elmira Police Department
07:37for the next six decades.
07:39Four heavy stones,
07:41the largest weighing
07:42more than 100 pounds,
07:45320 pounds of rock in total,
07:48deliberately placed
07:49over a 12-year-old child.
07:52Branches and leaves
07:53and dirt carefully arranged
07:55to conceal what was underneath.
07:58This was not panic.
07:59This was not impulse.
08:01This was someone who had time,
08:03who was deliberate,
08:05who wanted her hidden,
08:07who wanted to go home
08:08and carry on with their life
08:10as if Mary Teresa Simpson
08:12had never existed.
08:14There was something else
08:15at the scene,
08:16something investigators
08:18would describe for six decades
08:19as the killer's signature.
08:22Mary Teresa's mouth
08:24and her throat
08:24had been stuffed
08:26with dirt and twigs.
08:28Forensic investigators
08:29would later note
08:30that this detail,
08:31this specific act,
08:33went beyond
08:34the mechanics of the crime.
08:36It was intentional.
08:38It was personal.
08:39And it told investigators
08:41something deeply disturbing
08:42about the person
08:43who did this.
08:44They were facing someone
08:46who felt something
08:47toward this child,
08:49not someone who panicked
08:50and ran,
08:51someone who stayed,
08:53who took time,
08:55who did something
08:56that served
08:57no tactical purpose,
08:58only a psychological one.
09:01The Chemung County
09:02Medical Examiner
09:03determined the cause
09:04of death
09:04was asphyxiation.
09:06Mary Teresa Simpson
09:07had been strangled.
09:09The examination
09:10also confirmed
09:11that she had been
09:12sexually assaulted.
09:14She was 12 years old.
09:16She had been walking home.
09:18She had been talking
09:19to a friend on the corner.
09:21She had told that friend
09:23she was heading home.
09:25Somewhere between that corner
09:27and her front door,
09:28in the streets of a city
09:30she had been so happy
09:31to come back to,
09:32someone took her.
09:34We do not know exactly when.
09:36We do not know exactly where
09:38on that route.
09:39What we know
09:40is that she suffered.
09:42And what we know,
09:43finally,
09:44is who did it.
09:46In 1964,
09:48DNA technology
09:50did not exist.
09:51It would not be developed
09:52as a forensic tool
09:54for another 22 years.
09:56The investigators
09:57who worked
09:58Mary Teresa's case
09:59had no way of knowing
10:00that the scraps
10:01of evidence
10:02they were collecting
10:03would one day
10:04tell them
10:04exactly who killed her.
10:06But they preserved
10:08everything anyway.
10:08her eyeglasses,
10:11a fan club card
10:12found at the scene,
10:13the skirt she was wearing.
10:16They sealed them carefully.
10:17They stored them
10:19in a freezer
10:19at Elmira Police Headquarters.
10:22These investigators,
10:23working with technology
10:25that could never have told them
10:26what they needed to know,
10:28made a decision
10:29that would ultimately
10:30save this case.
10:31They kept everything.
10:33They threw nothing away.
10:36And there it sat,
10:38in that freezer,
10:39for 60 years,
10:41waiting for science
10:42to catch up.
10:44The Elmira Police Department
10:45launched one of the largest
10:47investigations
10:47in the city's history.
10:49By October 1964,
10:52just seven months
10:53after the murder,
10:54officers had questioned
10:55more than 300 suspects.
10:58Three hundred.
10:59Every person
11:00with a prior record.
11:02Every person
11:03who lived
11:03near the route
11:04she walked.
11:05Every person
11:06who knew her family.
11:08Local media
11:09raised a reward fund,
11:10starting at $1,000,
11:12eventually growing
11:14to $5,000
11:15by 1972.
11:17Every lead
11:18was followed,
11:19every name
11:19was checked.
11:21Every person
11:22who knew Mary Teresa
11:23was interviewed.
11:25One name
11:26never appeared
11:27in any of those
11:27thousands of pages
11:28of investigation files.
11:31Alfred Raymond
11:32Murray Jr.
11:33He lived in Elmira.
11:35He drove a truck.
11:37He had a wife
11:38and three children.
11:39He was 32 years old.
11:42Nobody ever looked
11:43at him.
11:44Not once.
11:49The years passed.
11:51The case went cold.
11:53Investigators retired.
11:54New investigators
11:55took over the files.
11:57The reward fund
11:58faded.
11:59The newspaper coverage
12:01thinned.
12:02Elmira moved forward
12:03the way cities do
12:04after tragedy.
12:05New buildings
12:06went up.
12:07New generations
12:08of children
12:08were born
12:09and grew up
12:10and had children
12:11of their own.
12:12And somewhere,
12:13in a freezer
12:14at police headquarters,
12:15a skirt,
12:17a pair of eyeglasses,
12:19a fan club card.
12:21Waiting.
12:22But Elmira police
12:23never formally
12:24closed the case.
12:26Every detective
12:27who inherited
12:27those files
12:28understood something.
12:29That a 12-year-old girl
12:31from their city
12:32had been murdered.
12:33And that the man
12:34who did it
12:35had never faced
12:36a single consequence.
12:38Linda Galpin
12:39never stopped thinking
12:40about her little sister.
12:42Every year
12:42that passed
12:43without answers
12:44was another year
12:45the man who killed
12:46Mary Teresa
12:47was living freely
12:48in the world.
12:49He had a family.
12:51Grandchildren.
12:52A life.
12:53While Linda
12:54carried the weight
12:55of a casket
12:56she had tried
12:56to climb into
12:57when she was
12:5816 years old.
13:00Grief does not
13:01diminish with time.
13:02People say it does.
13:04It doesn't.
13:05It becomes something
13:06you learn to carry.
13:08It becomes part
13:09of the shape
13:09of who you are.
13:11For 62 years,
13:12Mary Teresa
13:13was the shape
13:14of who Linda was.
13:16The absence
13:17at every birthday.
13:18The question
13:19at every family gathering.
13:21The sister
13:22who never got
13:23to grow up.
13:24In 2003,
13:2639 years
13:27after Mary Teresa
13:28was murdered,
13:29forensic technology
13:30had finally
13:31advanced enough.
13:32Scientists
13:33at the New York State
13:34Police Forensic
13:35Investigation Center
13:36examined her
13:37preserved clothing.
13:39They found semen.
13:40They extracted
13:42a DNA profile.
13:43And for the first time
13:44in this case,
13:45they had something
13:47that could identify
13:48the killer.
13:49Not the stones.
13:50Not the dirt.
13:51Not the witness accounts
13:53from 1964.
13:54His actual DNA.
13:57They entered the profile
13:59into CODIS,
14:00the National Combined
14:02DNA Index System,
14:04which holds
14:04the genetic fingerprints
14:05of millions of convicted
14:07offenders across the country.
14:08No match.
14:11He was not in the system.
14:13In 2014,
14:14the DNA was resubmitted.
14:17New technologies,
14:18better sequencing,
14:20a larger database.
14:21Still,
14:22no match.
14:2450 years of silence.
14:26The man who stuffed
14:27dirt and twigs
14:28into a 12-year-old girl's throat
14:30was not in the system.
14:32He had never been convicted
14:34of anything
14:35that put his DNA
14:36in a national database.
14:37He appeared,
14:39for all the world,
14:40to be just another
14:41ordinary man
14:42from Elmira.
14:43A truck driver.
14:45A Korean War veteran.
14:47A grandfather.
14:49However you nobody
14:50ever thought to look at.
14:52Sergeant William Goodwin
14:54had been working
14:54this case for years.
14:56He knew what was
14:57in that freezer.
14:58He knew what the evidence meant.
15:00And he refused to accept
15:02that the answer
15:02was simply gone.
15:04In 2022,
15:06he secured a grant
15:07from a non-profit organization
15:09called Season of Justice.
15:12Season of Justice exists
15:13specifically to fund
15:15advanced DNA testing
15:16on cold cases.
15:18Cases where the traditional
15:19systems have failed.
15:21Cases where the technology
15:22that now exists,
15:24finally,
15:25gives investigators a path
15:26that wasn't available before.
15:29Sergeant Goodwin partnered
15:30with FBI Special Agent
15:32Kenneth Jensen.
15:33Together,
15:34they submitted
15:35Mary Teresa's
15:35preserved clothing
15:36for a new kind
15:38of DNA analysis.
15:39The kind that didn't exist
15:41in 2003.
15:43The kind that didn't exist
15:45in 2014.
15:47It was Mary Teresa's
15:48last chance.
15:50And it nearly didn't
15:51make it to the lab.
15:55What Sergeant Goodwin
15:56and Agent Jensen
15:57had to work with
15:58was not much.
16:000.4 nanograms.
16:02To put that in perspective,
16:04a human hair
16:05weighs 70,000 nanograms.
16:07A single grain of salt
16:09is 60,000 nanograms.
16:110.4 nanograms of DNA
16:14is completely invisible
16:16to the naked eye.
16:17You could not see it.
16:19You could not hold it.
16:20You would not know
16:21it was there.
16:22And yet,
16:23sitting in a sealed
16:24evidence bag
16:25in a freezer
16:26in Elmira, New York,
16:27that microscopic
16:29invisible speck
16:30contained the identity
16:31of a killer.
16:33It was less than nothing.
16:34It was everything.
16:37Othram Technologies
16:38in the Woodlands, Texas
16:39is one of the few
16:40laboratories in the world
16:41that can do
16:42the seemingly impossible
16:43with damaged,
16:45degraded,
16:46microscopic DNA.
16:47They have solved
16:49cold cases
16:49from the 1960s,
16:51the 1970s,
16:52the 1980s.
16:54Cases where the evidence
16:56seemed long dead.
16:58Cases where families
16:59had been told
16:59there was nothing
17:00left to find.
17:02Their technology,
17:03a process called
17:04forensic genome sequencing,
17:07can extract
17:07a usable DNA profile
17:09from quantities
17:10so small
17:11that no other laboratory
17:13in the world
17:14could work with them.
17:16Agent Jensen
17:17packed the fragile sample
17:18in dry ice
17:19and placed it
17:20in a cooler
17:21for shipping.
17:21He knew
17:22what was at stake.
17:23If this sample failed,
17:25if the DNA
17:26degraded beyond recovery,
17:28the case would likely
17:29die with it.
17:3162 years
17:32of investigation,
17:34300 suspects,
17:35one invisible speck
17:38of evidence.
17:39Then,
17:40everything froze.
17:42Literally.
17:43Memphis, Tennessee.
17:45home of the largest
17:46FedEx hub in the world,
17:47where a historic ice storm
17:49had shut down everything.
17:51Every plane grounded.
17:53Every package stranded.
17:55No movement in or out.
17:58Somewhere,
17:59in a facility
17:59the size of a small city,
18:01in a cooler
18:02packed with dry ice,
18:03was the last surviving
18:05piece of DNA evidence
18:06from Mary Teresa Simpson's murder.
18:09Jensen tried to reach FedEx.
18:11He couldn't get anyone
18:12on the phone.
18:13The storm had paralyzed
18:15the entire operation.
18:17Thousands of packages.
18:19Thousands of drivers
18:20stranded.
18:21One facility,
18:23enormous,
18:23completely inaccessible.
18:26The dry ice was melting.
18:2860 years of waiting
18:30was about to end.
18:31Not in a courtroom,
18:33but in a melted cooler
18:34in Memphis.
18:36Jensen contacted
18:38FBI agents in Memphis.
18:39A bureau liaison
18:41at the FedEx hub
18:42was sent in.
18:43What followed?
18:44Sergeant Goodwin
18:45described later
18:46as a massive
18:47scavenger hunt.
18:49One person.
18:50Thousands
18:51of stranded packages.
18:52Somewhere
18:53in that frozen warehouse,
18:55a cooler
18:56with a sample
18:57the size of nothing.
18:59Goodwin watched
19:00from New York.
19:01Nerve-wracking
19:02was his word.
19:03They were terrified
19:04of losing
19:05their very last piece
19:06of evidence
19:07before it even
19:08reached the lab.
19:09The agent found it.
19:11Just in time.
19:12The dry ice
19:13was almost gone.
19:14He placed the cooler
19:16in the FBI bureau's freezer
19:17and kept it there
19:19until the storm passed
19:20and a plane
19:20could finally
19:21leave Memphis.
19:22The sample
19:24arrived in Texas
19:25intact.
19:2660 years of patience
19:28almost undone
19:30by an ice storm.
19:31Almost.
19:36When traditional DNA
19:37matching fails,
19:38when the killer's profile
19:40is not in any
19:41law enforcement database,
19:43forensic genealogy
19:44offers a completely
19:45different path.
19:47Instead of looking
19:48for the suspect
19:49directly,
19:50you look for their relatives.
19:52The science
19:53works like this.
19:54You upload the unknown
19:55DNA profile
19:56to public genealogy databases,
19:59the kind used by
20:00millions of ordinary people
20:01tracing their family history
20:03on platforms
20:04like GEDmatch.
20:06You search for people
20:07who share
20:07partial genetic markers
20:09with the unknown suspect.
20:10These could be cousins,
20:13second cousins,
20:14even third cousins.
20:15People who have
20:16no idea
20:17their DNA
20:18has just become
20:19a thread
20:19in an investigation.
20:21Then,
20:22painstakingly,
20:23investigators build
20:24a family tree
20:25backwards
20:26from those
20:26distant matches,
20:28mapping the branches,
20:30tracing the branches,
20:30until the branches
20:32converge
20:33on a single name.
20:35It is painstaking.
20:37It is meticulous.
20:38It can take
20:39months.
20:41And in 2023,
20:42it was exactly
20:43what cracked
20:44the Mary Teresa Simpson case.
20:46Working alongside
20:47the FBI,
20:49investigators partnered
20:50with students
20:50from Russell Sage College's
20:52Criminal Investigation
20:53Resource Center
20:54in 2023.
20:55These were
20:56undergraduate students,
20:58young researchers
20:59who spent months
21:00organizing and digitizing
21:0160 years' worth
21:03of case files,
21:04thousands of pages,
21:06hundreds of interviews,
21:07every lead
21:08that had ever been followed
21:10and had gone nowhere.
21:12They built a database
21:13from the past.
21:14They digitized
21:15the physical memory
21:16of a cold case
21:17that had sat
21:18in filing cabinets
21:19for six decades.
21:20And then,
21:22alongside the genealogy work
21:24being done
21:24with the public DNA databases,
21:26they helped build
21:28the family trees
21:28that would ultimately
21:30point to one man.
21:32The DNA profile
21:33from Mary Teresa's skirt
21:35matched partial genetic markers
21:37with a man
21:37in the public database.
21:39Not the killer,
21:40his son.
21:42Investigators approached
21:43the son.
21:44He cooperated.
21:45He provided his own
21:46DNA sample voluntarily.
21:48He had no idea
21:50what he was part of.
21:51He had no idea
21:52his DNA would become
21:54the key
21:55that unlocked
21:55a 60-year-old murder.
21:58The familial link
21:59was confirmed
22:00and his father's name,
22:02a man who had been dead
22:03for 20 years,
22:05moved to the top
22:06of the suspect list.
22:08Alfred Raymond Murray, Jr.
22:11Born in Elmira
22:12in 1931.
22:13Raised there.
22:15Lived there
22:15his entire life.
22:17A truck driver.
22:18A Korean War veteran.
22:20A husband.
22:21A father of three.
22:2332 years old
22:24when he killed
22:25Mary Teresa Simpson.
22:27He had been a young man
22:28in the same city,
22:29driving the same roads
22:31while investigators
22:32questioned 300 other people
22:34and never once
22:35looked at him.
22:37His name does not
22:38appear anywhere
22:39in the thousands of pages
22:40of the original
22:41investigation files.
22:43Not once.
22:44When investigators
22:45looked into
22:46Murray's background,
22:47what they found
22:48was chilling.
22:49At approximately
22:50age 17,
22:52around 1948,
22:54Murray had been arrested
22:55for molesting
22:56two 7-year-old sisters.
22:58Sergeant Goodwin
22:59described it
23:00at the press conference.
23:02His record shows
23:03repeated criminal
23:04involvement
23:04over decades
23:05involving offenses
23:06against children.
23:08A man with a known
23:09history of crimes
23:10against young girls,
23:11living in the same city
23:13as a 12-year-old
23:14who was walking
23:15home alone.
23:17He did not know
23:18Mary Teresa.
23:19There was no prior
23:20connection between them.
23:21He saw her
23:23and he took her.
23:24And then he went home
23:26and lived his life
23:27for another 40 years.
23:32Alfred Raymond Murray Jr.
23:34died in 2004.
23:36He was 72 or 73 years old.
23:40Natural causes.
23:41He had lived a full life.
23:43He had grandchildren.
23:45He had watched
23:46his children grow up.
23:47He had grown old.
23:50He was buried in Elmira,
23:52the same city
23:53where he had killed
23:53a 12-year-old girl
23:5540 years earlier.
23:56He died thinking
23:58he had gotten away with it.
24:00He had.
24:01For 40 years,
24:03he had.
24:04His family buried him.
24:07They grieved for him.
24:08They had no idea
24:09what he had done.
24:11The familial DNA match
24:13through the sun
24:13gave investigators
24:14overwhelming confidence.
24:16But they needed
24:17100% certainty.
24:19Not 99.
24:21100.
24:22Because the stakes
24:24were enormous.
24:25A family.
24:27A public announcement.
24:29A man being named
24:30as a murderer
24:31in front of cameras
24:32and microphones
24:33and the media.
24:34If there was any
24:36possibility of error,
24:37they needed to eliminate it.
24:39The only way
24:40to achieve absolute certainty
24:42was to test
24:43Alfred Murray directly.
24:45In November 2025,
24:47with funding
24:48from the National Center
24:49for Missing
24:50and Exploited Children,
24:52investigators exhumed
24:53Murray's remains
24:54from his grave
24:55in Elmira.
24:56The same city.
24:57The same ground.
24:58The man who had carried
25:00this secret
25:01for 40 years
25:02dug up
25:04to answer for it.
25:05The results came back.
25:07The DNA recovered
25:09from Mary Teresa Simpson's
25:10skirt,
25:11preserved in a freezer
25:12for 60 years,
25:14matched the DNA
25:15taken from
25:16Alfred Murray's
25:17exhumed remains.
25:18With a probability
25:19of error
25:20of 1 in 320 billion.
25:24To put that in perspective,
25:25the entire human population
25:28of Earth
25:28is approximately
25:298 billion people.
25:311 in 320 billion.
25:34There is no reasonable doubt
25:37in that number.
25:38There is no alternative explanation.
25:41There is no possibility
25:42of error
25:43that a rational mind
25:44could hold on to.
25:46It was him.
25:47It was always him.
25:50On February 10, 2026,
25:53at the Chemung County
25:55District Attorney's Office
25:56in Elmira,
25:57Police Chief Kristen Thorne
25:59stood at a podium
26:00and said words
26:01that 62 years
26:03of investigators
26:04had worked toward.
26:05This is a historic day
26:07for the Elmira Police Department.
26:10Justice,
26:10after almost 62 years.
26:13Alfred Raymond Murray, Jr.
26:16Named.
26:17Identified.
26:19Confirmed.
26:20Dead,
26:21but named.
26:23John Doe
26:24finally had a face.
26:29Linda Galpin
26:31was in that room
26:31on February 10,
26:332026.
26:34She was 78 years old.
26:36She had been 16
26:37when Mary Teresa
26:38was murdered.
26:39She had spent 62 years
26:41carrying the memory
26:42of trying to climb
26:43into a little sister's casket.
26:4562 years of a question
26:47with no answer.
26:4862 years of watching
26:50the man who did it,
26:51whoever he was,
26:52live freely in a world
26:54that didn't know
26:54what he had done.
26:56She had spent 62 years
26:58believing she would
26:58never hear a name.
27:00When the announcement
27:01was made,
27:02when Alfred Raymond Murray, Jr.'s name
27:04was finally spoken in public,
27:06Linda stood up and spoke.
27:08She said,
27:09I am very happy
27:11it has finally ended.
27:12I just wish my mom
27:14was here.
27:14But thank you very much.
27:16And I am glad
27:17it is all finally settled
27:19after almost 62 years.
27:23Her mother Rose
27:24was pregnant
27:25when Mary Teresa
27:26was murdered in 1964.
27:28Rose Simpson
27:29never knew
27:30who killed her daughter.
27:31She died not knowing.
27:33The answer
27:34came too late for her.
27:36It came too late
27:37for Ellsworth, too.
27:38The father
27:39who waited by a phone
27:40for four days.
27:41The father
27:42who reported her missing
27:43and spent the rest
27:44of his life
27:45without an answer.
27:47This answer,
27:48this confirmation,
27:50this name
27:50spoken finally out loud,
27:53it was for Linda.
27:54For every member
27:55of that family
27:56who carried the weight
27:57of not knowing.
27:58And for every detective
28:00across 62 years
28:02who refused
28:02to close the file.
28:04Every investigator
28:06who ever worked this case
28:07across 62 years
28:09believed the same thing.
28:11That a 12-year-old girl
28:12from Elmira
28:13deserved to be remembered.
28:15That whoever put her
28:17under those stones,
28:18under 320 pounds of rock,
28:21deserved to be named.
28:23The 1964 investigators
28:25who had no DNA technology
28:27but preserved the evidence anyway.
28:30The forensic scientists
28:31who finally pulled a profile
28:33from an invisible speck.
28:35The FBI agent
28:36who ran through
28:37a frozen warehouse
28:38in Memphis
28:38to save her last chance.
28:41The genealogists
28:42and students
28:43who built the family tree.
28:45And Sergeant Goodwin
28:46who refused
28:47to close the file.
28:49This case is the proof
28:51that justice
28:52does not have
28:53an expiration date.
28:54It is the proof
28:55that evidence kept,
28:56even when the technology
28:58to read it
28:58doesn't yet exist,
29:00can change everything.
29:01It is the proof
29:03that the most important sentence
29:04in a cold case
29:05is this.
29:06Don't throw anything away.
29:11Alfred Raymond Murray Jr.
29:14will never stand trial.
29:15There will be no guilty plea,
29:17no sentencing,
29:19no courtroom.
29:21He spent 40 years
29:22living freely
29:23in the same city
29:24where he buried a child
29:25under stones.
29:26He died in 2004,
29:29not knowing
29:30that the evidence
29:30was sitting in a freezer,
29:32not knowing
29:33that the science
29:34was coming,
29:35not knowing
29:36that her name
29:37would outlast his.
29:39He thought he was safe.
29:40He thought the ground
29:42he buried her in
29:43had kept his secret.
29:44It hadn't.
29:46It was waiting.
29:47Mary Teresa Simpson
29:49was 12 years old.
29:50She played
29:51kick the can
29:52with her friends
29:52on her street
29:53in Elmira.
29:54She wore
29:55metal roller skates
29:56that clamped
29:57to the soles
29:57of her shoes
29:58and she raced
29:59them down
29:59the pavement.
30:00She was shy.
30:02She was quiet.
30:03She felt
30:04everything deeply.
30:05She visited
30:06her mother in secret
30:07because she had
30:08missed her.
30:09She spent an hour
30:10with her mother
30:11and then walked
30:12to her cousin's house
30:13just like she said
30:14she would.
30:15She told a friend
30:16she was heading home.
30:17She never made it.
30:1961 years later,
30:21in the oldest
30:22cold case
30:23ever solved
30:23with forensic genealogy,
30:25DNA technology,
30:26she finally has a name
30:28for the man
30:29who took everything
30:30from her.
30:31It does not bring her back,
30:33but she is not forgotten.
30:35She was never forgotten.
30:38Not by Linda,
30:39not by the detectives
30:40who inherited her file,
30:42not by the scientists
30:43who coaxed her killer's identity
30:45from an invisible speck,
30:47not by the agent
30:48who ran through
30:49a frozen warehouse
30:50in Memphis
30:51so she would have
30:52one more chance,
30:54not by us.
30:55If this case
30:56means something to you,
30:58if Mary Teresa's name
30:59means something to you,
31:01subscribe to
31:02The Dark Stories.
31:03We cover the cases
31:05that deserve to be remembered,
31:07the victims
31:07who deserve to be named,
31:09the investigations
31:10that refused to stop.
31:13Every video on this channel
31:14is built on
31:15verified court documents,
31:17primary source
31:18forensic records,
31:19and confirmed
31:20public reporting.
31:22Nothing invented,
31:23nothing speculated.
31:25The truth
31:26as the evidence
31:27tells it.
31:28Mary Teresa Simpson,
31:301951-1964,
31:34finally at rest.
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