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Death of teen who disappeared in 1983 ruled a homicide

Posted August 23, 2007 11:00 pm

Brenda Rothert

The death of Kimberly McClaskey, a 17-year-old Canton girl who disappeared while hitchhiking in July 1983, was a homicide, a Fulton County coroner's jury decided Thursday.

Police and McClaskey's family have long suspected homicide, but McClaskey's mother found the jury's decision "really surprising."

"I thought it would be inconclusive," Elizabeth Murphy said.

McClaskey's skull was turned over to police in 1993 by a boy who found it in Fulton County four years earlier and thought he had discovered American Indian remains, said Dan Daly, who was sheriff at the time.

At the time, DNA testing wasn't advanced enough to positively identify the skull.

But last year a test at the University of North Texas compared the DNA from the skull to that of McClaskey's family members. The test found it was 6 million times more likely than not that it was Kim McClaskey, Daly told the jury.

A forensic anthropologist told police the skull had been fractured and that McClaskey had sustained a blunt force injury to her nasal bridge when or shortly after she died.

Murphy clutched two photos of a smiling Kimberly in quilted fabric frames with lace and ribbons during the inquest. She shed tears as she listened to Daly recount the investigation into Kimberly's disappearance.

At the moment the jury foreman stood to read the verdict, Murphy squeezed the hand of her best friend, who sat next to her through the inquest. She cried when the foreman declared her daughter's death a homicide.

Murphy said she was "relieved" by the verdict.

"That gives us something to hang our hats on," she said. She said she has "never given up hope" that her daughter's murderer will be brought to justice.

Police suspect Bill Reinbold, who is serving life in prison for the bludgeoning murder of a Farmington woman in 1988, also killed McClaskey, though he has never admitted it.

Jeff Standard, who was recently elected Fulton County sheriff, said the investigations division is going through the "huge file" on the case.

"This is certainly a case that we don't want to go by the wayside," he said. "Reinbold may talk to one of these guys. He has nothing to gain or lose."

Reach Journal Star reporter Brenda Rothert at (309) 686-3041 or state@pjstar.com.

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