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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/2000outsider on 2023-12-28 21:23:05+00:00.
Original Title: On this day 59 years ago, on December 28, 1964, 16-year-old Beverly Jarosz was brutally murdered in her Cleveland suburb home of Garfield Heights, Ohio. The medical examiner who also worked on The Cleveland Torso Murders, described it as the most horrifying scene he ever witnessed. Who killed her?
Heads up - There will be A TON of background information given, before any of the Beverly Jarosz case suspects get spoken about after all of this background information.
Beverly Jarosz was an American 16-year-old girl living in Garfield Heights, Ohio, when she got brutally murdered in her home on December 28, 1964. By all accounts, she was popular, intelligent, and kind-hearted, although not athletic in the slightest. Described as a quiet and secretive young girl, friends and family knew that it took her a while to trust people. Beverly had a younger sister named Carol, and they lived with their parents, Thaddeus and Eleanor.
Garfield Heights was a suburb of Cleveland, and a very middle-class suburb at that. Garfield Heights residents were blue collar, hard-working types who pulled late shifts at the local factories, and 9-to-5ers who arrived home at the end of evening. Most women didn’t work outside the home, and people really knew their neighbors and invited them to dinner. Eleanor worked at Gellin Company located at 1111 Carnegie Avenue Southeast, in Cleveland, Ohio. Thaddeus was co-owner of the Universal Lighting and Manufacturing Company at 3599 East 83rd Street in Garfield Heights.
Beverly was 118 pounds, and 5 foot 7-and-a-half. Beverly went through a gawky, pre-adolescent phase, where she wore glasses and braces. The transformation to the attractive girl she would become started around the end of eighth grade, as that's when her former elementary school classmates would come over to be around her.
By the time she was in eleventh grade in 1964, she had completely blossomed into an attractive young woman, who looked 5 to even 10 years older than her actual age. Beverly was a striking young woman with a nicely curvy figure and eyes the color of the lake, and had many male admirers. Most of the male admirers were boys she went to school with & young men in her neighborhood, but there were a few admirers that were older men who were out of her age bracket. In the summers, Beverly liked to sunbathe in her backyard and read books.
Throughout the year of 1964 before the murder, notably in the summer, there were some weird & unsettling disturbances, like multiple phone calls a day where the caller hung up immediately after someone answered the phone, and unsigned presents left for Beverly in her backyard. The presents were a silver ring and a bracelet, left in the back door which the Jarosz family didn't use. The gift-wrapped box that had the ring and bracelet was from Higbee’s, or at least put in a Higbee's box.
The most disturbing occurrence of them all, is when Beverly's dad Thaddeus (aka Ted) came home from work one night, to find a man looking up at the window of the bedroom Beverly shared with her sister. Beverly's dad chased the man, but he managed to get away after being chased for a block.
Because of all this, Beverly always made sure all the doors were locked, and would always peek out the curtains to know who was there before answering the door. One time, she even locked her parents out of the house, because she was so paranoid. Additionally, Beverly always placed phone calls to her family to let them know she was safe.
Beverly additionally purchased a letter opener (a knife-like desktop tool, although much smaller and less sharper than an actual knife), which she kept on her desk (there's a misconception that she kept it on her nightstand). The desk was in the bedroom by the door that led downstairs However, regarding the presents, Beverly's sister was told by Beverly's best friend Margie that Beverly actually wore the silver ring, although Beverly did not know who purchased the ring.
On December 28, 1964, Beverly and Carol woke up in the 8:30-9:00 am time range, and had breakfast with their parents, before seeing them off to work. Beverly had plans to meet up in the afternoon with her best friend Mary-Margaret Gorney (better known as Margie), and another friend who was getting closer in the friend circle, named Barbara Klonowski.
Before that, Beverly and her sister Carol made plans to go to their grandmother’s house for lunch. They left for their grandmother's house around 10:00-10:15 am after their parents left for work earlier. The route Beverly and Carol took to their grandma's house was through Turneytown Shopping Center.
Along the route, they stopped at F.W. Woolworth for a hairnet for their grandma, then went to Hough's Bakery for a loaf of bread. They arrived at their grandma's around 10:30-10:45 am. At 11:00 am, Beverly made plans to meet up later with Barbara Klonowski so they could walk to the house of Beverly's best friend, Mary Margaret Gorney (better known as Margie Gorney). Barbara, who lived on 12205 Oak Park Boulevard, would meet Beverly at her address of 10921 Thornton Avenue (which was a mile away and 3 minute car ride), and they would walk half a mile (10 minute walk from Beverly’s) to 10728 Raymond Avenue, which is where Margie lived.
At 11:30 am, Beverly calls Margie, telling Margie that she and Barbara would be over at Margie’s house (which was a couple blocks from Beverly’s) between 1-2 pm. Beverly stayed at her grandmother's for around an hour and a half, as she needed to get home to get ready to meet with Barbara, as they were meeting Margie at her house.
Around 12:00-12:15 pm, Beverly was getting ready to walk home from her grandma's house. At this time, the grandma's neighbor, an 18-year-old man named James, arrived home in his car, and as he was approaching his house, his mom saw Beverly out on the street in the cold, and told James to give her a ride home. James drove Beverly home, arriving shortly before 12:30 pm. James pulled into the driveway, dropped Beverly off right near the Jarosz side door, and Beverly thanked him and entered the house through the side door. The side door was the Jarosz family’s main entrance, and it was in between the living room and the kitchen.
In between the time she got home & the time she got murdered, there were three phone calls made to the house, and Beverly made two calls herself from the family home phone in this time as well. At 12:30 pm, Beverly received a call from a jeweler, explaining that her great-grandmother's necklace wasn't worth fixing.
Beverly phoned her mom shortly after around 1pm, relaying the message from the jeweler. The second call Beverly made was to a friend named Barbara Kralik-Miltner, who she spoke with on the phone between 1:05 and 1:15 pm. Beverly asked Barbara Kralik to come over, but Barbara Kralik couldn't hang out that day because she was doing something for the holidays.
Around this time, Beverly received a call from an unknown man who referred to himself as "Steve Stackowicz", who either wanted to know if her father, or either of her parents were home. Beverly wrote down a note saying that "Steve Stackowicz called, will call back later". The words “called” and “later” were underlined on the note.
The Stackowicz note was found by kitchen phone. No one in the house knew anyone by that name. Because it isn't known who the Steve Stackowicz caller was, there's no way to know as to what time the caller called at, or even the order of the call when compared to the other calls made to and from the house. Handwriting experts said that the message was written under heavy pressure and anxiety.
Beverly's concerned grandma called at around 1:20 pm, but Beverly told her she had to hang up right after confirming she got home safe, as it seemed like Barbara was at the door. It is believed that the Stackowicz call was made at least before Beverly's grandma called her, and Beverly simply didn't mention it to her grandma because she was low on time.
It turned out Barbara was reportedly running late, and she got dropped off at Beverly's house by her mom at 1:25 pm. Barbara and her mom noticed that there were no cars in the driveway or parked near the house. Barbara heard loud classical music from the WCLV station blasting from inside the house when she arrived. Barbara said that she proceeded to the side door (which was the main door the family used), and rang the doorbell 10 times, and Barbara got no response.
Barbara said the storm/screen door was locked, but that the actual inner door that led into the house's kitchen was open. She then proceeded to the front door and rang the doorbell. It was when she rang the doorbell at the front, that Barbara said she heard an extremely loud thud, “like someone knocking over a dresser”. Barbara got a magazine from the mailbox, and leafed through it for a few minutes.
Barbara said that she ended up leaving after waiting for anywhere between 5-15 minutes, assuming that Beverly was mad at her for being late, or teasing her. Barbara thought Beverly was “standing her up” as she was the “new girl in the group”. Barbara said she got mad, and said she walked up the street to Turney Road after she left, where she was picked up by a friend who dropped her home.
When her two friends didn’t show up at her house, Margie called Barbara at 2:45 pm. Barbara told Margie that Beverly didn't answer the door. T...
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