A local man is working on the coldest of cold cases––the 1974 murder of a SUNY Cobleskill student.
And although State Police believe the man may be treading familiar ground, they’re willing to take any help they can to catch the killer.
Fearing the publicity his family would get if he revealed his name, the man wants to remain anonymous, so for now he’ll be Mr. Smith.
Even 35 years later, the facts of the case haunt Mr. Smith:
The night of November 2, 1974, student Kathy Kolodeziej was with friends at a downtown Cobleskill bar. She decided to return to her campus dorm and rejected offers from friends to accompany her.
Ms. Kolodeziej never made it back to campus.
Searches continued through November, and on the 28th, hunters found her half-nude body off MacDonald Road in Richmondville. She had been stabbed many times.
Police launched a nationwide manhunt, interviewed more than 3,000 people and turned up numerous leads, all of which petered out.
Some facts did emerge: An elderly woman saw Ms. Kolodeziej get into a yellow Volkswagen outside the bar about 1:30am the last day she was seen.
Shortly afterwards, a delivery man saw a yellow VW behind what was then the Agway Farm Store on West Main, and a woman was yelling and screaming inside the car.
Those leads, too, led nowhere, because police could never find the car.
The case resurfaced 10 years ago––its 25th anniversary––as police tried to generate interest in it again.
That’s when Mr. Smith came in.
He lived in the area in ’74, and “I probably heard about the case but didn’t really think much of it,” he said.
When State Police publicized the case in ’99, it piqued Mr. Smith’s interest.
He followed the case for a while, but when interest died down, he dropped it.
Then about three weeks ago, he was cleaning out his attic and came across clippings he had saved from ’99.
“I thought, why not give it one more crack?” he said. “Somebody killed her. A lot of people want it solved.”
That’s what keeps him going.
Now retired at age 71, Mr. Smith dived in. He interviewed many people associated with the case and hit libraries and records.
“A lot of people are gone––passed away or moved away, but some are still around,” he said.
He visited junkyards and viewed Motor Vehicle records, searching for hints of the VW. Mr. Smith even looked at SUNY Cobleskill yearbooks in the hope of seeing the car in the background of a photo.
And Mr. Smith has recently met with State Police and is ready to share a three-page list of names to interview.
“I think they’re close,” he said. “It’s somebody on the edge of this thing, somebody maybe 61 or 62 years old now.”
His concern is that police won’t take him––an amateur sleuth––seriously.
“I’m a nobody. That’s the bump,” Mr. Smith said.
Senior Investigator William John of the State Police in Princetown wouldn’t go that far.
He admitted that much of what Mr. Smith offered probably wouldn’t help but added that they could use names and background.
“It’s still an active case,” Investigator John said. “We have cold cases that we work when we can. That’s common practice.”
And Mr. Smith’s work can play a part.
“He gets the history of it, the names, events, and it just spreads from there,” Investigator John said. “But he doesn’t necessarily have to work the case. Just give it to us.”
Although the case is one of the oldest unsolved murders in the area, following up old leads sometimes pays off.
“We have new investigators who come in and re-interview or interview people who were missed,” Investigator John said.
“And you wouldn’t believe the number of people who wait 20 years for us to ring their doorbell. They can just come forward.”
Investigator John is asking anyone with information about Kolodeziej murder to call the Princetown station at 630-1700. It’s a 24-hour line.