Do you know who murdered Audrey Palmer? In the late summer of 1990, the life of a young woman from Bermuda came to a brutal and anonymous end in Washington, D.C. Audrey Palmer, a 26-year-old female, was found deceased on August 12, 1990. Her body had been discarded in a dumpster in a parking lot, showing signs of a violent struggle; she had been beaten, stabbed, and ultimately strangled. For nearly two decades, her identity remained a mystery to investigators.
With no identification found with her, and no missing person's report filed by her family, the case quickly grew cold, leaving law enforcement with a nameless victim and an unknown assailant.
The silence in the case was finally broken in March 2009, when advancements in forensic technology allowed for a breakthrough. Fingerprints that had been taken at the time of the discovery of her body were successfully matched to prints from a 1989 arrest in Brooklyn, New York. This match finally gave a name to the long-unidentified victim: Audrey Palmer. The news of her identification brought a bittersweet resolution to her family and friends in Bermuda, who had held out hope for her well-being since losing contact with her in the mid-1980s after she moved to New York. Friends remembered her by her maiden name, Audrey Godwin, and recalled a vibrant, fun-loving young woman.
Following her identification, detectives with the Metro Washington Police Department reopened the cold case, hoping the new information would lead to her killer. Investigators learned that the mother of two had moved from Brooklyn to Washington, D.C. several months before her death. She had reportedly told her family she was staying with a friend. The investigation into her murder was fraught with challenges due to the significant passage of time. Despite the renewed efforts of law enforcement to piece together the final months and moments of her life, there have been no public announcements regarding the identification of any suspects or any arrests made in connection with her murder. The case of who killed Audrey Palmer remains unsolved.
