Kathy Lynn Gloddy was 13 years old when she was murdered. Her body was found in a wooded area near downtown Franklin, New Hampshire, more than 45 years ago, and the person responsible for her death has yet to be brought to justice.
On the evening of Nov. 21, 1971, Kathy and her dog, Tasha, left home and went to a local store to purchase ice cream. When the German shepherd returned hours later without the teen, relatives became concerned.
They began calling friends and neighbors, presumably asking about her whereabouts, ABC News reported.
When relatives contacted the police to report Kathy missing, they were told that they would have to wait 24 hours. That’s when they began searching for her on their own throughout the night.
At around 1 p.m. the following day, on Nov. 22, 1971, Kathy Lynn Gloddy was found dead in a wooded area off Chance Pond Road, about a mile and a half away from her home.
A hunter trudging through a wooded area had spotted an object he believed to be a deer carcass. Upon further inspection, he realized that it was the body of a female who was only wearing a pair of knee-high socks.
According to The Laconia Daily Sun, Kathy had been sexually assaulted and strangled before she suffered severe injuries to her head, neck, and abdominal area.
Kathy was also run over by a vehicle four times.
“To think that she was left there, you know?” said the victim’s sister. “In the cold of a dark winter’s night and with no clothes on. And what had happened to her just came crashing down. It was really hard.”
“My mom was sobbing. My dad was crying. I just stood in the doorway and I said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And they just blurted out, ‘They found Kathy, and she’s dead; she’s been murdered.'”
“That’s not what you expect in a little town.”
In March 2016, a man spoke with an officer at the Dixie County Police Department in Florida and said, “I think I need to be arrested because I killed somebody.”
He then went on to provide details of Kathy’s murder, but officials stated that “his jumble of recollections did not quite match the facts.”
Will Delker, New Hampshire’s senior assistant attorney general, said that when New Hampshire detectives went to Florida to question him, “he then backtracked on some of the statements he made by claiming that the admissions to being involved in this murder were a result of medication.”
“This case would have been solved if that crime happened today, given modern forensic techniques,” Delker added.
“DNA samples would have been obtained, and it would have been very quick to determine who the actual perpetrator was. Unfortunately, this was no one’s fault. It’s just the reality of technologies that existed almost 40 years ago.”
Kathy’s mother, father, and one of her siblings have since passed away, but her remaining relatives are still seeking justice.
Anyone with information regarding the unsolved murder of Kathy Lynn Gloddy is encouraged to submit a tip online to the New Hampshire Department of Justice.