On May 21, 1992, 81-year-old Martha Bolden, a Black woman, was found murdered in her Richmond, Virginia, home. She had been stabbed, a killing that was later linked by investigators to a series labeled the Golden Years Murders, a spree between 1990 and 1996 that targeted elderly women living alone.

Early in the series the first six victims, including Bolden, were Black women who had been stabbed; later victims were white women killed by strangulation, a shift investigators noted. The investigation produced few solid leads. Leslie Burchart, a 51-year-old homeless man with mental illness, confessed to four of the killings but his statements were inconsistent, there was no physical evidence tying him to the scenes, and he recanted before his death in 2002.

Martha Bolden’s murder remains unsolved. If anyone knew her, saw anything unusual around her home in May 1992, or has information about the Golden Years Murders, please come forward.