On the morning of Saturday, February 16, 1991, firefighters responding to a two-alarm blaze at 74 Rockhill Avenue in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, found James Julius JJ Moore, 73, and his longtime friend and roommate Stella N. Bolton, 68, dead inside their four-room bungalow. The fire, discovered at 1:30 a.m., was determined to have been set intentionally to hide what investigators concluded were stab wounds; the medical examiner ruled both deaths homicides by stabbing. A neighborhood boy later reported finding a bloodied knife with an eight-inch blade nearby, which became a key piece of evidence.

Portsmouth police and the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office continue to list the double homicide as an open cold case. No arrests or publicly identified suspects have ever been announced. A reward of up to $20,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Did anyone in the neighborhood at the time recall unusual activity around Rockhill Avenue that night or know anything about the discovered knife?