Katharina Buczek
At just twenty-two years old, Kathy also fell in love with a peer– named Ralph Lawson Garrett, Jr.– and the pair got married in November of 1967.
Their honeymoon took place in Jamaica, and they moved out to Cambridge, Massachusetts, following the trip. Later, though, Kathy and Ralph ended up getting a divorce.
Then, by 1971, Kathy’s parents and siblings relocated from Massachusetts to Texas in order to be closer to her father’s family. So, one day, Kathy was supposed to meet her siblings at Logan Airport to catch their flight to Texas.
She never showed up at the airport, though, and was never seen by her family again. Now, investigators know it was because she had been killed in Bedford.
Back in 1993, as well as in 2006, the New Hampshire State Police and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner consulted with clay facial reconstruction experts in order to create an impression of the victim’s appearance.
Three years ago, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit also sought out the help of forensic anthropologists and digital facial reconstruction experts to create an updated impression of Kathy’s appearance.
Then, from 2020 to 2022, the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit partnered with the DNA Doe Project– a non-profit initiative– in hopes of using genetic genealogy to uncover a familial link based on Kathy’s DNA.
They ultimately found a likely genetic match between Kathy’s DNA profile and a family member in Texas who had used a direct-to-consumer DNA test. Then, after contacting the Alston family, the match was confirmed.
Moreover, investigators learned that Kathy’s siblings never heard from or saw Kathy again after moving to Texas.
Equipped with this finding, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit is now asking for the public’s assistance in finding the person who murdered Kathy.
At the time of her death, she was reportedly living in Boston, Massachusetts– on 36 Beacon Street– with a male roommate named David Cormier.
