On August 14, 1985, twenty-year-old Minnesota college student Kristin O'Connell traveled to Ovid, NY, a small town in the Finger Lakes to visit a young man she met on Captiva Island over Spring Break. The day after she arrived, Kristin called her mother from a payphone and told her she was cutting her trip very short and planned to leave for home the following day. That same night, Kristin disappeared.

Thirteen hours later, the young man she came to visit would report her missing to law enforcement. He alleged that at around 11:30 the night before, Kristin left his trailer to take a walk alone down an unlit road, in an unfamiliar town, without shoes or a purse. A team of local firemen would find Kristin's rain-soaked naked body on August 16th in a nearby cornfield, less than a quarter of a mile away from the trailer where she was staying. Kristin had been stabbed multiple times, and her throat had been slashed. Testing would prove her body was free of alcohol at the time of her death, and the coroner would find no signs of sexual assault.

The Investigation

State Police have long asserted that Kristin's murder was a crime of opportunity committed by a random stranger passing through town. Rumors have persisted for over three decades in the small town where Kristin was murdered that her death was not a crime of opportunity. Some claim to know precisely what happened to Kristin and who is responsible for her murder.   In the thirty-nine years since Kristin's death, despite their efforts, State Police have not made a single arrest in connection with her murder.

In 2010, the victim's mother, Phyllis O'Connell learned from the office of the New York Inspector General that a forensic scientist who was the center of an evidence falsification case may have worked on the original evidence.

The State Inspector General's report said Garry Veeder falsified data in dozens of cases and falsified records to conceal his fraudulent work. Phyllis O'Connell hopes he didn't compromise any evidence from the original investigation. "In 1985 he did the initial evidence," said O'Connell. "I don't know how many items but anything to do with cloth because that's what he handled."

"I mean my god - this is an important job they're doing there and how could they allow this and not be supervised properly? It's just beyond me," said O'Connell.

O'Connell says the Inspector General's report is just another reason why she wants the evidence in this case tested by an outside lab that is unaffiliated with the NYS crime lab.  At that time NYS senator Mike Nozzolio, Senator Chuck Schumer, and MN Senator Amy Klobuchar supported the efforts of  DA Barry Porsch and NYS Police Investigator Jeff Arnold to use new touch DNA technology offered by a Dutch team of touch DNA experts. This request was denied by the NYS Commissioner of Health, Howard Zucker.

In 2021, a proposal was made to NYS Police for a team of esteemed investigators to work alongside NYS police to review the case, create a profile, follow leads, and interview or interrogate potential suspects. This team offered to test all the physical evidence in the case through a non-profit forensics lab based in Salt Lake City at no cost to the citizens of New York or Seneca County. This offer was declined by NYS Police. The prior District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz has never returned a phone call or responded to an email from the victim's mother. 

Today

Othram Labs in Houston, Texas has applied to be considered as a DNA testing lab for the State of NY via the NYS Commissioner. We await the decision of the NYS Health Commissioner, James V. McDonald M.D., M.P.H

We URGE the NYS Commissioner of Health to process Othram Labs' application- Many families and cold cases are waiting for the advanced testing capabilities that Othram can provide.

To learn more about Kristin's unsolved homicide case, visit her case profile on solvethecase.org here.

Please support out other petition to create “Kristin's law” in New York State  https://www.change.org/EndColdCaseBacklogNY