Olivia Thorndike

Olivia Thorndike was a 24-year-old young woman living in Henrico County, VIrginia, whose life came to a sudden and tragic end in November of 1981. While detectives and prosecutors had their suspicions about a couple of men in Olivia's orbit, they were never able to build a convincing case against either…

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On October 2nd, 2019, a post was made on Reddit by the user /u/RebelScum77. Specifically, it was posted in the /r/TrueCrime subreddit, and was a picture of a newspaper clipping for a classified section, which read as follows:

"On September 7, Olivia Thorndike would have celebrated her 62nd birthday. Unfortunately, she never got to see her 25th birthday due to being stalked and murdered. You know who you are; I know who you are. YOU have information needed to close this case and to give Olivia and her family peace. Do the right thing for once in your life; call the Henrico Police and accept your responsibility for her death."

In the comments below the post, the OP (original poster) identified the newspapers as having come from Henrico County, Virginia. In a comment, a user mentioned that someone should make a podcast about this story; a responding comment then directing them towards my podcast, and linked my Reddit username.

It wasn't until the following morning (October 3rd) that I saw the post and began to do some slight research into the story. I did some cursory Googling and digging through newspaper archives, and quickly discovered that there was unfortunately very little out there about a woman named Olivia Thorndike (or her murder). There were a couple of newspaper articles from 1981 - which directly reported her murder that November - and then a few more from over a decade later, which referenced her story (almost in passing, as it related to a different case altogether). However, I was able to quickly find the person who had placed the classified ad: a woman named Catherine Storch ("Cat" for short), who - honestly - I didn't need to dig too hard to find.

You see, Cat has been using social media accounts - namely Twitter (and to a lesser extent, Reddit) - to bring attention to this unsolved cold case. Not only by shining a light on it, figuratively speaking, but standing on her internet pulpit with a megaphone and a spotlight. It was through Cat that I ended up learning more about this story than from any other source. And that's because - as you'll soon learn - Olivia's story has been all-but-forgotten in the press, with the story attracting very little media attention in the decades since it began unfolding .

Cat has tried in vain for over a year now to get newspapers and other news agencies to cover Olivia's case, and it wasn't until she began placing ads in the classified section of the Rappahannock Record that the story began to receive any attention whatsoever. Still, though, the story remains little more than a small piece of Virginia lore, to which there's been no kind of update for nearly three decades.

For that reason, this episode is going to be a bit of a departure from the stories I usually cover on this show. Much of the information presented throughout has been put together piecemeal over the past forty years, by Cat and other people like her (who you'll hear from throughout the episode). Tragically, that means that there's not a lot of information out there about the subject of today's episode, but I've been able to learn a lot about two violent men that revolved around her in the weeks and months before her death: one with a repeated history of stalking and perpetrating violence against women, who was able to escape almost all culpability for his actions; and the other, a man with a long history of untreated mental illnesses who also had an extensive criminal past.

Both were convicted for charges related to the trauma they had inflicted upon the young woman herself, but both would manage to avoid responsibility for her death.

This is the story of Olivia Thorndike.

Olivia Thorndike was born on September 7th, 1957, to her parents, Henry and Carolyn Thorndike.

Olivia's father Henry Greenough Thorndike was described by Virginia's Daily Press as "a prominent Northumberland farmer and entrepreneur," who had married Olivia's mother, Carolyn Fredrika Thompson on June 26th, 1939. The couple then began settling into the nice, affluent neighborhood of Beverly, Massachusetts - for a time, at least.

Olivia had a large family and was just one of eight children. She had two brothers (Henry Jr. and Andrew) and five sisters (Alice, Susan, Evelyn, Anne, and Sarah). During Olivia's childhood, the family would relocate to the state of Virginia; in particular, the area near Wicomico Church, an unincorporated community in Northumberland County, which is on Virginia's Northern Neck, one of the state's three peninsulas located along the coast. Here, the family lived a relatively blissful life, with the plentiful farmland leading to Olivia and her sisters sharing a love of horses and horse-riding.

The only mention of Olivia that I could find in any media before her death was a September 1973 article in the Daily Press, which mentioned Olivia and some of her sisters competing in a local horse-riding competition.

This love of horses is actually what led to Olivia befriending Catherine Storch, the woman I mentioned in the episode introduction. Cat met Olivia's family back in 1974 when Olivia was just 16 or 17 years old. Cat's family was buying a horse from the Thorndike clan, and she would end up becoming friends with the family. Here's Cat:

Not much is known about Olivia's young adulthood, but we do know that she moved away from her family's home towards Henrico, Virginia: another unincorporated area, located just outside of the state's capital, Richmond. There, she continued her college education and began working, while living in an apartment building in the middle of the suburbs.

There are some facets of Olivia's life that I have learned about, before her death, but I'll get into those in just a bit.

It was November 25th, 1981 - the Wednesday before Thanksgiving - that Olivia Thorndike met her tragic end. She was supposed to pick up her uncle at the airport that afternoon, but failed to meet him there; not only at the time but in the minutes and hours that followed. In an age before cell phones, this was seen as troubling, but there was little that could be done (other than calling Olivia's home phone and attempting to reach her that way). No one could reach Olivia through her phone, and it wasn't until later that evening that police were called to Olivia's apartment building.

At around 10:25 PM, police were called to the Harbor Village Apartments, in western Henrico County (northwest of Richmond). There, Olivia's body was found at the foot of the stairs, leading up to her room on the second floor, having been attacked an undetermined time earlier and left to bleed out.

Almost all of the early coverage of this case (which, in reality, is just a handful of newspaper articles from the area) reports outright that Olivia had been shot twice in the chest by an unknown assailant, who had not left behind any major clues nor the murder weapon. However, this information would later change, with police later stating that Olivia had not been shot twice, but rather, had been stabbed four times.

This discrepancy stood out to me while I was researching this story, and remains an odd point that I've never seen addressed anywhere. Maybe this was just a miscommunication or an oversight? But due to the rather scant reporting in the years since, I've been unable to determine why this change was made (or why the crime was originally reported as a shooting).

From the jump, it became apparent that police had more than one suspect that they were eyeing with suspicion. In the days after Olivia's murder, it would be reported that police were closing in on one of these men in particular - an individual that had been allegedly stalking and harassing her in the months before her death - but sources close to the investigation would refuse to name either of them. I will explore both of these men as potential suspects throughout the episode, but - needless to say - police had very good reason to suspect both of them.

You see, both looked very guilty in the wake of this heinous crime, and it might have been the fact that there were two of them - two equally suspicious individuals that had a good reason to want Olivia dead - that this crime remains unsolved to this day.

Before we move forward in this case, we need to rewind just a bit; back to the period before Olivia's death. (Remember when I said that there were facets of Olivia's life that I would explore in a bit? That's this section.)

You see, like so many women both before and after her, Olivia had been the victim of an attempted sexual assault, which had taken place a short time before her death. She had not simply made the allegation to those that knew her; she had filed a police report and was in the process of pursuing charges against the offender at the time of her murder (a case that would, thankfully, see its way through the legal system after her death).

It's easy to see why this individual would become a suspect in the case after Olivia was found stabbed to death at the bottom of her apartment's stairwell, but unfortunately, the situation is a lot more complicated than that. Before we continue with why the situation is more complicated, let's first learn more about this individual that was convicted of attempting to rape Olivia.

Gary Lankford was a young man about the same age as Olivia Thorndike, who lived in Lancaster County, about 75 miles east, across the Rappahannock River.

As I mentioned, Gary Lankford was the man that Olivia had accused of attempting to sexually assault her a short time before her death. She alleged that while the two were driving home from a party in Northumberland County (where Olivia's family lived), Gary had attempted to rape her. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any official documentation from this case - probably because of the time that has elapsed since, and how integrated that case has become to the murder of Olivia (a still-unsolved murdered) - but we do know that Lankford was eventually convicted on these charges, and would spend a year or two in prison for these charges after Olivia's murder.

However, this wasn't Lankford's only stint behind bars... nor the only blemish on his record.

Gary Logan Lankford had a long history of mental illness and criminal activity (some of which is still just alleged) dating back at least five years before Olivia's murder. He was tentatively linked to a double-murder from 1976 (when Lankford was just 20 years old), but we'll get into that in a little bit. Because of this history though, and other criminal charges he had faced, Lankford had endured at least one stint in a mental health facility before Olivia's murder, and reports made over the years have put his mental health into question.

Several newspapers reported, during trials for other crimes, that Lankford suffered from at least one mental disorder, and had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who saw himself as a threat to others. In at least one criminal proceeding (for an unrelated crime), Lankford was found to be so mentally ill that he couldn't stand trial. I'm not saying this to try and shame Lankford or those that suffer from mental illness - after all, people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violent crime rather than the perpetrators - but this is an important detail in this case. Not only because Gary Lankford was a mentally ill individual with a long criminal history, but because he had a personal connection to Olivia Thorndike, and had attempted to rape her in the months before her death.

For that reason, he would become one of the prime suspects in this case.

However, he would not be the only suspect.

Richard Slaughter was a young man that lived in Northumberland County; specifically, in the small town of Reedville, not too far away from where Gary Lankford had been living in Virginia's Northern Neck, separated from the rest of the state by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.

It has been alleged over the years that Lankford and Slaughter knew each other - and were actually somewhat friendly - but that remains a point of contention today. However, we do know that Richard Slaughter knew Olivia Thorndike.

The year before her death (1980), Olivia had gone out on at least one date with Richard, but she would later rebuff his advances.

This is where the story begins to grow more complicated.

In the days after Olivia's murder, Northumberland County Judge Andrew G. Conlyn spoke to the press and announced that police were investigating at least two men in her death. The following week, he announced that one of the men had been convicted in his court for making repeated phone calls to Olivia and her mother, not only threatening Olivia's life but using "profane and threatening language."

You see, after her date with Richard Slaughter, Olivia had turned down his requests for another date. She seemed to not be interested in him romantically. He responded to that by beginning to harass and stalk Olivia, which ultimately culminated in a physical assault in August of 1980; an incident where Richard Slaughter had assaulted Olivia and hit her with a rock. He was charged with assault and battery in that case, and later convicted, but received no jail sentence. Instead, he agreed to undergo psychiatric help, as we'll find out, which wasn't the first time he agreed to stay in a mental institution instead of a prison cell (more on that later).

After his release, Richard Slaughter began to harass and stalk Olivia Thorndike. Many of her loved ones would later recall how it impacted her everyday life, with her having to change her habits and rearrange components of her life to avoid him. The Portland Press would later report that Olivia would go on to file more than two dozen criminal complaints against Richard Slaughter in the months before her death, claiming that "Slaughter was stalking her day and night, in person, through the mail and by telephone."

The day after Olivia's murder - November 26th, 1981 (Thanksgiving) - Richard Slaughter was taken into custody by a Northumberland sheriff's deputy. He was later questioned by Henrico Police Sergeant L.R. Baker, and his clothing was taken in for forensic testing. But within a few hours, he would be released from custody, with police not having probable cause to charge him with Olivia's murder.

Just a few days later, though - on November 30th - Slaughter was convicted on charges of making threatening phone calls to Olivia and her mother. He would receive a 30-day suspended sentence for that and again ordered to receive psychiatric treatment as an alternative to prison.

More than a year would pass, with almost no information being reported about the case in the press. While Olivia's family mourned and internally tried to process their grief - ultimately leading to many fractures in the family - Gary Lankford and Richard Slaughter continued with their lives.

In January of 1983, it was announced that Richard Slaughter had been arrested, having been formally charged with first-degree murder. He was accused of having been the person who murdered Olivia inside her apartment building and then returning to his home in Northumberland County that evening. However, within two months, even that would change.

On March 9th, 1983, prosecutors elected not to proceed with the trial, choosing not to give any kind of public rationale. According to an article published in the Rappahannock Record at the time:

"Sources close to the case said new evidence was favorable to Slaughter's defense but declined to elaborate."

It would later be revealed that the cause of this dropped prosecution was the disappearance of a key witness, whose testimony was deemed integral to the case. This person had decided to leave the area shortly before the trial was set to proceed, and that caused the entire prosecution to fold. However, this decision - to drop the prosecution for the time being - would keep the option of pursuing charges against Slaughter on the table for the foreseeable future.

This, unfortunately, would be the last word on Olivia's case for a matter of years. No charges would be pressed from this point forward, but - as we'll learn - this was not the end of the story. Both of the men viewed as suspects would go on to earn other charges and accusations... many of which linger to this day.

In 1983, while Richard Slaughter was awaiting trial for Olivia's murder (charges that would later be dropped), Gary Lankford was assimilating himself back into society. Just months prior, he had finished up his sentence for the attempted rape of Olivia, having been convicted and sentenced after her death. However, he wasn't a free man for very long.

On March 25th of that year, Lankford pleaded guilty in a Lancaster Circuit Court to breaking and entering a supermarket and stealing approximately $82 worth of beer alongside a friend of his. For this offense, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison (with 3 years being suspended) and was given credit for 123 days already served.

Lankford was then released again, and almost immediately picked up for yet another crime. He was arrested in August of 1985 for driving under the influence of alcohol, and later charged with possession of stolen property and violating the terms of his probation. As he awaited trial for the drunk driving and probation violation crimes, Lankford reportedly confessed to other inmates, implicating himself in a murder from nearly ten years prior. He was then charged with this double-murder that had had reportedly confessed to.

Dale and Charlotte Rogers were murdered on February 27th, 1976, at around 7:00 PM (or so police believe). Dale had been in the kitchen preparing dinner while Charlotte was bathing when a gunman entered their home. Both of the victims were found in separate rooms, having been shot in the back of the head with a shotgun. There was no sign of forced entry, and no evidence left behind by the killer (at least, nothing investigators could find at the time). The bodies were then left for several hours, and weren't discovered until the following afternoon (February 28th) by the victims' teenage daughter.

This crime had puzzled investigators for several years, but they had interviewed hundreds of people from the area. One of these people was Gary Lankford, whose parents lived next door to Dale and Charlotte Rogers. Lankford claimed that he had been playing cards with some friends of his at the time, but this still put him in the area, and his alibi was hard to verify. But it wasn't until years later that he would get incriminated in this case, after Lankford allegedly boasted about his involvement in the double-murder to a group of inmates in jail.

In February of 1986, the trial against 30-year-old Gary Lankford began, with him being charged with breaking into the Rogers home with the intent to commit murder, rape, and/or robbery; stealing their Volkswagon; and using a gun in commission of the crime (in addition to the two murder charges, of course). The trial was overseen by Circuit Court Judge Dixon L. Foster, who sent the case to the jury after three days of testimony. However, the jury was unable to come to an agreement, leading to a mistrial; and a follow-up trial was scheduled for that April. Due to some delays, it wouldn't begin until that July.

Lankford's second trial later that summer was immediately noted for its hostility; with Lankford, at one point, threatening to attack one of the witnesses, who was one of three inmates that had served time with him at the Lancaster County Jail and was testifying against him.

This trial is where a lot of Lankford's mental health issues were exposed to the public for the first time. Lankford himself testified that in 1978 (two years after the murders of Dale and Charlotte Rogers), he had suffered a full-on mental breakdown due to his wife having left him. This only exacerbated his ongoing mental health issues, and - in his opinion - caused the lines between fantasy and reality to begin to blur. This ultimately led to him being committed to Eastern State Hospital after he began to violently lash out at his stepfather and other family members (mainly by threatening them and destroying personal property). However, this was just the first of several trips to mental hospitals, leading up and through 1981, the year that Olivia Thorndike accused Lankford of attempting to rape her (and her subsequent murder).

Despite this trial putting together a pretty convincing argument of Lankford's guilt, the jury would be unable to come to a consensus yet again, resulting in a second mistrial. Later that week, Judge Foster would move to dismiss the murder charges, which - following the two hung juries - would mean that Lankford could not be re-tried for them in the future.

Despite this victory in the courtroom, Lankford wasn't a free man. He still had to face punishment for his parole violations and would spend more time in prison over the next several years. But he would not face any more murder charges, nor face any official charges related to Olivia Thorndike's murder.

Unfortunately, not much is known about the end of Gary Lankford's life. As I said, he served some more time in prison, before eventually being released and living as a free man for a few years. He then passed away in August of 2002 and was buried in his hometown of Lancaster, Virginia.

While the story of Gary Lankford has a lot of red flags - including the attempted rape of Olivia Thorndike, which he served time in prison for - police never seemed to express a lot of interest in him for her murder (possibly due to evidence that they haven't publicly disclosed). While it seems like he had something to gain by Olivia dying, his conviction after her death seems to rule against that; and I find it hard to believe that he would murder her when he was already facing charges for attempted rape. Then again, he was a man with many mental health issues and a checkered past as it is, so who knows what he might have been thinking.

Nonetheless, it's hard to determine whether or not Gary Lankford might have played a part in Olivia's murder. However, Gary Lankford is not the only person to have been publicly implicated in Olivia's death. The person that has raised more suspicion over the years is a man you've already heard a little bit about - Richard Slaughter - who, to this day, remains the only individual to ever be indicted in her case.

Richard Slaughter was born to a wealthy family in eastern Virginia, near Northumberland, where Olivia's family also happened to live. There, his family was involved in east coast fishing, and they managed to cement themselves in the area as influential job-creators for several decades. For a time, at least, Richard himself seemed to be set up to follow in the family business.

However, from an early age, it seems like Richard Slaughter expressed some... troubling behavior. Here is Bert Lewis, a man that grew up alongside Slaughter, and continues to live in the area.

As a young adult, the troubling behavior of Richard Slaughter began to grow more and more pronounced. While I've spoken briefly about his unhealthy pursuit of Olivia Thorndike, she was not the only young woman that he had taken an extreme interest in. You see, at the time of Olivia's murder, Slaughter had already established himself as a repeat offender, who had stalked and harassed numerous women.

In Henrico County alone (where Olivia lived in 1981), Richard Slaughter was convicted of misdemeanor assaults on four separate women; all of whom claim that Slaughter approached them in public places and sexually or physically assaulted them. All of these women shared the same physical characteristics, according to Henrico County Detective James Dorton, who later told reporters with the Portland Press:

"They were all tall, thin and blond, or with light-colored hair, like Olivia."

Somehow, Slaughter was able to avoid jail time in all of these assault convictions by agreeing to psychiatric help as an alternative. In the same Portland Press article, Detective Dorton stated:

"He always seemed to get out of it through the channels of psychiatric help. He'd get himself in a bit of a box and then agree to check himself into a psychiatric hospital."

Eventually, the paths of Richard Slaughter and Olivia Thorndike crossed. Newspaper reports indicated that Slaughter was an ex-boyfriend of hers, but those that knew Olivia say that wasn't the case. They say that the two only went on a single date - maybe two, at most - but Olivia didn't seem to show much interest in Slaughter at all. That is when she became the next victim of his obsessive personality. Here's Cat Storch:

Over the next year or so, Richard Slaughter would begin to stalk and harass Olivia Thorndike. This took place not only at Olivia's home, school, and workplace, but through the telephone and mail (with Slaughter calling her multiple times a day and constantly sending her creepy letters and/or packages). As I told you earlier, this resulted in Olivia making dozens of criminal complaints to Henrico County Police, but this wasn't enough to deter Slaughter, who not only continued this harassment but escalated it. He began making calls to Olivia's loved ones; in particular, to her mother (crimes he was ultimately convicted of in November of 1981).

Following the attempted sexual assault of Olivia Thorndike at the hands of Gary Lankford, an alleged friend of his, Richard Slaughter then began including details of that reported rape in his harassment. While Slaughter claimed to not know Lankford, police believe that the two were acquainted with one another, and found it hard to believe Slaughter's claims to the contrary.

You see, in at least one phone call made in November of 1981 - just two days before Olivia's death - Richard Slaughter had called Olivia's mother and told her that "Olivia Thorndike is dead. She should not have prosecuted the case against" Gary Lankford, directly addressing the ongoing case and threatening Olivia's life within hours of her eventual murder. The rationale for him having made these calls has never been explained, at least not in the public sphere. On that, here's Cat Storch:

Now here's Bert Lewis, the man that grew up alongside Slaughter, and believes that Slaughter and Lankford did know one another.

As I mentioned earlier, this harassing behavior expressed by Richard Slaughter had progressed into violence on multiple occasions. He had earned himself at least four misdemeanor assault convictions for assaults against women other than Olivia, and in August of 1980, he was accused by Olivia of having hit her in the head with a rock. This earned Slaughter another conviction for assault and battery, but - just like his other convictions - he was able to weasel his way out of any meaningful punishment by seeking out psychiatric treatment.

This ultimately led Olivia to seek help outside of the legal system, as it clearly wasn't working for her in this situation. Her family hired an actual bodyguard to protect her during the daytime, and she even began regularly carrying a handgun, concerned that Richard Slaughter would make repeat appearances. As we now know, he would.

On November 23rd, 1981, Richard Slaughter would make a call to Olivia's mother, telling her that "Olivia Thorndike is dead" and saying that she never should have pressed charges against Gary Lankford. Just two days later (November 25th), the body of Olivia Thorndike would be found at the bottom of her apartment's stairwell.

From the jump, Richard Slaughter was viewed as a suspect by police, with him being taken into custody the morning after Olivia's murder (Thanksgiving, November 26th). He was interrogated by police for several hours and forced to submit his clothing for a forensic exam but was released from custody later that day, with police not having enough evidence to press charges. However, suspicion would continue to fester over the next several months, culminating in his eventual arrest in January of 1983.

Richard Slaughter was charged with first-degree murder, having been indicted by a grand jury for Olivia's death. Police supposedly had an airtight case against him, but less than two months later, the charges would be dropped - for a reason that remains a point of contention today.

That month, a witness in the case left the area, which Detective James Dorton later described as being for her own "well-being." After this, the decision was made to preserve the case, instead of trying Slaughter for the murder without this witness and potentially losing it, thus forever exonerating Slaughter in Olivia Thorndike's death.

Unfortunately, the case would never be revived. Following this decision, in March of 1983, there would be close to no movement in Olivia Thorndike's unsolved murder investigation.

Over the next few years, Richard Slaughter became a bit of an enigma, moving throughout the area. He began traveling between Virginia and the upper northeast, eventually settling up near Topsham, Maine. It was there, in the final weeks of 1991, that he met a young woman named Joanne Stinson.

This news, that Richard Slaughter had an established record of not only harassing and stalking women - but physically and sexually assaulting them - terrified Joanne and her loved ones. They did what they could to try and help out, but Joanne wasn't going to give in to this terror so easily. She began utilizing more aggressive methods to combat Richard Slaughter and did what she could - with the resources at her disposal - to fight back against her tormentor.

As you heard Joanne hint at just a moment ago, at around the same time that this saga was unfolding, legislation was making its way through the state of Maine. This would put anti-stalking laws on the books for the first time in state history, and Joanne got to play a part in that. She even played a role in the crafting of the federal Violence Against Women Act, which would pass through Congress with bipartisan support in 1994.

This process of fighting back against her stalker took Joanne Stinson several painstaking years, in which she had to not only endure harassment from Richard Slaughter but had to figure out how to counter his actions without giving him the thing he so obviously craved: attention. She received restraining orders and filed criminal complaints against him, but it wasn't until she filed a groundbreaking civil suit in 1994 that she finally began to see progress; which, unfortunately, would take some time to see its way through the court system.

While Richard Slaughter's stalking and harassment of Joanne Stinson has a bit of a happy ending - not only a state law in Maine that took several cues from Joanne herself, but also the nationwide Violence Against Women act and a civil suit that forced Richard Slaughter into seclusion - her story is a cautionary look into the lives of women... many of whom have to endure similar terror on a daily basis. This includes other victims of Richard Slaughter, such as Olivia Thorndike, who is unfortunately no longer with us to tell us her side of the story.

In the years since he quit stalking Joanne, Richard Slaughter has not followed through with the terms of his civil judgment. This is mainly because he has not worked in that time; instead, residing in his family's home in Virginia and subsisting off of a trust fund set up by his inheritance. But Joanne doesn't really care about the money, as long as he continues to leave her alone and quits harassing or stalking other women. She's already wasted too much of her life trying to get him to stay away.

Bert Lewis, who grew up alongside Slaughter, continues to live in the area and still sees Slaughter from time to time. However, he admits that Slaughter lives in a self-imposed exile to this day, having alienated many of the people in his life.

To this day, Bert Lewis continues to believe that Slaughter could have committed crimes beyond what he has been charged with in the past.

This leads me back to where the episode began: my conversation with Cat Storch, whose classified ad originally attracted my attention. Despite knowing Olivia when the two were just teenagers, the two lost contact, and it wasn't until decades later that Cat found out the horrible truth.

Cat continues to wage a one-woman information war against Richard Slaughter, who she is convinced is the killer of Olivia Thorndike. While her classified ads make it clear that she knows who killed Olivia, she is even more brazen online, directly naming Richard Slaughter as Olivia's killer.

Following his indictment in 1983 for Olivia's murder, Richard Slaughter has not been charged in her death. Despite police naming him a suspect over the years, I have yet to find any information linking him to her murder (or any murders, for that matter).

However, as you've heard throughout this episode, many believe that the behavior he expressed both before and after Olivia's death is indicative of a troubled individual whose obsessive tendencies pushed him to violence in other situations. One of the women who endured Richard Slaughter's stalking and harassment for several years, Joanne Stinson, believes that the similarities between her case and Olivia's are striking.

To this day, Olivia Thorndike's murder remains unsolved.

Other than a few articles that mention her story in passing, the only real mention of Olivia in any news publications over the past 30 or so years has been the classified ads set up by Cat; which, unfortunately, is indicative of just how little information is out there about Olivia and this tragic crime.

This episode has been very unusual in that regard, as I have been researching Olivia's case on-and-off since October of 2019 (nearly four months ago, at the time of recording). And in that time, I have been able to find little more than what the newspapers reported in the days and weeks after her murder, which is not only an unfortunate symptom of the time that had passed (nearly four decades) but the very nature of unsolved crimes, which remain closely guarded by law enforcement.

And sadly, other than a few people like Cat Storch, there are very few people around that remember Olivia today; and of those few, only Cat has been willing to speak to me. For that reason, I hope that I can continue to follow up on Olivia's story in the coming weeks and months, as I am hopeful I can learn more about not only her still-unsolved death, but her life that preceded it.

For the time being, however, the story of Olivia Thorndike will remain unresolved.

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Special thanks to Catherine Storch, Joanne Stinson, and Bert Lewis for sharing their stories with us

Published on on February 16th, 2020

Producers: Maggyjames, Ben Krokum, Roberta Janson, Quil Carter, Peggy Belarde, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Amy Hampton, Scott Meesey, Steven Wilson, Scott Patzold, Marie Vanglund, Lori Rodriguez, Jessica Yount, Aimee McGregor, Danny Williams, Sue Kirk, Victoria Reid, Sara Moscaritolo, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Seth Morgan, Sydney Scotton, Alyssa Lawton, Kelly Jo Hapgood, Patrick Laakso, Meadow Landry, and Rebecca Miller