On the night of August 14, 1985, twenty-year-old Kristin O’Connell left a party in Ovid, NY to go for a walk. Two days later, her nude body was discovered near a cornfield along a rural county road; she had been stabbed in the chest and her throat was cut. The unsolved murder of Kristin O’Connell has baffled local New York investigators for decades. At the time of her murder, Kristin had traveled from Minnesota to New York to visit a young man she’d met a few months earlier while on Spring Break in Florida. According to witnesses, Kristin wasn’t wearing shoes when she left the party and she wasn’t carrying a purse. Several witnesses reported having seen Kristin walking that night between 11:30 pm and 12:15 am, when she was seen talking to one or possible two men in a car. Roughly ten minutes later, several people reported hearing a loud scream coming from the area where her body was discovered.In the decades since Kristin’s murder, police have interviewed dozens of witnesses and followed up on thousands of leads, yet the case remains no closer to being solved than it was in the days following the discovery of the body.Please sign the Petition to override the decision to not permit 'touch DNA' to potentially solve this cold case! visit https://www.change.org/p/family-demands-dna-testing-by-othram-labs-in-the-kristin-o-connell-cold-caseThank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAllen, Matha. 1985. "Slain woman's parents seek comfort from her letter." Star Tribune, August 18: 35.Associated Press. 1987. "Psychics seeking slues to 1985 murder in Ovid." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 22: 12.—. 2009. "DNA may solve '85 slaying." Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY), August 13: 1.Democrat and Chronicle . 1985. "Police ask help in Ovid murder." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 20: 11.Democrat and Chronicle. 1985. "Lab to test items from slaying." Democrat and Chronicle , August 19: 7.Ebert, Alex. 2009. "A Burnsville mother won't let her daughter's murder case go cold." Star Tribune, August 13.Gillis, Jackie. 2023. What happened to Kristin O'Connell? March 2. Accessed March 2, 2025. https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/local-news/what-happened-to-kristin-oconnell/.Lighty, Todd, and John Hartsock. 1985. "Brutal slaying shakes Seneca town." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 18: 1.Pfifer, Jim. 1996. "Police suspect imprisoned man for 1985 murder in Ovid." Star-Gazette, January 28: 1.Pittman, Mark. 1985. "Minn. woman found dead in Seneca." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 17: 1.Ritter, Carol. 1985. "4 deaths, few answers in Seneca." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 22: 14.—. 1986. "Parents on pilgrimage of grief." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 16: 1.—. 1985. "Slaying no longer the talk of Ovid, but investigation, reaction continue." Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), September 25: 11.Shaw, David. 2009. "Police seek help on cold case." Finger Lakes Times, August 13.—. 1986. "Kristin O'Connell's murderer thwarts police." Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), February 21: 1.—. 1986. "Murder case takes police out of state." Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), January 8: 14.—. 1985. "Cops place an ad in hunt for killer." Syracuse Herald-Journal, August 29: 1.—. 1985. "Police hope TV reenactment of killing will help solve case." Syracuse Herald-Journal, September 13: 15.—. 1985. "Slaying's legacy: a bounty and fear." Syracuse Herald-Journal, August 30: 95.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: How can you enjoy Morbid without ads?
Hey weirdos, Elena here. If you're looking to kick back and relax with Morbid, Wondery Plus is the way to go. It's like having a cozy seat in our haunted mansion. No ads, just you and early access to new episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. When a young woman named Desiree vanishes without a trace, the trail leads to Kat Torres, a charismatic influencer with millions of followers. But behind the glamorous posts and inspirational quotes, a sinister truth unravels. Binge all episodes of Don't Cross Kat early and ad-free on Wondery+.
Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid in the Morning.
We haven't done one of these in a little while. I know. I had a merch idea this morning, actually, when I was driving here. I was like, oh, I get to say that it's morbid in the morning. We should just do, like, a shirt that says, like, morbid in the morning. Like, maybe, like, embroidered on, like, the shirt with, like, a little coffee cup. Yes, bitch.
Yeah, that's how I pictured it, too. Yes.
I love that. Yay. We'll do that.
We'll do that someday, yeah. We'll do that. Someday.
I love that idea. Thank you.
I had a strange dream last night, and I don't remember the dream itself. This is going to sound so random, but I remember in the dream, someone was using PEMDAS to solve an equation. Oh, my God.
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Chapter 2: Who was Kristin O’Connell and what happened to her?
All right. Well, moving on into the case of the day. The case of the day. I have an unsolved case today, which really infuriates me because there's kind of no reason that this should be unsolved. Yeah. So this is the unsolved murder of Kristen O'Connell. So let's get into it. Kristen Marie O'Connell was born January 12th, 1965.
She was one of two kids born to Michael and Phyllis O'Connell, who raised her and her brother Kyle in Burnsville, Minnesota. According to Michael O'Connell, his daughter was a really fun, really easygoing, outgoing child. But he said she also had a very serious side. He said she was somewhat religious and had put a lot of thought into becoming a nun.
Oh, wow.
And you can find like some evidence of Kristen's faith throughout her early life. When her grandmother, who she was really, really close with, died in 1975, 10-year-old Kristen turned to her faith to help her kind of cope with this loss. In a letter written after her grandmother's death, she said, as she wrote, Death is a subject pushed aside, never talked about. I think it should be talked about.
It's a part of life. Some people die fast, others die young, some old. It all depends when God wants us with him.
Wow.
Which is like pretty fucking profound for a 10 year old. It is.
And if that like it sounds like it was like a comfort.
Yeah, exactly. Now, while Kristen would always take her faith pretty seriously, she was also in most respects a pretty typical Midwestern girl and a very ideal daughter for her parents. Her mother, Phyllis, told a reporter in 2023, we had a great relationship and she was she was the one all the boys wanted to marry. I just think it's so sweet.
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Chapter 3: Why did Kristin travel to New York?
For me, it's arming my SimpliSafe home security system. When I'm heading out every morning or I'm locking up each night, that simple step does more than just protect my family and my home. It gives me peace of mind. With SimpliSafe, I sleep more soundly and I leave the house with more confidence. It's really amazing how one small push of a button can have such a big impact.
I also sleep even better knowing that I got a panic button in my room.
so and that's from simply safe i can just hit that button and boom that alarm is going and somebody's going to come help us with simply safe millions of americans enjoy greater security and peace of mind every time they arm their system traditional security systems only take action after someone has already broken in and uh that's too late
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There is no safe like SimpliSafe. Initially, James told Kristen that she was going to stay at his parents' house where he also lived. So, like, very normal situation there. But when she arrived in Ovid, he told her that the plans had changed unexpectedly and that instead they were going to be staying in a trailer on his parents' property. Nah. So that would, like, freak me out a little bit.
Yeah, that would freak me out.
And I think she definitely... Sounds like she was a little put off by it.
Yeah, I feel like that would make your, like, flight or fight senses kind of kick in a bit. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So she was like, okay, like, sounds good. And she told her mom. And the change of plans was concerning for Phyllis, who believed her daughter would be staying in a home with adults present.
Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What led to Kristin feeling uncomfortable during her trip?
So they set out on foot to look around the area for her. And when she still hadn't been found by the following afternoon... James called the state police to report her missing. I'm sorry, what? So she goes out for a walk at around like a little after 11 p.m. She doesn't return by 1 a.m. They go out and look for her and they don't find her.
And then presumably everybody just goes to sleep and wakes up the next afternoon and then calls the police. That's weird. That is weird. That's weird to me. I'm sorry, I'm not... I'm not pointing fingers at anybody.
That's just weird. Objectively, that's fucking weird.
Yeah. Like if I'm at a party and it's not even like my friend, it's just like somebody at the party and I hear that they're missing and we go look for them and don't find them. When we don't find them, that's when we call the police.
Yeah, we say, okay, we got to call the cops now because everything's awry.
And there was plenty of people there that like at least one of them should have been like, hey, I think we should call the police and followed through with that decision. For sure. Yeah. So after receiving the very late report that Kristen O'Connell had gone missing, a search team of about 90 police officers and firefighters from four towns set out from the Vermeer's house to look for Kristen.
About 90 minutes later, the team found Kristen's body. She was not alive. They found her body about 300 yards into a cornfield along Route 139, which is a rural road about a quarter mile from the trailer where she'd last been seen. Ovid Fire Chief Robert Favreau said, I know that's what you go on searches to find, but this is an awful way to end it.
Usually when you go out on these things, you find out the person you're looking for is hundreds of miles away, but you never know till you find it.
That's awful.
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Chapter 5: How was Kristin O’Connell's body discovered?
shut possibly fuck up this scientist is said to have falsified data in multiple cases and then went on to falsify records to cover up that fake data i am speechless which like i'm why like why why you are fucking with people's lives just do your job phyllis said i mean my god this is an important job they're doing and how could they allow this and not be supervised properly it's just beyond me
Yeah. But what I will tell you is that there's a petition we are going to share on socials and in the show notes. And it surrounds all of the DNA testing in Christine's case. And it goes into more detail about the issues that the family has faced trying to get the DNA tested. Okay. And importantly, most importantly, is asking the New York State Health Commissioner to approve that lab.
Let's go, motherfucker. I'm going to share it and we are all going to sign the shit out of it.
Honestly, everyone annoy the shit out of them until they do this.
Yes.
Because like...
come on what are you doing come on like come on this literal dna like what are you doing and it's degrading the more it sits exactly it's like you're just waiting for it to degrade that's it well that's exactly it but also this specific lab like they're pioneers in this they are exactly like they know what they're doing with this so it's weird that you're not allowing them to even look at it while they're getting in like come on not even really giving a valid reason no
It's shady. And if you don't want to look shady, let them test it.
If you don't want to look shady, then let them do it.
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