Solving A Decades-Old Murder Mystery - A Librarian Turns Detective

Using A Computer And Her Intuition, Rebekah Heath Helped Identify A Vicious Killer’s Unnamed Victims

- Steve Helling And Christine Pelisek

As a librarian in Windsor, Conn., Rebekah Heath was always fascinated by the true-crime genre. She followed crime blogs, listened to crime podcasts and read all the murder mysteries she could get her hands on, especially Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series. “There’s something about a little old lady solving crimes,” she says. “Nobody thinks she’s out there looking for clues and answers.”

But it was the real-life cases of unidentified murdered women that cut to her heart. Having grown up in a strict religious community she describes as a reclusive sect, Heath recalled how naive and alone she was when she finally ventured out into the world. She might have been easy prey—and since her parents, in accordance with their beliefs, cut off all contact, “my family would never have been looking for me,” she says. “I’d see these Jane Does and think that I could have easily been those girls. There’s no one fighting for them.”