Karlena Jean Tolston, an 18-year-old Black woman with her whole life ahead of her, was eagerly awaiting the birth of her first child in the fall of 1983. Seven months pregnant, she was just weeks away from becoming a mother. Her family remembers her as a beloved daughter, sister, and aunt who was always around kids. Her younger sister, Janita Kelly, recalled how Karlena had bought her a cheerleading outfit for ninth grade just before she was killed, remembering her as her "backbone." Her older brother, Kelvin Tolston, simply said, "I just loved her for it."
The night of Saturday, September 17, 1983, Karlena had been visiting with friends in her South Omaha, Nebraska, neighborhood. Her mother last saw her between 8 and 9 p.m., and a niece saw her around midnight. Sometime after that, she began walking home with her cousin, Courtney Starks.
What happened in the next few hours would end two lives and leave a family searching for answers for decades.
On the morning of Sunday, September 18, a woman walking her dog made a horrific discovery. Karlena’s body was found in a vacant lot near the Highland Elementary School playground at 27th and Madison Streets, just a block from her home. The scene was one of extreme violence. An autopsy would later reveal she had been shot twice in the head, the cause of her death. She had also been severely beaten with fists or feet, and there were bite marks on her body. Her underpants and slippers were found near a pool of blood about 20 feet from her body, which was clad in a sundress pulled up to her chest, indicating a sexual assault had occurred. A 20-foot trail of blood showed that her killer had dragged her into a brushy area, seemingly in an attempt to hide her body.
The Omaha Police Department began an immediate homicide investigation, led by Lt. Robert Pfeffer. Despite the brutality of the crime, which included gunshots, no witnesses to the attack came forward. Police publicly appealed for information, believing someone in the residential area must have heard something. Investigators soon focused on Karlena’s cousin, Courtney Starks, who was the last person known to have seen her alive. He was questioned extensively by police. Starks told them that as they were walking, a man Karlena knew pulled up in a Corvette. He claimed Karlena told him to go on home, and that she would get a ride with the acquaintance.
Shortly after the murder, police announced they had a suspect, and it was widely understood to be Starks. While reports from the time and years following suggest an arrest may have been made in the initial stages of the investigation, official charges for the murder of Karlena Tolston were never filed against Starks or anyone else, with authorities citing a lack of sufficient evidence to proceed. He remained a person of interest in the case, but the investigation stalled.
For four decades, Karlena's family has lived with the pain of not knowing who was responsible for her death. Their mother passed away without ever seeing justice for her daughter. The family has held memorials and balloon releases, hoping to keep Karlena's memory alive and to encourage anyone with information to come forward. "It’s been 30 years, and I still don't know how to say how much I miss her," her brother Kelvin said in 2013. A decade later, in 2023, the family’s hope was buoyed by a new federal grant aimed at helping Omaha’s cold case unit investigate unsolved murders. They continue to believe that someone in the community holds the key to solving the case. "Omaha's too small for someone not to say nothing," her sister Janita stressed.
As of September 2023, the murder of Karlena Jean Tolston and her unborn son remains unsolved. The Omaha Police Department’s Cold Case Unit continues to investigate, hoping that advances in DNA technology might one day pull new evidence from the old files. Omaha Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person or persons responsible. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Omaha Police Homicide Unit at (402) 444-5656 or Crime Stoppers at (402) 444-STOP.
