@mamaaa9204: An 11-year-old girl walked home from summer school… and never made it home. disappeared on July 6, 1973, in Newport Beach, California. She had spent the morning at summer school after getting dropped off by her piano teacher because she normally rode her bike. Before leaving school, Linda reportedly called her mother asking for a ride home because she didn’t want to walk in the heat. Her mother told her the walk was short and she’d be okay. Witnesses later saw Linda near a turquoise-colored van speaking to an older man. That was the last time she was seen alive. The next morning, her body was discovered near Newport Beach’s Back Bay area. Investigators said she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. For decades, the case haunted the community. Police kept Linda’s photo hanging inside the department as detectives continued searching for answers year after year. Then nearly 46 years later, investigators used genetic genealogy and old DNA evidence to identify a suspect: . He was arrested in Colorado in 2019. But before the case could go to trial, Neal died in custody in 2020. That meant Linda’s family never got a final courtroom verdict. Her case became one of the most well-known cold cases solved through forensic genealogy.

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Saturday 23 May 2026 14:09:20 GMT