Oldest Cold Case FINALLY SOLVED in 2022 | Nancy Marie Case

Well, Sacramento County’s oldest cold case has finally been solved 52 years later after a county court reporter was murdered. Authorities say they know who the suspected killer is. On the night of 25th October, 1970, while the city was sleeping, something sinister was happening in the bedroom of Nancy Marie Benallack’s apartment in Sacramento, California.

When Nancy failed to show up work the next day, a coworker asked her son to look out for her in the apartment. So, he went there and convinced the apartment manager to open the door of Nancy’s apartment. When they both went inside, they saw Nancy Marie’s dead body covered in blood. What evil foreshadowed the apartment on that fateful night? Who could have cold-heartedly killed this innocent and bright young woman?

Welcome back to Mysterious Hook, where we shed light on under-the-radar cases across the country. My name is Matt, and today we are looking at the oldest cold case solved in 2022. So, let’s walk on the edge of the mystery without any further ado. Sacramento, the state capital of California, is a perfect blend of culture and business. Located at the convergence of the Sacramento River and the American River, this farm-to-fork capital holds a decent population.

The greenery around Sacramento is a relief considering the heat in California. It is one of the best places to live in the United States. However, it wasn’t the safest place for Nancy Benallack on the fateful night of October 25th, 1970. The night brought a cloud of darkness into the Benallack family by turning their world upside down.

Nancy Marie Benallack was born on June 13th, 1942 in Nevada, California. Around 1970, 28-year-old Nancy was living with her cat in an apartment complex on Arden Way, Bell Street in Sacramento. Apartment number 17 is where Nancy lived, and it was a beautiful second-story apartment. She was working as a court reporter in the Sacramento District Court.

Now, we do not have much information about Nancy’s family, but she did have a sister Linda who loved, adored, and pampered Nancy all the time. The fall of October 1970 was the happiest time for Nancy. She was happily engaged to her fiance, Ferris Ensalomi. Salomi, being the chief public defender in the Sacramento District Court, the same courthouse where Nancy worked, was well settled in his life.

Set to marry just after a month on November 28th, 1970, this happy couple was spending a lot of time together during this time. One fateful October night, Nancy Bennallack and Ferris Salomi went out for dinner. After spending the evening together, they returned to Nancy’s apartment and chatted for some time.

Once Nancy fell asleep, Salomi decided to go to his own home. The clock showed 11:30 p.m. when Salomi left the Bell Street apartment. He left the sliding glass door open just a bit so that Nancy’s cat could go in and out overnight. It was Nancy’s habit which he simply just followed that night.

Never in his mind had the thought occurred that that was the last time he would see his fiance. But indeed, it was the last time that anybody ever saw Nancy Marie Bennallack alive. Eventually, co-workers grew worried when Nancy did not show up for work on the morning of October 26, 1970. It was unlike her to not show up without any notice beforehand.

Nancy’s co-worker and friend, Yoella Moncrief, called her son Jack to go to her apartment and check on her. He knocked on the door repeatedly, but no one answered. That was when panic started, and Jack rushed to the building manager for help. Initially, the manager was hesitant, but after narrating the situation, Jack was able to convince the manager to open the door of Nancy’s apartment.

With a passkey, the manager opened the door, and they both went inside to witness the gruesome scene that they would not forget for the rest of their lives. Inside the bedroom of Nancy Bennallack’s second-story Bell Street apartment, a horrific crime scene was waiting for Jack and the apartment manager as they entered. Nancy was lying dead in her bed in a pool of her blood, brutally stabbed to death.

She had stab wounds all over her body, including many defensive wounds on her arms. She was assaulted so horrifically that her head was nearly decapitated. Authorities were alerted immediately, and they arrived a few minutes later. Blood was everywhere at the crime scene, but no fingerprints were found inside the apartment, which indicated that the murderer had probably worn tape on his fingers to avoid fingerprints, as gloves were not as easily available in the 1970s.

A blood trail was discovered by the authorities to run from the second-story balcony down to the sidewalk below. It didn’t end there. It followed the sidewalk to two other apartment buildings and ended in the parking lot. Investigators at the time believe that the murderer escaped the parking lot in a vehicle.

The blood trail indicated that the murderer probably sustained knife wounds. Nancy’s body was taken to the medical examiner’s office for closer inspection. They had concluded that Nancy had more than 30 stab wounds all over her body. Investigators believe that Nancy was murdered between midnight of the 25th of October and the early hours of October 26, 1970.

No suspects were ever identified even after interviewing over 500 people within a month of the murder. Despite the blood evidence, there were not many leads to go on. Nancy had no known enemies and no one knew who could have done such brutality to her. The motive was unclear, but crime scene reconstruction pointed out how the suspect got entry into her apartment.

Investigators believe that the suspect was an agile person who climbed up the second-story balcony and entered Nancy’s room through the slightly open door while she was sleeping. Also, a lot of defensive wounds were found on Nancy’s arms and hands proving that she gave a hell of a fight before going down. Perhaps that was how the killer was injured during the assault which caused him to leave the blood trail behind.

In the 1970s, as technology was not as advanced as it is today, they could only determine someone’s blood group from the blood left at the crime scene. But with no reliable evidence and no leads to go on, the case went cold. Of course, there were a few actions taken throughout the years, but families and friends had to wait for decades before the murder was finally solved.

During the investigation, detectives found a shocking piece of news that earlier in the same year when Nancy was murdered, another woman named Judith Hakari was also killed in the same area. Detectives found many similarities between them. Both women were around the same age, lived just a mile away from each other, and were soon to be married.

For many years, detectives believed there was a connection between the two murders. It was speculated that both women were the victims of the infamous Zodiac Killer, but there was never any physical evidence to prove it. Sadly, till now, Judith Hakari’s murder remains unsolved. In 2004, a DNA profile was developed from the blood collected from the crime scene and was uploaded to the state and national CODIS databases, but it yielded no matches with any offender’s profile.

Nobody could stop the case from turning cold. All the while, the family was mourning the loss of Nancy. 15 years later, in November of 2019, detectives from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Cold Case Team and investigators from the District Attorney’s Office launched a forensic genetic genealogy investigation using the same technology that was employed to identify the notorious Golden State Killer.

The DNA profile was uploaded on the open-source genealogy website to find people who could be related to the suspect, which the detectives eventually did. It took 3 more years for a result to come out, and finally, on July 21st, 2022, the murderer of 28-year-old Nancy Marie Ben Allick was identified as Richard John Davis.

All the while, time was passing these past 50 years, science was evolving. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert stated in the media, referring to the decades-old case. Richard John Davis was born on March 22nd, 1943. At the time of committing the crime, he was 27 years old, and while living in the same apartment complex as Nancy.

While Nancy lived in apartment number 17, Davis lived in number 23. They were on opposite ends of a pool. Nancy’s apartment could be seen across the pool from Davis’s apartment. In a press conference referring to the motive of the murder, retired detective Mickey Links said that Richard Davis intended to do what he did that day.

He broke into Nancy’s apartment on the night of the murder by climbing the balcony. He put masking tape over every one of his fingers to conceal fingerprints, so premeditation was there. Though no one could say for sure, detectives took a guess that Richard might have had a crush on his neighbor Nancy and killed her after learning about her marriage.

Schubert was informed that out of the 500 people interviewed by the Sheriff’s Office in the first month following the murder, Davis and his roommate were also present. However, they both provided strong alibis for each other. Davis had no prior convictions except for a driving under the influence charge.

That was probably the reason why there was no DNA match in the CODIS database at the initial stages of the investigation. Nancy’s family had lost hope that this case would ever be solved as did Mr. Salami, Nancy’s then fiance. Indeed, after 52 long years, the oldest cold case in Sacramento County was finally solved in 2022.

Ferris Salami could never see this long-awaited day as he died of leukemia at the age of 84 on February 2nd, 2014. “Nancy was never forgotten,” Schubert said to reporters. “As I told Linda and Tom, she was always at the top of the list.” at the Sheriff’s Office and our office and the crime lab and so many other folks as Nancy’s sister, Linda Cox, and her husband, Tom Cox, listened to her speech while being seated beside her at the press conference.

The perpetrator, Richard Davis, however, would elude justice as he died on November 2nd, 1997 at the age of 54 due to illness as a result of alcoholism. Mickey Links told the reporters that if the killer was alive, he would have been charged with premeditated murder. About the serial killer evading justice, Mickey Links regretted stating, “Sadly, there won’t be any form of legal justice, but Linda and Tom, I hope this brings you, Nancy, and your family some peace.

” In a signed statement, Linda Cox stated that she remembers her sister, “After almost 52 years of missing my sister, we owe Mickey Links so much gratitude. How many times have my husband, Tom, and I said Nancy would have loved our ranch, all our animals and land with wide open spaces. We have missed sharing our children and grandchildren so much more.

Unfortunately, Nancy’s family never got to see the man who took their dear one’s life behind bars. Although he evaded mortal punishment, we can only hope that he had to answer for his crimes to a higher power. But in the end, Nancy’s family made amends with the closure they got.

Do you think if not for forensic DNA technology, would this crime have ever been solved? Let us know in the comment section what your insight is into this tragic case. Thank you for joining us on today’s story, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more captivating true crime stories like this. Stay tuned for more episodes.