A 17-year-old is strangled on a rooftop just six blocks from where she lived in Brooklyn, New York. On a Wednesday morning in October 1971, 17-year-old Theresa Rose Rodger left her Brooklyn home with four dollars in her pocket. The young Caucasian female told her mother, Rosalie, she was going to buy a blouse and then look for a part-time waitressing job in Bay Ridge. It was the last time her mother would see her alive. A little over 24 hours later, on October 20, 1971, an elevator repairman discovered her body on the rooftop of the Gowanus Housing Authority project at 198 Bond Street, a mere
half-mile from her home.
The scene on the rooftop suggested a violent struggle. Theresa’s hands had been tied with a strip of her own brown blouse, her knees were bound with her corduroy slacks, and her ankles were secured with her shoelaces. She had been gagged with her bra. An initial assessment led police to believe her throat had been cut, but the medical examiner later determined the cause of death was strangulation with a wire that had severed her jugular vein. Her death certificate noted the approximate time of death as 1:45 p.m. The examination also revealed she had been stabbed multiple times in her chest and abdomen, though there was no evidence of sexual assault.
Brooklyn South homicide detectives investigated the case, speculating that the motive for the attack was robbery. They believed Theresa fought for her life but was ultimately overpowered by multiple assailants, possibly a group of girls. Despite the evidence of a violent struggle and the brutal nature of the crime, no arrests were ever made in connection with the murder of Theresa Rodger. Her case remains an unsolved homicide, a cold case from a grim day in Brooklyn.
