After almost four months of official silence, Luzerne County Detective Charles Casey last week called Odetta Todd, one of murder victim Juanita Todd’s two daughters, and asked to schedule an interview. Odetta said Casey told her Luzerne County District Attorney Samuel M. Sanguedolce and Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Joe Coffay will attend the meeting scheduled for […]
You know the criminal justice system is broken when a white district attorney in an overwhelmingly white community ignores a Black murder victim’s daughter’s plea for help. Luzerne County District Attorney Samuel M. Sanguedolce, a smug law-and-order Republican running uncontested for re-election, is ignoring murder victim Juanita Todd’s daughter Odetta’s plea for help. Neglecting her. […]
Where’s the knife? Where’s the murder weapon? On September 28, 1972, Wilkes-Barre police found a knife sticking out of Juanita Todd’s corpse. If they lost or threw away that murder weapon, city officials must admit and explain their recklessness. If police still possess the blood-smeared blade that’s crucial to helping solve the mystery of who […]
Now we wait. We wait after readers shared, discussed and took to heart each of 11 columns about Juanita Todd’s 1972 tortured killing I wrote and published each consecutive Sunday on my website and on Facebook. We wait after more than 50 years of heartfelt grieving. We wait amid the brutal fog of sexism and […]
Did Wilkes-Barre police brass purposely ignore evidence in the 1972 Juanita Todd murder investigation? If so, why? Six years after the 22-year-old Black woman’s barbaric killing, Wilkes-Barre Patrolman Don Smith swore under oath that Captain of Detectives John Lowe neglected crucial information that might have helped solve the Todd case. Smith also told investigators […]
