The 1956 Unsolved Murder of the Grimes Sisters
At 7:30pm on December 28th 1956, teenage sisters Barbara and Patricia Grimes left their home in Chicago, Illinois and headed to a local cinema to see Elvis Presley’s new movie, Love Me Tender. However, it would be the last time they were seen alive.
After the movie ended, the sisters failed to meet their older siblings at a bus stop, which prompted their concerned mother to report them missing at 02:15 the following morning. During the weeks that followed, hundreds of police officers searched extensively and Elvis Presley himself made a public plea for their safe return. Sadly, almost one month later on 22nd January 1957, the sisters’ bodies were discovered alongside a secluded road in Willow Springs - approximately a 20 minute drive from the theatre they attended.
Their bodies were nude and almost completely submerged in snow. An examination of their stomach contents showed that both Barbara (15) and Patricia (12) had likely died within 5 hours of leaving the movie theatre. Although there were no injuries deemed fatal, the girls had sustained bruising and Barbara had three puncture wounds on her chest. The positioning of their bodies also suggested they had been thrown over the guardrail at the roadside. During the course of the investigation, numerous men were suspected of murdering the girls, but a lack of substantial evidence saw them all eventually released without charge.
Although the details of the case would suggest foul play, it was ruled the sisters had died due to a combination of shock and exposure to freezing temperatures. Additionally, the autopsies carried out concluded their wounds were likely caused by foraging animals - particularly rodents - after death.
However, not all professionals working on this case were satisfied with this outcome. Chief investigator Harry Glos exposed certain details of the case which he claimed had been kept private to protect the girls’ mother - including that the girls had been sexually assaulted and traces of recently consumed milk had been found among their stomach contents. Up until his death in 1994, he maintained the girls had been held captive until at least 7th January before being murdered. Glos was ultimately fired for releasing this information into the public domain.
The girls’ mother - Loretta Grimes - also went on to receive phone calls from an anonymous male caller who boasted about killing her daughters and getting away with it. However, the caller was not successfully identified and to this day the truth surrounding the death of Barbara and Patricia Grimes remains unknown.
