Gretta Denise Rainey, 35, was found dead in a Capitol Hill first-floor apartment at 610 Third St. SE on the afternoon of May 13, 1987. Her nude body showed ligature strangulation, and investigators later determined she had been raped. The apartment belonged to her girlfriend, Roxanne Johnson, who reported Rainey missing after leaving for work that morning; Johnson and a coworker discovered the body. Johnson was arrested and charged with second-degree murder two days later, but prosecutors dropped all charges four months after the arrest and no public explanation was given.

The killing went cold for decades, though investigators noted a striking similarity to a nearby October 1985 rape and strangulation of 22-year-old paralegal Florence Eyssalenne in the apartment next door. In 2022 a full male DNA profile was developed from tissue recovered at Rainey’s scene; that profile linked the two homicides and points to a single unidentified African-American male believed to be familiar with the building or neighborhood. The suspect remains at large; a reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

SE in the mid 1980s or have information about visitors to that building?