FBI files can remain unsolved for decades, while criminals appearing on the Most Wanted
list stay out of reach of law enforcement for an equally long time.
But every new advancement in technology can lead to more solved cold cases, and sometimes
all it takes is more awareness or a few years for more witnesses to come forward and famous
cold cases are solved.
Number 5
Jesus Robert Munguia had been on the run for nine years when he was placed on the FBI’s
Most Wanted list in 2017.
Munguia was wanted for the brutal attack on his estranged wife that resulted in her passing.
He was already a known criminal at the time of the attack, and authorities believed he
was extremely dangerous and would do anything to evade capture.
In 2018, he was finally caught.
The incident took place 10 years earlier.
Sherryl Sacueza had been married to Munguia for several years and they had four children
together.
She eventually ended their relationship which he clearly wasn’t happy about.
When he discovered Sherryl was in a romantic relationship with another man, he acted violently
and threatened to take her life.
On July 1st, 2008, he carried out the threat.
Munguia lured Sherryl back to her home in Las Vegas.
He then forced her into her car, tying her hands behind her back and her head to the
headrest of the backseat.
With Sherryl restrained in the back of the car, Munguia drove to a remote location where
he could finish the crime.
After taking Sherryl’s life, he drove the car with her body still tied up inside back
to her home.
Sherryl’s badly beaten body was discovered by her sister the following day.
An arrest warrant was issued the day after the crime, but Munguia fled a few days later
to avoid prosecution.
Local law enforcement could not locate him.
Munguia was known to be a member of the TEPA 13 gang and already had a criminal record,
mostly for crimes involving violent robberies.
Authorities believed he had ties to Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California, but there was
also a worry he may have fled the country to Mexico.
The FBI got involved with the case.
He had a number of distinctive markings on his body, including a missing finger and a
number of tattoos.
That, along with his violent nature, made him the perfect candidate to be added to the
Most Wanted list when a space became available in late 2017.
The added publicity and international attention on the Most Wanted list helped capture the
wanted criminal.
Working with partners in Mexico, the FBI apprehended Munguia just a few months after he was placed
on the Most Wanted list.
He was brought back to the United States and was still awaiting trial when he caught COVID-19
in 2021 and passed away from natural causes.
Number 4
The FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System has helped close countless cold cases
since it became operational in the early 2000s.
Many FBI files and other police cold cases have all the pieces needed to place the criminal
at the scene of the crime, but aren’t able to identify who the criminal actually is.
In 2003, the system helped to close a cold case that had been open since 1969.
Diane Maxwell Jackson was 25-years-old in 1969.
She worked as a Southwestern Bell telephone operator in Houston and was a single mother.
It was on her way to work that she was kidnapped on December 14th.
She was forced into a shack at an abandoned service station at Jefferson and Austin, where
an unknown assailant violently took her life.
Her vehicle was then stolen and later found abandoned nearby.
An investigation by local police turned up no suspects.
There were a handful of witnesses, but they were unable to give any information that helped
narrow down who the criminal might be and the case went cold.
The most useful piece of information was a set of prints left on Diane’s car.
A number of fingerprints and a partial palm print were found on the outside of the car.
It wouldn’t be enough to prove that the person who left the prints was actually responsible
for the crime.
Anyone simply passing by the vehicle could have left them.
But police believed it would give them a lead.
Running the prints through local databases didn’t turn up anything.
Diane’s brother, who had switched from aspiring to be a lawyer to joining the Texas rangers,
pushed for the case to be reexamined years later.
If he hadn’t, the case likely would never been solved.
The prints had been filed into the wrong year, so it took a while to even find them again.
Rerunning them through local databases turned up nothing, but the FBI database was more
useful.
A number of potential suspects were given to investigators, and eventually it was narrowed
down to a man named James Ray Davis.
Davis had been living in Texarkana for about a decade when police knocked on his door.
He had a criminal history, and had been in and out of prison in the 60s and 70s.
He had only been released from prison nine days before Diane was attacked, and would
return to prison not long after for an auto theft.
None of the early crimes were similar to the way Diane had passed away, but that changed
in 1976.
Davis was apprehended for an attempted abduction of a young woman and was imprisoned until
1992.
Since his release, he has been living a quiet life.
Police questioned him about his involvement in Diane’s attack and he confessed.
He pleaded guilty in court and, in 2003, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Number 3
In 1978, police in Omaha, Illinois, were dealing with a disturbing crime committed by an individual
who apparently wanted to taunt authorities.
61-year-old Carroll Bonnet had missed work two days in a row, prompting her friend to
request a welfare check from her building manager.
When Carroll didn’t answer the door, he looked through the mail slot to see she was
lying face down on the floor and called for an ambulance.
Sadly it was too late.
Carroll had passed away after being attacked with a bladed weapon.
The crime scene itself was very strange.
Her telephone cord had been cut, newspapers were strewn about the floor, and three towels
sat next to Carroll’s body.
Also nearby was a note from the person responsible.
It read “I am leaving this crime with only one clue.
Find it yourself pig!” and was signed Helte.
Police gathered the towels, newspapers, and a number of palm and fingerprints from around
the apartment, but couldn’t point to anything as the one clue the criminal had intentionally
left behind.
Carroll’s car, which had been stolen, was found a few days later, but there were no
additional clues.
Finger prints were run through the local database but it turned up nothing.
The case went cold.
It was eventually passed onto the Omaha Police Department Cold Case Unit which re-evaluated
the case in 2009.
Using technology that wasn’t available at the time, the team looked for DNA evidence
on the items that had been collected at the scene of the crime.
They also ran the fingerprints through the FBI’s Identification System and were given
a name, Jerry Watson.
Watson had served prison time for various burglary charges, and had been living close
to where Carroll’s car was found.
But with only fingerprints connecting him to the crime, police would need more.
Watson was in prison at the time of the investigation.
He admitted to being in the area when Carroll was attacked but said he had nothing to do
with her passing.
However, two crucial clues would prove that to be a lie.
While reexamining the evidence collected from Carroll’s flat, investigators noticed blue
ink scribbled onto one of the newspapers.
It seemed like something had been scribbled out.
Examining it closer, investigators revealed the signature “Jerry W” had been scribbled
out.
Investigators were also able to collect DNA from the old items which matched Watson.
Watson was convicted of the crime in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Every few years there are new advancements in technology, and one of the latest cold
case solving advancements was combined with one of the oldest tools for law enforcement
to capture a violent criminal in 2017.
Walter Yovany Gomez was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list in April 2017.
He had been on the run for almost six years at the time.
Gomez was a member of the MS-13 gang.
The gang itself is multi-national, operating throughout north and central America, but
the clique Gomez was a part of operated in Plainfield, New Jersey.
In the spring of 2011, one of the gang’s potential new recruits, Julio Matute, was
suspected of disrespecting the gang.
He had allegedly been associating with members of a rival gang and for that he could no longer
live.
Gomez and another gang member, Cruz Flores, were sent to his home to take him out.
Matute apparently didn’t suspect anything was wrong and invited them in.
They watched TV, drank and used illegal substances for a while before Gomez and Flores attacked
Matute.
When Matute’s body was found a week later, police were extremely disturbed by the number
of wounds that had been inflicted.
It was several weeks later when police came to Gomez’s home to question him on the crime.
He fled out the window and wouldn’t be seen for six years.
In the mean time, the rest of the Plainfield gang were arrested for racketeering and other
crimes, and Flores was convicted for taking Matute’s life.
But police were no closer to finding Gomez.
It was only when he was placed on the FBI Most Wanted list that a lead came in.
A tipster contacted authorities to say he recognised the man on Gomez’s wanted poster.
He directed authorities to a Facebook page that had photos of a man that did resemble
Gomez, but when the photos were put into facial recognition software, they matched a man named
Jesus Lopez Centoreo, who had been arrested in 2014 for possession of a controlled substance.
Still, police believed this could still have been the person they were looking for, as
the visible tattoos matched those Gomez was known to have.
They also ran facial recognition software on a woman seen in many of the photos with
Centoreo.
She also had a match in the database, which gave investigators an address.
The FBI staked out the address and followed the woman.
It wasn’t long before the man calling himself Centoreo showed up, and police were now convinced
this was Gomez.
In August 2017, the surveillance team swooped in to arrest Gomez.
At first he claimed his name was Centoreo, but then confessed to being the person on
Gomez’s wanted poster.
He was taken back to New Jersey and pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.
Number 1
The passing of Samuel Pettyjohn in 1979 was at the centre of an investigation into a corrupt
governor and a scheme to buy paroles in Tennessee.
It was a crime that would go unsolved for 42 years.
Pettyjohn was not unfamiliar with crime.
Despite being unable to read or write, he had a successful business and was well connected
in both politics and crime, which had a habit of mixing at the time.
He had owned several nightclubs and had ties to the Teamsters Union.
He was personal friends with Jimmy Hoffa.
It was those political connections that would eventually claim his life.
In 1975, Ray Blanton became state governor.
He would soon be embroiled in a scandal in which he pardoned prisoners or got them early
parole in return for bribes.
Pettyjohn was one of the people who would collect the bribes on Blanton’s behalf.
The FBI began investigating the case, and Pettyjohn became an informant for them.
It was the early hours of February 1st, 1979, when Pettyjohn lost his life.
He was at the Beverage Centre, a business he owned.
He had told a number of people to meet him there are the Centre closed, as he had business
matters to discuss.
He also told two police officers who had been with him to leave, as he was being watched
from across the street.
At 1:30am, a man witnesses described a black, wearing glasses and sporting a beard entered
the Centre and fired at Pettyjohn four times.
He then left the building and fired twice more before making his escape.
Pettyjohn was found with a still burning cigar in his hand.
Police made a few arrests based on the witnesses, but both had alibis and they were let go.
Despite countless interviews both for the Blanton investigation and the investigation
into Pettyjohn’s passing, no significant leads could be made and the case went cold.
That was until 2015, when investigators took another look at the crime.
Going back through interviews, and conducting new interviews with those who ran in the same
circles as Pettyjohn revealed valuable information.
Finally, investigators identified a suspect Ed Alley.
Alley was a bank robber who apparently told multiple associates he performed the hit on
Pettyjohn.
One of these even went to the county district attorney with this information in the 1990s,
but it apparently went no further.
In July this year, investigators confirmed they had enough evidence to indict Alley for
the crime, but he passed away in federal prison in 2005.