45th Anniversary Of Unsolved Corona Del Mar Murder

CORONA DEL MAR, CA - Thursday marks the 45th anniversary of the abduction and murder of Linda Ann O’Keefe, an 11-year-old girl who lived in Corona del Mar. The Newport Beach Police Department has planned a tribute to the girl's life by showing what they are doing to capture her killer using the latest in DNA technology.

"Linda was last seen alive on Friday, July 6, 1973 as she walked home from summer school," Newport Beach Police Department officer Jennifer Manzella said. Her body was discovered the next morning in the Back Bay area. Her killer was never found, according to Manzella.

Starting Thursday at 7:45 a.m., the Newport Beach Police Department will give Linda a voice once again. Readers can follow along on Twitter as we share Linda’s story.

Tweets, published from Linda’s imagined point of view, will be posted throughout the day and into Saturday morning, by Newport Beach Police will narrate the last hours of her life.

Evidence, including photographs from the original investigation and a new Parabon Snapshot using DNA of the suspected killer, will be included throughout the event.

"Newport Beach Police Department investigators have recently sought the services of Parabon NanoLabs (Parabon), a DNA technology company in Virginia that specializes in DNA phenotyping: the process of predicting physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence," Manzella told Patch. Law enforcement agencies use the company’s Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service (Snapshot) to narrow suspect lists and generate leads in criminal investigations.

Using DNA evidence from this investigation, Snapshot produced trait predictions for the suspected killer, according to the department.

"Individual predictions were made for the subject’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape," a Parabon NanoLabs spokesperson said.

Using the default attributes of appearance, a Snapshot composite has been produced that depicts what the suspect may have looked like at 25 years old and with an average body-mass index (BMI) of 22. Another image, age progressed, of the suspect at a current age of 70 has been prepared by Parabon.

"These default values were used because age and BMI cannot be determined from DNA," according to report.

The tweets will culminate in a video overview of the homicide case, as told by the detectives who have been working on this investigation, according to Manzella.

"Years have passed since this heinous murder, but the NBPD remains dedicated to justice for Linda, and committed to finding her killer," she said.

While the image reflected is approximate, it gives clues as to a general appearance of Linda's killer, a scientific approximation of appearance based on DNA, and not likely to be an exact replica of appearance. Environmental factors such as smoking, drinking, diet, and other non-environmental factors including facial hair, hairstyle, scars, which cannot be predicted by DNA analysis and may cause further variation between subject’s predicted and actual appearance.

This is an open and ongoing investigation and no additional details will be available at this time.

Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to call our Cold Case Tip Line at 949-644-3669.

Newport Beach Police Department photo