18 Years

Nothing happened and the Keen case grew ice cold for 18 years until convicted felons were required by law to submit a DNA sample. Marvin Lee Smith was a prisoner at that time. He had been incarcerated for two assaults that were unrelated to Keen. Nonetheless, his sample matched the evidence found at the crime scene then. On February 27, 2009, Smith pleaded guilty and received 30 years to life. To this day, the investigators of the case are extremely grateful that they properly kept and tagged the evidence they collected from the murder.

Helen Sullivan

This wonderful mother of three was found murdered close to her home in North Long Beach in 1973. The cops had collected the evidence available. However, technological restrictions didn’t allow them to move forward with the case. As hard as they tried, they just couldn’t figure out who killed this sweet woman.