Police await DNA test results on items in 1981 Parkville cold case

PARKVILLE, Md. — It was a fall Saturday afternoon: Oct. 17, 1981. Two children walking a wooded path behind Dowling Circle in Parkville made a disturbing discovery: the body of a young woman.

The children ran to nearby homes, banging on doors and asking neighbors to call 911.

"At the time, they can't really tell what happened to her. They become frightened and they run to neighbors' doors, banging on them, asking them to call 911," said Cpl. Dona Carter of the Baltimore County Police Cold Case Unit.

Police arrived and found signs the woman had been strangled. She was identified as Jacqueline Hollis, a 23-year-old Baltimore City resident and former Morgan State University student.

Investigators determined that on the night she was murdered, Hollis left her city apartment in a cab with another tenant. The cab stopped at Lakeside Avenue and The Alameda, not far from City College and what was then Memorial Stadium.

"Her intention was to go see her dad, who lived on Lakeside Avenue. So that's the last place that she's seen. The cab driver confirms that he drops her off there around that intersection, and the other tenant stays in the cab because he's going to a different destination and the cab driver even verifies that," Carter said.

Both the cab driver and the other tenant saw Hollis walking toward her father's house; that was the last time she was seen alive. Police say she never made it to her father's home, and her father did not know she was coming that night.

Investigators also learned that Hollis was described as very trusting, someone who would befriend anyone and was known to get into cars with people she did not know.

Now, 45 years later, Baltimore County Police are turning to new technology in hopes of a breakthrough.

"There were several items, because she was strangled and the state in which her body was found, that we believe that the suspect actually touched. So we are waiting for those items to go ahead and be tested," Carter said.

Anyone with information that could help investigators is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-3943.

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