Do you know who killed 21 year old Linda Mayfield in 1982? Linda Mayfield was a 21-year-old Black woman whose life ended violently during the early morning hours of April 9, 1982, at the Starlite Motel on West Broadway in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Although she was killed in Council Bluffs, Linda lived across the Missouri River at 3852 Franklin Street in Omaha, Nebraska, where she had spent her life and was raising two young children.
What began as a disturbance at a roadside motel quickly became a homicide investigation that has remained unresolved for more than four decades.
At approximately 2:18 that morning, Council Bluffs police officers were dispatched to the Starlite Motel at 3320 West Broadway after someone reported a confrontation involving a man armed with a knife. When officers reached the property, they found Linda lying face down near the motel's north office door. She had suffered numerous stab wounds to several areas of her body, including her face, chest, stomach, hand and foot. The wounds to her hand may have been sustained as she attempted to protect herself, although the precise sequence of the attack has never been publicly established.
Linda was still alive when emergency personnel arrived. An ambulance rushed her to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, where physicians attempted to save her through emergency surgery. Despite those efforts, she died at approximately 4:00 a.m., less than two hours after police had been called to the motel. Her death left her family without a daughter and sister, and her two children, Dajuan and Dwaynda, without their mother.
A friend of Linda's witnessed enough of the events surrounding the attack to give investigators a description of the man believed responsible. The witness described him as a white man between approximately 26 and 28 years old, standing about five feet seven inches to five feet ten inches tall. He was clean-shaven and reportedly wore blue jeans, a blue denim jacket and a light-blue pullover shirt bearing an emblem. One particularly noticeable feature was the large amount of body hair visible above the collar of his shirt.
The witness believed the man's first name was “Chris.” Investigators were never able to establish his complete identity publicly, and no confirmed surname has been released. Reports concerning the investigation indicated that police believed Linda had been with the man shortly before the stabbing, but the exact nature of their encounter and what caused the violence have never been conclusively explained. The assailant apparently escaped before officers arrived, leaving investigators with a physical description, a possible first name and a crime scene but no identified person to arrest.
Another woman, 32-year-old Lee Rotatori, was stabbed to death at a different Council Bluffs motel less than three months later, on June 25, 1982. Because two women had been killed in motel settings within such a brief period, the cases naturally drew comparisons. Rotatori's murder was eventually solved through DNA evidence and genetic genealogy, which identified Thomas O. Freeman as her killer. Council Bluffs investigators have stated, however, that Freeman was not believed to be connected to Linda's death and that the two homicides were separate crimes.
The resolution of Rotatori's case renewed public attention on Linda's unsolved killing. Investigators expressed hope that modern forensic methods or previously unknown information might eventually identify the man who called himself Chris. Nevertheless, authorities have not publicly announced the recovery of a usable suspect DNA profile in Linda's case, nor have they named another person of interest who could be conclusively tied to the stabbing.
No arrest has been reported in connection with Linda Mayfield's murder. No one has been charged, placed on trial or convicted, and the unidentified man described by the witness remains the principal known suspect. The Council Bluffs Police Department continues to list the homicide as an unsolved case under case number D82-0713.
Linda was born in Omaha on August 8, 1960, and was remembered through the family she left behind. In addition to her children, her survivors included her mother, Wilma Mayfield; her brothers John, Danny, Leon, Kalvin and Kervin; her sisters Dottie and Kathy; a stepsister, Ruby Gordon; her grandmother, Dorothy Mayfield; and other relatives. Behind the brief description of a motel stabbing was a young mother with a large family whose future was taken during a sudden and brutal encounter.
The unanswered question at the center of the case remains the identity of “Chris.” Whether that was the attacker's real name, an alias or simply the name the witness remembered has never been determined publicly. With no arrest and no confirmed suspect beyond the description recorded in 1982, Linda Mayfield's death remains one of Council Bluffs' longstanding cold cases, awaiting the evidence or information that could finally reveal who attacked her and why.
