Keystone Cold Cases

In this episode of Keystone Cold Cases, we examine the heartbreaking case of Bonnie Lou Dryfuse,her daughters Jacqueline and Heather, and their cousin Stephanie Herko, who were brutally murdered inside their Pulaski Township, Pennsylvania home on June 15, 1994. What initially appeared to be a robbery quickly became one of western Pennsylvania's most shocking homicide cases. We explore the investigation, the trials, conflicting theories, and the questions that continue to surround the murders decades later. Join us as we take a closer look at a case that left a community searching for answers and justice.

In the summer of 1978, someone got away with murder in Norristown, Pennsylvania. A carnival lit up the night. Music, laughter, bright lights—and by morning, a 17-year-old girl was found murdered, her body left in a local park. Investigators have long believed her death may be connected to the carnival she attended just hours before she was killed. Telling her story keeps her name alive. It ensures she is more than a headline, more than a cold case. This is the story of Norristown Area High School senior, Michele Evanik.

The murder of Jessica Freeman remains a haunting reminder of a life taken too soon. Years later, her case still raises painful questions and a call for justice that has yet to be answered. Remembering Jess means continuing to speak her name and hope for the truth to come to light.

Some stories refuse to stay quiet, not because they’re unsolved, but because too many pieces still feel painfully loud. On a cold, fog-heavy February morning in 2002, a burning Jeep on Pittsburgh’s North Side revealed something far worse than a vehicle fire. Inside was Jamie Lynn Stickle, a woman whose life had been built on connection, community, and visibility, and whose death would be labeled with a word that still haunts the people who loved her: undetermined. This is not just the story of how Jamie died. It’s the story of how someone so present could vanish into ambiguity, how evidence can speak while systems hesitate, and how a community has spent more than twenty years asking the same questions…. who did this, and why has no one been held accountable?

This week on KCC, we’re covering two heartbreaking and unrelated cases with one haunting similarity: both involve mothers who disappeared and were never seen again. We’ll be taking a closer look at the stories of Ada Jane Groomes and Jamie Peterson, and the mysteries that surround their disappearances.

Melissa Ortiz-Rodriguez was a 31-year-old mother of two from Collingdale, Pennsylvania, whose sudden disappearance in April 2013 left her family searching for answers. She was last seen preparing for a trip to visit a friend in New Jersey—but she never made it. As the days turned into years, troubling details emerged about her troubled marriage. Despite multiple investigations and public pleas for information, Melissa’s case remains unsolved, casting a long shadow over those still hoping for closure.