A young woman is discovered dead of massive head trauma In the coastal city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 23-year-old Caucasian female Laura Kempton was building a life for herself. A student at the Portsmouth Beauty School with aspirations of becoming a model, she also worked at a local gift shop and an ice cream parlor to make ends meet. Her life, however, was brutally cut short in the early morning hours of September 28, 1981.
On that Monday morning, a Portsmouth police officer arrived at Kempton's first-floor apartment at 20 Chapel Street
to serve a summons for unpaid parking tickets. When he received no answer, he found the door unlocked and entered, discovering a horrific scene. Kempton's body was found on the floor of her living space, which also served as her bedroom. She was nude, with her ankles bound by an electrical cord, and a telephone cord was wrapped around her neck and shoulders. Her body was mostly concealed under her mattress, box spring, and bedding. An autopsy would later reveal that she had been sexually assaulted and had died from massive head trauma caused by a severe beating with a blunt object. Investigators found a glass bottle near her body that was consistent with the murder weapon. Signs of a forced entry were evident from a broken door panel.
For decades, Laura Kempton's murder remained a cold case, a source of fear and speculation in the Portsmouth community. The investigation was further complicated when, a year later, another young woman from the same beauty school, Tammy Little, was murdered under strikingly similar circumstances, leading to fears of a serial killer. Despite pursuing hundreds of leads and considering multiple suspects over the years, the case remained unsolved, casting a long shadow over the city. The primary evidence that held the key to solving the crime was a male DNA profile collected from the scene. However, the technology to effectively use this evidence did not exist for many years.
After more than four decades of mystery, a breakthrough finally came in 2023. Advances in forensic science, specifically genetic genealogy, allowed investigators to re-examine the DNA evidence. By comparing the crime scene DNA to profiles in genealogical databases, they were able to identify the perpetrator as Ronney James Lee. At the time of the murder, Lee was 21 years old and had a history of breaking into apartments for robbery or sexual assault. Investigators believe he acted alone in a crime of opportunity. There was no evidence to suggest that Lee and Kempton knew each other. While the case is now considered solved, there will be no trial or conviction. Ronney James Lee died of a drug overdose in 2005 at the age of 45, taking the full story of that tragic night with him to the grave.
