Ancient Cold Case Closed: The Candy Rogers Mystery Resolved

Ancient Cold Case Closed: The Candy Rogers Mystery Resolved

Today, the Spokane Police Department announced it has identified the man who killed nine-year-old Candy Rogers in 1959. It was possibly the most well-known cold case in the city and the entire state.

On the afternoon of March 6, 1959, nine-year-old Candy Rogers left her home in West Central Spokane to sell campfire mints in and around her neighborhood. As the hours passed, there was no sign of her return. Despair began to set in for her family as they feared the worst.

And then, after two grueling weeks and many large-scale efforts to find her, a heart-wrenching discovery was made. Her lifeless body was found deep in the heart of the dense woods, far from the familiar surroundings of her home. Despite a long and tireless investigation by detectives, the mystery surrounding her death remained unsolved for many decades, but eventually the truth was uncovered over six decades later.

So, what exactly happened to Candy? Did she get lost in the woods and become prey to a wild animal, or did she suffer a fate even far worse?

Hi, and welcome back to Mysterious Hook. Today, we are looking at one of the oldest cold cases to ever be solved: the case of Candy Rogers. But first, if you still haven’t subscribed to our channel, please consider hitting the subscribe button and the notification bell so you never miss another video. So, without any further ado, let’s dive right into this mystery.

Today’s case will take us to Spokane, a city located in the state of Washington in the United States. It is known for its rich cultural heritage and natural beauty, making it a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts. With the Spokane River running through its center, the city offers a thriving downtown area with a plethora of shopping, dining, and entertainment options. The city is also famous for being the birthplace of Father’s Day and for hosting the annual Lilac Festival, which celebrates the blooming of the city’s signature flower.

Candy was born in the year 1950 to parents Elaine and Carl Rogers. Since she was an only child, her parents greatly cherished her. At some point, Elaine and Carl’s marriage came crashing down for unknown reasons, and this caused them to get divorced and go their separate ways. However, Candy remained in the care of her mother, who was a school teacher at the time. Elaine ensured that she provided for her daughter as best she could.

Candy was a popular face in her community, and those who knew her described her as a pleasant and friendly little girl who loved to laugh. By 1959, Candy was nine years old and was a fourth grader at Holmes Elementary School. Like most girls within her age range, Candy also joined a youth organization known as the Bluebirds. The Bluebirds were younger members of the Camp Fire Girls, and the organization aims to provide girls with education and recreational activities so as to encourage personal growth, self-reliance, and a connection to nature.

Candy got actively involved in the activities of the group, which included camping trips, community services, hiking, and a host of others. She enjoyed every moment and took on every activity with enthusiasm. Candy was growing into a smart and happy girl with a future that looked very bright, and everyone around her could see that. However, no one was expecting that a heartbreaking tragedy would soon take her away and shake the entire community to its core.

On March 6, 1959, Candy returned from school to the home she shared with her mother. It was a Friday, and she looked forward to spending time with her friends the following day. However, she also had something else she wanted to do first. The Bluebirds were trying to raise funds for one of their upcoming activities, and as part of the efforts to do so, members were required to sell a variety of chocolates in their neighborhood.

Candy had seven boxes of Camp Fire mints that she planned to sell that day. She asked her mother, Elaine, if she could leave home to do this, and she was given approval. However, Elaine reminded her, “Do not spend too much time outdoors and return home before dark.” It was a rule that Candy had always followed, but Elaine still made sure to remind her of it every time she left home.

Had Elaine known that particular day would be different, she would have never let her daughter leave the house. Candy ate a quick snack of an oatmeal cookie and also played with their family dog briefly. Then she grabbed the boxes of Camp Fire mints and made her way out of the house. The time was around 4 p.m. There were several girls of her age selling chocolate door-to-door that fateful afternoon, and she joined them.

Nobody knows what exactly happened afterwards, but Candy never returned home. At around 5:30 p.m., Elaine began to get worried. She knew it was unlike Candy to remain outside this late. As the minutes slowly dragged by, it seemed like hours to Elaine, and she kept listening for the familiar sound of Candy’s footsteps approaching the house, but they never came.

At around 6 p.m., her anxiety had skyrocketed, and she was sure that something had gone wrong. She quickly informed Candy’s grandfather, Stanley Newton, about the situation. Other relatives, friends, and neighbors were also informed that Candy had not returned home, and by 6:30 p.m., a small group of people were out looking for her.

They began by asking people around the neighborhood if they knew where she was, and some people confirmed that they had seen her walking around earlier clutching the boxes of Camp Fire mints she was selling, but nobody seemed to know where exactly she could now be. Around 7 p.m., Candy’s grandfather, Newton, and his friends were almost hit by a speeding car but managed to jump out of harm’s way.

The close call left them shaken, but their attention quickly returned to finding Candy as the sky darkened. Despite the difficulties of searching in the fading light, the men held on to hope that Candy would be found safe and sound before nightfall. At some point, the authorities were also notified about the missing girl, and soon police officers and sheriff’s deputies also joined in the search.

At around 9 p.m. that same day, a group of searchers came across some boxes of Camp Fire mints. They were found lying across Palouse Drive, and many believed that they had been the same boxes Candy had been selling. Six Camp Fire mint boxes were found that night, but Candy had left home with seven. That night’s search proved to be futile.

There was no sign of Candy anywhere. Elaine could hardly sleep a wink throughout the night. Many thoughts raced through her mind, and she wondered if her daughter was okay. The uncertainty was just too much to bear, and she silently cried and prayed that Candy would return home safely to her.

The following morning was a Saturday, and by then, almost everyone in the city had gotten the news that Candy was missing. Well-meaning individuals trooped out in large numbers to begin the search for the day. Officers rode on horseback as well as in vehicles to conduct the search. They looked through the woods and along major roads.

The Air Force also assisted in the search by providing a helicopter. The aircraft was boarded by four trained personnel as well as one pilot, and they took it to the air. While flying over the Spokane River, the pilot failed to see a high-tension wire until the last moment and ended up flying into it. The effect was immediate. The helicopter spiraled out of control and crashed into the Spokane River, instantly killing three of the five men on board.

Airman Merle D. Ray, Sergeant William A. McDonnell, and Lieutenant Kenneth G. Fatech were the three men who tragically lost their lives on that day. Everyone who had joined in the search for Candy was saddened by the tragic event, but it did little to discourage them from searching for her. They remained determined and therefore intensified their efforts. None of them wanted the death of the three heroes to be in vain, but despite everyone’s best efforts, they had no luck locating Candy for several days.

It was as if she had simply vanished without a trace. With each passing day that Candy remained missing, Elaine began to look like a shadow of herself. She refused to touch her meals and would constantly stare into space. Not knowing the whereabouts of her only daughter was slowly driving her insane. The burden on her heart was just too much to bear.

March 22, 1959, made it 16 days that Candy had been missing, and it was the day she was found. That afternoon, two airmen named Howard Lawrence and Richard Bergen were out hunting woodchucks in a wooded area about seven miles away from Candy’s home. Upon getting to a small clearing in the forest, they noticed a small pair of blue suede shoes. The delicate craftsmanship of the shoes and the small size indicated that they belonged to a child.

They were baffled and wondered how the shoes had gotten there so far away from town. After looking around and waiting a while to see if anyone would come out to lay claim to the shoes, they picked them up and made their way back to base. The two men could not stop talking about the discovery they made in the woods, and the news soon spread like wildfire. The shoes were handed over to the police, who contacted Candy’s grandfather to see if he could identify them.

They had a strong suspicion that the shoes belonged to the little girl they had spent several days searching for. When Candy’s grandfather saw the shoes, he told the police officers that they indeed looked similar to the ones she had worn in the past. With this confirmation, officers decided to focus their search on the area where the shoes had been found. Since it had grown dark, conducting a search would be difficult that night, and so they agreed to wait until the next morning.

The following day was a Sunday, and by dawn, a team of officers and volunteers had arrived at the clearing where the shoes had been found. They immediately began looking through the area but initially found nothing. After some time went by, one of the officers suddenly came across a small mound made up of brush and pine needles. He found it strange and decided to take a closer look.

To his horror, it did not take him long to see a knee sticking out from under the pile, and he carefully brushed away the leaves to reveal the decomposing body of a child. He instantly recognized her as the little girl they had been looking for. The clothes she was wearing were torn in places, and when the officer looked at her feet, he noticed that they were bound. A torn strip of cloth had been used to do this. Also wrapped around her neck was another strip of clothing.

The officer quickly alerted the other searchers, and soon after, the body was taken out of the area for an autopsy. Candy’s relatives were immediately contacted and informed about the state in which she was found. Upon hearing that her daughter was dead, Elaine lost consciousness and had to be placed under sedation. More than a thousand searchers who had volunteered their time, resources, and energy to look for Candy were shocked by the news.

There was a general feeling of dread in the air, and from that moment, many people began to fear for their safety as well as their children’s. The result of the autopsy that was conducted on Candy’s body revealed that she had been abused and then strangled to death. Detectives from the Spokane Police Department immediately began an investigation to find out who the culprit was.

“We’ll put every available man on the case and keep them there till the thing is solved,” Police Chief Clifford Payne had told the media at the time. “We know what we’re looking for now; we’re looking for a maniac,” he added.

A lot of individuals were questioned, but detectives were unable to get any helpful information. The first person the authorities suspected of committing the crime was an imprisoned serial killer by the name of Hugh Byron Morse, and they had good reason for believing that he had something to do with it. When the autopsy was conducted on Candy’s body, a strange purple smear that smelled like grape gum had been noticed on her clothes, and Morse was known for having a special liking for grape gum.

But when he was asked about Candy’s murder, he denied any involvement in it. Since there was no evidence to show that he was the killer they were looking for, charges could not be brought up against him. However, he remained a prime suspect in the case for a long time. Apart from him, detectives also investigated several tips that poured in after Candy’s death, but none of them proved to be of any use.

Candy was eventually laid to rest, and her devastated family members hoped that her killer would be brought to justice sooner than later, but several months went by after this, and the case remained a tough one for detectives to crack. In June 1963, four years after Candy’s death, her father, Carl, sadly took his own life, unable to cope with losing his daughter. At the time, he had been living in a hotel in Walla Walla.

Years went by and Candy began to fade from the memories of many, but her family and the detectives of the Spokane Police Department never forgot. “This is the kind of case that’s been the giant log jam for cold cases, and in Spokane, I keep saying it’s the Mount Everest of our cold cases, the one that we could never seem to overcome. But at the same time, nobody ever forgot,” said Detective Zack Stormont of the Spokane Police Department Major Crimes.

By 2001, there had been a significant advancement in DNA technology compared to the 1950s when it was non-existent. Candy’s clothes from when her body was found had been carefully stored by the authorities as evidence. These clothes were now submitted to the lab with the hopes that the killer’s DNA could be identified.

Forensic investigators quickly got to work, and they were able to determine that Candy’s underwear had DNA on it. They were able to isolate DNA from this, and it was used to create a DNA profile. It was an exciting period for detectives as they felt closer than ever to solving the case. The newly developed DNA profile was then uploaded to the database, but unfortunately, no match was found.

In 2002, detectives compared the DNA profile to that of Morse, who had remained on their radar for a long time. However, to their disappointment, they discovered that he was not the man they were looking for. Nothing of interest would surface for a long time. In September 2006, Candy’s heartbroken mother quietly passed away in her home at the age of 82. She died not knowing who had killed her precious daughter.

Around 2017, forensic genetic genealogy came to the limelight as a new scientific method being used to solve several cold cases. The method uses DNA analysis and traditional genealogical methods to solve crimes and identify missing persons. In other words, it combines science with family history research to piece together clues and bring justice to victims and their loved ones. With the method gaining popularity, detectives decided to give it a try and use it in helping them solve Candy’s murder.

Brittany Wright, a forensic scientist with the Washington State Patrol crime laboratory division, got assigned to the case. Around the time, she was able to get her hands on a DNA sample that had been stored in the crime lab freezer since 2001. The next thing she did was re-analyze the sample to confirm that it matched the original perpetrator’s DNA profile from 2001.

Upon confirming this, she followed up with a diagnostic analysis to determine if it could be used for forensic genetic genealogy. The sample was then sent to a private forensic lab; however, this turned out to be a futile effort as, according to the lab, the DNA sample was too degraded to work with. Detectives’ hopes were completely dashed when they were given the news, and they could hardly hide their disappointment.

A year would go by after this before detectives caught a lucky break. They learned about a particular laboratory that could efficiently work with degraded DNA like the one in Candy’s case. The laboratory was known as Othram, and it was located in Texas. Brittany reached out to them to inquire if Candy’s case was eligible. Upon receiving a positive response, she then sent off a small amount of the remaining DNA sample for testing.

Six months later, the lab came back with a result: three brothers had been identified as the possible suspects. Their names were John, Andrew, and Terry Hoff. As it turned out, all three were long dead. Upon further investigation, detectives discovered that one of the men, John, had a daughter named Kathy. They decided to contact her to let her know that they were investigating her dead father. “By that point, I had already looked up a little girl murdered in 1959, so I knew who it was,” Kathy said.

She provided detectives with a DNA sample, which was then analyzed, and the result was astonishing. It revealed that it was 2.9 million times more likely that Kathy’s DNA was related to the suspect DNA profile than the general population. With this, detectives became more certain that John was the killer they had spent decades looking for. They did a background check on him and discovered that in addition to growing up in Spokane, he lived about a mile from Candy’s home at the time of her murder.

He also had a troubled past. In 1956, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Army. However, in 1961, two years after Candy’s death, he was arrested for assaulting a woman. According to reports, he had approached the woman and used force to remove her clothes while she struggled and screamed for help. He then used the clothes to tie her up before trying to strangle her. Luckily, the woman survived the ordeal.

For the crime, John spent six months in prison, and when he got out, the Army labeled him a deserter and discharged him from service. After this, John led a pretty normal life; he worked as a door-to-door salesman and also in a lumber yard to make ends meet. However, at the young age of 31, he ended up taking his own life.

Apart from this, detectives also uncovered a possible connection between John and Candy. Hoff’s stepsister was a 10-year-old Camp Fire Girl at the time of Candy’s murder and had taken on the role of Candy’s big sister in the program. Detectives believed that this was how John might have known Candy.

When detectives uncovered all this about John, they decided to take one final step to confirm that he was Candy’s killer. With Kathy’s permission as well as a search warrant, they traveled to the cemetery where John was buried and exhumed his corpse. A DNA sample was taken from his remains and was then sent to the lab for testing. The result was what detectives expected: John was Candy’s killer.

“We got extremely lucky in that we got DNA from 1959,” said former Spokane Police Detective Brian Hammond, who worked tirelessly on the case till he retired in 2021. “They had no concept of that at the time, and that’s obviously what cracks the case. Otherwise, I don’t believe it would have ever been solved,” Hammond added.

Some of Candy’s surviving relatives were contacted and informed about the breakthrough in the case. “It’s not closure, but at least there’s some form of satisfaction knowing that the person that did it is at least named. He may be in a grave, but he’s named,” said 77-year-old Joanne Poss, a cousin of Candy.

Candy’s relatives, however, remained saddened by the fact that her grandparents and parents never got to know who killed her. “They never saw him pay or die for it or whatever. They went to their grave not knowing, and that was hard,” Joanne said.

As for Kathy, the revelation that her father was the murderer shook her to the bones. “It’s just really sad to find out that someone—not even just your dad, but someone in your family—could do something like that,” Kathy said. “John passed away when she was only nine, and she grew up believing that he had done it out of depression, and now I think: no, he was evil,” she said. “It wasn’t an escape and away from it, but he got to die with people thinking he was an upstanding man, and he wasn’t.”

Kathy also rendered a public apology for her father’s crime and the pain it caused the murdered girl’s family. “I’m very, very sorry for what my dad did, that he took her life horribly,” she said. “I hope that it gives peace knowing that even though it’s not really justice because he doesn’t get any punishment, his name has this on it now, and they can know it’s solved.”

Through the act of one man, a family was plunged into misery and remained in the dark for more than 60 years. However, the determination and perseverance of several generations of detectives helped to reveal his identity and bring the bereaved family much-needed closure. But do you think John’s murder of Candy was pre-planned, or was it a random act? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section. Do not forget to like, comment, share, and subscribe.