I'm Gina Barton. I'm the criminal justice investigative reporter here at the

Journal Sentinel. So for the past several years, really, and more intensely for the past several

months, I've been investigating the cold case homicide of John Zara, who was 14 years old when he

was murdered in 1976.

John Zira has lunch with some friends in the Franklin High School cafeteria.

Then, without telling anyone his intentions, he disappears.

That's from a WTMJ TV series about the case that aired in 1978. The boy will be missing for eight days. Police, family, neighbor's search and find nothing.

A reward is offered. The search widens and becomes increasingly frantic. But nothing is found.

Then the unlikely. Two boys taking a shortcut through Whitnell Park find John Z Zira, nude face down in the rocks and mud.

Police will say he's been molested and then bludgeon, perhaps with a large rock.

Almost four decades later, John's murder still hasn't been solved.

His family keeps hoping that maybe advances in technology, someone with a guilty conscience,

someday that they'll get an explanation for what happened.

And with this series, we're hoping to shut some light on the investigation.

There's a police detective that I had worked with on a previous story. And a long time ago,

probably back in 2009, he said, let me know when you want to write your next crime narrative.

He gave me the files on the John Zero case, all 6,000 pages of them. And so I spent a lot of time reading them back in 2009, 2010, and then kind of time got away from me.

I was doing other things.

And finally, now that the 40th anniversary of John's disappearance and murder is coming up,

I decided this would be a good time to go back at it.

Also back in 2009

was the first time that I talked to Mark Zera, who was John Zara's older brother. It still

...