They were two women who probably never met. One hailed from a middle-class corner of Long Island, a blond-haired suburbanite and the daughter of an accomplished musician who enjoyed dancing in her father’s studio. The other was raised on the rural roads of Leland, a woman who sometimes lived precariously but never strayed far from her tight-knit family.
Their lives diverged in many ways. But then came their disappearance, followed by the discovery of their remains – two skeletons lying side-by-side in a wooded patch behind a strip of small businesses on Wilmington’s west side.
In the three years since they were found, police have sought to establish a link that might help explain how these two strangers, Allison Jackson-Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen, wound up the victims of one of Wilmington’s most mysterious, unsolved murders. The only apparent connection detectives have been able to surmise is both women likely died at the hands of the same person.
Detective Lee Odham, an investigator with the Wilmington Police Department who has worked the case since the bones were discovered in April 2008, visited the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Virginia earlier this month to ask federal analysts if they could provide any clues into the killer’s identity. In the best-case scenario, he hopes they produce a profile to help narrow down the list of suspects.
The investigation, which started as a missing person’s case when Jackson-Foy vanished five years ago this Saturday, has been full of twists and turns. Promising leads have fizzled out. At least once, detectives seemed on the verge of an arrest only to backtrack and clear their main suspect. And meanwhile, two families are thinking, wondering, hoping the cold case picks up steam so they can finally achieve a sense of closure.
