Thursday, November 19, 2009

Shawnee County authorities have decided to reopen the investigation into a 1976 murder of an 18-year-old woman.

The sheriff's department on Wednesday announced that it was seeking the public's help in trying to solve the death of Tirell D. Ocobock.

She was beaten to death and her body was discovered on April 26, 1976, in Topeka.

The sheriff's department did not say what prompted it to reopen the case, but asked anyone who had information to call the Crime Stoppers tip line.

Johanna Ocobock, Tirell's mother, says she does not know why officers reopened the case.

Ocobock had worked at an animal hospital and was a freshman at Washburn University. An autopsy revealed she was killed by blows to the head from a tree limb.