D.A., Newport Beach police to announce arrest in 1973 killing of 11-year-old Linda O’Keefe
Newport Beach police investigators and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday, Feb. 20 plan to announce an arrest in a 1973 cold case homicide and are expected to name a Colorado man as a suspect in the death of 11-year-old Linda O’Keefe.
KRDO, a television station in Colorado Springs, Colo., reported on Tuesday, Feb. 19, a man had been arrested in Colorado’s El Paso County in a Newport Beach homicide from 1973.
The Orange County Register confirmed that the arrest was connected to O’Keefe’s death by strangulation. The suspect in the case is expected to be extradited from Colorado on Wednesday.
O’Keefe vanished on July 6, 1973, leaving her house on Orchid Avenue in Corona del Mar at 8 a.m. to get a ride to summer school. She was last seen walking home from school that day. Linda’s parents reported her missing and volunteers, family members and police searched for Linda through the night.
Her body was discovered the next morning in a ditch off of Newport Beach’s Back Bay.
Last summer, the Newport Beach Police Department used social media in a bid to revive interest in the case and attract leads, telling the girl’s story on Twitter.
An image of a man was created in 2018 using a tool called the Parabon Snapshot, which uses DNA collected from the investigation to predict a criminal’s appearance. It is not clear that facial recognition led to the arrest, though; other DNA evidence is believed to have led police to the suspect in Colorado.
In announcing a Wednesday news conference, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office thanked cooperating law enforcement agencies including the Orange County Crime Lab, the FBI, the Colorado Springs Police Department and Colorado’s El Paso County Sheriff’s Department.
“I am committed to protecting the community. My office will never forget about cold cases. Our hearts go out to the victim and the victim’s family in this case, having to endure decades without answers. We will make sure that the defendant is fairly and justly held accountable in a court of law,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.