Welcome back, Americans. Come along with me as we dig into the deep and scandalous lives of US politicians and cases. On today's episode, we need to go over the amazing miracle of the Loyola forensic science students helping Howard County Police identify victim in the county's oldest case!
These students were interns for the Howard County Police Department. These brilliant students documented and digitized evidence, reevaluated fingerprints, used AI technology, and leveraged genealogy.
As a result, the police were able to identify the woman as Sadie Bell Murray. She was born on September 7th, 1924 in Pennsylvania. At 1971 which was the time of her death, she identified as Sarah Belle Sharkey.
The identification was announced by Howard County Police in September of 2025. This didn't just only solve her true identity, but also helped reunite two of her adult children, who wasn't aware of what genuinely happened to their mother.
Bethany Bessling, Class of 25, worked on the case as an intern with Howard County Police. Bessling states, “I wish I could put into words how it feels. It’s surreal. It was truly rewarding to be able to give them some type of information and closure."
Bessling's work included sending over fingerprints to every state police department in the whole entire country to see if a certain detail or connection were missed over the years.
With using AI technology, she used photoshop to generate an AI rendering of Sarah Belle Sharkey with the intention of someone recognizing her. Not only Bessling contributed to this wonderful discovery, but so did numerous Loyola students, involving Julia Viverios, Class of 24, was the first one to participate in the internship. After she graduated, she came back to Howard County as a non-sworn contingent worker assisting with cold cases.
Another student, Gabriel Flores, Class of 25, also worked on the case at the same time as Bessling. Identifying the vicitm was only possible in this case because the police still had DNA samples from when Sharkey was found. Even though Sharkey has been identified, the homicide case remains open, and the Howard County cold case unit is investigating other unsolved cases. Regarding Bessling, the opportunity for her to intern with the Howard County cold case unit was a chance for her to navigate and gain credible experience from the field, connect with professionals and students, and make a true impact.
That's all for today! Thanks for tuning in, you know you love me!
XOXO, F&G 💋