REGION'S OFFICERS DAILY RELIVE UNSOLVED MURDERS

Certain lives and deaths are relived by police daily, like it or not.At the Cape Girardeau police station, they are represented by blue folders on metal shelves within sight of Detective John Brown's desk. Names and dates are listed on the bindings: Bonnie Huffman, July 3, 1954; Sheila Cole, Nov. 17, 1977; May and Brenda Parsh, Aug. 12, 1977. These and other folders show who was murdered and when. One was run over by a car, another was pushed off a balcony, others were shot in the head. But they share something. Police can't prove who murdered them.In 70 to 80 percent of homicides, the victim and the killer know each other well, said Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan."You have to love them enough to kill them and hate them enough to kill," Jordan said.This is why murder investigations always start with family members, he said. The most recent unsolved murder case in Cape Girardeau County mirrors this, Jordan said. When a family member discovered the body of Lee Moore in weeds behind his house near Whitewater in 1991, the investigation began as always by questioning family members, Jordan said. "Death investigators have a saying: every death scene, every time," said Detective David James of the sheriff's office. This is a call for consistent procedures and following national guidelines in murder cases, he said, which simplifies long investigations.James traveled to Houston, Texas, the week of the murder to interview one of Moore's sons who reportedly had a bad relationship with his father. Because murders had occurred on the farm between feuding neighbors in the past, all members of the family have not yet been eliminated from suspicion, Jordan said. This makes the investigation more difficult."When you can't eliminate family and friends, you can't chase ghosts in the shadows," Jordan said.Another problem with solving Moore's death is shared by many other murders. The victim's body was found days after the killing.The more time that passes between the discovery of a body and the act of murder costs investigators evidence, Brown said.In the murders of mother and daughter Mary and Brenda Parsh, investigators estimated they were shot between 10:35 and 11 p.m. on a Friday. Their bodies were first discovered by a neighbor Monday morning."That hot August heat destroyed a lot of evidence," Brown said.The same was true for Moore, Jordan said.A lack of physical evidence in the Parsh murders hindered investigators, said Brown, who had worked on the case as his sole assignment for a year.The print of a shoe outside the Parshes' broken bedroom window is the only trace the killer left behind. A lack of fingerprints resulted from either gloves or evaporation of the perspiration from the fingerprints, police said.Bullets were recovered from the .38-caliber murder weapon, but no gun was ever found despite a team rounding up guns in the area and performing test firings, Brown said. "Guns change to some degree every time you fire them, so over time this hurt us," he said.Brown thinks the gun used to kill the Parshes was a Charter Arms revolver, but at the time, they were reasonably priced and plentiful, he said. Some technological advances in crime investigation came too late for the Parsh murders, but not for others. Evidence from blood samples in the 1982 murder of Mildred Wallace were useful, Brown said, but still not conclusive. The 16 elements involved in determining a person's identity from blood factoring have only eliminated suspects. This means all those who have committed similar crimes or whose names were received from confidential sources."But we still don't have an open, active suspect," Brown said. Police computers keep track of possible leads in unsolved murders via the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, or Vicap, an FBI criminal profiling database. Brown will check once a month to see if any matches have turned up based on victim profiles, type of crime and type of suspect."We still get a lot of computer hits," he said, referring to the Parsh case. "But we haven't had a significant lead in years."Often, friends of victims will call and ask if a certain person was ever considered as a suspect, Brown said.Three years ago, a man from Lutesbeen abandoned."As far as we're concerned, it's an open file," James said. "Maybe someday someone on a deathbed will tell what happened."This is why Brown makes sure new detectives are familiar with the Parsh murders. Every new detective is sent to a room to read through the folder on the case, which takes about a full day, Brown said."That's the only way to make sure the old cases don't get forgotten," he said. "In the old cases, you had to, and have to, memorize the file itself. But now we have everything on the computer, and we have lead sheets."Since the police records system has been manual until the last 13 years, it can take an hour or two to look up and confirm certain facts on old cases, Brown said.Details have been typed or scribbled on bits of paper and placed in a green folder at the sheriff's office on Huffman's murder. The color and composition of the notes gives away their age."You look at these notes and you know that the officers who wrote them are dead," James said.Now, with 22 years gone by, the only way that the Parsh murders will be solved is through a confession or a third party coming forward with information that the murderer had given, Brown said.Some of the cases have been solved in the minds of police. But without evidence that can be proved in court beyond reasonable doubt, no one can be convicted, Brown said. In most of these instances, the suspect is already in prison for another crime.Brown was able to officially solve one such case last year. Eighty-two year-old Charles Hahn was found dead in his home at 1016 N. Fountain on Nov. 13, 1977. He had been hit in the head several times with a heavy object. For a number of years, Brown had intended to visit Charles E. Martin in the Farmington Correctional Center. Martin was Hahn's stepgrandson.Brown decided Martin was the killer after he was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Cairo, Ill., man with a tire tool at the Honker's boat dock in 1980.Immediately after the 1980 murder, Brown attempted to interview Martin about Hahn's death. He refused to discuss it, Brown said.In 1986, prompted by new information, Brown again tried to talk with Martin. The result was the same.Last year, Martin decided to contact Brown."He had a pained conscience," Brown said.Although his confession was immediate, weeks were needed for attorneys to work out a settlement that resulted in a 25-year prison sentence, added to his prior life sentence, Brown said.With cases like these, Brown can finally get rid of his own painful memories. But questions surrounding the Parsh murders will probably outlive him, Brown said."I think about them every week," he said.

CAPE GIRARDEAU'S UNSOLVED MURDERS

July 5, 1954The body of Bonnie Huffman, a Delta schoolteacher, was found in tall weeds in a ditch 10 feet from Route N. She had last been seen on the evening of July 2. Her abandoned car was found early on the morning of July 3.Dec. 5, 1960Ten-year-old Darrell Allen was struck by a car while returning from a Cub Scout meeting at the home of Mary Kasten. He was crossing West End Boulevard near Highland Drive when a northbound car on the boulevard struck him. The driver was never found.Aug. 12, 1977Mary and Brenda Parsh were attacked in their home at 612 Koch St. The bodies of the mother and daughter, 58 and 27 respectively, were discovered Aug. 15 when a relative in St. Louis began to worry. Their nude bodies had been left on a bed, hands tied behind their back. Each had been shot in the head.Nov. 16, 1977Sheila Cole, 21, was discovered off of Route 3 at a rest stop restroom just south of McClure, Ill. The Southeast Missouri State student had driven to Wal-Mart, then located at 211 S. Kingshighway, the evening before. Her car turned up two days later in the Wal-Mart parking lot. She had been shot twice in the head.Sept. 17, 1979Deborah Martin, 24, was found on the first floor of the Mother Earth Plant store at 605 Broadway, where she had lived in a second-floor apartment. She had fallen or been pushed from the second-floor balcony, landing on a display case. Her body, which was unclothed, was not discovered for almost two days. Jan. 27, 1982Margie Call, 57, was found in her home at 1829 Brink St., where she had been strangled to death. Her body was discovered by her brother within 15 hours of the murder after she failed to show up for work. She was lying face down on a bed.June 21, 1982Mildred Wallace, 65, was found in her home at 1218 William. The partially clad body was discovered by her sister in a bedroom when Wallace failed to come to work that morning. She had died from a gunshot wound to the head. She was last seen about 10 p.m. on June 20.July 5, 1983Deborah Manning, 27, was found shortly after midnight next to County Road 249 between Chaffee and Delta by an off-duty Chaffee police officer. Her nude body had multiple stab wounds to the chest. She was last seen at the residence of her mother and stepfather on Bloomfield Road the evening of July 4.Aug. 12, 1991Lee Moore, 66, was found about 100 yards behind his farmhouse near Whitewater in a patch of weeds. He had died from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. He was last seen by family members on Aug. 9.