She was the good girl with the great spirit.
After 40 years, the calls stop. The tips lessen, and the clues disappear. It’s a real fear and a real concern for Anne Arundel County Police Sgt. R.J. Price, part of the homicide investigation unit.
“It’s incredibly difficult because we’re losing the human aspect of the investigation, the witness, the relative. We’re solely relying on evidence at this point because of the length of time that has passed,” Price said.
Time that’s passed in the fleeting case of Phyllis Bohle, the young wife stabbed and killed inside her home on Locust Road, an old dirt road, in Severn.
“The scene as described in the reports that I’ve read was rather brutal. It was a violent attack. Phyllis was attacked in more than one room in the house,” Price said.
A grizzly scene that ended what was supposed to be a day filled with high hopes.
It was Maryland Day.
Phyllis worked at was the DMV, now the MVA. She had the day off.
According to police, she planned on spending the day shopping with a friend – but that quickly changed.
“My sister-in-law called me and told me Phyllis was in an accident,” Omer Gray, Phyllis’ father, said in an interview with ABC2 News in 2011.
His dying wish was to find whoever killed his baby girl.
“I’m 82 years old and this has bugged me for 30 some odd years. And I would just like to see something happen before I’m gone,” Gray said.
Sadly, he died in 2015 with no answers.
Police searched endlessly for clues. There were no signs of a break-in, there was nothing stolen, leading investigators to think whoever killed Phyllis knew her.
Investigators talked to everyone from the delivery men who made stops that day, to Phyllis’ neighbors who were her own relatives, and even her husband, Mike.
“He was at work, went to lunch, his movements that day were tracked by detectives back then as far as where he even stopped for coffee that morning on his way back to work,” Price said recalling the case file.
Still nothing.
As the years pass and the memories fade and witnesses dwindle, it’s a challenge Price says he’s on a mission to meet and find Phyllis’ killer.
“This is something that could happen to anyone in any neighborhood. If you have information on this, we urge you to reach out and contact us,” Price said.
