Cold case investigators in the Lincoln County District Attorney’s Office trying to solve a 36-year-old homicide of a Newport teenager will be getting some extra help from the Oregon Department of Justice.
Investigators are trying to determine who killed 17-year-old Kelly Disney who went missing March 9, 1984. Someone picked her up about 1 o’clock that morning as she walked along Oregon Highway 20 just east of downtown Newport. She was never seen again; her skull was found 10 years later.
In an effort to stir up more interest in the case, her sister this past summer put up hundreds of signs and posters along Highway 20 and U.S. Highway 101, resulting in more calls to investigators and leads to follow. That prompted District Attorney Jonathan Cable and cold case investigator Linda Snow to seek additional help from the Department of Justice.
“It is helpful to have DOJ help us on the Disney case,” Cable said. “They have resources we do not, especially in organizing years of investigation and tracking down further leads. I am hopeful that they will help us finally solve it.”
The state will be providing manpower and technology to help track down people that the Lincoln County cold case team have been unable to contact, said Snow, one of the two county investigators.
“They have the resources to locate and track down people we have been unable to locate,” Snow told YachatsNews, which wrote about the case this fall. “It’s the push we needed. I think we have a really good chance of closing this case.”
