COLD CASE

Investigators Solve 1972 Murder of 11-Year-Old Using DNA Database

Terri Lynn Hollis disappeared from her family home near Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day 47 years ago.

It’s been 47 years since Terri Lynn Hollis was murdered—now the case has finally been solved. Hollis was just 11 when she disappeared from her family home in Torrance, near Los Angeles, on Thanksgiving Day in 1972. She was found dead the next day. Investigators have identified Jake Edward Brown, who died in 2003, as the man responsible for her murder. “This crime is what nightmares are made of, and no family should ever have to go through such a tragedy,” Torrance Police Chief Eve Irvine said Tuesday. Investigators carried out nearly 2,000 interviews since her disappearance, then an analysis of a public DNA database led them to a relative of the suspect. The DNA matched a sample from Hollis’ body, and authorities dug up Brown’s body in Arizona to confirm the connection. Randy Hollis, who was 16 when his younger sister was killed, said: “I only wish that my parents were still alive to see this.”