Valentine’s Day is celebrated around the world as a day to express love and affection in countless ways. Whether it’s children exchanging handmade cards at school, couples surprising each other with gifts, flowers, and sweets, or families coming together for a cozy meal and festive treats, the day is all about cherishing those who matter most. Yet for some families, Valentine’s Day is forever marked by sorrow. Instead of a day of love and celebration, it became a day of tragic loss—when lives were cut short, and the truth behind their deaths, or even their identities, remained hidden for years.
But hope never faded. Despite decades passing, the families and investigators refused to let these unsolved tragedies fade into obscurity. Thanks to relentless police work, breakthroughs in technology, and long-overdue confessions, these cold cases have finally been cracked, proving that justice can prevail—even after all this time.
10. Angela Perkins
Angela Perkins was a vibrant 23-year-old known for her beauty, kindness, and infectious spirit. Working as a waitress at Newby’s in Memphis, Tennessee, Angela was on her way home on the morning of February 14, 1994, after giving a friend a ride following her shift. Tragically, as she slowed down at a stop sign, a single gunshot shattered her car window, striking her carotid artery and larynx.
The car continued on, coasting into a nearby parking lot where Angela desperately tried to call 911 using her cell phone. Despite making two frantic calls, she was unable to speak clearly before losing consciousness. Because the call couldn’t be traced, police were dispatched to search the surrounding area near a busy intersection, but they found no sign of her. Then, two hours and 37 minutes later, a local donut shop employee called the police to report that he had found a woman’s body in the parking lot, her cell phone still in hand. It was there that Memphis officers discovered Angela Perkins, lying face down next to her red car.
For nearly 20 years, Angela’s murder remained unsolved—until 2014, when a Texas inmate stepped forward with a confession. Ngoc Baoco “Ice” Huynh, serving a 40-year sentence for an unrelated murder, told Memphis cold-case detectives that two teenagers, Phanhsay “Kapoo” Phanivong and Sathit “Tee” Ep—both just 16 at the time—were responsible for her death.
Huynh revealed that, just days after the shooting, Phanivong had bragged about the crime, even showing him a newspaper clipping and claiming he’d “made the news.” His plan had been to steal a car—or even just a car radio—to earn money for a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend. When Angela tried to escape during the attempted robbery, Phanivong shot her. Fearing both Phanivong, his relatives, and the influence of the Local Killer Boys (one of Memphis’s earliest known Asian gangs), Huynh had kept silent until now.
By 2014, Phanivong had transformed his life—becoming a 36-year-old soccer dad in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a former state employee, and even an aspiring police officer while attending graduate school. However, on April 23, 2014, he was arrested and charged with attempted aggravated robbery and first-degree murder. The very next day, Sathit “Tee” Ep was also taken into custody on felony murder charges.
On September 11, 2018, Phanivong pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 15-year prison sentence. Under the laws in effect at the time of Angela’s death, he became eligible for parole after serving just 30% of his term. Having already spent almost five years in jail, he was allowed to complete the remaining 10 years under the Community Corrections Program—a system designed to supervise offenders outside the traditional prison setting and help reduce future criminal behavior.
9. Terri McAdams
On February 14, 1985, Terri McAdams, just 22 years old, was in her Arlington, Texas apartment, lovingly preparing a heart-shaped Valentine’s Day cake for her fiancé who was away on business. After finishing the cake, she enjoyed a friendly phone chat with her sister. But moments after she hung up, an intruder slipped into her apartment through a sliding glass door. In a brutal and horrifying attack, Terri was beaten, sexually assaulted, and murdered—and her priceless $5,000 engagement ring was stolen. A maintenance worker later discovered her body on Valentine’s Day.
Initially, detectives quickly ruled out her fiancé as a suspect, and despite tireless efforts and even a reward offered by Terri’s grieving parents, the investigation soon went cold, with no arrests made over the years.
In 2021, a fresh approach was taken when multiple pieces of physical evidence from the scene were sent for DNA testing. The analysis produced a DNA profile of an unknown male, which was entered into the CODIS database—but it didn’t immediately match anyone.
Then in August 2023, Arlington police decided to explore investigative genetic genealogy (IGG), a method that combines crime scene DNA with detailed genealogy research and public records to uncover new leads. The FBI’s IGG team agreed to help, and after several months of dedicated work, they identified a potential suspect: Bernard Sharp.
Sharp, a registered sex offender who lived nearby, was among many persons initially questioned. However, his story took a dark turn on November 3, 1985—nearly nine months after Terri’s murder—when he fatally shot his wife and her friend, critically wounded her cousin, and then took his own life. With Sharp deceased, his DNA wasn’t directly available for comparison.
Fortunately, investigators managed to locate a close genetic relative of Sharp, living out of state, who provided a DNA sample. The lab results confirmed a genetic match between Sharp and the unknown DNA from Terri’s crime scene.
While Terri McAdams’s killer won’t face justice behind bars, on August 14, 2024, the Arlington Police Department and the FBI formally announced that this nearly 40-year-old cold case had finally been solved.
8. Eric Darnell Noel
On the early morning of February 14, 2014, at about 1:13 a.m., Port Arthur, Texas, police received a distress call reporting a “man down.” When officers arrived on the scene, they discovered 29-year-old Eric Darnell Noel lying in the street, badly injured from multiple gunshot wounds.
Although Noel was still alive, his condition made it incredibly difficult for him to communicate—his responses were little more than faint whispers. Determined to gather any clues about the shooter, Detective E.S. Thomason rode with Noel in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Tragically, despite their efforts, Noel succumbed to his injuries later at the hospital.
There had been some chatter about Noel’s involvement in a disturbance at BJ’s Convenience Store earlier that night, but for years, the case remained unsolved. Then, on June 14, 2024, the breakthrough came: 47-year-old Damond Lewis—who had been a “person of interest” since 2017—turned himself in at the Port Arthur police station and confessed to shooting Noel. Lewis is now in custody at the Jefferson County Jail, facing a murder charge.
7. Wanda Deann Kirkum
On Valentine’s Day in 1991, a horrifying crime unfolded in the Florida Keys. An unidentified young woman was brutally beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled—her only piece of clothing a bikini top, which was tragically used to end her life. Early the next morning, around 8:15 a.m. on February 15, a group of windsurfers discovered her body along a dirt road near a local spot known as the “Horseshoe” recreation area. Dubbed the “Valentine Jane Doe Homicide,” the case quickly caught national attention, even featuring on true crime shows like Unsolved Mysteries and attracting the interest of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
For 29 long years, her identity and the details behind her death remained a mystery. Then, on June 15, 2020, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay announced a breakthrough. Major Crimes Unit Detective Vince Weiner, working in tandem with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, utilized cutting-edge DNA technology and genealogy research to finally reveal her name: 18-year-old Wanda Deann Kirkum from Hornell, New York.
Wanda’s story is as heartbreaking as the mystery itself. Her ashes, once stored in a Florida Social Services vault, were eventually returned to her first cousin, Brenda Chartraw, offering a semblance of closure for the family. According to Brenda, Wanda had endured physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her parents and fled home at 18. Shockingly, her parents never filed a missing person’s report and later passed away, leaving Wanda’s disappearance unresolved—until now.
In a further twist, investigators also identified her killer. Robert Lynn Bradley, who met his own tragic end in a homicide in Tarrant County, Texas in April 1992 at just 31 years old, was linked to Wanda’s murder. DNA evidence from Bradley’s own crime scene and from the 1991 homicide were compared at the FDLE lab, confirming the match.
This case, steeped in tragedy and long-awaited justice, finally sheds light on a dark chapter from the past.
6. Terry Dolowy
Terry Dolowy, a River Forest, Illinois native and a senior finance major at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, vanished on the night of February 14, 1985. After finishing her shift at Piggy’s Restaurant, she returned to her trailer in Barre Mills, Wisconsin, where she lived with her fiancé, Russel Lee. Sometime between 12:30 and 1 a.m., Lee, who didn’t have his own car, borrowed Terry’s vehicle to head off to his third-shift job at the Radisson Hotel.
When Lee returned home later that night, he found the front door open and the lights on—but Terry was nowhere to be seen. Not only had she disappeared, but her beloved white poodle, Suzie, was also missing. Given that Lee was the last to see her alive—and coupled with accounts from friends that Terry had been reconsidering her plans to marry him due to his alleged gambling and drug issues—he quickly became the prime suspect.
Tragically, four days later on February 18, 1985, the Vernon County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call about something burning in a culvert. There, they discovered Terry’s burned body. Although DNA evidence from the scene eventually cleared Lee, despite interviewing over 500 people and involving more than 20 investigators over two decades, the case had gone cold.
A major breakthrough came on June 1, 2022, when the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory developed an STR (short tandem repeat) profile from evidence on Terry’s body. This profile was then analyzed using investigative genealogy, and on September 23, 2022, it pointed to Michael Raymond Popp. In January 2023, authorities obtained a search warrant and collected a DNA sample from Popp, which matched the DNA from Terry’s autopsy.
Interestingly, back in March 1985, Popp had been interviewed by both the La Crosse and Vernon County Sheriff’s Offices. At the time, he claimed that he and his then-girlfriend were acquaintances of both Terry and Russel, mentioning that they’d played pool together and that he had visited Terry’s trailer 10 to 15 times. However, in a March 2023 re-interview, he contradicted his earlier statements, insisting that Terry was only a casual acquaintance and that he didn’t even know where she lived.
After repeatedly denying any involvement, Popp eventually admitted—when confronted with the DNA evidence—that he and Terry “maybe had a little affair” for six to eight months, though he maintained that he never hurt her.
Finally, on September 23, 2024, 60-year-old Michael Raymond Popp was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Terry Dolowy’s tragic death.
5. Adrienne McColl
Adrienne McColl’s story is a heartbreaking reminder of how violence can shatter lives far too soon. At just 19 years old, Adrienne began dating Stéphane Parent—a man 12 years her senior—while they both worked at Studio 82, a lively southwest Calgary bar owned by her stepdad, John McGee. However, behind the bar’s cheerful facade, rumors of Parent’s violent temper swirled. One witness even recalled a terrifying moment when he hurled Adrienne across a desk and choked her during a shift.
Despite the warning signs, their relationship continued, and Adrienne eventually became pregnant. The hope for a new beginning turned to sorrow when, just two weeks before the baby’s due date in October 2001, the child was stillborn. Not long after, another pregnancy ended in heartbreak.
By February 2002, cracks in their already troubled relationship had widened, and financial struggles deepened the divide. Adrienne landed a job at a downtown bistro and moved back in with her stepfather, while Parent’s situation deteriorated to the point of homelessness, living out of his car. On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2002, Parent’s temporary shelter was towed away—on the same day Adrienne mysteriously missed her work shift and evening plans with friends.
Almost immediately after her disappearance, Parent vanished too, and oddly, a car belonging to John McGee also disappeared. Early the next morning, February 15, Parent hurriedly bought a one-way ticket to Ottawa. The abandoned car was later discovered at Calgary International Airport, with a chilling detail: Adrienne’s shoes were found in the trunk, and just a few stalls away, a pair of Parent’s jeans—stained with blood—was uncovered.
Tragically, on February 17, 2002, Adrienne’s body was found in a rancher’s field 52 miles outside Calgary. She had been brutally beaten and strangled, and left without her shoes, coat, or pants.
For years, Stéphane Parent remained the only person of interest in Adrienne’s murder, yet prosecutors couldn’t build a case strong enough to charge him. The investigation eventually went cold—until advances in DNA technology revived hope. On February 17, 2018, exactly 16 years after Adrienne’s remains were found, 49-year-old Parent was arrested in Gatineau, Quebec, and charged with second-degree murder. In 2021, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years.
Throughout the trial and his subsequent appeal, Parent maintained his innocence, challenging aspects of the evidence and the trial process. However, the Alberta Court of Appeal rejected his arguments.
Adrienne McColl’s tragic case serves as a powerful example of how relentless investigative work—and technological breakthroughs—can eventually bring long-overdue justice to those whose lives were cut short.
4. Jodine Serrin
Despite facing cognitive challenges, 39-year-old Jodine Serrin led a remarkably independent life. She was active in several social organizations for people with mental illness and lived on her own in a ground-level condo in Carlsbad, California. On the evening of February 14, 2007, when her parents—Arthur and Lois Serrin—couldn’t reach her by phone, they decided to check in around 10 p.m. Unfortunately, Jodine didn’t answer the door.
After managing to enter through the front door, Arthur and Lois stepped inside, hoping to find Jodine safe. However, when Arthur walked into her bedroom, he was confronted with a shocking scene: a partially dressed man was in the middle of a sexual encounter with his daughter. Alarmed and deeply concerned that she was being exploited, Arthur ordered the man to get dressed and leave.
Expecting that an embarrassed couple might emerge from the bedroom soon after, her parents waited in the living room. But as minutes turned into a longer silence, Arthur returned to the bedroom only to make a devastating discovery—Jodine had been brutally assaulted, beaten, and strangled to death. The man had already vanished. An autopsy later confirmed that her fatal injuries were due to blunt-force trauma to the head.
What made the case even more perplexing was the lack of any signs of forced entry. No windows were broken or tampered with, and the door showed no forced entry marks, leading investigators to suspect that the killer was likely someone Jodine knew, or at least someone aware that she lived alone. It’s believed the assailant may have slipped away through an open front door that wasn’t visible from where her parents were waiting.
Initially, unknown male DNA found at the scene was entered into the state database, but it didn’t produce any matches, and the case grew cold—until 2018.
In February of that year, the Carlsbad Police Department and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office turned to Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based company that specializes in DNA phenotyping. This innovative process uses crime scene DNA to predict physical traits and ancestry. The lab produced a computer-generated mugshot, along with predictions about the suspect’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin tone, freckling, and facial structure.
Armed with these clues, investigators compared the DNA evidence against a larger database. Thanks to matching DNA from relatives and a careful process of elimination, they were able to narrow the focus to one man: David Mabrito. Although Mabrito—a 38-year-old transient—had committed suicide in 2011, the Oceanside Police Department had preserved an unprocessed DNA sample from him that was originally collected during another investigation. When his DNA was compared to the evidence from Jodine’s case, it returned an almost inconceivable match—a “1-in-64-quintillion” chance—leaving no doubt that Mabrito was responsible for the heinous crime.
Jodine Serrin’s case, marked by tragedy and mystery, eventually found some answers thanks to modern forensic science and the relentless work of investigators determined to bring the truth to light.
3. Heyzel Obando
On Valentine’s Day 2016, at around 5:30 p.m., a chilling call came in from Fort Myers, Florida. Earl “Tony” Joiner reported 911 that he had found his girlfriend, 26-year-old Heyzel Obando, bleeding and unresponsive in their apartment. When police arrived, they found Joiner in the master bedroom, desperately performing chest compressions—efforts that were ultimately futile, as it was clear Obando had been dead for quite some time after being shot in the head.
Joiner explained that he had just returned from a trip with their daughters to visit family in Winter Haven, only to discover Heyzel’s lifeless body upon his arrival. However, several details raised red flags for investigators. His unusually calm, almost emotionless demeanor and his lack of any inquiries about how Heyzel died didn’t quite match the behavior of someone who had just discovered a tragic loss.
Another disturbing observation was made at the scene: an officer noticed that Joiner had left both himself and the couple’s two daughters in a running car in the parking lot. Joiner later claimed he did so because his youngest daughter was asleep and he intended to bring Heyzel back to help carry the children inside. The situation took an even darker turn when the family’s 3-year-old daughter told police that “poppy shoted mommy” and mentioned “mommy blood,” suggesting that Joiner might have committed the murder right in front of her.
Initially, the evidence was insufficient to arrest Joiner—a former University of Florida football player—so he was free to start a new job at a local auto dealership. But investigators never let the case go cold. Over the next three years, as leads dried up, a renewed effort was launched when Oxygen Network’s true crime series Cold Justice joined forces with local law enforcement in May 2019. They spent nine intensive days re-interviewing 50 witnesses, re-analyzing evidence, funding additional DNA tests, and uncovering allegations of domestic abuse and suspected affairs—all of which pointed toward Joiner.
Their relentless work paid off. An arrest warrant was issued, and on June 8, 2019, 33-year-old Joiner was finally apprehended at the auto dealership where he worked, charged with second-degree murder. Joiner ultimately pleaded no contest, and on June 5, 2023, he received a 25-year prison sentence. In addition, he was legally barred from having any contact with the children—now in the care of Heyzel’s mother, Isabel Martinez—or with any members of the Obando family.
This case, steeped in sorrow and marked by unsettling details, serves as a stark reminder of how crucial thorough investigation and persistent pursuit of truth are—even when the evidence isn’t immediately clear.
2. Christopher Scott Case
On February 14, 2000, while walking his dog near E. 8th Street and Weld County Road 43 in Greeley, Colorado, a man made a chilling discovery—a dead body lying in a field. Weld County deputies rushed to the scene, but despite their investigation, no signs of foul play were found.
Soon after, the remains were sent to an anthropologist who determined that the body belonged to a white male, estimated to be between 35 and 50 years old, standing about 5’4″ tall. Though his weight couldn’t be determined, there was a belief that he might have sported a tattoo in the center of his back. With the advanced state of decomposition and no clear evidence of trauma, the cause and manner of death remained a mystery. As a result, authorities labeled him “John Doe 2000,” and his remains were stored away for 22 long years.
Then, in 2022, a breakthrough emerged. Investigators revisited the case using forensic genealogy, combining DNA analysis from the remains with input from relatives in Nevada who willingly submitted their DNA. This collaboration led Weld County cold case detective Byron Kastilahn to the crucial breakthrough he’d been waiting for. In December 2023, genetic testing confirmed that John Doe 2000 was, in fact, Christopher Scott Case.
Before his untimely death, Case had lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and was last seen in 1998 by his half-brother in Nevada. Tragically, despite having been missing for 24 years, he never appeared on the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation’s missing persons list. The use of advanced DNA technology finally brought answers to a mystery that had haunted investigators for decades.
1. Te’ore Terry
On February 14, 2021, at exactly 8:01 a.m., police in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, rushed to Coliseum Drive after receiving reports of a shooting. There, in a parking lot, they found 35-year-old Te’ore Terry lying face down, having suffered a fatal gunshot wound. In the midst of the chaos, Terry’s keys and jewelry were stolen, and EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.
Te’ore’s sister, Tori, later shared her heartache and suspicion that her brother’s murder might have been a hate crime—pointing to the fact that he was openly gay.
Initially, the investigation stalled in January 2023 due to a lack of evidence. However, the case took a new turn in September 2023 when Detective Boles was assigned to it. With renewed determination, Boles conducted fresh interviews and followed new leads that ultimately pointed to a suspect: 28-year-old Jacquane Juarre Fair.
Fair was arrested on May 17, 2024, and faces charges of felony murder. Although Te’ore’s mother confirmed that she was aware of a relationship between her son and Fair, law enforcement has not released any additional details about the case.