Overview

• Roseann Sturtz, a 20-year-old Maryland woman, was killed in 1975 after meeting her attacker at a bar; her case remained unsolved for nearly 50 years.
• Howard County police revisited the cold case in 2024, uncovering a 1981 audio tape in which Charles William Davis Jr. discussed the murder under an immunity agreement.
• Davis, now 77 and serving life sentences for other 1970s murders, confessed after being shown a more recent photo of Sturtz taken shortly before her death.
• Sturtz’s skeletal remains were discovered in December 1975, and her identity was confirmed in 1976 through forensic analysis and a sketch developed by a Smithsonian anthropologist.
• While Davis cannot be charged due to the immunity agreement, police and Sturtz’s family have expressed relief at finally achieving closure.