Paula Nelson was a 21-year-old African American woman from Cleveland, Ohio, who was found strangled to death in her bedroom on October 23, 1980. She had been living with her sister, Ramola Washington, who was in a relationship with Reginald Perkins. Perkins had been asked to return a set of keys to Paula shortly before her death; five days after that request Paula was discovered deceased.

Perkins was arrested as a suspect in Paula Nelson’s murder but was never tried for that specific crime. He had a documented history of violent offenses, including a 1981 conviction in Ohio for rape and attempted rape of two 12-year-old girls and a life sentence. Later developments connected Perkins to other strangulation murders and to the killing of his stepmother, and at one point he allegedly told Ramola Washington that he had murdered her sister Paula, but he was not formally charged in Paula Nelson’s death.

Does anyone have additional information about Paula’s life in Cleveland or memories that could help clarify what happened in October 1980?