Miriam McKinley was a 65-year-old white woman who lived alone in Inglewood, a Los Angeles suburb. In June 1976 she was found beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled inside her home; her body was discovered in the garage and bore signs consistent with other attacks on elderly women in the area. Reported details link her to a pattern: victims were typically white females in their mid-60s to 80s living alone, entered through unlocked windows or doors, assaulted, and then strangled or suffocated; many victims were found overlaid with a blanket or pillow.

Decades later, DNA testing produced a match to John Floyd Thomas Jr., a registered sex offender and insurance claims adjuster. In March 2009 he was arrested in connection with several cold cases, and investigators attributed Ms. McKinley’s 1976 murder to him. No other arrests or accomplices have been identified in her killing. In April 2011 Thomas pled guilty to multiple first-degree murder counts and related charges and received consecutive life terms without parole, closing the long-unsolved case.

Does anyone have memories of Inglewood in the 1970s or information about Miriam’s life that could add to her story?