The murder of Roseann "Ann" Sturtz

There was no DNA, no witness and little physical evidence; the case was solved by a confession fifty years after the killing. Howard County police said that in 1981 detectives interviewed Charles William Davis Jr., already serving life sentences for murders committed in the 1970s, and that prosecutors granted him immunity from prosecution for information about Ann Sturtz's death. Police suspected she was his fourth victim. On the recorded interview, Davis acknowledged knowing about the case but did not identify her from a photograph that was several years old. Cpl. Wade Zufall, the department's cold-case detective, took over the case in 2022 and went through the evidence again. CBS Baltimore reported that he found the 1981 immunity letter and the recording; police later said they were found in 2024. The Baltimore Banner reported that a Loyola student in a fall 2023 cold-case class, in which Zufall was the guest speaker, wrote her term paper on the case, asked whether the killer might be a serial killer, and found Davis's cases. Zufall then corresponded with Davis and brought him from prison to police headquarters in Ellicott City. This time he showed Davis a different photograph of Ann, taken in July 1975, a month before she disappeared. Davis recognized her. He told Zufall, police said, that he met her at a bar, left with her, argued with her, and strangled her, and that he wanted to give her family closure. State's Attorney Rich Gibson reaffirmed the 1981 immunity, so Davis cannot be charged, and police announced the case cleared by exceptional means on March 11, 2025. Accounts differ on some details: the date of the immunity offer (1980 or October 1981), whether Davis gave details in 1981, where Ann was last seen, and whether the body was found off Route 108 or Route 18.