Laureen Finn, a 19-year-old University of Scranton student, was found murdered in December 1987 on Monroe Street in Scranton. Her body had been doused with an accelerant and set on fire; investigators believe she may have been bludgeoned and sexually assaulted before her death. She was last seen at O’Toole’s Tavern.

No arrests have ever been made and the case remains unsolved. Law enforcement and independent researchers have long considered Frank Osellanie a prime suspect; Osellanie was later convicted and serving a life sentence for the 1989 rape and murder of 9-year-old Renee Waddle. Both victims’ bodies were burned with a similar combination of accelerants, a detail that has been noted in discussions of the cases. An anonymous letter sent decades later to a local newspaper described screams, a fire and the smell of burning rubber along Interstate 81 near the time of Finn’s murder; investigators called that account credible and urged the writer to come forward.

Preserved DNA evidence is lacking, but renewed attention and advancing forensic technology are cited as possible paths to answers. Does anyone have information about Laureen, O’Toole’s Tavern on that December night, or the events along I-81?