Linda Sue Dearth was 13 when she was murdered at home in Montgomery County, Ohio, on January 25, 1973. Schools were closed that day for the funeral of former President Lyndon B. Johnson; Linda’s 17-year-old brother Robert had been out for about two hours and found her critically injured on his return. She had been raped and shot three times in the head; Robert later reported she may have tried to respond when he called her name but she died soon after.

Investigators linked Linda’s murder to an earlier attack 12 days before, on January 13, 1973, in Harrison Township, where Gloria Buck and her two children, ages 5 and 6, were killed. Ballistic evidence tied both crimes to the same firearm, believed to have been taken from the Buck home. Both families had placed ads in the local Tradin’ Post, a detail detectives considered significant. A suspect who once babysat for the Buck family was arrested at one point, but no one has been successfully prosecuted. Linda is buried in Arlington Cemetery near Brookville; her family remembers her as loving, fond of animals and active in church and school.

Does anyone have information that could help bring justice for Linda and the other victims?