Could a 1981 Cable Repair Ticket Lead to Woman's Killer?

Possible clue released on what would have been Tracey Neilson's 55th birthday
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 9, 2015 8:30 AM CST
Could a 1981 Cable Repair Ticket Lead to Woman's Killer?
A photo of Tracey Neilson.   (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation)

Monday, Jan. 5, would have been Tracey Neilson's 55th birthday. It also marked the 34th anniversary of the day she was found dead by her husband of five months in their Moore, Okla., apartment. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation hopes that the 35th anniversary won't arrive with the crime still unsolved: On Monday its director revealed a "critical piece of evidence": a cable repair ticket book. At a press conference, Director Stan Florence explained that the book's final ticket logs work completed at the Neilsons' apartment at 11:51am on the day of her death, reports the Norman Transcript. The book has no company name on it, the Oklahoman reports; in the bottom left corner of the ticket is a box where the employee signed off on the work, and the ticket in question contains three letters.

"We want help in identifying those three letters, identifying who that person was that wrote in that book," said Florence. The ticket book has been in the bureau's possession for years; under a state law that was altered in 2011, the bureau finally had the ability to share the evidence with the public in hopes it will bring closure to the case. The bureau said it received a number of calls within a day of revealing the ticket. The Oklahoman reports that the 21-year-old's throat was cut, and she had been stabbed a number of times. There was no sign of forced entry, and a fingerprint found at the scene has proved a dead end. Eyewitnesses reported seeing Neilson at home just before noon; afternoon calls to her placed by family members wanting to wish her a happy birthday went unanswered. Her husband found her body around 5pm. (Read about a development in a 1975 cold case involving two young sisters.)

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