It is Cold Case Tuesday and the New York State Police are continuing to investigate and remind people of a 48 year old unsolved crime, with the death of an Oneida Castle woman in 1973.
21-year old Martha Louise Allen was reported missing from her home on Ninth Street in Oneida Castle, NY on July 26, 1973.
Allen’s grandfather, whom she lived with then, reported her missing and told police at the time that he had last seen her the day before, on July 25 at approximately 8:30AM, when he left the home to go to the Syracuse area for the day.
Police say a few weeks later on August 17, 1973 a boater on Black Creek in the area of Verona Beach State Park found a partially decomposed body in the water that was later identified as Martha L. Allen.
I always will remember the head.
About 25 years ago I walked into the barracks at Troop A on West Saile Drive, there to interview members of the Forensic Identification Unit.
These were the guys they sent out whenever there was a murder in the vast nine-county region that is Troop A.
A crack team of investigators.
I barely recall the interview or the subsequent story that I wrote.
The vivid memory I do have of that day is seeing the head.
It sat on a filing cabinet, a model of a young womanâs head with a mop of dirty blonde hair that fell in wisps over her face.