FL: Police Need Publics Help In Trying To Solve Murder With Link To State Of N.H...
Slimpickins
Florida Officials Investigate Possible N.H. Link in Mystery
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 23, 2001
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Authorities in Florida are hoping someone in New
Hampshire will give them enough information to solve a 17-year-old mystery.
In 1984, 15-year-old Colleen Orsborn, disappeared in Daytona Beach, Fla.
In February, her brother got an anonymous letter postmarked in Manchester
from someone who said he had killed the girl. The letter gave directions to
where the body was allegedly left and the writer begged for forgiveness. The
author said he is dying from cirrhosis of the liver.
Now authorities in Florida have written back, in an open letter, asking for
more details. They say the writer wasn't specific enough about where the
body might be and police don't know where to search.
"I killed your beloved Colleen nearly 15 years ago," the letter, postmarked
Feb. 21, said. "For that I can only beg your forgiveness, I can only attempt
to make amends buy disclosing to you were her innocent little body is."
The misspellings in the letter were those of the author, The Union Leader of
Manchester reported Monday.
The author describes an area along the Tomaka River in Daytona Beach where
he claims to have dumped the girl's body and clothes.
"Please Prey for me like I prey for you and her," the letter ends.
It is signed only with a fishlike mark similar to the Christian symbol for
Christ.
Police in Florida said they were surprised by the letter.
"I said, 'God, this is unbelievable,'" said Larry Lewis, a retired Daytona
Beach police detective who investigated Orsborn's disappearance. "You think
of all the places somebody could have sent a letter from, and it's New
Hampshire."
For years, Orsborn's family had thought that serial killer Christopher
Wilder may have been involved in the girl's disappearance. Wilder was killed
in Colebrook on April 13, 1984, in a struggle with a New Hampshire state
trooper.
The millionaire land developer and race car driver had tortured 11 women -
three of whom survived - in a coast-to-coast killing spree that started in
Florida two months before his death.
But Orsborn's family believe the letter is legitimate.
"This person knew too much," said Colleen's brother, 47-year-old Bruce
Orsborn. "He knew some things about her - stuff that wasn't in the flyers.
That she was petite and everything."
Orsborn said the letter brought back some painful memories.
"We would like to put a closure to it and find out what's going on. If
somebody is playing a game, it's kind of a sick game," he said.
The envelope containing the letter was addressed to Bruce Orsborn, while the
letter was written "to the parent/family member of Colleen Orsborn."
"What we're hoping is. . .this guy will come forward if he really wants to
make amends," said Detective William Barry of the Hillsborough County
Sheriffs Office.
Lewis acknowledged the author may not be Orsborn's killer, and instead could
have learned of the disappearance by talking to Wilder when Wilder passed
through New Hampshire.
AP-ES-07-23-01 0820EDT
Patty
Writer apologizes for murder:
Letter rekindles Volusia investigation
By HENRY FREDERICK (henry.f...@news-jrnl.com)
Staff Writer
News Journal (Daytona Beach FL)
DAYTONA BEACH -- Seventeen years have passed since 15-year-old Colleen Emily
Orsborn was reported missing and presumed dead at the hands of a serial killer
who sexually tortured his victims.
Earlier this year, though, her family received an anonymous letter from someone
claiming responsibility for her death.
The letter, postmarked Feb. 21 from a Manchester, N.H., post office and mailed
to Colleen's brother, Bruce Orsborn, was written by someone claiming to be dying
of cirrhosis of the liver and who killed her and dumped the body in the Tomoka
River.
Orsborn said Monday he was stunned when the letter came in the mail.
"It brought back a lot of memories," the 47-year-old resident said of his
sister, who would be 32 years old now if she is, in fact, alive.
"We all thought she was dead. No, she's not alive, she can't be, or she would
have contacted us. We have family members all over the country."
The letter, riddled with misspellings, is handwritten with some type of felt tip
pen. The author does not identify him -- or herself.
"I killed your beloved Colleen nearly 15 years ago," a portion of the letter
states. "For that I can only beg your forgiveness, I can only attempt to make
amends buy disclosing to you were her innocent little body is."
Though the family and local authorities have known about the letter since
February, the media in Central Florida didn't learn about it until Monday when
The Associated Press ran a story on its wires about law enforcement efforts here
to contact the letter writer in New Hampshire.
Volusia County sheriff's investigators wrote an open letter to the unknown
person, which was published Monday in The Union Leader newspaper in Manchester,
N.H.
Sheriff's investigators acknowledged later Monday they bypassed the local media
in favor of the New Hampshire newspaper as part of the "strategy" in their
investigation to try and find the letter writer to get a more exact location of
the body. They said the area the writer referred to covers eight square miles.
Before a news conference with the local media, Volusia County sheriff's
spokesman Gary Davidson said, "We've been working with New Hampshire authorities
since February in an effort to identify the author of the letter. So far these
efforts have been unsuccessful. That's why we decided to make a public plea
through the news media in New Hampshire."
Colleen's family and even authorities believed she likely was killed by a serial
killer, Christopher Wilder, who was killed in Cole Brook, N.H., on April 13,
1984, in a struggle with a state trooper.
Authorities believed Wilder may have been responsible for the girl's
disappearance since he was spotted in Daytona Beach the same day Colleen was
reported missing March 15, 1984.
The case has remained open as a "missing person's" case because authorities had
no hard leads tying Wilder to Colleen's disappearance.
The letter's author describes an area along the Tomoka River in Daytona Beach
where he claims to have dumped the girl's body and clothes -- possibly near
Interstate 4.
"Please Prey for me like I prey for you and her," the letter ends.
It is signed only with a fishlike mark similar to the Christian symbol for
Christ.
Sheriff's investigators said they were surprised by the letter. They would not
comment on what efforts, if any, they've made to search the area described by
the letter writer.
"I said, God, this is unbelievable,' " said Larry Lewis, a retired Daytona Beach
police detective who investigated Orsborn's disappearance.
"You think of all the places somebody could have sent a letter from, and it's
New Hampshire," said Lewis, who now works for the Volusia County Sheriff's
Office.
For years, Orsborn's family had thought Wilder may have been involved in the
girl's disappearance, based on previous law enforcement reports.
Wilder, a millionaire land developer and race car driver, tortured 11 women --
three of whom survived -- in a coast-to-coast killing spree that started in
Florida two months before his death.
Orsborn's family -- two older brothers and two olders sisters -- however,
believe the letter is legitimate.
"This person knew too much," Bruce Orsborn said. "He knew some things about her
-- stuff that wasn't in the fliers. That she was petite and everything."
Orsborn said the letter opens a lot of wounds that were slowly healing.
"We would like to put a closure to it and find out what's going on. If somebody
is playing a game, it's kind of a sick game," he said.
His sister, Henrietta Vail, 38, of Palm Coast, said their parents died not
knowing with certainty Colleen's fate.
Her disappearance was especially hard on her mother, Frances, who lost four
other children to illness before they reached their first birthday and had three
miscarriages, all before Colleen's birth.
"Every time she sent a birthday or Christmas card, she always signed Colleen's
name on it," said Vail. "She always had that hope and then she died in 1989
without really knowing."
Staff Writers Michael Giusti and Kendra Willeby and The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Transcript
This is the entire letter, as written, that Bruce Orsborn received in February
from Manchester, N.H.
To the Parent/Family member of Colleen Orsborn:
I write you beacause I am dying of cyrosis of the liver. I killed your beloved
Colleen nearly 15 years ago. For that I can only beg your forgiveness, I can
only attempt to make ammends buy disclosing to you were her innocent little body
is:
I remember it was in the "Tomaka River" along 415, It was about a mile or so
from the route 4 over-pass, I also remember I dumped her close in a Black Trash
bag about 100 ft from the body.
Please Prey for me
Like I Prey for you
and her.