Authorities said Tuesday that they had finally solved the 1975 murder of a woman in Maryland using the victim’s photograph and an old cassette tape.
Before Howard County police reopened the investigation late last year and discovered evidence that a convicted murderer already serving time in prison was responsible for the crime, Roseann Sturtz’s cold case—she was strangled to death after meeting her attacker at a bar on August 24, 1975—was a mystery for decades.
Investigators found an audio recording from 1981 that asked Charles William Davis Jr., who was then a prisoner at Jessup Correctional Institute, about the murder in return for not being charged.
After being given a picture of Sturtz taken years before to her death, Davis was unable to identify her as one of his victims at the time, according to authorities. Sturtz lived in Baltimore and was known by the name Ann.
However, 44 years later, Cpl. Wade Zufall of Howard County police took Davis from the same jail to police headquarters last year for another interview.
He gave Davis a more current picture of Sturtz, taken one month prior to her murder, in a mugshot. This time, he acknowledged the murder and named her as one of his victims.
In the interview footage that was made public, Sturtz can be seen looking at the picture and nodding his head.
In a statement released by the police department, Sturtz’s family said, “In November 2024, we were grateful to have all the case details, learned Roseann’s actual date of death and receive the closure we have been praying for all these years — finally put to rest the answers we never had.”
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According to Zufall, Davis informed police that he and Sturtz had a fight prior to the murder when they met at a bar.
According to Zufall at a news conference, Davis came to the attention of authorities in 1981 when police examined his verified victims and contrasted them with Sturtz.
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Although Davis is already serving a life sentence for prior murders, he cannot be charged with the murder.
“His main reason why he wanted to talk to me … was he wanted to give closure to the family,” Zufall stated.
