Felicia Stephens was a 20-year-old Black woman from Rochester, New York, who vanished at the end of December 1989. Investigators believe she was killed on or about December 27 or 28, 1989, during a violent stretch when other women were disappearing around Rochester and nearby river towns. On New Year’s Eve, her pants and identification were found near Northampton Park, and on the morning of January 4, 1990, a deer hunter discovered her body in the park.

Police attention soon focused on Arthur John Shawcross, a paroled killer who had settled in the region. He was taken into custody on January 5, 1990; reporting from that period says he provided investigators with information about Stephens’s killing during interrogation. Shawcross went to trial in Monroe County in November 1990, was found guilty of 10 counts of second-degree murder, and in February 1991 was sentenced to a total of 250 years in prison. Additional proceedings in Wayne County led to another life sentence after he pleaded guilty.

Did anyone who knew Felicia or who spent time near Northampton Park in late December 1989 notice anything out of the ordinary?