Florence Bell, a 91-year-old white woman, was found murdered in her Ypsilanti home on January 8, 1982. She had been sexually assaulted, her throat was slashed, and the scene showed signs of a violent struggle. Bell had lived on South Summit Street since 1922 and had survived an earlier attack in May 1980 when an intruder beat and raped three elderly local women.

Investigators linked Bell’s killing to similar rapes and murders of elderly women in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, including 85-year-old Margorie Upson and 84-year-old Louise Koebnick. Michael Darnell Harris was arrested in December 1982 for a separate assault and rape and became a prime suspect. In the late 1990s DNA testing matched seminal fluid from the three scenes to Harris. He was convicted and given life sentences for Upson and Koebnick; no separate trial for Bell was pursued because of those life terms, though the DNA tied Harris to her case.

Did anyone in the community know Florence Bell or have information about who might have seen unusual activity near South Summit Street around January 1982?