On the night of August 14, 1985, twenty-year-old Kristin O’Connell left a party in Ovid, NY to go for a walk. Two days later, her nude body was discovered near a cornfield along a rural county road; she had been stabbed in the chest and her throat was cut.

The unsolved murder of Kristin O’Connell has baffled local New York investigators for decades. At the time of her murder, Kristin had traveled from Minnesota to New York to visit a young man she’d met a few months earlier while on Spring Break in Florida. According to witnesses, Kristin wasn’t wearing shoes when she left the party and she wasn’t carrying a purse. Several witnesses reported having seen Kristin walking that night between 11:30 pm and 12:15 am, when she was seen talking to one or possible two men in a car. Roughly ten minutes later, several people reported hearing a loud scream coming from the area where her body was discovered.

In the decades since Kristin’s murder, police have interviewed dozens of witnesses and followed up on thousands of leads, yet the case remains no closer to being solved than it was in the days following the discovery of the body.

Please sign the Petition to override the decision to not permit 'touch DNA' to potentially solve this cold case! visit https://www.change.org/p/family-demands-dna-testing-by-othram-labs-in-the-kristin-o-connell-cold-case

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References

Allen, Matha. 1985. "Slain woman's parents seek comfort from her letter." Star Tribune, August 18: 35.

Associated Press. 1987. "Psychics seeking slues to 1985 murder in Ovid." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 22: 12.

—. 2009. "DNA may solve '85 slaying." Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY), August 13: 1.

Democrat and Chronicle . 1985. "Police ask help in Ovid murder." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 20: 11.

Democrat and Chronicle. 1985. "Lab to test items from slaying." Democrat and Chronicle , August 19: 7.

Ebert, Alex. 2009. "A Burnsville mother won't let her daughter's murder case go cold." Star Tribune, August 13.

Gillis, Jackie. 2023. What happened to Kristin O'Connell? March 2. Accessed March 2, 2025. https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/local-news/what-happened-to-kristin-oconnell/.

Lighty, Todd, and John Hartsock. 1985. "Brutal slaying shakes Seneca town." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 18: 1.

Pfifer, Jim. 1996. "Police suspect imprisoned man for 1985 murder in Ovid." Star-Gazette, January 28: 1.

Pittman, Mark. 1985. "Minn. woman found dead in Seneca." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 17: 1.

Ritter, Carol. 1985. "4 deaths, few answers in Seneca." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 22: 14.

—. 1986. "Parents on pilgrimage of grief." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 16: 1.

—. 1985. "Slaying no longer the talk of Ovid, but investigation, reaction continue." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), September 25: 11.

Shaw, David. 2009. "Police seek help on cold case." Finger Lakes Times, August 13.

—. 1986. "Kristin O'Connell's murderer thwarts police." Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), February 21: 1.

—. 1986. "Murder case takes police out of state." Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), January 8: 14.

—. 1985. "Cops place an ad in hunt for killer." Syracuse Herald-Journal, August 29: 1.

—. 1985. "Police hope TV reenactment of killing will help solve case." Syracuse Herald-Journal, September 13: 15.

—. 1985. "Slaying's legacy: a bounty and fear." Syracuse Herald-Journal, August 30: 95.

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Weirdos! Today we just wanted to be ourselves- and enjoy some Listener tales that are brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you! Throw on a comfy sweatshirt and join use as we talk about paranormal experiences at creepy schools!

Don't forget to check out the VIDEO from this episode available on YouTube on 3/27/2025!

If you’ve got a listener tale please send it on over to Morbidpodcast@gmail.com with “Listener Tales” somewhere in the subject line- and if you share pictures- please let us know if we can share them with fellow weirdos! :)

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January 15, 1919 was an unusually warm day in Boston, a welcome change from the typically cold temperatures Bostonians had experienced in the previous days. A little after 12:30 pm, the residents of the city’s North End neighborhood were going about their usual routines when all of the sudden they felt the ground shake, followed by a loud rumbling roar, as though the train had gone off the tracks. Then, without warning, a wave of molasses—reportedly fifty feet high—flooded the neighborhood with more than 2.5 million gallons of syrup, destroying buildings, toppling the nearby elevated train line, and killing twenty-one people.

One of the lesser told and remembered stories in Boston’s history, the great molasses flood of 1919 caused untold damage to one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods and injured more than 150 people, in addition to the twenty-one dead. Yet for an event so remarkable and strange, it is still unknown precisely what caused the Purity Distilling Company’s molasses storage tank to burst and dump its contents across the North End, making it one of Boston’s most bizarre pieces of folklore.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References

Boston Daily Globe. 1919. "Death toll from tank disaster 13." Boston Daily Globe, January 18: 1.

—. 1919. "Martin Clougherty awoke in a sea of sticky molasses." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 7.

—. 1919. "Molasses tank explosion injures 50 and kills 11." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 1.

—. 1919. "No Bill returned in tank disaster." Boston Daily Globe, February 13: 3.

—. 1919. "Official police report of North End disaster." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 7.

—. 1919. "Scenes of anguish at relief station." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 7.

Buell, Spencer. 2019. "Anarchists, horses, heroes: 12 things you didn't know about the Great Boston Molasses Flood." Boston Magazine, Janaury 12.

Daily Boston Globe. 1919. "Explosion theory favored by expert." Daily Boston Globe, January 16: 1.

—. 1919. "Mayor appalled, promises probe." Daily Boston Globe, January 16: 1.

Dwyer, Dialynn. 2019. "What people saw and felt in the first moments of Boston's dead Great Molasses Flood." Boston Globe, January 13.

Jabr, Ferris. 2013. "The science of the Great Molasses Flood." Scientific American, August 1.

Park, Edwards. 1983. "Without warning, molasses surged over Boston 100 years ago." Smithsonian Magazine, November 1.

Puleo, Stephen. 2004. Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

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