Do you know who murdered Laura J Linehan? In the winter of 1979, in Omaha, Nebraska, a 29-year-old Caucasian woman named Laura J. Linehan was living a life that was by all accounts ordinary. She worked in the cafeteria at Omaha North High School and was raising her children in their home on Larimore Avenue. Remembered by her daughter as a "spunky" and "fun" woman, Laura's life was tragically cut short on December 13th of that year.
The events of that night remain shrouded in mystery, leaving a permanent scar on her family and the community.
On that fateful December night, while one of Laura's daughters was not home, her other daughter was in the house, drifting in and out of sleep. In a harrowing account, she later told investigators that she heard voices, followed by the disturbing sound of something being dragged across the carpet. This chilling auditory memory would be the only witness account of the crime. The next morning, Laura Linehan's body was discovered in the bathtub. She had been strangled. The discovery sent shockwaves through her North Omaha neighborhood, a place that has since been erased from the city's map, torn down to make way for a freeway.
The initial investigation into Laura's murder yielded no suspects and no arrests, quickly turning the case cold. For decades, the thick file of police reports and private investigator notes has been a source of both pain and hope for Laura's family. Her daughter, Jackie, has spent over four decades poring over the details, searching for answers that have remained elusive. Omaha police have acknowledged that there are a number of theories, but none that can be confirmed. The passage of time has presented significant challenges for law enforcement; with the crime scene and the entire neighborhood long gone, investigators are left with only the original reports.
Despite the years of silence and the lack of new leads, the hope for justice for Laura Linehan has not entirely faded. Law enforcement officials believe that it is still possible the killer is out there and that someone, somewhere, holds the key to solving the case. They remain optimistic that even a faded memory could be the missing piece of the puzzle. The family also holds out hope that advancements in DNA technology could one day be applied to the case, potentially yielding new evidence from the original investigation. As it stands, no suspects have ever been publicly named, and no arrests have been made in the four decades since her death. The murder of Laura J. Linehan remains an unsolved chapter in Omaha's history, a story of a life taken too soon and a family's unending quest for answers.
