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On September 22, 1981, 13-year-old Heather Porter went missing from her Halethorpe home; the next day, a man walking his dog found her body. No one was ever charged with her murder, but Towson police are trying to bring fresh attention to the case, in hopes that new details might emerge.

While decades-old murders are incredibly difficult to solve–evidence is often missing or destroyed; people’s memories have grown fuzzy–the internet has proven to be a useful tool for police and others who are preoccupied with cold cases. Networks of online sleuths comb over old documents and occasionally make connections and answer questions. Circulating images or information online might jog someone’s memory or reveal an important clue.

Baltimore County police have recently enlisted the public’s help for another cold case: the 1996 murder of Towson student Joann “Jody” LeCournu, who was shot in the back of her head in the parking lot of the Drumcastle Shopping Center. For that case, police have released crime scene photos that have never before been made public, in hopes that they’ll help reveal information that might lead to an arrest. Read more about LeCournu’s case here.