Featured Image Credit: Broward Sheriff's Office
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News, Science
Mia Williams
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News, Science
Nearly half a century after two best friends were murdered, detectives have finally identified their killer using DNA - turns out he could be a serial killer.
In June 1975, Barbara Schreiber and Darlene Zetterower, were assaulted and shot to death at just 14-years-old.
The pair were described as 'inseparable' and were hanging out on a bench on a busy street in their neighbourhood at the time of the murder, located in Hollywood, Florida.
The girls were apparently used to hitchhiking, so when a white van pulled up, they got inside.
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Getting into the van was the very last time the girls were ever seen alive.
The next day, a man fishing with his family found their bodies on the outskirts of the Everglades, in an area called 'Andytown.'
Over many decades, the Broward Sheriff’s Office dedicated their time to finding the killer of the innocent teenagers, but the case proved to be extremely difficult to solve.
Homicide, the detective who worked on the case, Andrew Gianino, said: “For two 14-year-old girls to be murdered in such a way, it’s just sad.
“There’s just no other way to explain it.
“Senseless, actually.”
Setting up to retire last year, Gianino couldn't leave the sheriff's office with a case as brutal as this one still left unsolved all these years later.
The forensics team tested Darlene’s clothing from the day of the attack, and developed a DNA profile of the suspect.
This profile proved to be a game changer in the case, and the man in question was revealed to be Robert Clark Keebler.
A man who had been jailed in the past for sexual assault, to name just one of his crimes, but had died in 2019.
Detective Gianino said that: “Keebler’s history included armed robbery, sexual assault, aggravated assault from California to South Florida.”
Although it is difficult to construct a narrative from 48 years ago, the team are now trying to work out how Keebler's path would have crossed with the 14-year-old girls.
The team are also trying to look into any possible links between the killer and several other women who were murdered in the same location at a similar time.
Gianino continued in his statement: “If anybody remembers Darlene and Barbara, anything about them, anything about what occurred in June of 1975, associations, friendships, I ask them to give us a call. It may mean nothing to them but everything to us.”