Short version - I know a woman who's desperately trying to get in touch with a family in FDL that I provided her the names of.
Long version - this might turn into a pretty long read and it immediately does a 180 from where you'd probably epect it to go.
I met this girl at a bar 15-20 years ago. Nothing more than chatted for half an hour or whatever, but I vividly remember meeting her. Never saw her again but we must've exchanged numbers or Facebook. Last week, she comes across my Facebook feed and posts a picture of a letter where she got denied access to confidential/sealed files from a court. Explains it's been 30 years and this other woman lost her life and she's desperate for answers and on and on..........
I sent her a message and asked what the story was. She sent me this probably 20-30 minute TikTok she made explaning the whole story. In her teens she was a runaway. Her and her friend ran into a guy that asked for help moving some stuff into his place. He got her in a room, locked the door, and strangled her. Her friend was somehow able to get in and break it up. They left and never reported it. Being a runaway she was scared of getting in trouble, taken home, whatever. (This is in Duluth, 1994/5)
Cops eventually track her down and question her about the guy. He's accused of murdering a woman. He killed her in the winter and the body is found in the summer. He apparently admits to killing this woman because she looked exactly like the girl he had previously strangled and got away. The cops tell the girl I know that there's now 4 kids without a mom because she didn't turn him in. The man gets committed for "mentally ill and dangerous" and then commits suicide before he ever goes to trial. Records are sealed/expunged.
Fast forward 30 years and shes desperately trying to figure out this womans name, if she in fact had kids, and if she actually looked just like her. I'm not a therapist - but I guess she needs some sort of closure. I was able to find the womans name and then the obituary. The woman had 2 brothers and a sister, but there's basically ZERO information on the woman that was killed anywhere. She exists as a sentence in a couple newpaper clippings and that's it.
I initally assumed the girl that was killed was of similar age as us and in her teens when this happened. Turns out that was way off, she was actually 42 when she was killed and that was 30 years ago. She was the youngest of 4 siblings so her brothers and sister are now in their mid 70's to early 80's.
I passed on the family names to the girl I know, but decided it's time for me to check out.