One of the unsolved murders I wrote about was Jean Sanseverino, who was murdered in Brooklyn on State Street in 1951. This is a picture of her estranged husband Raymond, who was one of the people police suspected at the time. It was taken when he was 17. (I don’t think it was Raymond, myself.)

While writing the book I tried to track down everyone the police talked to at the time. The person I wanted to find the most I never did. That was her roommate Sylvia Krumholz.

I thought I’d post what I know about her here. You never know. Maybe someone out there can find her for me. I don’t know if she knows who murdered Jean, but perhaps she knew more than she told the police at the time.

Here’s everything I know about Sylvia.

Name: Sylvia Krumholz, aka Sylvia Brooks
DOB: Aprox. 1929, 22 years old (may have been older, or younger)
Last Addr: 366 State Street, Brooklyn, NY in 1951
Occupation: Waitress

At one point she said her name was Sylvia Brooks and that she was married, but that may have been an alias. She also said she was 22, but I discovered that a couple of the women questioned lied about their ages in both directions, so maybe she did too. This is not a lot to go on, I know.

Places I’ve Already Tried:

– Called all the Krumholz’s in the New York, New Jersey, Florida phone books.
– The 1930 Census records, (found two, one in New York and one in New Jersey but this hasn’t helped me find her yet).
– The New York Times (Proquest).
– The Daily News and the Brooklyn Eagle for Feb, March, April, 1951 only.
– Searches on Autotrack and Accurint.
– New York City and State prison records.
– Various church records all around Brooklyn.
– Checked the Social Security Death Index.
– Checked libraries in New Jersey for death notices.
– Checked various cemetery records in New York.

I’ve been looking for a while, and I may be forgetting things I’ve tried.

These two men, Frederick R. Bieber, a medical geneticist:

And Charles H. Brenner, a forensic mathematician:

… led a study which found that we’d find more bad guys if we start collecting the DNA profiles of relatives of known criminals.

From a Washington Post article by Rick Weiss about the study:

“In one recent case, for example, a specimen from a 1988 murder scene was found to have a DNA pattern similar to that of a 14-year-old boy whose DNA was on file with the police. Investigators obtained a sample from the teenager’s uncle, which perfectly matched the crime scene specimen and led to his conviction.”

I want to catch murderers as much as the next guy, but I don’t know. What are the dangers of misuse here, and what controls could be put into place to mitigate them?

There’s a new cold case organization called the Cold Case Forum [the link I had is no longer working]. From their website:

“The Cold Case Forum, LLC has been founded to provide training to police departments and other law enforcement agencies whose personnel are asked to carry out the serious job of solving oen or unsolved homicides. They are most often asked to do this with little, if any, training that could enhance their skills.

I see they have a seminar coming up on June 5th in Rhode Island, where they’re based.

The director, Andrew Rosenzweig, in his younger days (love old police photos, which is NOT the same as calling you old, Andy, if you’re reading this):

Perhaps clearance rates are going down slowly because police departments are also slowly improving their crime reporting practices? (Am I stating the obvious here?)

By the way, there was a great piece about “New York Killers” in the Times recently. Good work, Jo Craven McGinty. The section about clearance rates had some problems, which I’m going to address in the next couple of weeks, hopefully, but still. Good job.