Help Honor Jane Althoff with a Headstone

Eight-year-old Jane Althoff was the victim of a horrific crime in 1951. While at a local carnival, she was lured to a truck, assaulted, and strangled to death. She never received justice. Here is her story:

Jane Althoff was murdered on April 25, 1951. Earlier that evening, Jane and her two brothers left home to visit a traveling carnival nearby. Not long after they arrived, Jane and her brothers became separated in the crowd. A few hours went by and Jane's brothers decided they should head back to their house. They looked for Jane but couldn't find her. When more time passed and Jane was still nowhere to be found, her brothers panicked and reported her missing.

Police began searching the five-acre carnival grounds and asking other attendees if they had seen a girl matching Jane's description, but no one had. Shortly after midnight, Jane's lifeless body was found in the cab of a carnival truck in a dark area on the grounds. When the coroner examined Jane, he concluded that she had either been choked or smothered, and that she had been dead four to five hours when she was found. Jane had not been sexually assaulted. The coroner said that the killer probably grabbed Jane's throat with one hand while covering her mouth and nose with the other to muffle her screams.

Chief County Detective Fred Jack stated, "We believe that she was enticed into the truck and killed when she screamed or started to scream for help."

Police noted that the noise from the carnival would have further muffled Jane's cries from more than 2,000 attendees less than 100 yards away. More than 300 employees of the carnival were fingerprinted and questioned. Multiple suspects, including a carnival hand and a ferris wheel operator, were cleared. A single fingerprint was found on the door of the truck where Jane's body was discovered. Two palm prints were also found on the seat. An examination of Jane's clothing showed "definite" grease stains which "might have been left" by the greasy hands of a mechanic. The fingerprint and palm prints found on the truck came back as a match to a man named William Henry Redmond.

In January 1952, a warrant was issued for Redmond's arrest so that he could be questioned; however, it was never executed because authorities could not find him. Over three decades passed before a state trooper named Malcolm Murphy reopened the all-but-cold case in 1985. In that time, Redmond had worked as a miner, truck driver, and a merchant seaman. He had married, divorced, and settled into an unassuming life in Nebraska. He had been a ferris wheel operator for the traveling carnival in 1951 when Jane was killed.

Knowing that Redmond had always been the prime suspect in Jane's murder, Murphy tracked him down in Grand Island, Nebraska using computerized vehicle registrations in 1988. Almost as soon as Murphy began questioning him, Redmond admitted to Jane's murder. Redmond was arrested and transported back to Pennsylvania by train due to his poor health from emphysema. According to his confession, Redmond had lured Jane to his truck with candy bars, then molested her (despite the coroner's findings to the contrary), then strangled her when she began to scream. Frustratingly, Redmond had been one of the original 300 carnival employees who were questioned by police, but he had been released for lack of evidence.

When Redmond arrived back in Pennsylvania, District Court Judge George Paige ordered him to be detained in a county jail without posting bond. However, Redmond was ultimately determined to be a non-threat due to his advanced age and health issues and was released on a $1 bail. Redmond died on January 2, 1992 at his Nebraska home while awaiting trial. When Murphy refused to disclose the identity of a confidential informant, Jane Althoff's murder case was dropped. Redmond was the prime suspect in the murders and/or disappearances of six other children.

Jane was 8 years old.

Jane's family was poor and lived on $80/month. They simply could not afford to mark her grave with a headstone. For 73 years, her grave has remained unmarked. We want to change that, and finally give her the remembrance she deserves.

Any/all contributions are appreciated!