Karlena Jean Tolston, an 18-year-old Black woman who was seven months pregnant, was found dead on the morning of September 19, 1983, in a park at 26th and Jefferson in Omaha, Nebraska, an area also described as a vacant lot near the Highland Elementary School playground. An autopsy showed she had been shot twice in the head. Investigators also found evidence of significant additional violence: blunt-force injuries to the head, bite marks, and items of clothing (underpants and slippers) near a pool of blood about 20 feet from her body that suggested a sexual assault. A blood trail indicated her attacker had dragged her into brush in an apparent attempt to hide the body.

Police said there were no witnesses to the killing, though they asked the public if anyone heard the gunshots that night. Karlena’s cousin, Courtney Starks, was the last person known to see her alive and was extensively questioned; an arrest was reportedly made at one point but no charges were filed and the case remains unsolved. Does anyone have information about Karlena, the Corvette mentioned that night, or who else might have been in that neighborhood on September 18, 1983?