You may access historical and current statistics and data on the number of murders in Nebraska by year on the websites of many law enforcement and investigating organizations, including local, state, and even federal. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation prepares and releases an annual Uniform Crime Report, which provides statistics surrounding the types of crimes committed in most cities and counties in every states, their crime rates, and relative crime locations. Furthermore, Project: Cold Case, a nonprofit group, has gathered and released a public database which includes nearly 25,000 unsolved homicides in the United States. In addition to their rapidly updating database, Project: Cold Case has created a detailed webpage dedicated to the number of unsolved homicides and the homicide clearance rates for each state from 1980-2019. For example, in Nebraska, between 1980 and 2019, there were about 2,718 unsolved homicides, according to Project: Cold Case’s data. Over the years, roughly 2,212 of those homicides have been solved or seen resolution, currently leaving approximately 506 unsolved murders in Nebraska as of the website’s latest update.
Unfortunately, there is no single database or list of Nebraska’s many unsolved homicides, and many local law enforcement agencies fall into the same category. Due to this, finding Nebraska cold cases to research can quickly become a daunting task, especially when trying to find information on unsolved murders in specific areas of the state. A few of the unsolved murders in northern Nebraska which can be found within various websites and news articles include: the 1990 murder of Letha Harley, the 1975 murder of Merlin Mosel, the 2009 murder of Lacey Anderson, and the 2016 murder of Sherry Wounded Foot, among many others in the northern portion of Nebraska. Other examples of cases which can be found within these lists include the many unsolved central Nebraska murders. Some examples of these include the following: the 1987 murder of Christi Nichols, the 1984 murder of Ernestine Ruschy, the 2005 murder of Jason Remsen, the 1997 murder of Jay Blockson, and the 1999 murder of Jeanne Kassebaum, as well as the 2019 disappearance of Chance Leslie Englebert, which remains unsolved to this day.
In addition to those already mentioned, a few of the unsolved murders in Lincoln, Nebraska, can also be found in the limited lists or within databases including the 2004 murder of Carl Bittner Jr., the 1974 murder of Patricia Webb, and the 2002 murder of Eugene McGuire, among others. Lastly, some examples of some currently unsolved murders in Lancaster County, Nebraska, are also included within many of the same databases, or lists. These include the 1998 murder of Roxanne Myers, the 2003 murder of Jonathan Luna, the 2012 murder of Erma Kaylor, and the 1995 murder of Juanita Chevalier, among others.