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Completion of Oxford Street Bridge repairs highlighted in Luzerne County infrastructure update

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Luzerne County restaurant inspections: Feb. 17 through Feb. 23

<p>An anonymous phone call to Wilkes-Barre police the morning of Sept. 28, 1972, led authorities to the second floor apartment at 13 Academy St., where the bloody body of Juanita Marie Todd was discovered.</p><p>The 22-year-old mother of two infants was found with a bed sheet wrapped around her neck. Her 18-month old daughter was found near the body and her other daughter, 5-months old, was in a crib nearby, the Times Leader reported Sept. 29, 1972.</p><p>An autopsy by Dr. William Kashatus revealed Todd had been stabbed 22 times by a sharp instrument. There were no signs of a sexual assault.</p><p>To this day, Todd&#8217;s murderer has not been caught.</p><p>&#8220;Authorities fixed the time of death at least 15 hours before the body was discovered,&#8221; the Times Leader reported.</p><p>An anonymous phone call was received at about 3:10 a.m. by Sgt. Philip Gabriel from a man who reported a homicide had been committed at the house.</p><p>&#8220;Police immediately went to the second floor apartment of the converted home, just off South Main Street and found the body lying on her side,&#8221; reported the Times Leader.</p><p>A couple living on the first floor reported hearing no noises coming from the second floor at the time when the slaying may have occurred.</p><p>Police Chief John Ruddick told the Times Leader there were no signs of a struggle as blood was found splattered around the room where Todd&#8217;s body was discovered.</p><p>Ruddick said all city detectives were assigned to the investigation that was led by Det. Capt. John Lowe.</p><p>Within two days, police traced the anonymous phone call to a payphone in the Penn Plaza Shopping Center on South Main Street, around the corner from the crime scene.</p><p>A week after Todd&#8217;s body was found, &#8220;It was learned that at least 15 persons have been interviewed concerning aspects of the case, but nothing concrete has developed to point the finger of suspicion at anyone,&#8221; the Times Leader reported Oct. 5, 1972.</p><p>By Nov. 12, 1972, Capt. Lowe told the Times Leader 50 people had been interviewed as four men and one woman underwent a polygraph test. Two men and a woman refused a request by detectives to take the test, Lowe told the Times Leader.</p><p>A year after Todd was killed, Lowe told the Times Leader in a story published, Sept. 23, 1973, &#8220;I&#8217;m hopeful that some day this case will be solved. As long as I am a member of this police department, I won&#8217;t forget the case.&#8221;</p><p>The case turned cold as years progressed and the lead detective, Lowe, was eventually demoted when a probe by then Luzerne County District Attorney Chester Muroski revealed the investigation into the 1975 Olga Burns murder on Blackman Street was mishandled.</p><p>Todd&#8217;s murder was reviewed after Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. was elected district attorney in 1992.</p><p>&#8220;People are going to be talked to and there are going to be things looked at. But there shouldn&#8217;t be any false expectations that just because we&#8217;re doing this, there&#8217;s going to be an arrest or a disposition,&#8221; Olszewski told the Times Leader in a story published Feb. 10, 1994.</p><p>The story also quoted then City Det. Capt. Bill Maguire, &#8220;We&#8217;re going to spend the next week or two establishing a case analysis, reviewing all the records and then pick up on who we need to interview again and who could be suspects.&#8221; </p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Home where Juanita Marie Todd was brutally killed inside 13 Academy St., Wilkes-Barre, on Sept. 28, 1972. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Juanita-Todd-house-09281972.jpg</photo0><caption0>Home where Juanita Marie Todd was brutally killed inside 13 Academy St., Wilkes-Barre, on Sept. 28, 1972. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Juanita-Todd-TL-09281973.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Juanita Marie Todd </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_Juanita-Todd-TL-09281973.jpg</photo1><caption1>Juanita Marie Todd </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Ed Lewis</p><p>elewis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Look Back: Unsolved 1972 slaying of Wilkes-Barre woman