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DNA Solves Cold Case Murder of Helen Cardwell
Her killer had been at large for almost three decades, but will now face justice at last.
The re-opening of an almost-30-year-old cold case has led to the killer of a young woman being arrested and charged with murder.
Helen Cardwell, 35, was from West Virginia but had been living at a YMCA centre in Illinois after undergoing rehabilitation for a stroke she had suffered a year earlier.
On November 7th 1992, she was about to start a new job at the Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where her primary role would be sterilising medical equipment within the central processing division.
However, she never got the chance to begin her role and start the process of rebuilding her life again. When her sister dropped by on her usual weekly visit, she found Helen dead in her room at the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles.
A grim and perplexing scene
Helen had been tied up and strangled to death with a sweater, which was still around her mouth. She was naked apart from a pair of white socks and appeared to have been sexually assaulted, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.
