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Thread: Cold Case, Unsloved, Whodunnit.

  1. #46
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    Wendy's murder on Transit and Wehrle in Amherst NY– cold case

    I remember meeting the girl who was murdered at the Wendy's restaurant.

    I was friendly with a friend of hers. They were members of the kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. At the time she was murdered I suspected her husband to be honest with you. I don't know why I suspected him, I guess it was just a really strong feeling as well as strange feelings I had when I met him. I remember bringing the murder up to the friend of mine who knew her as well from the church and it was brushed it off like "oh well". It was obviously not to be discussed.
    I have been bothered by this murder over the years. As I watch cold case murders being solved on cold case television shows, I am hopeful that the advances in forensic criminology will help find the horrific person who murdered that young girl. She was extremely sweet.

  2. #47
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    Anyone named mark?

  3. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cpugliese View Post
    I remember meeting the girl who was murdered at the Wendy's restaurant.

    I was friendly with a friend of hers. They were members of the kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. At the time she was murdered I suspected her husband to be honest with you. I don't know why I suspected him, I guess it was just a really strong feeling as well as strange feelings I had when I met him. I remember bringing the murder up to the friend of mine who knew her as well from the church and it was brushed it off like "oh well". It was obviously not to be discussed.
    I have been bothered by this murder over the years. As I watch cold case murders being solved on cold case television shows, I am hopeful that the advances in forensic criminology will help find the horrific person who murdered that young girl. She was extremely sweet.
    I worked with her father (now deceased) God rest his soul. He was a real fun loving guy...great personality...after her murder...and the pain of no closure...he was a totally different person...No one really knows the toll taken by the families after a tragic violent loss of a loved one.

  4. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by joe d. View Post
    I worked with her father (now deceased) God rest his soul. He was a real fun loving guy...great personality...after her murder...and the pain of no closure...he was a totally different person...No one really knows the toll taken by the families after a tragic violent loss of a loved one.
    So true. I still have hopes it will be solved and the killer sent to prison.

  5. #50
    Member gorja's Avatar
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    Here's that article from 1997-
    SIX YEARS LATER, FAMILY SEEKS CLUES TO WOMAN'S MURDER
    BY Donn Esmonde
    on September 22, 1997 - 12:01 AM

    A SMALL AD appears in the personals section of today's newspaper.

    It is about a crime, but mostly it is about a family.

    It reads:

    Reward for information about the death of Michelle Vandinther Send to: Fruck, P.O. Box 543, Getzville, N.Y. 14068-0543.

    The ad was placed by Amherst police.

    Mrs. Vandinther, a newlywed in her 20s, was the manager at a Wendy's hamburger restaurant on Transit Road. On a Friday night in June six years ago, after closing, someone came in and stabbed her more than 30 times with a butcher knife. That someone never has been found.

    Because of the violence of the attack, detectives believe it was a crime of passion -- committed by someone she knew. In the past few months, Amherst detectives revisited the case, interviewing more than 60 people. But the wall they were up against did not move.

    With the ad, they hope to move it. They believe someone out there knows who did this or has suspicions. The ad is an appeal to that person, an appeal to help police solve a case that haunts them and to help to take a killer off of our streets.

    But that person needs to know something else. There is more to it -- to any murder -- than victim and killer.

    Whoever did this stuck a knife into the heart of a family.

    Michelle Vandinther left her parents, Ron and Peggy Fruck, and brothers Dan and Doug.

    Finding who did this will do more than solve a killing. It will give them a measure of peace.

    "We were at a wedding not long ago," said Dan Fruck, Michelle's brother. "It's time for the bride to dance with her father. I look over and my dad is sitting there, bawling."

    This is what it is like. The pain is supposed to go away in time. It doesn't. Every day, in one way or another, they are reminded.

    "My mother is cleaning and opens a drawer and sees a glove or a shirt that belonged to Michelle," Dan said. "Or she goes to a mall and sees a mother shopping with an older daughter. And it all comes back."

    He is sitting in a waiting room in Millard Fillmore Hospital, a few feet from where his father is undergoing heart tests.

    Both his parents have high blood pressure and heart problems. Peggy Fruck sometimes sleeps 20 hours a day. Doctors say it's one way people deal with stress and depression.

    "It's why they're sick all the time, because of this," Dan said. "They can't let it go.

    "They should be sitting back and looking forward to the grandkids to come, just saying 'Ah, my kids made it.' But they can't. All of that has been taken away."

    Mrs. Vandinther fought fiercely. The killer left blood and a handprint at the scene. If police had a suspect, it would be easy enough to check prints and DNA.

    Whoever did this came out of it with a cut, maybe some bruises. They might have come home that night to a spouse or family, or been seen by a friend, relative, co-worker. Someone who noticed something, maybe even had questions, back in June six years ago.

    Transit Road is a busy street. It was a Friday night, after 10 o'clock. The fatal battle started in the front of the restaurant, visible from the road.

    "I can't believe there's not someone out there who didn't see something," Dan said.

    He is a stocky, hard-working young man who runs a floor-sanding business. His sister's killing took a part of him. He is 30, but his spirit has aged.

    "I feel like I'm 55 years old," he said. "I feel like I'm my younger brother's father. I yell at him for staying out too late, when he's just out having a good time with friends. But you get so cautious. I only have one brother left."

    Police talked with Mrs. Vandinther's previous boyfriends, with people she knew, with fellow members of her Jehovah's Witness congregation. She had converted from Catholicism not long before her death. Nothing.

    "Basically, our lives ended when she died," Dan said. "I'm married, my brother's married now. We're starting families. But we're missing something."

    Michelle Vandinther had no apparent enemies. She sang in a choir, played six instruments -- her favorite was picking out bluegrass tunes on guitar -- and often drove her workers at Wendy's home after their shifts.

    Peggy Fruck can't understand why someone would take her daughter's life.

    "Every time I go to the cemetery, I pray, 'Dear God, give us a clue.' Help us put a close to this in our minds." She visits her daughter's grave at least twice a week.

    It's not going away. Ever.

    But someone, somewhere can make it a little better. Can help to bring peace to a family who has suffered enough.

    http://www.buffalonews.com/SIX_YEARS...sS_MURDER.html

    Georgia L Schlager

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    Nancy Jo Scamurra's father has passed. [ http://www.amigone.com/obituary?id=1104807 ]

    Nancy Jo went 'missing' from her Scamridge Curve (Amherst) home in 1984. Her body was identified in 2012 as having been murdered shortly after her disappearance.

    I wonder if Mr. Scamurra took any 'secrets' about the fate of his daughter to his grave? Or if the house (in which he still lived) holds any secrets?

    Anyone have any relevant info?

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    Member, just out of curiosity, what ‘secrets’ might he have taken with him? Are you suggesting that he knew his daughter’s killer or some info that could help identify the killer? Please elaborate...I’m intrigued.

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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    Member, just out of curiosity, what ‘secrets’ might he have taken with him? Are you suggesting that he knew his daughter’s killer or some info that could help identify the killer? Please elaborate...I’m intrigued.
    At least to the casual observers that I've heard, there's been some interest in the seemingly uninterested outward bearing of the family (except the mother). Everything from a connection to the day-of-disappearance argument with a brother, to incest, to other similar stuff. There has been regular casual speculation that the family may have known more than what was said. That sentiment has been echoed in various general publication news accounts, too.

    I have no "official" idea whether or not the father knew anything at all. But I'd be hard pressed to think that he couldn't possibly have had some information.

    There's also been ambiguous references to the so-called "high profile" of the family. Frankly, I have not a clue as to what that means. To my mind a high profile WNY family is something akin to the Rich's, or the Gioia's, or the Wegman's. I'd not think of the Scamurra's as high profile. Who were they?

    In any case, the matter is still a cold case, and it'd be interesting to know if there's any developments since the last reports I've seen (years ago, now).
    Last edited by Member 2358; May 8th, 2018 at 04:51 PM.

  9. #54
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    Wendy's murder on Transit and Wehrle in Amherst NY– cold case

    How is this still not solved?

  10. #55
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    I bet there are countless murders over the years that no one really even knows about.

  11. #56
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    There are occasions when the police have a pretty good idea who committed the crime but they lack a solid enough case to go forward. If they go to trial and lose it’s the only bite at the apple. If I remember correctly, the cops had a pretty good idea of the identity of the bike path rapist but they couldn’t break the alibi given by someone who knew the perp until that person recanted. Wasn’t there a murder of a lawyer in his office on Sheridan Drive in Amherst in the 70’s that remains unsolved.

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