Cold Cases in Virginia
ColdCaseIndex documents 17 cases in Virginia, dated 1912 to 2016. 4 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Virginia Christian Case (1912) and the most recent is Keeshae Jacobs (2016).
- Unsolved 4 (24%)
- Partly resolved 3 (18%)
- Solved or convicted 10 (59%)
Homicide clearance in Virginia, 1965 to 2024
A homicide is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it by exceptional means, so an uncleared case is not always an unsolved one. Source: Murder Accountability Project analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report data, as published by Project: Cold Case. These are statewide totals and are separate from the ColdCaseIndex entries listed below.
By type
All Virginia cases
Keeshae Jacobs
Keeshae Jacobs, 21, vanished after being dropped off at a Church Hill home in Richmond in September 2016. In 2024 police confirmed she was dead, and a jailed murderer admitted disposing of her body, though no one has been…
Katelin Akens
Katelin Akens, 19, vanished on December 5, 2015, after being dropped at her former stepfather's home in Partlow, Spotsylvania County, Virginia, for a ride toward a flight to Arizona.
Hannah Graham
University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, 18, disappeared from downtown Charlottesville early on September 13, 2014; her remains were found five weeks later in Albemarle County. Jesse Matthew Jr.
Alexis Murphy
Seventeen-year-old Alexis Murphy disappeared on August 3, 2013, after stopping at a gas station in Lovingston, Nelson County, Virginia.
Samantha Ann Clarke
Samantha Ann Clarke, 19, vanished shortly after midnight on September 13, 2010, after leaving her home in Orange, Virginia, telling her younger brother she would be back in the morning.
Tina Smith
Tina Smith, 41, was found dead in her Roanoke County, Virginia home on December 6, 2010, and her 12-year-old daughter was missing.
Yeardley Love
University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love was beaten to death in her Charlottesville apartment by her ex-boyfriend and fellow lacrosse player George Huguely V.
Morgan Harrington
Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, disappeared on October 17, 2009, after leaving a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. Her remains were found on an Albemarle County farm in January 2010.
Amy Lynn Bradley
Amy Lynn Bradley, a 23-year-old from Virginia, disappeared from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in the Caribbean in 1998, with later reported sightings but no confirmed trace.
Michelle Moore-Bosko
Michelle Moore-Bosko, 18, was raped and killed in her Norfolk, Virginia, apartment in July 1997. Omar Ballard, the only person whose DNA matched the scene, pleaded guilty in 2000.
Julianne Williams & Lollie Winans
Julianne "Julie" Williams, 24, and Laura "Lollie" Winans, 26, were found dead at their campsite near Skyland Resort in Shenandoah National Park on June 1, 1996.
Sofia Silva, Kristin Lisk & Kati Lisk
Sofia Silva, 16, vanished from the front steps of her Spotsylvania County, Virginia home on September 9, 1996, and sisters Kristin, 15, and Kati Lisk, 12, were taken from their front yard on May 1, 1997. All three were found dead.
Jason Callahan ("Grateful Doe")
A young man killed in a 1995 car crash near Emporia, Virginia, went unidentified for two decades and became known as "Grateful Doe" for the Grateful Dead concert tickets found with him.
Melissa Brannen
Five-year-old Melissa Brannen vanished from a community Christmas party at her Lorton, Virginia apartment complex in December 1989. Handyman Caleb Hughes was convicted of abducting her, but her body has never been found.
Colonial Parkway Murders
Eight young people were killed or disappeared in four incidents along or near Virginia's Colonial Parkway between 1986 and 1989.
Donna Hall & Michael Margaret
Donna Hall, 18, and Michael Margaret, 21, a young couple from Henrico County's West End, left for a camping trip on August 17, 1984, and were found stabbed to death four days later in a wooded area off Castile Road near the…
Virginia Christian Case
Ida Belote, 51, was killed in her Hampton, Virginia, home on March 18, 1912. Her 16-year-old laundress, Virginia Christian, was convicted of first-degree murder by an all-white, all-male jury in April 1912 and was electrocuted…