Episode description
Episode description
July 9, 1970. Lansing, Michigan. 16-year old Laurie Murninghan, the daughter of the city’s former mayor, is abducted from her workplace by a black male during a robbery gone wrong. Eleven days later, Laurie’s decomposed body is discovered in a remote swampy pond and her cause of death is determined to be manual strangulation. Since Laurie’s employer witnessed the abduction, she picks out a promising suspect from a photo line-up who has an extensive criminal record. However, the authorities do not believe they have enough evidence to arrest this man, so the murder is never solved. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we cover the unsolved abduction and murder of Laurie Murningham and we will also briefly discuss another cold case involving the murder of 14-year old Karen Oatley, which took place in Lansing nine years later. Special thanks to listener Michelle Beleski for narrating the opening of this episode.
If you have any information about the murders of Laurie Murninghan and Karen Oatley, please contact the Lansing Police Department at (517) 483-4600.
Additional Reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/21/archives/body-of-girl-16-seized-in-holdup-found-in-michigan.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/204070287/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/206091802/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/206091804/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/204884983/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/204885016/
https://99wfmk.com/lauriemurninghan/
https://www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/mi-laurie-murninghan-16-lansing-9-july-1970.12877/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/98969533/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/206180693/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/109188751/
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“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.