37 Years Ago, This College Girl Was Found With Her Throat Slashed In A Cornfield While On A Trip To Meet Up With A Guy She Met On Spring Break
In August of 1985, Kristin O’Connell was a twenty-year-old attending college in Minnesota.
Earlier that year, she had traveled to Captiva Island, Florida, over spring break and met a young man with whom she hit it off.
So, they remained in touch and coordinated another meet-up following the end of the semester.
And on August 15, she traveled to a small town located in the Finger Lakes known as Ovid, New York, to see the man. But, within twenty-four hours, something went very wrong.
The day after Kristin arrived in Ovid, she reportedly called her mother via payphone and detailed how she would be cutting her trip short. In fact, Kristin planned to travel back to Minnesota the very next day.
But, later that evening, she disappeared– and would never be seen alive again.
The man Kristin was visiting did not report her missing until thirteen hours later the following morning. He claimed that at about 11:30 p.m., she wanted to go for a walk alone and left his trailer.
However, Kristin was in an unfamiliar town, walking down an unlit road, and left without her shoes or purse.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Kristin
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Then, following an investigation of the area, Kristin’s body was discovered in a cornfield just under a quarter of a mile away from the man’s trailer.
She was found without clothes, soaked from the rain, and had multiple stab wounds. Her throat had also been slashed.
Autopsy and toxicology reports later revealed that Kristin was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol at the time of her murder. Authorities also found no indication of assault.
The New York State Police have since shared their belief that Kristin’s murder was a “crime of opportunity”– supposedly having been committed by a random passerby of the upstate town.
Nonetheless, not a single arrest was ever made, and countless rumors have swirled among community members regarding Kristin’s perpetrator.
Cold Case Advocacy: End The Cold Case Backlog, an organization that advocates for reform in New York State homicide cases, created a Facebook group entitled Justice for Kristin O’Connell.
There, Kristin’s family members and the organization’s leaders have shared updates surrounding her case.
And most recently, a GoFundMe campaign was created for the Kristin O’Connell Foundation in order to raise the reward offering for anyone with information. There, the New York authorities’ lack of transparency in Kristin’s case was also highlighted.
“The State Police have recently rejected an offer to participate in a documentary series about Kristin’s murder and refuse to make a comment to the media about their decision,” the campaign began.
“Seneca County District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz has never returned a phone call or responded to an email from the victim’s mother… Please support our efforts to bring justice to Kristin.”
So far, the GoFundMe– which was launched with a goal of seventy-five thousand dollars– has raised just shy of five thousand dollars from fifty donors.
Kristin’s mother, Phyllis, has also continued advocating for her daughter on social media. Just last week, she issued another plea to the community.
“I will not rest until this case is solved. I beg anyone out there who knows anything about what happened to my beautiful Kristin– please come forward. Do the right thing. Imagine if this was your daughter,” Phyllis said.
“I love you, Kris, and I will never stop fighting for you.”
If you have any information regarding Kristin’s case, you are urged to contact NYS Detective Peter McCadden at (585) 398-4152 or [email protected].
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