The authorities announced on Tuesday that the 1975 murder of a Maryland woman, Roseann Sturtz, was finally solved with the help of an old cassette tape and a picture of the victim. Sturtz was strangled after meeting her killer at a bar on August 24, 1975, and the case remained a mystery for decades until last year when Howard County police revived the investigation.
They uncovered evidence that Charles William Davis Jr., a convicted killer already in prison, had committed the crime. A 1981 audio tape revealed Davis admitting to the murder in exchange for not facing charges. Initially, he could not identify Sturtz from a photo taken before her death, but after being interviewed by police 44 years later, he confessed to the crime upon seeing a later photo of Sturtz.
In November 2024, the police obtained closure on the case, finally providing answers that Sturtz’s family had been seeking for years. Davis, who is already serving a life sentence for other killings, expressed his desire to give closure to the family.
