Louisiana Police Use Facebook To Seek Info About Michigan Woman Killed In 1980
BENTON, La. (WWJ/AP) - A northwest Louisiana sheriff is using a Facebook page that helped identify a Michigan woman killed in 1980 to ask for tips that might help identify her killer.
Investigators think information about where 17-year-old Carol Ann Cole of Kalamazoo lived or visited could help find out who killed her, Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington said in a statement Friday.
"Jeanie Phelps waited 35 years to find out what happened to her big sister, Carol Ann," he said. "Now it's time to bring the family answers about who killed her."
Cole's family got in touch with investigators less than a week after investigators created the page, which was topped with a composite drawing of what she might have looked like, based on her skull and hair.
A message posted Thursday on the web page for "Carol Ann Cole (Bossier's Doe)" asks for information - possibly from a family whose children she cared for, or from people who saw her at stores in Shreveport or knew her from the Palmers Drug Abuse Program's girls' home in 1980.
"My friends at the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office need your help again in this case, especially from those of you who were in Shreveport in 1980," it opens.
Investigators believe she might have been babysitting regularly in two parts of town, and probably spent May to October of 1980 at a girls' home run by the Palmers Drug Abuse Program in Austin, Texas, according to the Facebook message.
"Did I hitchhike from Austin? Did I travel from Austin to Shreveport with someone I knew?" it asks. "Were you the kids I watched, or the family who let me use the phone? ... Let's get answers together."
The Sheriff's Office is asking people to visit, like and share the Carol Ann Cole Facebook page to read and provide tips or answers about Carol Ann and her time the area.
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