Solved cold cases in Kentucky
1 documented case.
Carol Sue Klaber
Carol Sue Klaber, 16, a junior at Dixie Heights High School in northern Kentucky, was last seen on June 4, 1976 after getting into a car near Devou Park; her body was found the next day in a roadside ditch on Chambers Road in Walton, Boone County. She had died of blunt force trauma with evidence of strangulation and sexual assault. The case stayed cold for nearly 47 years until the Boone County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit, working with the Houston-area forensic lab Othram and funding from Season of Justice, used forensic-grade genome sequencing and genetic genealogy to identify the killer as Thomas W. Dunaway, who was 19 at the time and lived about a mile and a half from Klaber's home. Dunaway died in 1990 at age 33, so he was never charged, but on March 8, 2023 authorities announced the case solved and the Commonwealth's Attorney said the evidence would have been sufficient to convict him.