Kristin O’Connell Unsolved Homicide Case

“She was my daughter, and they’re not going to kill my daughter and walk away,” Phyllis O’Connell

Phyllis O’Connell, the mother of Kristin O’Connell, a college student from Minnesota who was murdered in Ovid, NY in August 1985, has been fighting for justice for her daughter for over 37 years. Kristin had traveled to Ovid to visit a man she had met during Spring Break, but disappeared the day after she called her mother to inform her that she was cutting her trip short. The man reported her missing to law enforcement thirteen hours later, and Kristin’s naked body was discovered in a nearby cornfield two days later. An autopsy revealed that Kristin had been stabbed multiple times and her throat had been slashed, but toxicology testing showed no alcohol in her system, and there were no signs of sexual assault.

Authorities have maintained that Kristin’s murder was a crime of opportunity committed by a random stranger passing through a small rural town, but rumors have circulated for over three decades that suggest otherwise. Despite efforts by State Police, no arrests have been made in connection with her murder. In 2009, a request to retest evidence was denied by the NYS commissioner of health, and in 2021, an offer by a team of esteemed investigators to work alongside NYS Police to review the case, create a profile, follow leads, and interview potential suspects and test all the physical evidence in the case at no cost to the citizens of New York State or Seneca County was declined. District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz has not responded to Phyllis O’Connell’s attempts to reach out for information about her daughter’s case.

Ovid, NY

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