ABC News' Jenna Harrison contributed to this report. Then her mother made that call that every parent dreads and told police her daughter was missing, he said. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. A true-crime retelling of Linda O'Keefe's 1973 abduction & killing led police to James Alan Neal, ID'd through DNA as the primary suspect. Linda O'Keefe. "After all this time, finding out there is a face and a namejust brings additional closure.". Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? He was released on parole in July 1971, and about two years later, the authorities believed he killed Linda. for me personally. Neal moved to. Her image hung among the faces of other unsolved cases, reminding each. He has also accompanied police on undercover drug buys and also provided an award winning, eyewitness account of the execution of a North Carolina death row inmate. The next day she was found strangled, her. Neal, who was living at the YMCA in Santa Ana at the time, surrendered to police four days later and ratted out the other burglars. Spitzer lauded noted DNA investigator CeCe Moore for helping police develop a "pointer" toward Neal. O'Keefe's suspected killer, James Neal, who lived in Southern California in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado where he had been living, said Orange County District Attorney Todd . . So, if youre curious to know more about James and what happened to him after his arrest, weve got you covered. His earliest crimes were breaking into homes when he was around 12-years-old. 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James Neal, 73, was arrested last year in Monument for the 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda OKeefe in Newport Beach, California. 1966 probation report describes man suspected of killing 11-year-old ), First published on March 29, 2019 / 6:44 PM. As part of an effort to renew interest in the case, the Newport Beach Police Department used their Twitter account to recount the story of Lindas life, mysterious disappearance and death. But that day, she was dropped off. Photo Source. Neal told McMillan he was the second of three children, never got along with his siblings, rebelled against his parents and was an emotionally disturbed child. All my life up to this day has been going in circles, Neal said. Spitzer noted that the DNA lead police had obtained was wholly unrelated to the department's live-tweeting of O'Keefe's last day but said the exercise had served to revive the case in the public's mind. Watch: Aurora Dazzles Ladakh Skies As Geomagnetic Storm Hits Earth, This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. . Then in January, CeCe Moore of San Clemente, who heads Parabons genetic genealogy unit matched DNA evidence gathered in the OKeefe investigation to a sample provided to genealogy website FamilyTreeDNA.com leading authorities to identify Neal, now 72, as a suspect. The case stumped investigators for more than four decades before DNA evidence from the genealogical website FamilyTreeDNA tied Neal to the case. US Man James Neal Arrested After Police Tweet Re-Creation Of Girl The genealogical hit came in January, officials said. 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Her friend later told police a turquoise van stopped next to O'Keefe a few times as she walked. The child disappeared while walking home from summer school, and her body was found strangled in a ditch the next day. James Alan Neal, who was 73, was taken to an area hospital on May 25 due to an undisclosed illness, said Jaimee Blashaw of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. James Alan Neal, 72, was picked up in Colorado on Tuesday and charged with the murder of 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe in 1973. Colorado Man Pleads Not Guilty In California Cold Case Death Suspect Changed His Name After Lindas Death, Colo. 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Police were tight-lipped about exactly how they solved the case but said they received a lead in January that prompted them to begin investigating Neal, who had been living in Orange County at the time of O'Keefe's killing but had since moved to Colorado. The key moment arrived with the February 19, 2019 arrest of Neal in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Last year, 45 years after O'Keefe's body was found, police released these sketches of her suspected killer. His next court appearance is set for June 14. James Neal of Monument, Colorado also pleaded not guilty in an Orange County courtroom Friday to lewd and lascivious acts on two girls under the age of 14. She had been strangled. Investigators would later learn that the girl had last been seen at an intersection, talking to a stranger in a turquoise van. ORANGE COUNTY, Colo. (KKTV) - The suspect in a decades-old cold case died Wednesday while awaiting trial. Linda Ann O'Keefe cold case: Before James Neal's arrest, he had a James Neal, who was charged with sexually assaulting and killing Linda O'Keefe, died on Wednesday (Picture: AP) An man arrested for a series of cold case sex crimes against children died. "The tweets extend the period of time that Linda's story can be out there for people to relate to," Manzella said in July. McMillan went on to say that Neals father, who designed drugstores, and his mother, who was a bookkeeper, were described as extremely neurotic people who were both physically and psychologically cruel to their children. They are reported to be detached emotionally and narcissistic, he added. O'Keefe then called her mother from the school office, and her mother told her she was busy sewing and that she should walk home, police said. Newport Beach police released this undated image of Linda O'Keefe in an effort to get assistance from the public to help solve her murder in Southern California in July 1973. In August 1969, he was convicted of fraud in Denver and sentenced to three to 10 year at Colorados Territorial Correctional Facility. Prosecutors are considering seeking the death penalty against Neal. Emailus. James Alan Neal fell ill and died while awaiting trial for the . Linda Ann O'Keefe was the middle child in a family of five. IE 11 is not supported. "I never really thought that they would actually ever find the individual responsible," Cindy Borgeson, a sister of Linda OKeefe, told ABC News. Colorado man charged in 1973 Orange County cold case dies awaiting trial. Feb. 20, 2019. The community made sure that justice would be secured, he said. Photo Source. She makes a lot of my clothes, and my sisters clothes. Her body was found the next morning in a ditch in the area of Newport Beachs Back Bay. and opened doors for us to have this case pursued with renewed effort.". Investigators identified Neal as a suspect using genealogical DNA. But when night fell and her whereabouts were still unknown, her parents called police and desperately combed the neighborhood, to no avail. Man arrested in Monument for 1973 murder dies in custody He was being held at the Theo Lacy maximum-security jail in Orange. We will make sure that the defendant is fairly and justly held accountable in a court of law.". Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Photo Source. Although Linda died almost half a century ago, her family, the community and members of law enforcement never stopped thinking of her or hoping her killer would be brought to justice, Spitzer said. Through the tireless efforts of generations of our investigators, we hope we have been able to bring a measure of closure to Lindas family, friends, and loved ones., Orange County District AttorneyTodd Spitzerput Neals death in more bitter terms, saying the new development robbed the OKeefe family of the justice they so deserve and deprives the law enforcement officers of the satisfaction that they finally got their culprit.. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. James Neal, 72, who lived in Southern California and worked in construction in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado, where he had been living, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a Wednesday news conference. O'Keefe vanished in July of 1973 while walking home from summer school. Through genealogical DNA, though, investigators corroborated the DNA from O'Keefe's body and the DNA obtained from the suspect, according to Spitzer. Years later, the authorities developed a DNA profile from the biological evidence recovered from Linda, and that was eventually matched to James in January 2019. James Neal was arrested in February 2019 and charged with raping and killing Linda Ann OKeefe. Armed with DNA and a family tree, police arrested a Colorado man in connection to the 1973 slaying of a Southern California girl, authorities said Wednesday. Spitzer said a DNA sample was recovered from O'Keefe after her body was found and uploaded to a database, where it never matched others. Scott was part of the OC Registers investigative team that in 2017 produced the year-long, award winning Rehab Riviera series, examining problems in Southern Californias drug rehabilitation industry. We never gave up.. He was the second of three children but had a difficult upbringing. Cold Case Suspect In Newport Beach Child Death Dies Before Trial Linda O'Keefe murder: Police Twitter campaign helps lay a trap for the First tweet from Newport Beach Police Department. He said he was glad he had all that stuff behind him but never mentioned what he had done, Malecki recalled. Two years later, he began burglarizing homes for fun, according to McMillan. A day later, her body was found in a ditch, and she had been sexually assaulted. Police also urged the public to share details about O'Keefe's disappearance on social media with the hashtag #Lindastory. James Neal Now: Is Linda O'Keefe's Alleged Killer Dead or Alive? Update This undated booking photo provided by the El Paso County, Colo., Sheriff's Office shows James Neal. CBS 48 Hours: Lindas Story delves into the work put in to arrest James Neal in relation to Lindas rape and murder. "Just before midnight, 'a lady in the bluffs above Back Bay hears a female voice outside, screaming "Stop, you're hurting me," ' the police tweeted in O'Keefe's name. The 72-year-old Neal was extradited to California from Colorado after he was charged with murder in the death of 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe in the seaside community of Newport Beach. IE 11 is not supported. Last year, Spitzer said authorities used DNA thought to have been left by the killer and tracked down Neal using a public genealogy database. "Generations of investigators worked on her case. "That sample remained in the system for a long period of time," Spitzer said. Linda Ann O'Keefe was killed in July 1973 -- and decades went by without leads. Neal was taken to a hospital on May 25 for an illness. James Alan Neal, 72, of Monument, Colorado, who was arrested for allegedly murdering Linda O'Keefe in Newport Beach, California, in 1973. Her death would go unsolved for more than four decades. Taking advantage of the latest in crime-solving techniques, in January, Spitzer said, they received a pointer indication through genealogical DNA.. Nothing he said made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. For an optimal experience visit our site on . James was in and out of prison throughout his younger life, with arrest records in California, Florida, and Colorado between 1959 and 1974. The girl, whose body was found the next day, was strangled. Man charged with killing 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe in 1973 cold-case The investigation into the homicide remained cold for 45 years until Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs used DNA to identify Neal as a suspect in the killing, leading to his arrest last month in Colorado. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. Then, in 1974, he was sent back to prison in Colorado for a parole violation and released three years later. James lived in the area around the time and worked in construction. Anyone with additional information about the OKeefe case or who believes they may be a victim of Neal is asked to call the NBPD Cold Case Tip Line at 949-644-3669.. There is no record of Neal ever having been incarcerated in a California prison, according to state officials. Have a tip or story idea? To her familys horror, her dead body was found the next day in a ditch, still wearing the dress her mother had made for her. Parabon used the DNA from the crime scene to predict the suspect's eye color, hair color and skin color. As a result of that genealogical submission, they got an indication that James Alan Neal may be the suspect. "I had closure when they found her body," Borgeson said about the fateful day 46 years ago. Police and prosecutors in Southern California thanked the FBI, the Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriffs Department in Colorado for their assistance. Join our Fan Club to listen to this episode and more! It was our intention to see James Alan Neal stand trial and answer for the murder of Linda Ann OKeefe, Newport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis said. James Neal, 72, was arrested in Colorado Springs, Colo., and charged with murder with special circumstances in the death of Linda O'Keefe, who was found strangled in 1973, a case that has. Authorities suspect that Neal, while on parole in the Colorado case, snatched OKeefe, who lived in Corona del Mar, from the street on July 6, 1973, as she walked home from summer school. Neal was released from police custody on his own recognizance, fled California and was rearrested when he returned to the state on March 3, 1966. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced the arrest of James Alan Neal in the 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda Ann O'Keefe during a press conderence on Wednesday, February 20, 2019. This photo shows a poster of James Neal during a news conference at the Orange County District Attorney's office in Santa Ana, Calif., Feb. 20, 2019. Shortly after Lindas murder, investigators recovered DNA evidence from her remains, Spitzer said. A woman later told police she saw O'Keefe standing next to a turquoise van and talking to the driver -- a white man in his mid-20s or early 30s. "Our hearts go out to the victim and the victim's family in this case, having to endure decades without answers. Man Accused Of Killing Newport Beach Girl Nearly 50 Years - CBS News Its amazing how you really dont know people.. According to police, O'Keefe normally rode her bike to summer school. Through surveillance, a sample of Neal's DNA was obtained - one that ultimately matched a sample taken from O'Keefe's body in 1973. Now a Suspect Has Been Arrested, JonBent Ramsey's Father Is Optimistic DNA Advances Will Catch Daughter's Killer, Slams Boulder Police, DNA Taken from Truck's Door Handle in Washington Leads to Arrest 34 Years After Wisconsin Mom's Killing, Pa. He has not been able to relate well with other students, family members or inmates. Then, after he was paroled again in August 1963, he was arrested a year later for burglary and sentenced to nine months in the Orange County jail. James Neal was arrested in 2019 after DNA submitted to a genealogical website linked him to the crime. She doesn't know that I'm missing. Police hoped that retelling the girl's story through the modern-day medium would help people from a different generation form an emotional attachment to the case. He could be brought to California sometime this week if he waives extradition, Spitzer said. Neals extensive criminal history and the circumstances of the 1973 sexual assault and murder of 11-year-old Linda OKeefe lead law enforcement to seek potential additional victims and witnesses. He was always getting into fights and was always afraid to tell anyone how I really felt. . Their mother "carried that guilt the rest of her life," Borgeson said. He was transferred to a local. For more than 45 years the case went cold -- until DNA was submitted to an ancestry website. Her strangled body was found the next day. 48 Hours: Lindas Story delves into the work put in to arrest James Neal in relation to Lindas rape and murder. Linda Ann O'Keefe's killing in 1973 in Newport Beach, California went unsolved for more than four decades. Through the tireless efforts of generations of our investigators, we hope we have been able to bring a measure of closure to Lindas family, friends, and loved ones.. Scott Schwebke is an investigative reporter for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. Since April 2018, genetic genealogy has helped identify more than three dozen suspects, said CeCe Moore, chief genetic genealogist with Parabon NanoLabs.