Written by: Sonam Sunner - 27017, Grade IX
Posted on: 22 June, 2023
On July 6, 1973, Linda O'Keefe, a young girl at the age of eleven got ready for Newport, beach, california. She was going to summer school in this location. Linda had two sisters, and was a very talented girl who loved art. She was wearing a dress her mom had made for her and soon her piano teacher would be picking her up.
It was a short distance from home to school, but sadly Linda walking home was her last seen alive. A man had found her body in a ditch. The police have been investigating for a while now and each path has led to nothing but just a dead end. After 45 years, On Linda’s Death anniversary, The police announced that they would be doing a DNA test to search and find the killer. And the police started to spread awareness about this situation, to do so, they used twitter, a social media app. They described Linda’s last day from her point of view on the app. They basically wrote about how on her last day, she had to stay at school for piano lessons, and how she wanted to call her mom to pick her up but since she couldn't use the phone at that time, she just waited. Then later on, Linda’s friend, Brenda saw her and a van stop next to Linda, but she was too far away to see if Linda talked to the van driver or not. Then later, Linda asked her mom for a ride but since her mom was busy, she walked home. Which was sadly to be the last time anyone saw her. However, her mom did call the police, so the police had questioned many people, and one of the few was a girl named Jannie. Jannie and her mom had seen Linda sitting next to a turquoise van, and Jannie’s mother thought something was wrong so parked her car next to it as well. Then the van started leaving, She couldn’t tell if Linda was in the car but neither was she sitting out as well. The van drove quickly so Jannie’s mom couldn’t tell what the License plate number was.
There was also another witness. A woman had heard a scream near Newport Beach, but she didn’t pay attention to it. Then, as I said earlier, a man had seen his body and called the police right after. 45 years have passed and now they are using a DNA method called DNA phenotyping. After Linda’s DNA was submitted, A guy named James Alan Neal was a huge suspect. Neal then was arrested after his DNA was matched to Linda’s. After 45 years, they finally found the culprit to Linda O’keefe’s murder. If you’re wondering why they didn’t use DNA phenotyping before. Well, this was back in 1973, this technology was something they lacked. In 1984, This was finally invented and in 2018, they used this method to solve Linda O’Keefe’s death. There is even a movie made inspired from this case called “the lovely bones”.
