BUTLER, Ky. —

The family of Tara Turner, whose body was found in Snag Creek in 2016, joined police at a press conference Tuesday to bring new light to the case.

Turner was reported missing on Jan. 31, 2016, and her body was found 28 days later in the water near the boat dock.

The coroner did not determine a cause of death. The report said there were no obvious wounds and there were no opioids found in the blood toxicology screening.

The case has been listed as a death investigation while police continue to follow leads.

Kentucky State Trooper David Jones said detectives were following up on leads as recent as last week.

"This is still an open investigation," Jones said. "We're asking for any information leading to an arrest and a conviction."

Jessica Turner-Rapier, Tara's oldest sister, spoke at the press conference Tuesday also asking anyone with information to come forward.

"It doesn't matter how small you think it is, it could be important," Turner-Rapier said. "We'll continue doing this each and every year until justice is served for Tara."

Turner-Rapier said her sister was bubbly and carefree but first and foremost, she was a mother.

"She went missing on my dad's birthday and we knew she wouldn't just up and leave," Turner-Rapier said. "Myself and my family discuss what could've happened...we appreciate any information sent to us on Facebook, but the police need that information."

Family members mentioned potential suspects they thought could be involved in Tara's death however police did not confirm any of those leads on Tuesday.

"She was last seen in Campbell County on Route 10," Jones said.

Family members described Tara as loved by everyone, someone who could be best friends with anyone.

(Watch the full press conference in the video player below.)

"Tara lived in Pendleton County all her life. She was last seen in Campbell County supposedly meeting someone but to my knowledge, she was going towards Augusta," Turner-Rapier said.

Tara was found in the water exactly 28 days after she was reported missing, however, officials said she did not drown.

"You don't go swimming with your boots and coat on but your glasses are laying on the bank," her sister said.

The family is offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Turner-Rapier said the money has been collected by family and friends over the last seven years.

"We hold a memorial every year on Feb. 28," Turner-Rapier said.

Tara has three living children ages 19, 18 and 16. Another child died a few days after he was born several years ago.

Tara's daughters, Billie and Olivia spoke at the press conference this afternoon.

"This year me and my older brother are graduating. My little sister is doing phenomenally. My brother is having a baby soon, she should be here to see that. We hope she's proud of us," Billie said.

The family has created a Facebook page to raise awareness about the case.

"These people lost a mother, daughter and friend. They deserve closure and we pray for it. They're not going to stop," Tara's cousin, April Owens said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Kentucky State Police Post 6 at 859-428-8212.

AMSTERDAM —

A cold case team that combed through evidence for five years in a bid to unravel one of World War II's enduring mysteries has reached what it calls the "most likely scenario" of who betrayed Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family.

Their answer, outlined in a new book called "The Betrayal of Anne Frank A Cold Case Investigation," by Canadian academic and author Rosemary Sullivan, is that it could have been a prominent Jewish notary called Arnold van den Bergh, who disclosed the secret annex hiding place of the Frank family to German occupiers to save his own family from deportation and murder in Nazi concentration camps.

"We have investigated over 30 suspects in 20 different scenarios, leaving one scenario we like to refer to as the most likely scenario," said filmmaker Thijs Bayens, who had the idea to put together the cold case team, that was led by retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke, to forensically examine the evidence.

Bayens was quick to add that, "we don't have 100% certainty."

"There is no smoking gun because betrayal is circumstantial," Bayens told The Associated Press on Monday.

The Franks and four other Jews hid in the annex, reached by a secret staircase hidden behind a bookcase, from July 1942 until they were discovered in August 1944 and deported to concentration camps.

Only Anne's father, Otto Frank, survived the war. Anne and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Anne was 15.

The diary Anne wrote while in hiding was published after the war and became a symbol of hope and resilience that has been translated into dozens of languages and read by millions.

But the identity of the person who gave away the location of their hiding place has always remained a mystery, despite previous investigations.

The team's findings suggest that Otto Frank was one of the first to hear about the possible involvement of Van den Bergh, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Amsterdam.

A brief note, a typed copy of an anonymous tip delivered to Otto Frank after the war, names Van den Bergh, who died in 1950, as the person who informed German authorities in Amsterdam where to find the Frank family, the researchers say.

The note was an overlooked part of a decades-old Amsterdam police investigation that was reviewed by the team, which used artificial intelligence to analyze and draw links between archives around the world.

The Anne Frank House museum in the canal-side Amsterdam building that includes the secret annex welcomed the new research but said it also leaves questions unanswered. The museum gave the researchers access to its archives for the cold case project.

"No, I don't think we can say that a mystery has been solved now. I think it's an interesting theory that the team came up with," said museum director Ronald Leopold. "I think they come up with a lot of interesting information, but I also think there are still many missing pieces of the puzzle. And those pieces need to be further investigated in order to see how we can value this new theory."

Bayens said the hunt for the betrayer was also a way of looking for an explanation of how the horror of the Nazi occupation forced some members of a once close-knit Amsterdam community to turn on one another.

How did fascism bring people "to the desperate point of betraying each other, which is an awful, really awful situation?" he said.

"We went looking for a perpetrator and we found a victim," Bayens said.

A North Carolina man was arrested Thursday in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a 4-year-old girl in Lexington County, South Carolina, more than three decades ago, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Office.

Thomas Eric McDowell, 61, has been charged with murder, kidnapping and first-degree burglary in the disappearance and death of Jessica Gutierrez.

Gutierrez disappeared from her home sometime after 11:30 p.m. on June 5, 1986, according to a missing person poster distributed by the sheriff's office and the FBI.

Authorities later identified McDowell's fingerprint, according to a redacted arrest warrant. It's unclear where authorities found the fingerprint or when it was identified as belonging to McDowell.

In the same warrant, authorities said McDowell was later identified in a photo lineup, and he told other people he had kidnapped and killed the girl.

The sheriff's office said the girl was never seen again, and her body was never found.

Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said after taking "a fresh look at the case" last year, special agents from the FBI and the state prosecutor's office visited the area. South Carolina law enforcement agents helped interview more than 125 people. A video featuring an emotional interview with Jessica's mother, Debra, was also circulated when the case was reopened.

But it's unclear what development in the case led to McDowell's arrest, and a spokesperson for the sheriff, who provided the arrest warrants and other information, didn't supply an answer to this question when pressed by CNN.

"If you're not safe at home, where are you going to be safe?" asked the girl's mother, Debra Gutierrez, in an interview last year with law enforcement officials. The mother said she "had mental breakdowns" following her daughter's disappearance.

McDowell was living in Lexington County in 1986. The Wake Forest Police Department arrested him at his home Thursday morning, about 20 miles north of Raleigh. He is being held in the Wake County Detention Center, according to the sheriff's office, which also said the case will be prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General's Office.

CNN has contacted the South Carolina Attorney General's Office for additional information and is awaiting comment.

At a hearing Friday afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina, McDowell, represented by a public defender, was ordered held without bond until he is extradited to South Carolina.

Authorities in South Carolina have charged a North Carolina man with the kidnapping and murder of a child from 35 years ago.

The Lexington County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post that they arrested 61-year-old Thomas Eric McDowell in connection to the disappearance and death of 4-year-old Jessica Gutierrez.

Gutierrez went missing in June 1986.

McDowell, who lived in Lexington County at the time, was arrested Thursday at his home near Raleigh, North Carolina, by the Wake Forest Police Department.

Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said his department, alongside the FBI and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, began sifting through 3,500 case file pages in September.

"Because of the work we did, coming together as a team, we were able to sort and connect more pieces of the puzzle about what happened to Jessica all those years ago," Koon said in the news release.

Koon added that 10 FBI field offices participated in re-examining the cold case.

"Regardless of how long a child is missing, we will never stop searching for answers, and we hope that this arrest is a step toward healing for the Gutierrez family," FBI Columbia Special Agent in Charge Susan Ferensic said.

Koon said the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office would prosecute the case.

CHICAGO, Ill. — On the west side of Chicago, Damon Lamar Reed shows off a portion of his "Still Searching" portrait project.

"I was kind of oblivious to this stuff, and when I started doing research and finding out things, it was really shocking," he said. "I just wanted to do something."

He’s using his talent to draw more eyes to the dozens and dozens of unsolved cases of missing and murdered Black women that have plagued the south and west sides of Chicago for decades. It's an issue many may not have heard of outside of those neighborhoods.

"We're one of the biggest cities in the United States. Not only should this be a priority for our police department, but this should be national, international news," said Nikki Patin.

Patin is the community director for the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, one of the local organizations that have been sounding the alarm about what’s happening in the city.

Since 2001, at least 75 women, ages 15 to 58, mostly Black, who were missing were eventually found murdered in similar ways: most died of strangulation. Their bodies were found in alleys, dumpsters and abandoned buildings around the south and west sides of Chicago. Fifty- one of those murders are unsolved.

"The problem is that in most places, I think that would trigger somebody saying, 'Hmm, there's a pattern,'" said Patin, "but as far as I know, on like a major media level, there's not been a lot of discussion."

Advocates like Patin say the reason so many of these women and their families haven’t received justice is because of the color of their skin and the neighborhoods they come from. She says instead of seeing someone who needs to be found, many assume that Black women and girls who go missing led dangerous lives and put themselves in harm's way.

"That's why you choose to live in a civil society, right? Because you are paying into a system that hopefully has your best interests at heart, and I think that, especially in the cases of missing and murdered Black women, it's heartbreakingly clear that, that is not applied to all of us," she said.

Last year, 250,000 women went missing and 100,000 were women of color. On average, African Americans remain missing four times longer than white Americans. The highly-publicized Gabby Petito case threw into the spotlight the disparities in media coverage that missing women of color receive compared to missing white women. It's a statistic that Gabby’s father even brought up to the media himself.

"There's something wrong. and it's an American tragedy, " said Rev. Robin Hood.

Rev. Hood is a pastor in Chicago’s west side. As an ambassador for his own community, he’s been working with the families of many missing and murdered women. Recently, he’s been helping the family of Shawteiya Smith, who was murdered four years ago. It was recently found that DNA evidence from her case vanished in the hands of detectives.

"We have to protect all our women, all our girls, all our children, we have to protect and we have to demand this from a public official and law enforcement."

Natalie Wilson is the founder of Black and Missing Foundation. With her public relations background, she works with families whose loved ones don't get media coverage. She hopes that both reporters and folks from white communities help in the search for missing women everywhere.

"Media coverage is so vital because it alerts the community that someone is missing and it can greater the chance of the recovery, but it also puts pressure on law enforcement to add resources to the case," said Wilson.

Advocates in Chicago are doing what they can, but to find as many women as possible they say they need everyone – media, law enforcement and the public – to join their efforts.

"This is not a problem that Black women and girls are going to solve by themselves, nor should they," said Nikki Patin. "This should be, you know, of all efforts, this should be a group effort."

CINCINNATI — For years, cards keeping the names of murder victims alive were placed inside the Justice Center to help solve cold cases. Now, one mother is calling on Hamilton County's sheriff to reconsider removing the cards she calls a security risk.

Hope Dudley, CEO of U Can Speak For Me, said the playing cards were more than just a novelty deck. Her son was killed in 2009, and the cards represent families who are seeking closure and searching for answers.

"'See something, say something' cards [are] very important to mothers like me who have victims that have been murdered in cold cases," Dudley said.

The cards were placed in jails and other public locations, but were recently removed from Hamilton County's jail. In a statement, Sheriff Charmaine McGuffy said she supports Dudley and her organization, but said the jail has experienced multiple incidents of inmates compromising cell locks using playing cards — something McGuffy said has cost the administration more than $40,000 to repair.

Because of this, the jail discontinued any playing cards due to a security risk, with McGuffy stating "I will not compromise the safety of our officers and the prisoners, nor will I spend taxpayer money on something we can prevent."

Dudley says the decision is unfair, pointing to cases solved with the cards inside the facility — and she's not alone. Among those who protested Saturday for the cards to stay was former Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil.

"These cold cases were solved because of our use of the playing cards," Neil said. "Anything can be construed as a security hazard, security just needs to adapt and overcome — we've done it from day one."

The cards are still in other law enforcement facilities, like Butler County's.

"This is the only facility," Dudley said. "When I called the other facilities, they said no, so I don't understand."

Authorities say a woman's skeletal remains were identified 44 years after her murder.

According to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, the woman long known to investigators as "Escatawpa Jane Doe," has been identified as Clara Birdlong.

Birdlong was found in 1977 at a Mississippi construction site and investigators believe she was a victim of the most prolific killer in U.S. history, the late Samuel Little.

The department said hunters found Birdlong's remains near a highway in Jackson County on Dec. 27, 1977. She was a short Black woman with a distinctive front gold tooth and probably wore a wig.

Officials say she was discovered about three or four months after she was killed.

Authorities said throughout the years, "several facial reconstructions and computer composites were created in an effort to help identify her."

A breakthrough came in January 2021 when authorities in Mississippi contracted a Texas DNA research facility to create a family tree based off Birdlong's DNA. They then traced it to a cousin in Mississippi, who connected them to her 93-year-old grandmother.

The grandmother told investigators that her cousin was born around 1933 and went missing from Leflore County sometime in the 1970’s.

"Another distant cousin in Texas said Clara went by the nickname “Nuttin,” and described her as a small woman who had a gold front tooth and wore a wig," the sheriff's department said. "The cousin also recalled Clara disappeared in the 1970’s."

In August, a woman in LeFlore County who remembered Birdlong told investigators that the victim the county in the 70’s with a Black man "who claimed to be passing through Mississippi on his way to Florida."

Birdlong was never seen or heard from again, investigators said.

In September, investigators confirmed that Birdlong's DNA matched that of the grandmother.

The sheriff's department considers Little to be the prime suspect.

Her cause of death is undetermined.

CONCORD, N.H. — It's impossible to comprehend a family's pain in the wake of a murder, and even more so when the search for justice goes quiet.

It's been nearly three years since Trish Haynes’ body was found in a washing machine. The case has gone from cold to frigid, but ahead of the third anniversary of police finding her, her family is on a mission to find any leads that might finally bring them closure.

“Who would ever think that you're going to deal with a murder in your own family?” said Trish’s great aunt, Valorie Haynes-Alvarez. She sits at her kitchen table looking through photos of the great-niece she likened to her own granddaughter.

As she sifts through memories of shopping trips and days full of smiles, she is haunted by the horrific end of Haynes' life.

“She did not deserve any of this,” said Haynes-Alvarez.

In 2017, Haynes was living in Florida with her grandmother, Sandy.

In early 2018, Haynes left Florida and came to New Hampshire for a court date. She was hoping to close a tough chapter of her past, one of domestic violence and abuse.

“She was trusting, too trusting,” said Haynes-Alvarez of Haynes' relationships. “She always looked for love in the wrong places.”

“Trish had a good life, but it definitely it was a little rough,” said Haynes' friend, Chloe French. “At times, she tended to overlook the bad in people."

Haynes-Alvarez said she begged Haynes to stay in Florida and to try and handle the legal proceedings from home.

“I said, ‘Don't go back up there,’” said Haynes-Alvarez.

But, her great aunt said Haynes insisted, saying, “'I want to go back and make it right. I don't want this hanging over my head.'”

Haynes wasn’t planning to stay in New Hampshire for long, so she lived with friends.

“She really had no place to stay,” said her great aunt.

Haynes eventually moved in with an old high school acquaintance, and that’s when her family thinks trouble began. Haynes stopped communicating regularly, worrying her grandmother and family.

“We don't know what happened,” said French.

May 16, 2018, was the last time Haynes spoke to her family.

“She kind of checked in, told her grandmother she loved her, and then said, ‘I got to go,’” recalled French.

Months later, a tip led investigators to a pond outside of Grafton, New Hampshire.

Haynes' remains were found inside a washer and dryer at the bottom of the pond.

“I don't care who you are. You don't deserve to die alone like that,” said French.

“People don't just end up dismembered in a washer and dryer in a pond. Someone put them there,” she said.

The family says what’s happened since this heinous crime leaves them in pain every day.

“Not only have there been no arrests but there's no communication from investigators or detectives, nothing,” said French. “It's frustrating to think that in a small city, in a small state, someone could be killed and disposed of in such an awful way and nothing is done."

To help spread the word about the case, French started a Facebook page. It now has 4,000 followers.

Both French and Haynes-Alvarez both are holding out hope someone will come forward to the police with enough information to make an arrest.

“The more exposure that we've gotten, the more people that have come forward,” said French. “I don't think that this case will die out. I won't let this case go cold.”

And it's true; people actually can help. Shows, podcasts and social media accounts discussing about murder cases have exploded in popularity over the last year, and the public has helped solve a handful of those cases that up until now had gone completely cold.

That’s why Haynes' family is getting out in the community to talk about her case even more. This September, they’re holding a rally to mark the anniversary of the day she was found.

“We're not going away,” said Haynes-Alvarez. “We’re here for the long haul.”

We asked the New Hampshire Department of Safety to talk about the case, but they wouldn’t comment on an active investigation.

“To me, it feels like they just kind of want us to forget about it and move on,” said French. “I'm not going to let that happen.”

Even though answers won’t bring back the bright-eyed young woman with dreams of a better future, answers could help her family and her friends move forward.

“My hope is that people remember that they remember that Trish was a person, that she was a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend, a cousin, and most importantly, I want people to remember that nothing has been done about it yet. I don't want this to be another cold case,” said French.

“I've already come to terms with the fact that Trish is gone,” said Haynes-Alvarez. “My faith in God knows that she has a hope, but what hope does the rest of anybody in humanity, here in the state of New Hampshire have, if they can't put these people behind bars and get them off the street?"

The rally for Haynes will be held on September 4, 2021, at noon at the State Capitol building in Concord, New Hampshire.

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. —

Sonia Carmen Herok Stone was found dead in her California home on Oct. 15, 1981. Forty years later, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office has found her killer.

Stone, 30 years old at the time, was a single mother, living alone with her young daughter. She worked for the Levi Strauss Company at the time of her death.

The Sheriff's Office identified a suspect, Michael Scott Glazebrook, who was 25 years old at the time and Stone’s neighbor. The case went to trial in 1983 and resulted in a hung jury. As a result, The District Attorney’s Office decided not to retry the case.

In 2020, detectives at the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy District Attorney Matt L’Heureux re-examined the Stone case. They discovered that there were several pieces of evidence in the case file that could be tested using modern DNA technology. The items were sent to the Department of Justice DNA lab for testing. Detectives also got a search warrant for a new sample of Glazebrook’s DNA. They said they were able to obtain a new DNA profile easily because Glazebrook still lives and works in Monterey County.

Earlier this month, the Sheriff's Office was informed that evidence from the Stone crime scene was a match to Glazebrook’s DNA profile.

On Saturday night, detectives conducted surveillance at Glazebrook’s residence in the City of Seaside. At about 8 p.m., he drove away from his home. Glazebrook was stopped and taken into custody without incident. The now 65-year-old suspect was booked into the Monterey County Jail on a warrant for murder and his bail was set at $1 million. In honor of Stone, all detectives wore Levi's jeans during the operation to arrest Glazebrook.

SAN PEDRO, Calif. — A man named Paul Flores was taken into custody Tuesday morning in San Pedro, California, in connection with the disappearance and murder of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

During a press conference, Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Paul Flores was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail just after noon Tuesday on a single charge of murder.

Sheriff Parkinson said Flores would possibly be arraigned on Thursday.

Paul's father, Ruben Flores, was also taken into custody at around the same time at his home in Arroyo Grande, California.

He was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail shortly after 9:30 a.m. on a single charge of being an accessory after the fact.

Sheriff Parkinson said his bail had been set at $250,000.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's officials also served another search warrant at the Arroyo Grande property Tuesday morning.

KSBY reached out to Paul Flores's attorney, Robert Sanger. He told the TV station that he does not comment on pending cases.

Smart was a freshman at Cal Poly when she disappeared back in 1996. According to witnesses, she was last seen with fellow student Paul Flores after leaving an off-campus fraternity party in San Luis Obispo and walking back to her dorm.

Early on in the investigation, Flores was identified as a person of interest in Smart’s disappearance. For the first time just last month, sheriff’s officials referred to him as the “prime suspect” in the case.

That revelation came as sheriff’s investigators served a search warrant at the Arroyo Grande home of Flores’s father, Ruben Flores. At around 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, multiple unmarked law enforcement vehicles were again spotted outside Ruben's home. Officials at the scene told KSBY they are serving another search warrant.

Detectives spent two days, March 15 and 16, searching the property on White Court using cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar and digging in several spots outside the house. They also hauled away an old Volkswagen.

Sheriff Parkinson said during the press conference on Tuesday that law enforcement found physical evidence at two homes. Sheriff Parkinson would not disclose what evidence found nor which two homes the evidence was found at.

It was the third search targeting Paul Flores and his family in just over a year. In February 2020, his parents' and sister’s homes were searched on the same day detectives searched Paul’s home in San Pedro. Digital devices were reportedly seized. In April 2020, the San Pedro property was searched a second time.

In February of this year, Paul was arrested on a weapons charge that sheriff’s officials said resulted from information obtained during the 2020 searches.

May 25, 2021, marks 25 years since Kristin’s disappearance. While her body has never been found, she was declared legally dead on May 25, 2002. She would have been 44 years old this past February.

Sheriff Parkinson said Kristin's body has yet to be found, but investigators will now pivot the investigation to search for remains.

This story was originally published by staff at KSBY.