FIRST ON FOX: In a breakthrough development, cold case detectives in Los Angeles are re-examining newly uncovered fingerprints from 1943 in the ongoing investigation of the notorious Black Dahlia murder. This chilling case involves the unsolved 1947 killing and mutilation of Elizabeth Short, a young actress with Hollywood dreams.
Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old originally from Massachusetts, met a gruesome end in Los Angeles. Her body was found dismembered in a vacant lot, nearly 80 years ago. The horrific scene was so meticulously arranged that the woman who stumbled upon the body initially mistook it for a mannequin, a chilling detail recorded by the FBI. Short’s body had been cut in half, drained of blood, and cleaned, making it one of the most disturbing mysteries in American crime history.
Detective Marty Mojarro, one of the LAPD cold case investigators currently working on this case, acknowledges the challenges posed by the passage of time. “This is probably one of the most difficult cases, realistically, because of the time that’s passed,” he noted, emphasizing the complexities faced in solving such an old mystery.
Adding another layer to the intrigue, independent forensic examiner Alex Baber, co-founder of the Cold Case Consultants of America, has recently surfaced with potential evidence. Baber suggests a possible connection between Short’s former boyfriend, Marvin Margolis, and her murder. Intriguingly, this evidence might also tie Margolis to the Zodiac Killer, another infamous and unresolved case haunting California’s history.
Most recently, independent forensic examiner Alex Baber, co-founder of the Cold Case Consultants of America, said he found evidence that could link Short’s ex-boyfriend Marvin Margolis to her murder and to the Zodiac Killer, another infamous, unsolved case in California.
Mojarro said the claim still needs vetting but warrants further investigation, and he has received what Baber says is Margolis’ government fingerprint card from 1943, which had not previously been obtained by police.
“As an investigator, if it potentially could help, I would absolutely not turn it down,” Mojarro told Fox News Digital.
An image of Marvin Merrill in 1969. (Courtesy of Alex Baber)
Margolis served in the Pacific in the Navy in World War II. He lived in Los Angeles after the war with a roommate named Bill Robinson, who was a Navy cryptologist, and he dated Short.
Margolis was among 22 persons of interest in her death identified in 1951, according to police records Baber shared with Fox News Digital previously. Later, he changed his name to Marvin Merrill, then again to Marty Merrill, and settled in the Midwest.
Mojarro said he could not comment on what other evidence the LAPD may or may not have in the case file to compare the exemplars to.
Baber said he believes this image shows Black Dahlia victim Elizabeth Short and was drawn by Marvin Margolis, who may have used the aliases Marvin Merrill and Marty Merrill. Margolis was an early suspect in Short’s 1947 murder. He was never charged and has since died. According to Baber, there are indentations from a pencil visible in person that add texture and new clues to the image, including wounds that are consistent with those found on Short and, more explosively, the word “Zodiac” in the lower right. (Alex Baber)
The FBI has revealed previously that there was a letter that may have been sent to authorities by Short’s killer. Fingerprints on the packaging were not a match for anything in the FBI’s database in the past.
According to Baber, his team at Cold Case Consultants was unable to exclude a print on the package, which was sent to the Los Angeles Herald Express on Jan. 24, 1947.
“It contained 23 pieces of Elizabeth’s personal belongings that would’ve been in her purse the night she was abducted and murdered on Jan. 14,” Baber said.
Alex Baber of Cold Case Consultants of America poses for a photo in the courtyard of the East Hampton Library during the Hamptons Whodunit event on Saturday, April 18. Baber presented evidence he says shows the Black Dahlia murder and Zodiac serial slayings were linked. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)
For the LAPD’s cold case investigators, all leads with potential are worth vetting.
“We don’t have live witnesses to interview,” Mojarro said. “All the physical evidence that was ever collected — it is what it is.”
<!–>
–>