"I was killed today": police told on Twitter about the last day of the life of a girl killed in 1973
On the morning of July 6, 1973, Linda Ann O'Keefe woke up to go to summer school in Corona del Mar, California, wearing a white dress with blue flowers that her mother sewed. The girl put her hair in a ponytail, slipped into tennis shoes matching the color of the dress, with white socks, and left the house for the last time.
Linda usually got to school by bike, but that day her piano teacher had to give her a ride in the car. That morning, an 11-year-old girl scout and passionate pianist had to sit out four classes at school and return home. However, she never showed up at home. The entire Newport Beach area was searched by police, volunteers and helicopters. The next morning, Linda's body was found in a ditch.
Her killer was never found. However, on Friday, July 6, 2018, on the 45th anniversary of the death of Linda O'Keefe, the Newport police published a new, albeit small, but a clue that was obtained using DNA technologies that did not exist in the 70s.
Before publishing new data and raising the case of almost 50 years ago, the police department decided to draw attention to the unsolved murder of a child - at 7 a.m., police tweets began to appear on behalf of Linda O'Keefe, describing the last day of her life. The tweets end at 11 p.m. on July 6 — that's when the witness heard her scream for the last time.
Have you been following #LindasStory? All of the tweets have been collected in a Moment here: https://t.co/yxv1fLFIZp pic.twitter.com/ubijjtDZkg
— Newport Beach Police (@NewportBeachPD) July 7, 2018
"Hello. I'm Linda O'Keefe (or Linda Ann O'Keefe if Mom swears at me). On this day 45 years ago, I disappeared in Newport Beach. I was killed and my body was found in the vicinity of Back Bay. They haven't found my killer. And today I will tell my story."
“I’m wearing a dress today… It’s white, with light blue flowers on it, and dark blue trim. My mom made it. She makes a lot of my clothes, and my sisters’ clothes. She’s really good at sewing, and we don’t have a lot of money for fancy store outfits anyhow.” #LindasStory pic.twitter.com/9sucqJsnGg
— Newport Beach Police (@NewportBeachPD) July 6, 2018
"Today I wore this dress. It is white, with blue flowers and dark blue trim. My mom sewed it. She makes a lot of clothes, for my sisters too. She's doing great, because we don't have much money for clothes in expensive stores."
The day Linda disappeared, after school, she called home from school so that her mother would come for her. "No luck. Mom was busy with a new order and says I can walk home. It upsets me, and I cry." The girl wandered around the school for a while, and then slowly walked towards the house on the road Margarita Drive. That's when the turquoise minivan appeared, the same one that had stopped near Linda earlier that day.
"I read an article about a missing girl in the newspaper that morning. When I saw the hand in the thicket, I realized that it must be her."
According to newspaper reports from those years, Linda was strangled and fully clothed when she was found. The police found no signs of sexual assault. Three days later, an 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of O'Keefe's murder, but the police did not tell reporters either his name or the evidence that led them to the suspect. The next day, the man was released, explaining that there was not enough evidence.
The police department explained Twitter on behalf of the murdered girl by saying that they wanted not only to announce progress in an unsolved case, but also to humanize it by telling about the last day in the life of the 11-year-old victim.