MURDER
CASE #: 1985-3
Kristin M O'Connell
Status:
Open
Date of Offense:
Date of Offense:
Jurisdiction:
Seneca County
Offense Location:
Ovid, NY
Reward:
up to $9,999
via Family
Not from STC, Conditions and restrictions apply
Summary:
In August of 1985, twenty-year-old college student goes for a walk and is found dead in a cornfield in upstate, NY
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Offense:
In August of 1985, twenty-year-old Minnesota college student Kristin O'Connell traveled to Ovid, NY, a small town in the Finger Lakes to visit a young man she met on Captiva Island over Spring Break. The day after she arrived, Kristin called her mother from a payphone and told her she was cutting her trip very short and planned to leave for home the following day. That same night, Kristin disappeared. Thirteen hours later, the young man she came to visit would report her missing to law enforcement. He alleged that at around 11:30 the night before, Kristin left his trailer to take a walk alone down an unlit road, in an unfamiliar town, without shoes or a purse. A team of local firemen would find Kristin's rain-soaked naked body on August 16th in a nearby cornfield, less than a quarter of a mile away from the trailer where she was staying. Kristin had been stabbed multiple times, and her throat had been slashed. Testing would prove her body was free of alcohol at the time of her death, and the coroner would find no signs of sexual assault. State Police have long asserted that Kristin's murder was a crime of opportunity committed by a random stranger passing through town. Rumors have persisted for over three decades in the small town where Kristin was murdered that her death was not a crime of opportunity. Some claim to know precisely what happened to Kristin and who is responsible for her murder. In the thirty-eight years since Kristin's death, despite their efforts, State Police have not made a single arrest in connection with her murder.
Additional Details:
In 2012, the NYS Police rejected a new offer by an NY-certified DNA lab to test the materials, in this case, to see if they could find any DNA. Seneca County District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz has never returned a phone call or responded to an email from the victim's mother. In December 2009, a similar request was submitted to the NYS Department of Health and at that time NYS senator Mike Nozzolio, Senator Chuck Schumer, and MN Senator Amy Klobuchar supported the efforts of then DA Barry Porsche and NYS Police Investigator Jeff Arnold to use new touch DNA technology offered by a Dutch team of touch DNA experts. This request was denied by NYS Commissioner of Health, Howard Zucker.
Case Last Updated:
Timeline of Events
Reward for information is doubled to $20,000
The O'Connell family lawyer with a background as a prosecutor will work with NYS Police to get DNA testing done in an effort to solve the murder
A $10,000 reward is offered for by the Seneca County District Attorney's Office
Seneca County investigators partner with the DA's office; the victim's family and NY Senator Chuck Schumer and MN Senator Amy Klobuchar to get the DNA tested by a renowned team of Amsterdam-based DNA experts. The investigators say they have been promised up to $40,000 to use toward this effort. However, the NYS Health Department blocks this effort.
The crime analyst handling Kristin's evidence is cited for misconduct Forensic Investigator Gary Veeder specialized in trace fiber evidence for the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center. His findings were relied upon by prosecutors and juries in sending people to jail. Unfortunately, a state investigation found that in nearly 1/3rd of all the cases Veeder worked on there were “serious problems” with the evidence provided by Veeder.
A tip is received by NYS police on a recorded tip line. The caller told Trooper D. C. Reyer to look at a green Chevy on Main Street in Waterloo, open the trunk and “you’ll find what you need” to find the killer. According to a transcript, the caller repeated the information and said, “I’m getting out of town because I told him not to do it. I told him not to do it. I’m heading out of town.” The tape of the call is released to the public 10 years later
PI's are informed to be on the lookout for a blue Fiat with Florida plates. Two males are heard the night before in the Golden Buck saying "they should have cut her up and put her in the lake". The men were wearing work clothes and had hunting knives on their belts
PIs & NYS police return to the crime scene and search for weapon in ditches, cornfield, buildings, roadside, barns, houses. No weapon is found
Kristin’s naked, rain-soaked body was found in an overgrown cornfield less than a quarter-mile from where she was staying. She had suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest, and her throat had been slit. Her blood was alcohol-free and it is reported that there are no signs of sexual assault. She was pronounced dead by Seneca County Coroner Michael McLaughlin. The crime scene in secured and searched
NYS police begin taking statements from the kids at the trailer. An initial search of the trailer is done and Kristin's belongings are searched
A local search begins for Kristin in the area surrounding the trailer and the Golden Buck
Two local residents report seeing flashlights in the cornfield where Kristin’s body would later be found
NYS Trooper Trooper takes a missing persons report from JV and gets Kristin's ID from her purse. Due to heavy rain, a search is not started until the next morning
Jim Vermeersch makes contact with NYS Police to report Kristin missing
Jim Vermeersch states he attempts to contact State Police to report Kristin missing, but the trailer has no phone
Jim Vermeesch states he and one other kid in the trailer go back out to search for Kristin.
Two local kids are seen walking east toward the village of Ovid along SR 139 by a passerby driving down that road at the time. This location is very near where Kristin's body would be found
Approx. Time of Death
A witness reports hearing three terrifying screams emanating from the farmer’s lane “lover’s lane” about 700 feet to the south of their home on McCarriger Road Shortly thereafter, she heard a car or pick-up truck with no lights on start-up and proceed a few hundred feet toward them while revving-up the engine in low gear and probably coming out of the “lovers’ lane” south of McCarriger Road to Wilson Road (about 600 or 700 feet away). She sees its headlights flickering through the trees on their wooded property they had been turning onto. The truck went down Wilson Road toward SR 414.
Two witnesses stated in a report to NYSP that they saw a girl walking west along the shoulder of West Seneca Street. At the same time, they indicated they saw an automobile moving at walking speed beside her with a young man talking to her from inside the vehicle through the open passenger window
Jim Vermeesch returns to the trailer after getting pizza at Busters and learna Kristin went for a walk without her shoes or purse
Jim states he goes to get pizza at Busters in Ovid. Leaving Kristin in the trailer with several of Jim's friends. People are drinking and using marijuan, but Kristin is not
Kristin leaves the trailer to go for a walk barefoot and without her purse
Kristin speaks to one of the girls at the trailer and asks her why she thought Jim had invited her to visit him in Ovid, but now he almost totally ignores her. The girl told Kristin that Jim now has a girlfriend and that might have changed things for him
Kristin and Jim and his friends go to another friends house to play pool. The group stays about an hour an return to the trailer near the Golden Buck Restaurant where Kristin and Jim are staying
During the time at the lake, Jim and friends see a local kid joyriding in one of their vehicles. They confront this local kid and "mess with him". Kristin intervenes and tells the group to stop harassing the local boy
Kristin calls her mom to say she is coming home early and sounded upset. She did not disclose details as to what was going on but there was a sense from Phyllis that something happened to make her want to leave early
Kristin, Jim Vermeesch and other friends go swimming at at Lodi Point on Seneca Lake. There are investigator reports that state at this time, several of Jim's friends were bad-mouthing Kristin
Two other kids in the trailer are concerned that Kristin has not returned from her walk. They go out to look for her and walk down Ann Street and soon hear a scream. They state they couldn’t determine its direction. This scream was also heard about that same time by a family living on CR 139 near the site where the body was later found. They assume the scream is coming from the Golden Buck next door. No one calls the police
At some point in the evening, Kristin and Jim Vermeesch and some other friends go to a movie
Kristin walks to a local store (the Big M) to get band aids for her ankles
The family friend drives Kristin directly to another family friend's home in Phoenix, NY (about a five-hour drive from Springfield), which was located on the bank of the Oswego River midway between Fulton and Baldwinsville.
The family friend then drives Kristin to Shoppingtown Mall in DeWitt, NY to meet Jim Vermeersch. Jim is with David Chamberlain.They drive Kristin to Ovid in David Chamberlains car (white cadillac)
Kristin travels to Boston on her own and a business associate of her dad's pick her up. She stays overnight with them in Springfield, MA
Kristin meets James Vermeesch on Spring Break 1985 on Captiva Island, FL
Associated Persons
Jim V. (Other) - Living
Related Stories & Podcasts
Case Content Disclaimer: The details on this case page are sourced from numerous locations to include family, friends, news postings and government public releases. Solve the Case, Inc. does not guarantee the accuracy of any content as case pages are living documents that frequently update as case details expand.
