His last address was in San Jacinto, where his home on East Evans Street was just a few blocks away from North Mountain Middle School and Jose Antonio Estudillo Elementary. He's now the suspect in the 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda Ann O'Keefe. The child disappeared while walking home from summer. While their parents did not live to see an arrest, Borgeson said, "I'm sure she [O'Keefe] and my parents are rejoicing.". Neal appears gaunt and stoic in a black-and white prison photo. Composite sketch of the driver. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. Newport Beach Police Neal is being held in the. We never gave up.. As for her sister's suspected killer, Borgeson said, "because of my profound faith, I've been able to forgive the individual. First tweet from Newport Beach Police Department. Teacher 52 Years Later, Hiding in Plain Sight: DNA Allegedly Links Calif. Karate Instructor to 1981 Rapes, Murders of 2 Women, 2 Women Were Found Slain, Sexually Assaulted Within Months of Each Other in 1983: How DNA Led to Arrest, Teen Was Killed with Ax After Meeting Man on Phone Chat Line in 1998. The case stumped investigators for more than four decades before DNA evidence from the genealogical website FamilyTreeDNA tied Neal to the case. James Alan Neal, who was 73, was taken to an area hospital on May 25 due to an undisclosed illness, said Jaimee Blashaw of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. James Alan Neal, 73, died on Wednesday at a hospital where he had been transferred in May to be treated for an illness, according to the Orange County Sheriffs Office. When O'Keefe didn't return home right away, there was little concern at first. Newport Beach police released this undated image of Linda O'Keefe in an effort to get assistance from the public to help solve her murder in Southern California in July 1973. Her body was found the next day -- but decades went by without an arrest. Spitzer said a DNA sample was recovered from O'Keefe after her body was found and uploaded to a database, where it never matched others. Lindas story deeply touched the hearts of our community, said Newport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis. Now a Suspect Has Been Arrested, JonBent Ramsey's Father Is Optimistic DNA Advances Will Catch Daughter's Killer, Slams Boulder Police, DNA Taken from Truck's Door Handle in Washington Leads to Arrest 34 Years After Wisconsin Mom's Killing, Pa. The 11-year-old was taken while she walked back from school in California, with witnesses reporting Linda talking to a white male in a van. Photo Source. As a result of that genealogical submission, they got an indication that James Alan Neal may be the suspect. 48 Hours: Lindas Story delves into the work put in to arrest James Neal in relation to Lindas rape and murder. ", "I couldn't carry that burden in my heart of hating an individual even though he committed this horrible crime," she said. He was the second of three children but had a difficult upbringing. A true-crime retelling of Linda O'Keefe's 1973 abduction & killing led police to James Alan Neal, ID'd through DNA as the primary suspect. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he was previously a breaking news and multimedia reporter for the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner. The Twitter campaign did not lead to the suspect's identification, but it did create an emphasis on the case and opened doors for the case to be pursued with renewed efforts, officials said. Neal was living in Monument at the time of his arrest and was extradited to Orange County, California, where he has remained since. O'Keefe's parents have since died, but police said they keep her two surviving sisters updated on the investigation. The burglary that landed Neal behind bars in 1966 occurred a year earlier when he and two accomplices broke into a Santa Ana business, stealing $44.97 in cash and a portable television set valued at $90, Orange County Superior Court records show. Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register via AP. Newport Beach police in July released a sketch of a man, the possible suspect, based on DNA collected at the scene. Investigators identified Neal as a suspect using genealogical DNA. Linda Ann O'Keefe's killing in 1973 in Newport Beach, California went unsolved for more than four decades. Authorities did not provide details on Neal's illness. 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The sister of a little girl who was strangled to death in 1973 didn't expect to see a conclusion to the mysterious cold case, she told ABC News hours after a man's arrest was announced on Wednesday. A day later, her body was found in a ditch, and she had been sexually assaulted. Newport Beach police launched a new PR campaign in 2018 using Tweets written in Lindas voice. He said he was glad he had all that stuff behind him but never mentioned what he had done, Malecki recalled. James Alan Neal, 72, was arrested in Colorado Tuesday for allegedly killing Linda O'Keefe, 11, and leaving her body in a ditch. Scott has also worked at newspapers in Utah, Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia covering everything from methamphetamine trafficking cops to hurricanes. "My hope is that this [case] brings hope to other families who haven't had closure yet.". James Alan Neal, 72, was picked up in Colorado on Tuesday and charged with the murder of 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe in 1973. Today, we have a new message to share, and we are giving Linda a voice once more. Specifics on how Neal died have not been released, but 11 News is told he was hospitalized at the end of May. ( Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. O'Keefe disappeared while she was walking home from summer school. Since April 2018, genetic genealogy has helped identify more than three dozen suspects, said CeCe Moore, chief genetic genealogist with Parabon NanoLabs. "We have never forgotten Linda," Newport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis said at the news conference. (Courtesy of Newport Beach Police Department) The brown-haired, blue-eyed 11-year-old got a ride to summer school - about half a mile away - but had to walk home in the afternoon. DNA recovered from O'Keefe shortly after her death was put into the Combined DNA Index System the law enforcement database known as CODIS but there was no hit, said Spitzer. The defendants conscience began to bother him, so he walked off a job he had obtained in Inglewood, returned to Santa Ana and contacted an officer of the Santa Ana Police Department, McMillan wrote in the report. "We want as many sets of eyes on that sketch as possible, so somebody can recognize the face of a killer so we can get justice.". Neals extensive criminal history and the circumstances of the 1973 sexual assault and murder of 11-year-old Linda OKeefe lead law enforcement to seek potential additional victims and witnesses. This defendant seems quite emotionally immature and psychologically unstable, McMillan wrote in his report. James Alan Neal, the 73-year-old charged in the 1973 cold case murder of 11-year-oldLinda OKeefe, died on Wednesday at about 5:15 a.m. Thats according to Orange County Sheriffs Department spokesperson Jaimee Blashaw in an NBC Los Angeles report. Please see the press release for more information. Lindas story deeply touched the hearts of our community. Police hoped that retelling the girl's story through the modern-day medium would help people from a different generation form an emotional attachment to the case. Trouble followed James everywhere, and he was sentenced to 3-10 years for fraud in Colorado. James Allen Neal. "They haven't forgotten about her and we haven't, either.". ABC News' Jenna Harrison contributed to this report. James Neal, 72, who lived in Southern California and worked in construction in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado, where he had been living, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a Wednesday news conference. Both of O'Keefe's parents have since died, but the girl was survived by two sisters, whom police had contacted with updates about Neal's arrest. James Alan Neal, the 73-year-old charged in the 1973 cold case murder of 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe, died on Wednesday at about 5:15 a.m. That's according to Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Jaimee Blashaw in an NBC Los Angeles report. On the day Linda disappeared, she was last seen talking to a stranger in a van, Lewis said. An undated photo of Linda OKeefe who was killed in Southern California in July 1973. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced the arrest of James Alan Neal in the 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda Ann O'Keefe during a press conderence on Wednesday, February 20, 2019. "Her picture hangs in our detective division, where our folks see it every day as a reminder of her and why we continue to pursue these cases.". An undated photo of murder victim Linda O'Keefe and her family. She had been strangled and was still wearing a blue-and-white floral print dress that her mother had sewn for her. "Generations of investigators worked on her case. Neal told McMillan he was the second of three children, never got along with his siblings, rebelled against his parents and was an emotionally disturbed child. All my life up to this day has been going in circles, Neal said. SANTA ANA, CA Officials in California say James Alan Neal, who was arrested last year in Monument for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe, has died. "It didn't necessarily lead to the identification (of the suspect)," he said. O'Keefe vanished in July of 1973 while walking home from summer school. He was paroled in July 1961 but returned to the Youth Authority in October 1962. Her body was found the next morning in a ditch in the area of Newport Beachs Back Bay. He also teamed up with reporter Joe Nelson in 2019 on Bad Apples, an award winning investigation that exposed years of sex abuse cover up in the Redlands Unified School District. "Our hearts go out to the victim and the victim's family in this case, having to endure decades without answers. O'Keefe's suspected killer, James Neal, who lived in Southern California in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado where he had been living, said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who was 12 himself at the time of the murder, at a Wednesday news conference. "He seemed like a good guy," Neal's landlord, Michael Thulson,. "Just before midnight, 'a lady in the bluffs above Back Bay hears a female voice outside, screaming "Stop, you're hurting me," ' the police tweeted in O'Keefe's name. It is not clear if Neal, 72, will waive extradition, Spitzer said. More than 45. As part of an effort to renew interest in the case, the Newport Beach Police Department used their Twitter account to recount the story of Lindas life, mysterious disappearance and death. Last year, Spitzer said authorities used DNA thought to have been left by the killer and tracked down Neal using a public genealogy database. "He lived here in the 1970s," Spitzer said. Her body was found the next day in a nature preserve. Even after detectives got the lead through genealogical DNA, investigators needed to a secure a sample from Neal, Spitzer said. SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) A Colorado man has pleaded not guilty to murder in the 1973 death of an 11-year-old California girl. She doesn't know that I'm missing. O'Keefe was a schoolgirl from California who went missing on July 6, 1973, and was found dead the next morning. James Neal (left) and Linda O'Keefe (right) (credit: CBS). Linda Ann O'Keefe was the middle child in a family of five. Track Latest News and Karnataka Elections 2023 Coverage Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world. Suspect Changed His Name After Lindas Death, Colo. 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James Alan Neal was arrested February 19, 2019, in connection to her death, prosecutors announced at a press conference.. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? "The tweets extend the period of time that Linda's story can be out there for people to relate to," Manzella said in July. My mom made it. It was July 6, 1973, a Friday. Borgeson said she also prayed for Neal's family as his arrest was announced. He was apprehended in February after DNA analysis identified him as a suspect in OKeefes slaying. Anyone who may have any information on this unsolved crime is asked to call the Newport Beach Police Cold Case Tip Line at 949-644-3669. Colorado man charged in 1973 Orange County cold case dies awaiting trial. Have a tip or story idea? Investigators would later learn that the girl had last been seen at an intersection, talking to a stranger in a turquoise van. Finally, in September 1965, he was arrested for yet another burglary but the charge was reduced to petty theft and ultimately dismissed. He will ultimately benefit more from a state prison sentence.. There is no record of Neal ever having been incarcerated in a California prison, according to state officials. James Alan Neal has been arrested in the July 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda Ann O'Keefe in Newport Beach. Authorities suspect that Neal, while on parole in the Colorado case, snatched OKeefe, who lived in Corona del Mar, from the street on July 6, 1973, as she walked home from summer school. And at the time of his arrest Neal had no income, savings or property except for a car that had been stolen in Springfield, Illinois, McMillan said. O'Keefe was last seen alive on July 6, 1973, as she walked home from summer school, the Newport Beach Police Department said. James Neal, 72, who lived in Southern California and worked in construction in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado, where he had been living, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a Wednesday news conference. James lived in the area around the time and worked in construction. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. . Helicopters, police Jeeps and search parties scoured the area looking for signs of O'Keefe. James Neal, 73, was arrested last year in Monument for the 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda OKeefe in Newport Beach, California. martin county property map, itv grand national theme tune,
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