RosaLee Halbrook Byrd (June 25, 1933 – March 9, 2015) of Turtle, Dent County, Missouri, was found dead inside her home. The coroner noted that she died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head causing underlying depressed skull fractures. What type of object was used to cause that trauma, is unknown.
According to the few newspaper articles online, on “March 10, a licensed pathologist at the Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office in Columbia declared Byrd’s death was a murder, according to Dent County Deputy Coroner Ben Pursifull.”
The cause of death was not made public at the time of her death. Even family members were not informed. People believed Rosalee Halbrook Byrd (81) died as a result of an accident. Only sixteen months after the memorial service, the papers reported that the “manner in which the death occurred, was determined to have been a homicide. The case was turned over to the Salem Police Department, and MSHP DDCC (Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control).”
Since then, nobody was ever arrested or stood trial. As I understand, the case is still under investigation. I have not been able to find anything in newspaper archives about the murder weapon or if that object might have come from within her apartment that was found locked.
Rosalee’s husband Lloyd Francis Byrd passed away in 2012. He was a United States Air Force Veteran who served from 1951 to 1955 during the Korean War. Rosalee was his second wife. Barbara had passed away in 1995.
Was Rosalee’s death the result of an argument? Was anything of value stolen? Her brothers feared she died of homicide. “We were told at the emergency room that she had two separate holes in her skull,” Halbrook says. “If she’d had one, then okay, maybe she fell, but if there’s two, that doesn’t sound like she fell to me.”
The website for the Salem Police Department does not have a cold cases page. I did find this but Rosalee’s case is not featured. MSHP DDCC (Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control) does not feature cold cases on their website either. At the time of writing, I had not found Rosalee’s case on other unsolved homicide websites. I will keep looking and hope to update her post soon.
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In the series “Case of the Month” I highlight old cold cases. These posts are not an in-depth analysis and of course, more information can be found online and in newspaper archives.
We need to get these cases back in the mainstream media, to get people talking again, and if anything, to make sure that we do not forget the victims. Just because their cases are unsolved does not mean that we can forget about them.
With the advances we made in modern forensic sciences, we may have a chance to find clues that previous remained hidden because we did not have the technology. Now that we do, let us review all these old cases once more.
I encourage you to share this post on your own social media platforms. By sharing these posts, the cases reach new networks, new connections, and new online news feeds. One day these updates may pop up in the right person’s news feed. This may be someone who can help advance the case and that is my goal.
Rest in peace, RosaLee Halbrook Byrd.