On the night of December 10, 1977, 33-year-old Karen P. Braunbeck Dodrill left Forker’s Café in Newark, Ohio, after celebrating her birthday with friends. She went outside to start and warm her car and then returned toward the rear entrance to fetch a friend, Joyce Vermillion, who was finishing her shift. In darkness near the back of the building an assailant opened fire with a .22-caliber weapon, striking Karen repeatedly; Joyce was also shot as she came outside. Both women were found dead in the snow behind the café.

Ballistic testing later linked the shell casings from that ambush to a series of other .22-caliber killings across central Ohio, transforming the Newark double homicide into the opening act of what the press called the .22-Caliber Killers spree. Charges initially filed against others were dropped after lab work excluded them. The investigation ultimately focused on Gary James Lewingdon and his older brother Thaddeus Charles Lewingdon; authorities recovered .22-caliber pistols and stolen property tied to multiple scenes, and both men were tried and convicted on multiple counts of murder.

If anyone knew Karen or has information about that night, please share what is known.