The unsolved murder of Murder Of Kristin O’Connell from Minnesota covered in four-part series on the true crime podcast, Method & Madness.
Murder Of Kristin O’Connell
A four-part series on the unsolved murder of Minnesota college student Kristin O’Connell, who was brutally killed in the summer of 1985 while visiting 19-year-old James Vermeersch in his hometown of Ovid, New York, is being released by Method & Madness, a true-crime podcast that focuses on victim advocacy, in partnership with Cold Case Advocacy. For 38 years, Ovid’s small, close-knit community has been troubled by O’Connell’s case.
New York State Police have admitted that they do not have a lead suspect, despite the abundance of physical evidence and the fact that no one has been arrested in connection with the murder. The podcast explains the known details of the case, looks into possible reasons for Kristin’s death, and asks listeners to actively get involved in the case.
Unsolved Murder
During spring break in 1985, Kristin met James Vermeersch for the first time at the South Seas Plantation Resort on Captiva Island, Florida. Vermeersch invited Kristin to come visit him in his small Finger Lakes town a few months later. Kristin vanished after arriving two days later. The next day, her slashed throat and wet, naked body were discovered in a overgrown cornfield less than a quarter of a mile from where she was staying with Vermeersch. Even though O’Connell’s body was discovered naked, there were no signs of sexual assault, according to the results of an autopsy.
The New York State Police are still conducting a homicide investigation into the death of Kristin O’Connell despite the fact that the case has not made any progress. Within a few years of not being solved, the majority of homicides in the country are categorized as “cold cases.” The New York State Police, on the other hand, refuse to label Kristin’s case as cold. The O’Connell family and their advocate’s desire to pass Kristin’s Law, federal legislation requiring all law enforcement agencies to classify homicide investigations as cold if they fail to make an arrest that leads to a conviction after three years, are the subject of the Method & Madness podcast.
Kristin’s case has attracted a lot of attention from the media over the years, including national headlines in 2009 when the New York State Health Department prevented well-known Dutch DNA experts Richard and Selma Eikelenboom from testing the case’s physical evidence. In 2021, two-time Academy Award-winning documentarian Bill Guttentag offered State Police the assistance of the Cold Case Foundation, which was led by Greg Cooper, a prominent profiler and former head of the FBI’s violent crimes task force. In addition, Guttentag offered a cutting-edge forensics laboratory to test all of the case’s evidence in exchange for documentation of the collaboration. Guttentag’s offer to the State Police was turned down, and he also lost his pleas to District Attorney Mark Sienkiewicz.
Searching For The Killers
According to Phyllis O’Connell, the victim’s 83-year-old mother, she made a promise to my daughter on the day of Kristin’s funeral that she would not rest until the person or people responsible for her murder were caught. She will honor her promise. She will keep asking difficult, upsetting questions and requesting that the State Police turn over every stone until they discover who killed Kristin. Phyllis is of the opinion that a significant amount of forensic testing and additional investigation are required. In Ovid, she is certain that someone is to blame for her death and begs everyone to please, be as enraged as she is, and act. There is a free killer among them. Please contribute to exerting pressure on Senator Thomas O’Malley, the District Attorney Sienkiewicz, and the State Police. Please, as they require your outrage.
Method & Madness
The invitation to participate in the podcast was turned down by many of the people who were with Kristin on the night of her death. Dawn Gandhi, the creator and host of the podcast, stated that many others involved in the case acknowledged that they simply were too afraid to speak out publicly about what they know. In light of Kristin’s murder, this small town is filled with real anxiety. They require the support of the general public, urging anyone with information regarding Kristin’s murder to come forward.
Find Method & Madness now:
Murdered: Kristin O’Connell went out on March 7, 2023, on Apple Podcast, Anchor, Breaker, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Radio Public. Additional episodes will be released weekly on March 14, 21, and 28.