Will Cigarette Solve Murder of Beloved Young Teacher?

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime, News

3.9 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

24-year-old Rita Curran is found violently murdered in her Burlington apartment. The second grade teacher had recently moved out of her parents' home to share an apartment with three other roommates. Curran was working over the summer break as a maid while taking graduate courses.

Curran turns down a dinner invitation from her roommates, planning to spent the night in. When the roommates return home, they hang out in the living room for a time. When they turn in for the night, that's when Curran's badly beaten body is discovered.

An intense investigation was launch, but no suspects were identified. For more than 50 years, the carefully preserved evidence offered no leads. Now, will new technology provide answers.

Joining Nancy Grace today:

Mary Campbell -Sister of Rita Curran gofundme.com/f/give-back-for-rita
Matthew T. Mangino- Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States"
Caryn Stark- Psychologist- Trauma and Crime expert- carynstark.com @carnpsych
Paul Szych [ZIKE]- Former Police Commander (Albuquerque, NM), APD Domestic Violence and Stalking Unit, Author: "Stop Him From KillingThem", StopHimFromKillingThem.com, Twitter: @WorkplaceThreat
CeCe Moore - Chief Genetic Genealogist, Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. Parabon.com, helped to solve Rita’s case
Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen- Professor of Forensic Pathology and Director of Autopsy and Forensic Services at the University of Michigan Medical School, former Medical Examiner in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Dave Mack- CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Nancy Grace here for our partners at Azure Standard America's premier supplier of organic foods
0:06.6	and over 12,000 healthful products. Founded by organic pioneer and farmer David Stelser,
0:14.0	Azure's goal is to provide healthy, affordable food that's organic, non-GMO, and free of harmful
0:21.3	chemicals. Go to azurestandard.com. Membership is always free and it's so easy to get started.
0:29.5	Thank you, azurestandard, for being our partner.
0:38.8	Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
0:46.0	How does a beautiful 24-year-old young second-grade teacher end up crumpled, partially nude,
0:57.2	and adores death just before her death? How does that happen?
1:04.8	And what does a cigarette butt have to do with this story?
1:10.7	I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
1:15.6	and Series XM111. First of all, take a listen to our friend, Dave Mac at crimeonline.com.
1:22.9	Beverly opened the bedroom door, saw that the room was in a state of disarray, and just behind
1:27.8	the door was the body of Rita Curran, partially nude, and crumpled on the floor. She'd obviously
1:33.6	been in the fight of her life and didn't win. Rita's curlers were still in her hair, but she had
1:39.0	been beaten in the head and face. Rita was dead. She had fought her attacker hard, and it was later
1:44.8	determined that she had been sexually assaulted. The medical examiner would find the cause of death
1:50.0	to be manual strangulation. Let's just take what we just heard from our friends at crimeonline.
1:56.3	Partially nude, the curlers still in her hair crumpled at a bedroom door, the room in complete
2:07.1	disarray, having been in the fight of her life, a fight that she lost right there off the top.
2:18.9	Let me go to Paul Zyke, a former police commander and albacurky author of Stop Him from killing them.
2:25.8	Paul Zyke right there. I know that she was attacked in her bedroom, in her home. She was either
2:34.0	partially enclosed, stripped by her killer, or she was caught changing clothes or getting in or out
	...

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