Solved cold cases in Vermont

Rita Curran

Burlington, Vermont · 1971

Rita Curran, a 24-year-old schoolteacher, was beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled in her Burlington, Vermont apartment in July 1971. The case went unsolved for more than 51 years until, in 2023, investigative genetic genealogy identified her killer as upstairs neighbor William DeRoos, who had died in 1986 and was never charged.