A 10 year old runs an errand for her mother and is found dead the next day
On a warm summer evening in Washington, D.C., ten-year-old Brenda Faye Crockett, an African-American girl, was sent by her mother to a local Safeway to buy a few groceries on July 27, 1971. It was a simple errand, just five blocks from her home in the Northwest part of the city. As other children in the neighborhood were getting ready for a movie night, Brenda's mother wasn't immediately alarmed when she didn't return right away, thinking she might have joined her friends. However, Brenda never made it back home.
Later that evening, the Crockett family's phone began to ring. It was Brenda. In a series of confusing and distressing calls, first to her younger sister and then to her stepfather, Brenda tried to explain her situation. She said a white man had picked her up and she thought she was in Virginia, but would be home in a cab. In a subsequent call, she asked her stepfather, 'Did my mother see me?' an odd question given her supposed location. Her stepfather heard heavy footsteps in the background before Brenda said, 'I'll see you,' and the line went dead. Authorities now believe that her kidnapper forced her to make these calls, feeding her false information to mislead her family and the police.
The following morning, on July 28, 1971, a motorist discovered Brenda's body along the side of U.S. Route 50. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with one of her own scarves, which was still knotted around her neck. Her shoes were missing, and her feet were strangely clean, as if they had been washed.
Brenda Crockett's murder was one of a string of similar killings of young black girls in the Washington, D.C. area between 1971 and 1972. The unknown assailant was dubbed the 'Freeway Phantom' because the victims' bodies were often found near major highways. Despite an extensive investigation, no one has ever been arrested or convicted for Brenda's murder, or for the other murders attributed to the Freeway Phantom. Over the years, several suspects have been looked at, including a group known as the 'Green Vega Rapists' and other individuals, but no definitive link has ever been established. The case remains a cold case, a painful and unresolved chapter in the city's history, with the Metropolitan Police Department still offering a substantial reward for information that could lead to an arrest.
