james neal linda o'keefe
Newport Beach police said last year they were taking a fresh look at the slaying of Linda O'Keefe, who lived in the Corona del Mar neighborhood and was last seen alive July 6, 1973, as she walked home from summer school. Investigators would later learn that the girl had last been seen at an intersection, talking to a stranger in a turquoise van. Have a tip or story idea? They dont understand me or why I am the way I am. James Neal, 72, who lived in Southern California and worked in construction in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado, where he had been living, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a Wednesday news conference. She had been strangled and was still wearing a blue-and-white floral print dress that her mother had sewn for her. "My hope is that this [case] brings hope to other families who haven't had closure yet.". When O'Keefe didn't return home right away, there was little concern at first. Their mother "carried that guilt the rest of her life," Borgeson said. The DNA sample from her dress was entered into the CODIS system in 2001 but came up empty, he said. But she added that she was thankful for the "additional closure" brought to her by the investigators who never gave up, as well as the new technology, which made it possible to process the crime scene DNA. and opened doors for us to have this case pursued with renewed effort.". Neal appears gaunt and stoic in a black-and white prison photo. O'Keefe's suspected killer, James Neal, who lived in Southern California in the 1970s, was arrested this week in Colorado where he had been living, said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who was 12 himself at the time of the murder, at a Wednesday news conference. James Neal, 72, was arrested in Colorado Springs, Colo., and charged with murder with special circumstances in the death of Linda O'Keefe, who was found strangled in 1973, a case that has long shaken the seaside community of Newport Beach, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. James Alan Neal, 73, was an inmate at the maximum-security Theo Lacy jail in Orange for the 1973 sexual assault and strangling death of Linda O'Keefe, 11.