# Solved Cold Cases With Absolutely Disturbing Twists

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 25 Sep 2025, 23 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO7186707253.mp3

Join me as we discuss solved cold cases with shocking twists. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 forensic science cold cases, doe case identification, unidentified remains solved, genetic genealogy cold cases, forensic breakthroughs in mysteries, solving john doe cases, jane doe forensic science, unidentified bodies identified, cold cases solved 2025, forensic genealogy success stories, missing persons solved by DNA, cold case identifications, forensic anthropology cold cases, doe cases forensic breakthroughs, unidentified remains solved by DNA, cold cases closed with forensics, forensic genealogy cold case files, mysteries solved with DNA, unidentified victims identified, forensic technology cold cases, john doe identified by DNA, jane doe identification 2025, solved unidentified persons, forensic DNA cold case investigations, unidentified cold cases solved, genetic genealogy identifications, forensic science mystery solutions, solving missing persons with DNA, forensic case breakthroughs, unidentified victims solved with science

## Transcript

[0:00] Just days before Christmas in 1990, two 25 year old Christie
[0:04] MARAC was getting ready to start her day as a teacher at a
[0:08] Lancaster County, Pennsylvania elementary school.
[0:12] She had carefully wrapped Christmas presents for her
[0:14] students and was about to leave her apartment, but she never
[0:18] made it to work that day. When Christie didn't show up for
[0:22] class on the morning of December 21st, 1992, her concerned
[0:27] principal drove to her home. There, he found a nightmare
[0:31] scene. Christie's front door was ajar,
[0:35] and she lay on her living room floor amid signs of a brutal
[0:38] struggle. The Christmas gifts she'd
[0:41] prepared for her students were scattered around her, a
[0:44] heartbreaking detail that underscored the cruelty of the
[0:47] crime. Little did anyone know at the
[0:50] time that the perpetrator of this vile act would be someone
[0:53] who was routinely LED into elementary schools for decades.
[1:00] On that December morning, she left home wearing her winter
[1:02] coat and gloves, apparently headed to school, when an
[1:06] attacker forced their way in and overpowered her.
[1:10] The assault was shockingly swift and brazen, occurring roughly
[1:14] between 7:00 and 7:20 that morning, just a few minutes
[1:18] after Christie's roommate left for work.
[1:21] Police concluded the attacker struck in that narrow window and
[1:24] may have been watching Christie and knew her routine.
[1:27] They theorized that he was in essence stalking her and had a
[1:31] number of data points on her so he could orchestrate this brutal
[1:34] crime. Despite the violence of the
[1:39] crime, the perpetrator left surprisingly little forensic
[1:42] evidence beyond the usual biological material associated
[1:46] with an indecent assault. This profile was entered into
[1:49] the newly formed national database, but in the early
[1:53] 1990s, those systems were extremely limited, and it
[1:56] produced no match. Meanwhile, detectives explored
[2:00] every potential lead. Christie's personal life was
[2:04] scrutinized. She had recently broken off a
[2:07] relationship with an older man about 20 years her senior, known
[2:11] by the nickname Dagger. However, Dagger was soon cleared
[2:18] and he had an airtight alibi hundreds of miles away at the
[2:21] time of the attack and even volunteered Adna Sample.
[2:26] Despite his somewhat dark moniker, he was as helpful as he
[2:29] could possibly be, and he was fully cleared.
[2:33] Investigators also looked into other possibilities, even
[2:37] questioning the school principal who had found her.
[2:41] His intense personal concern about the situation was
[2:43] apparently viewed as suspicious by the investigators, which I
[2:47] find a bit unusual. But hey, I'm not a cop.
[2:51] Personally, if I found one of my employees dead, you're damn
[2:55] right I'd be intensely concerned about what happened to him or
[2:58] her. The principal appeared to have a
[3:01] valid alibi, having gotten to school early that morning, but
[3:05] the cop still had him submit ADNA test and he was eventually
[3:09] completely cleared. And I know some of you are going
[3:12] to accuse me of Monday morning quarterbacking in the comments,
[3:16] but genetic tests were an arduous and expensive process in
[3:20] 92. Seems like a questionable use of
[3:24] investigative resources to me, to say the least.
[3:29] Witnesses recalled seeing a mysterious white car near
[3:33] Christie's home that morning, but at the time, it wasn't
[3:36] enough to identify a suspect. With each suspect eliminated and
[3:40] every tip ending in a dead end, frustration grew.
[3:45] Months turned into years with no arrest, and eventually the case
[3:49] went cold. A breakthrough finally came more
[3:54] than 25 years later, thanks to persistence and a revolutionary
[3:58] DNA technique. In 2015, Lancaster County's
[4:03] District Attorney's office took a fresh look at Christie's case
[4:07] and assigned a new prosecutor. This new prosecutor had been
[4:11] interested in her case since she was in high school when it
[4:14] happened 25 years previous. She pored over the old case
[4:18] files for months, determined to finally crack the mystery.
[4:23] Detectives re examined every piece of evidence that had sat
[4:26] dormant. They decided to enlist outside
[4:29] help from Parabon Nanolabs, a company specializing in cutting
[4:33] edge DNA analysis. Using the preserved DNA sample
[4:37] from the crime scene, Parabon performed a process called DNA
[4:41] phenotyping. This process predicts the
[4:44] physical traits of the unknown subject from his genetic code.
[4:48] However, no definitive suspect emerged from this effort.
[4:53] And yeah, you heard me. I just said unknown subject like
[4:56] I'm on Criminal Minds here or something.
[5:01] In early 2018, Parabon analysts uploaded the DNA profile of the
[5:06] perpetrator to a public database, and it produced hits
[5:10] on several distant relatives of the unknown perpetrator.
[5:13] If you're a regular viewer of any of my channels, you already
[5:17] know this little process is called forensic genetic
[5:20] genealogy. By methodically building family
[5:23] trees from these matches, the genealogists zeroed in on one
[5:28] name that had never come up in the investigation.
[5:32] This was Raymond Roe. But this guy who had caused a
[5:35] disturbing cold case, was somewhat ironically better known
[5:39] to his fans as DJ Freeze. Roe was a well known local disc
[5:46] jockey, A seemingly unlikely suspect who had been hiding in
[5:50] plain sight in the community. And you won't believe where he
[5:53] was when the cops got the evidence to clap him in cuffs,
[5:57] but I'll come to that very shortly.
[6:01] In 1992 he was 24 years old and lived a few miles from
[6:06] Christie's home. He had no prior connection to
[6:10] the case and was never on investigators radar before, but
[6:14] the genetic genealogy research suggested that Roe's family tree
[6:18] intersected with the DNA from the crime scene, making him a
[6:21] strong viable suspect. In fact, detectives later
[6:26] revealed that one of Roe's relatives, his half sister, had
[6:29] uploaded her DNA to a genealogy database.
[6:33] Presumably she wanted to know if she could authentically wear
[6:36] that Kiss Me I'm Irish shirt on Saint Patty's Day or drink
[6:41] deeply from a beer Stein. Police discreetly trailed Roe to
[6:47] obtain a definitive DNA sample without tipping him off.
[6:50] In a weird twist, on May 31st, 2018, undercover investigators
[6:56] watched Roe as he worked as a DJ at an elementary school event
[7:00] and managed to collect items he discarded.
[7:03] Two of these items were a water bottle and some chewed up gum.
[7:07] The forensic lab tested these items and found that Roe's DNA
[7:11] profile matched perfectly with the DNA recovered from Christie
[7:14] Merrack's body. On June 25th, 2018, nearly 26
[7:22] years after Christie's slaying, police arrested 49 year old
[7:25] Raymond Roe at his Lancaster home and charged him with the
[7:28] crime. The news of an arrest after so
[7:32] many years stunned the community.
[7:34] Roe had spent decades building a life as a popular local
[7:37] entertainer who was even trusted to put on shows for kids.
[7:42] To those who knew him, it was shocking that this familiar
[7:45] figure, a husband and father by then, could be accused of such a
[7:51] heinous act. Roe initially denied any
[7:54] involvement, but the weight of the evidence was overwhelming.
[7:58] As investigators dug deeper, they found more clues linking
[8:02] Roe to the crime. Back in 1992, Roe drove a white
[8:07] Toyota sedan, which matched the description of the unknown car
[8:11] seen by witnesses near Christie's home on the morning
[8:14] of the ACT. He also lived about four miles
[8:18] from Mirac's residence, and the route between his home and
[8:21] workplace at the time likely took him right past her
[8:25] neighborhood. Facing overwhelming evidence,
[8:29] Roe chose to avoid a trial. In January 2019, 27 years after
[8:36] the crime. He agreed to plead guilty in the
[8:38] first degree and in exchange, the state agreed not to give him
[8:43] the big DP. He offered a brief apology to
[8:47] Christie's family, saying he could not imagine what pain he
[8:50] had caused them. Roe, who was 50 years old at the
[8:55] time of his plea, stood before a judge to receive his sentence.
[9:01] Roe was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility
[9:05] of parole, plus an additional 60 to 120 years for the indecent
[9:10] assault and related charges. This ensured that he will spend
[9:14] the rest of his life, plus maybe a couple more lives behind bars.
[9:20] For Christie's family, the courtroom hearing was a mix of
[9:22] sorrow and relief. Christie's brother, Vince MARAC,
[9:27] spoke in court about how the attack had shattered their
[9:30] family's sense of security and destroyed their joy for the
[9:33] holidays permanently. He mentioned Christmas, this
[9:38] time of family togetherness, would only ever be a time of
[9:41] mourning and sorrow for his family.
[9:46] One lingering mystery remains. And that's why Roe committed
[9:50] this horrific crime. He never provided any motive or
[9:54] explanation, and prosecutors were unsure whether Roe had
[9:58] known Christie or if she was chosen at random.
[10:02] This lack of answers has haunted Christie's family and friends,
[10:06] who may never learn what drove him to take her life personally.
[10:11] Given the tight window of time in which he pulled off this
[10:13] crime, I subscribe to the theory that he was stalking Christie.
[10:19] Of course, ultimately, this still doesn't answer the
[10:21] question of why Christie was chosen for stalking to begin
[10:24] with, since they don't appear to have known each other Now, I bet
[10:30] you think that this is where the case ends, but you'd be wrong.
[10:35] Even after conviction, where Roe fully admitted to what he did,
[10:39] he tried to change his story. In 2021, he attempted to
[10:44] withdraw his guilty plea, suddenly claiming he was
[10:47] innocent and that someone else eliminated Christie after he
[10:51] left. In essence, he's now claiming
[10:54] that he had a consensual relationship with Christie,
[10:57] which, given what he openly admitted in court to doing to
[11:00] her, is absolutely disgusting. He even sought new DNA testing
[11:07] on Christie's clothing, but a judge rejected this request,
[11:10] calling Rose revised account. Unbelievable, given the
[11:13] evidence. But again, there's still more to
[11:16] the story. And in August 2025, the
[11:19] Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the lower court's
[11:22] decision. Because of this decision, there
[11:25] will now be additional forensic testing on Christie's clothing.
[11:29] And this ongoing saga continues. Despite the ongoing appeals,
[11:35] this former DJ remains frozen for the rest of his life in
[11:38] prison. Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here
[11:45] reminding you to take a moment to subscribe and hit the
[11:47] notification bell and also turn on all notifications.
[11:52] Also, there's a new feature that you might be unaware of called
[11:56] Hype, which allows viewers to increase the visibility of the
[12:00] video. So don't forget to hit that Hype
[12:03] button as well. There's probably some other
[12:06] buttons I forgot to beg you to hit, but hey, we're running long
[12:09] here and there's still more content to come.
[12:16] In May 1998, a foul odor in a San Francisco apartment building
[12:21] led to a chilling discovery. Police entered a unit in the
[12:25] city's Diamond Heights neighborhood on May 20th and
[12:28] found the decomposing body of 36 year old Lisa Valdez on the
[12:32] floor. Just four days earlier, Lisa had
[12:36] been alive and well, hosting a small dinner gathering at her
[12:39] home for family and friends. Now she was dead, stabbed more
[12:44] than 20 times in a brutal attack, and her assailant had
[12:48] vanished without a trace. Lisa Valdez was a 36 year old
[12:54] software analyst living in San Francisco's Diamond Heights
[12:58] District. She was known as a vibrant,
[13:01] outgoing person who loved to dance and cherished her friends
[13:04] and family. Friends described Lisa as
[13:08] energetic and fiercely loyal, the type who would do anything
[13:11] for those she loved. By all accounts, Lisa had a
[13:15] bright future ahead of her, a future that would be tragically
[13:18] cut short in the spring of 1998. The scene inside Lisa's
[13:25] apartment revealed the horrific violence of the crime.
[13:29] Her body was found lying on the bedroom floor in a state of
[13:31] advance decomposition, with her legs sprawled and her shirt
[13:35] pulled up over her head. She had been stabbed 21 times in
[13:39] the upper body and face, and her hands bore defensive wounds,
[13:44] clear evidence that Lisa fought desperately for her life.
[13:48] Blood was splattered across her bedding, indicating a frenzied
[13:52] struggle, and tellingly, Lisa's long hair had been cut off.
[13:57] Investigators believe the attacker took those shorn locks
[14:00] as a twisted trophy, perhaps to relive the disgusting act in the
[14:05] future. Because of the body's condition,
[14:08] authorities couldn't determine if Lisa had been indecently
[14:11] assaulted. However, as you're about to see,
[14:15] the assailant lingered perhaps for a very significant period of
[14:19] time. So ultimately, they assumed this
[14:22] was one of the motivations for the crime.
[14:26] San Francisco police work to piece together what happened
[14:29] during Lisa's final hours. The last confirmed sighting of
[14:33] her was on May 16th, 1998, when she hosted a dinner party at her
[14:39] condo for her mother and a few guests.
[14:42] Everything seemed normal as her mother left around midnight.
[14:46] Shortly after, at about 1:30 AM on May 17th, a neighbor heard a
[14:51] loud thud and the sound of someone running down the stairs.
[14:56] That same weekend, Lisa failed to show up for a dance class she
[15:00] regularly attended, an early sign that something was wrong.
[15:06] Disturbingly, Lisa's housekeeper unwittingly walked into the
[15:10] aftermath of the slaying on May 18th, letting herself in as
[15:14] usual, the housekeeper very briefly saw Lisa lying on the
[15:18] floor and even heard a man's voice inside the apartment.
[15:23] Thinking she had stumbled upon a private moment between Lisa and
[15:27] a boyfriend, she quickly left. She wouldn't realize until later
[15:32] she had likely just come face to face with the perp while her
[15:35] employer lay dead. When the odor of decomposition
[15:39] grew strong two days later, the building manager investigated
[15:43] and called police, leading to the grim discovery of Lisa's
[15:47] body. Detectives found a few clues at
[15:52] the crime scene, but they raised as many questions as answers.
[15:56] A pair of partial fingerprints was recovered from the underside
[15:59] of Lisa's toilet seat, and two used bandages were floating in
[16:03] the toilet bowl. These odd items hinted that the
[16:07] perp might have cut himself during the attack and attempted
[16:10] some cleanup before fleeing. Investigators also collected
[16:14] blood evidence that didn't belong to Lisa.
[16:17] These droplets on a pillow and door frame pointed to an unknown
[16:21] male suspect who may have been injured in the struggle.
[16:25] Forensic experts extracted adna profile from this blood, hoping
[16:28] for a match in the database. But in the late 1990s, DNA
[16:33] testing was limited and CODIS, the national database of
[16:37] offenders, existed, but only in a very limited form.
[16:43] With no database hits. Investigators turned to Lisa's
[16:47] circle of acquaintances and did some good old fashioned
[16:50] detective work. They interviewed friends,
[16:53] neighbors, Co workers and recent romantic prospects.
[16:58] Basically anyone who might have had a reason to harm her.
[17:01] One colleague who had a crush on Lisa and another man she had
[17:05] planned to first date with were both considered early on, but
[17:09] each offered their DNA and were cleared quickly.
[17:13] By the one year anniversary of Lisa's death, the trail had gone
[17:17] cold, and slowly but surely, Lisa's case slipped into the
[17:22] archives of the cold case files. In 2011, thirteen years after
[17:29] the senseless act, a breakthrough finally came.
[17:33] One crime lab supervisor, Pam Hofsass, had never forgotten
[17:37] Lisa's case, and she had kept testing the evidence, hoping
[17:42] that new technology might one day yield a match.
[17:45] Her persistence paid off in September 2011 when a fresh DNA
[17:50] search yielded A stunning result.
[17:53] The DNA from the crime scene matched a profile in the now
[17:56] much more robust national database, giving investigators a
[18:00] name. The genetic evidence identified
[18:03] Anthony Quinn Hughes, a 52 year old man living in San Francisco,
[18:08] as the responsible party. Hughes had never been on the
[18:12] original suspect list, though he was an old acquaintance of
[18:15] Lisa's from years past. At last, detectives knew who had
[18:22] done this to Lisa, but the question of why remained an
[18:25] unresolved mystery. Interestingly, Hughes had
[18:29] managed to avoid detection for over a decade, even though
[18:32] during those years he was arrested for other crimes like
[18:35] burglary and theft. However, despite these felony
[18:39] arrests, these crimes never led to his genetic information being
[18:43] taken and entered into CODIS. It would actually all change
[18:47] with an extremely minor arrest. Hughes was involved in a
[18:51] shoplifting incident and the authorities took ADNA sample.
[18:56] I don't know what he got caught stealing, but I like to imagine
[18:59] it was something absurd and pointless.
[19:02] Maybe a shopping cart full of Ding Dongs and Ho Hos.
[19:08] Armed with this genetic evidence, officers moved quickly
[19:11] to clap him in cuffs. They soon spotted Hughes on a
[19:14] city street and according to reports, he even brazenly
[19:18] jaywalked in front of them, giving police an easy chance to
[19:22] swoop in. On September 10th, 2011, after
[19:26] 13 long years, the suspected perpetrator was finally in
[19:30] custody. News of the arrest brought
[19:33] instant and immense relief to Lisa's family and her
[19:36] sister-in-law. Janet expressed gratitude that
[19:39] the suspect was off the streets and couldn't hurt anyone else.
[19:45] Once Hughes was in custody, detectives hoped to get answers
[19:49] about what happened to Lisa. They began a careful
[19:53] interrogation, at first pretending to ask about local
[19:56] burglaries to keep Hughes relaxed.
[19:59] But as soon as investigators mentioned Lisa's name, Hughes
[20:03] became agitated. He claimed he hadn't seen Lisa
[20:06] in many years and denied any role in her death.
[20:10] Pressed further, he admitted he had known Lisa.
[20:14] They had dated briefly as teenagers, but he insisted he
[20:17] hadn't been in contact with her since the 1980s.
[20:21] Crucially, he advised that he had never set foot in her
[20:24] apartment. Hughes had caught his foot in a
[20:27] judicial bear trap since he could no longer claim any
[20:30] innocent reason for being with Lisa in 1998.
[20:36] Interestingly, detectives knew there were no signs of forced
[20:40] entry at the condo, meaning Lisa had likely let whoever did it
[20:44] in. This implies she knew and
[20:46] trusted the person at her door, at least to some degree.
[20:52] When confronted with the forensic evidence, Hughes
[20:54] reacted in a completely unexpected way.
[20:58] He suddenly asked the officers for a pen and paper as if to
[21:01] write down a statement. Little did the cops know, Hughes
[21:06] was about to confess in the most dramatic way possible.
[21:09] Once he had the pen in his hand, he got to work on his confession
[21:14] by literally repeatedly stuffing it through his neck.
[21:18] Stunned detectives tackled him and wrestled the pen away before
[21:22] this act of elimination was complete.
[21:25] Once he recovered, he was formally charged with Lisa
[21:28] Valdez's slaying. Despite being caught, Hughes
[21:34] offered no real explanation for his actions.
[21:37] Investigators theorized he may have come to Lisa's home
[21:40] expecting a romantic encounter and, when rejected, exploded in
[21:44] rage. Yet Hughes never actually
[21:47] formally confessed or clarified his motive, leaving the true
[21:51] trigger for his violence known only to him.
[21:56] Hughes's case took several years to reach trial.
[21:59] In the four years between his 2011 arrest and the courtroom
[22:03] proceedings, there were delays for a mental competency
[22:06] evaluation and other pretrial steps.
[22:10] In late 2015, Anthony Hughes finally stood trial.
[22:14] Prosecutors presented the DNA and fingerprint evidence, a
[22:18] timeline of Lisa's final night, and the story of Hughes's past
[22:22] connection to her. In January 2016, the jury found
[22:27] Hughes guilty as charged. While they initially returned a
[22:31] first degree verdict, the judge reduced it to 2nd degree at
[22:35] sentencing and Hughes received a term of 16 years to life in
[22:39] prison. Hughes continued to protest his
[22:42] innocence at sentencing, insisting he had been wrongly
[22:45] convicted. Interestingly, Hughes appealed
[22:51] the conviction, arguing that the 13 year delay in charging him
[22:54] violated his right to a fair trial.
[22:58] I'm going to give you a second to guess how that little legal
[23:00] argument panned out. In 2018, however, a California
[23:06] Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the verdict, ruling that
[23:10] the delay was justified by the new DNA evidence linking him to
[23:14] the crime. As of now, Hughes continues to
[23:17] receive free lodging courtesy of the state, though unfortunately,
[23:20] it appears that he'll be a free man in short order.

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