Late on Friday, August 12, 1977, Brenda Kay Parsh, 27, had returned to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to help her mother while her father was in the hospital. That night someone had already entered the Parsh home on Koch Street and waited. Investigators later reported that the intruder had been stalking Mary Parsh and expected her to live alone; Brenda’s presence apparently surprised the killer.

When officers found them the women were nude on a bed, their hands bound behind their backs. Brenda had been raped, and both she and her mother were shot in the head with a .38-caliber handgun. Autopsies were conducted on August 15, 1977, and the medical findings listed gunshot wounds to the head as the cause of death for both women. The double killing helped trigger the development of a Major Case Squad in the area as Cape Girardeau faced a string of violent killings in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For decades the Parsh murders remained unsolved until renewed investigation and forensic work led to identification of a suspect and charges in later years.

If anyone knew Brenda or Mary, or has information about the Parsh home on Koch Street in August 1977, please share what might help the case.