The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages and is intended for a mature
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
Welcome back everyone.
I am your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
He's back this week!
And we are Cold and Missing.
We are Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and unresolved missing person cases.
What do you have for us this week?
Well, for episode 28, I have for us a cold case.
Alright, let's get to it.
Let's do it.
So today we are covering the cold case of Keisha Murray, and this takes place in Jacksonville,
Florida in July of 2013.
But first a little bit about Keisha.
Keisha is 34 years old in July of 2013.
She was born August 16, 1978, and she would have been 44 years old today.
She's a mother of five, who family described as the life of the party and an excellent
cook.
Keisha was always smiling.
Her sister Erica says, quote, She had a great sense of humor, always said the goofiest things.
You could always get a smile on your face thanks to her, end quote.
Keisha had been living with a schizophrenic diagnosis for 15 years.
In the beginning, she had struggled to accept her diagnosis, and this led into some minor
run ins with police.
But according to her family, she had gotten her life back on track and her life was headed
in a positive direction.
Her family did say Keisha was too trusting.
She had fallen into the wrong crowd, which also contributed to her run ins with police.
Her sister Erica said, quote, She was always too trusting.
She always thought that anybody who smiled at her meant they wanted to be friends, end
quote.
So now we are going to get into the timeline.
And unfortunately, at this time, we don't know anything about the events that led up
to Keisha's body being discovered.
I will say that in all of the interviews that the family has given over the years, they
have never mentioned her missing that day or in the days leading up to July 7th, 2013.
So it doesn't mean that Keisha wasn't missing, but no one has mentioned it at this time.
So here's what we do know about July 7th, 2013.
At around four in the afternoon, Keisha's body is found propped up against a tree in
the Restlawn Memorial Cemetery in Jacksonville.
Her body was in plain sight, and according to reports, she was just inside the entrance
sitting propped up against the tree in a yellow floral dress.
Police are called and it's unclear by whom and police quickly rule the case as a homicide.
Now there hasn't been a lot of media coverage on this, as I previously mentioned, and police
have released very few details.
I actually reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff Police Department asking for a statement
and as of recording this episode, they have not gotten back to me.
But if they do get back to me, I will record an update on that.
Police do reveal some of the following pieces of information though.
Investigators believe that she was murdered elsewhere before being placed in the cemetery.
Investigators believe the body was placed not long before she was found.
But police say they have no idea how she ended up at the cemetery.
They also conclude that after her murder, she was likely bathed and then put in the
yellow dress.
Police never reveal her cause of death or autopsy results, but based on how quickly
they report her body as being bathed after her murder, that leads me to believe that
there was an absence of blood that should have been there.
I don't want to speculate too much on the cause of death because again, we don't know
for sure.
But because it was so quickly reported that she was bathed after her death, that just
leads me to believe that there wouldn't have been time at that point to like do DNA, you
know, testing on her body and realize that there's no trace of anything.
So I think that would lead me to believe that the quickest way they could realize that was
just an absence of blood that should have been there.
Her family does view the bath as a last act of compassion by the killer, but the family
is devastated by the loss of Keisha.
Her mother says, quote, unbearable.
I'm heartbroken.
She was my baby.
She meant the world to me.
It's not going to be the same without her, end quote.
And I don't know Keisha's mother's name.
She was so frightened after her daughter's murder that somebody was going to be coming
after her or her daughters and other family members that she asked to remain anonymous
in all of the interviews she gave.
Keisha's mother will really be swallowed by her grief, according to the family.
On Saturday, July 20th, 2013, Keisha's funeral is held at the New Bethel Missionary Baptist
Church.
And then the case really goes cold.
We don't hear about Keisha's death again until January of 2015.
So that's one and a half years later.
An organization called Mad Dads organizes a walk in Jacksonville.
Mad Dads stands for Men Against Destruction, Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder.
This walk in January of 2015 was wanting to bring awareness to unsolved murders and hoping
to end the code of silence that can dominate a neighborhood.
Keisha's murder is one of the cases that the group highlights with the hope of generating
tips.
In March of 2018, so this is almost five years since Keisha's murder, Keisha's daughter,
Rakeisha Murray, sits down with a local news outlet to talk about the struggle she faced
after her mother's death.
Rakeisha was 15 years old when her mother was murdered, and by 16, she was on her own and
homeless.
Rakeisha was able to get help from an organization called Daniels Kids, which helped her get
back into school.
And in 2018, Rakeisha was studying to become a social worker.
When talking about her mother, she says, quote, she was one of the most loving people in my
life and I lost that.
My little sisters, they don't really remember her much.
So it doesn't really affect them at all.
My brother, he took it really hard.
My older sister, she has her own method of coping with it.
She's not a very emotional person, end quote.
In February of 2019, so this is about five and a half years, Keisha's sister, Julia,
is interviewed.
And there have been no updates and no movement on the case.
And at this time, Julia is actually pursuing a career in law enforcement with the hope
that she can get some answers in her sister's murder.
The family does reveal that two friends from Keisha's circle of friends were also murdered
in the months after Keisha's death.
I tried to look into this, but without knowing more information about where it was or what
their names were, I couldn't find anything that verified this and police have never confirmed
it and media have never been able to confirm it.
So I don't know, but the family says this did happen and I tend to believe family in
this.
So it does seem like there is a link with other murders in the Jacksonville area.
Julia says, quote, I've exhausted all avenues, but I'm still hoping for the day my family
can finally face the murderer in court.
We may not ever find closure, but we could at least find justice, end quote.
So if you know anything about the murder of Keisha Murray, you are encouraged to call
the Jacksonville Sheriff at 904-630-0500.
Or you can call the First Coast Crime Stoppers at 866-845-8477.
And the sources for today's podcast come from Uncovered.com, WJXT, The Times Union, Action
News Jax, First Coast News, and Project Cold Case.
Okay, so that's the story of Keisha Murray, the cold case of Keisha Murray.
Wow.
My first reaction was that it sounds almost fictional, particularly surrounding the description
of how the body was, I guess, cared for, or how it was handled postmortem.
Or maybe, I don't know, that's my assumption, that it's postmortem.
Yeah, that does seem to be what was reported, is that the bathing and then dressing of the
body all happened after her death.
I was very, upon hearing that, I was frightened.
And later hearing that the mother remained anonymous, I thought that makes sense to me,
because that would terrify me, that detail more than the murder itself.
Yeah, when I found this case and was reading about it, I like audibly like, was like, oh
my god out loud.
I actually think I heard you the other day when I was in another room in the house.
I heard you, but I assumed it was about this, so I didn't come ask if you were okay.
Yeah, I just, yeah, that detail is, to me, really scary.
And it does seem like fictional, like something out of a horror movie.
And even the brazenness of dropping the body in the middle of the day, on a Saturday, broad
daylight, in a yellow dress, you took the time to like, prop her body up against a tree.
And from all reports, you could see her as you were driving by, there's only one entrance
to this cemetery that I was able to like, you know, look at maps and things.
And you know, there are trees just right inside the entrance.
And I couldn't believe the brazenness of this.
And it seems like the work of a serial killer almost, you know, like somebody who's like,
this is my signature.
Like the Baby Doll murders or something, you know, that's what it, and granted you and
I have consumed a lot of both like, fictional crime, thriller mystery, and true crime.
So I think we are more likely to fill in the details with this kind of stuff.
Whereas, you know, the family said that, or they were maybe holding on to, perhaps it
was an act of care, you know.
Yeah.
And I see how a family would maybe hold on to that thought for hope, or whatever you
need to survive through such a traumatic thing happening to you.
Yeah.
And you know, at the same time, it's like, yeah, I can see that.
Like maybe this person immediately had remorse and was trying to, you know, make it look
like she was knocked out.
Yeah.
You know, like my reaction, though, was like, this is the act of a deranged person.
Yes, that was my first knee-jerk reaction too.
But perhaps deranged isn't the greatest word to use here.
I just mean someone who's not okay.
Yeah.
But yeah, and I was shocked at the lack of media coverage on this.
Yes, with the specificity of that detail that we didn't know about this, and it's in Jacksonville.
Like I know you don't watch the show and I do, but Dexter takes place in Florida.
And this is like, it's the show I immediately thought of.
Oh, interesting.
Because there are details like that on the show.
And you know, Florida, the best way I can say it is a wild state.
So wild things happen there.
And like, you know, this is, and I'm not talking about her death lightly at all, but it is
wild.
Like it's a wild thing.
Yeah.
And it's wild that it didn't receive national attention for this bizarre act.
It's like bizarre post-mortem act.
Of course, we don't know, you know, we can theorize here all day about the motivation
behind that.
But we won't know until people are brought to justice and can kind of provide those answers
to the family.
I'm glad you brought attention to it because I think, you know, our listeners and the people
who engage with our Instagram are pretty good about sharing the name again.
So even if there's just a blip of her name back out there again, because I'm going to
start looking like, what happened?
Yeah.
And I mean, truly, there's not a lot out there.
There's not.
I think we might be one of the first podcasts covering it.
I couldn't find any podcast episodes about it.
There's a couple short YouTube videos that like kind of cover the case.
Maybe one of the listeners out there will, you know, know someone or know someone who
knows someone and we can get some more talk or conversation going around about it.
Yeah.
And again, if you know anything about Keisha Murray's death in Jacksonville, Florida, you
are encouraged to call the Jacksonville Sheriff at 904-630-0500.
Or you can call the First Coast Crime Stoppers at 866-845-8477.
I wanted to take another moment to highlight what you spoke about earlier.
Her daughter using the resource Daniels Kids.
That is really cool that that resource exists.
Yeah.
And I looked them up.
They're still an active organization.
They've actually been around since like 1860 something or 1880 something.
A very long time.
I'll expand in the graphics on our Instagram with like more information about that place
and also Mad Dads.
Mad Dads.
I think both of those things that you talked about deserve more information like about
them on the Instagram.
Yeah, of course.
And we'll include information about Mad Dads and about Daniels Kids.
So if you're interested in learning more about them or donating to their causes, they're
both active organizations operating in Jacksonville.
And I believe Mad Dads is all over the United States as well.
Cool.
Like organizations.
But yeah, that'll be on our Instagram.
If you're not following us there, we really encourage you to follow us.
We post a lot of pictures.
We'll be posting pictures of Keisha here.
Yeah.
While you're in your podcast app, another way if you are enjoying these stories and
you want more people to hear about them is to leave a review if you're an Apple podcast
or a rate of five stars.
If you're somewhere else, that's really helpful.
Or just telling your friends.
We've had a lot of just by word of mouth.
Our listeners telling other people and them finding us.
So thank you so much for telling your friends, family, loved ones, coworkers about our podcast.
And we encourage you to keep sharing it because the more people that hear it, eventually someone's
going to hear it that knows somebody that knows something.
And that's always the goal here at Cold and Missing is to get these names back out there.
Get these names out here and get answers for family, whatever that looks like for them.
Justice, we want for our missing people, we want them to come home.
Yeah.
We want our missing to come home.
We want our cold cases solved.
And I think this quote by the sister of saying like, we might never have closure, but we
can find justice.
And I'm paraphrasing here, but I think that's that's really summarizes this podcast as well.
Like closure is indescribable in grief.
Yes.
And justice is something concrete and tangible that can be given to these families.
And that's something we want to do.
So just by being here and listening, you're a part of it.
Thank you so much for being here.
We appreciate it.
And that's all I have for you.
So have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
Stay safe, y'all.