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45 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, November 13, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend March 21, 2004 The faces of eight of more than a dozen 'cold cases' in Jackson County, all of them either murders or disappearances. Some cases date back more than four decades. Detectives ‘hope, pray for that little tiny break’ ‘Cold case’ investigators say one phone call can bring resolution to longtime mysteries By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune They’re the faces of the dead, the missing, but hopefully not the forgotten. In many cases, the trail may have gone cold. Some disappearances and murders present too many questions while suspects in others are frustratingly out of reach. But detectives continue to look at new angles hoping for a missing piece of the puzzle that could bring the truth to light after so many years. "We just hope and pray for that little tiny break," said Medford police Detective Terry Newell. Families of the missing and the murdered just hope for closure and a measure of peace. Advertisement "What life I have left, I want to be able to walk without looking behind my back," said Paula Symons, whose mother disappeared nearly 20 years ago and was then found murdered. Prosecutors are taking another look at the murder of Symons’ mother, Vida Mae Hirschy, who — clad only in a bathrobe — walked out of her Griffin Creek Road home on Dec. 2, 1984, to get some firewood. Her children reported her missing several days later. Hirschy’s husband, Donald Leslie Hirschy, told police that he did not notify them of his wife’s absence because she had left him so many times in the past. A year after Hirschy was last seen, her body was spied in an area of Applegate Lake that usually holds the deepest water. However, the lake had never been so low, and Hirschy’s body — anchored to a heavy piece of metal pipe — was resting about 6 feet under the surface. Detectives in recent years have taken a closer look at the origins of the metal pipe and cut marks that were made by a particular type of saw. The evidence is not new, but the totality of information gathered in the case is striking, said Detective Colin Fagan of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. "Every time I close the case book, I say this case needs to be prosecuted." But police and prosecutors need to move quickly while the suspect, witnesses and the case’s original investigators are still alive and within reach, Fagan said. "When you have a circumstantial case, over time, they typically do not get better, they decay," Fagan said. "Cold" is the term police typically attach to cases that are five or more years old and are yielding no new information, said Medford police Lt. Tim George. But when all an investigators’ efforts seem exhausted, it only takes a new point of view, a technological twist, or a chance event to turn a case around. "It can go from cold to hot with a phone call," George said. Medford detectives in 1994 made history for making the county’s first arrest in a homicide without having a body to prove the death, the second arrest for such a case in Oregon. Detective Terry Newell studied methods used in Marion County to build a murder charge out of a missing-person case. To prove that Dolores Strehlow was no longer living, Newell tirelessly sought information from around the world on the 55-year-old Medford hairdresser. Seven years after she went missing, Newell arrested Strehlow’s husband, Arnold Gene Strehlow, for her murder. He was convicted in November 1994. Newell again broke the mold for cold murder investigations in 1995 when Antonio Sanchez Lopez was convicted and sentenced in Mexico for the 1984 murder of Ozzie DeLoach in Medford. Police issued a warrant for Sanchez’s arrest in 1984, but they had heard he was out of the country. Police thought they couldn't touch Sanchez, until 1993 when Newell became aware of a program allowing U.S. police to present their cases to Mexican authorities, who would take charge of the prosecution. Armed with a book of evidence and statements translated into Spanish, Newell traveled to Morelia, Michoacan, in Mexico and convinced authorities of Sanchez’s guilt. Dogged police work didn’t pay off in the murder case of 17-year-old Evelyn Marie Smith until advances in DNA technology linked William Henry Allen Jr. in 2001 to the 20-year-old crime. Allen was convicted in January 2002 but acquitted about six months later in a new trial. The original verdict was thrown out after attorneys disputed the accuracy of photos used as evidence. Although detectives used advances in DNA evidence to examine the 1993 murder of Ashland resident Ed Krahel, a chance encounter cracked the case last month. Walter E. Jaffke, 34, of Hemet, Calif., was arrested in Bakersfield after relatives in Southern California reported that he was missing. A California Highway Patrol officer located Jaffke and obtained information linking him to the Krahel murder, said Ashland police Chief Mike Bianca. Jaffke is now in the Jackson County Jail awaiting trial. "I was surprised because we’d kind of given up on it," said Krahel’s neighbor Marilyn Shafer. But while communities remember unsolved crimes, police and prosecutors agree that missing children leave a mark long after they’ve vanished. Medford detectives hope that continuing interviews about the disappearance of 6-year-old Christie Lynn Farni will solve a 26-year-old mystery. "If you saw pictures of Christie, you wouldn’t have to ask ‘Why are you continuing to work this case?’ " Newell said. "She’s everybody’s niece, or everybody’s little sister or everybody’s grand-kid," said Tim George, who took the initial report that Christie was abducted while walking the few blocks between her foster home on Peach Street and Jackson Elementary School. That morning, she had testified before a grand jury that her father, Kenneth Ray Farni, had physically abused her. Kenneth Farni died in a car wreck a year after his daughter’s disappearance. Detectives believed at the time that Farni had murdered his daughter, Newell said, adding that he hopes to find Christie alive some day. Investigators aren’t so optimistic about the fate of 15-year-old Kaelin Glazier, missing from Ruch since November 1996. Kaelin’s mother, 41- year-old Kimberly Cruz, said she also believes that her daughter is no longer alive. But she is trying to turn her tragedy into a message to other parents. On May 25 this year, Cruz will travel to Salem and meet with the governor to promote Oregon’s first Missing Children’s Day, which coincides with the national observance. Cruz said people still remember her daughter, and she encourages people to call the sheriff’s department if they have any information, no matter how insignificant. "It might be the missing link we need to find the truth here," she said of the case. "It’s like the whole community really does still need closure." Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities