Police Seek Public’s Help in Californian Cold Case

Kerry Patterson, 15, was murdered in 1980 and no culprit has ever been caught.

Investigators in Orange County have asked for the public’s help in solving a murder that occurred more than 40 years ago.

Kerry Patterson was 15 and had just moved with her family to the Sunny Hills part of Fullerton in California when she disappeared on June 26th 1980.

The teenager had been asked by her mother Chrystal to stay at home with her younger sister that day so there would be someone in to meet the removals van with another load of furniture.

However, Kerry decided to duck out for a short while to meet with friends at a nearby ice cream parlour. She was given a ride home on a bike belonging to one of them when they were done, and the friend said he dropped her off within sight of her home near Parks Junior High School.

Despite only having a short distance to walk back, Kerry never made it — and she was never seen alive again. Although police initially treated her case as that of a runaway, Kerry’s family knew better and distributed missing persons flyers around the neighbourhood in the hope of finding their loved one.

But just over six months later on December 27th 1980, part of Kerry’s skull, her femur and two bones from her arm were discovered in a field in Brea around five miles from where she was last seen. Heartbreakingly, Chrystal had made the connection…