Vicki Lynne Hoskinson
Eight-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson disappeared while mailing a letter near her Tucson home. Her remains were found eight months later. Frank Jarvis Atwood was convicted in 1987 and spent decades on death row, becoming a cause célèbre for death penalty opponents. He was executed in 2022.
Vicki Lynne Hoskinson is documented in the ColdCaseIndex database as a homicide case in Tucson, Arizona. The events are dated to September 17, 1984. The victim is recorded as 8 years old and female. The last known information on record places the case at September 17, 1984, near her home in Tucson, AZ.
Within the ColdCaseIndex taxonomy, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson is filed under Homicide with a status of Conviction. A homicide entry documents a killing in which the perpetrator has not been identified, has not been convicted, or where the case is otherwise historically notable. The record is cross-referenced under the themes homicide, child, Arizona, Tucson, conviction, execution, which connect it to related cases across the database.
The Vicki Lynne Hoskinson case ended in a criminal conviction. It is retained in this index as a historically significant case — one whose investigation, prosecution, or aftermath shaped forensic practice, criminal law, or the public understanding of violent crime.
Primary jurisdiction for the Vicki Lynne Hoskinson case rests with local law enforcement in Tucson, supported by Arizona state investigative authorities. The case sits within a wider national picture: the U.S. homicide clearance rate has fallen from roughly 90% in the 1960s to about 54% today, and more than 346,000 homicides recorded since 1965 remain unsolved. ColdCaseIndex documents individual cases like this one to keep them publicly visible and searchable.
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