Carron D. Kilpatrick was 32 and a mother of five when her body was found in a trash cart in a Milwaukee alley on October 13, 1994. Investigators determined she had been strangled and stabbed. Her live-in boyfriend, Curtis McCoy, was arrested and charged that same month; the prosecution’s case relied on two witnesses and a confession, but a jury acquitted McCoy at trial. The accusation nevertheless had severe consequences for him—he lost custody of his children, his home was vandalized, and his health declined.

Years later Kilpatrick’s case was re-examined as part of a broader investigation into multiple murders of women in Milwaukee. DNA recovered from the 1994 crime scene matched Walter E. Ellis, later identified as the Milwaukee North Side Strangler and convicted in seven other killings. Prosecutors chose not to charge Ellis in Kilpatrick’s death, citing concerns about meeting the burden of proof in her specific case. Does anyone have information about Carron Kilpatrick’s life, her last days, or new leads that could help her family find fuller closure?