Decades later, police are still piecing together the murder of Lorraine Zimmerman

Lorraine “Lori” Zimmerman was murdered more than four decades ago.

The 15-year-old Hagerstown High School student had taken the bus after school on April 6, 1984.

He went to his aunt’s house to help them move some things and then returned home, around 3:15, on foot.

Zimmerman never made it home and was never seen alive again.

“She was found… right off of Reno Monument Road in Boonsboro,” said Sgt. Chris Taylor of the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit.

Sergeant Taylor sat down with WMAR-2 News to discuss this unsolved case, helping to give a voice to the voiceless.

She was found in the wooded area by two people who were walking, just over a week after she disappeared from Hagerstown.

Her body had been covered somehow, and police at the scene believed she had been murdered elsewhere and then dumped in the rural area.

“There was a lot of evidence, there was evidence of sexual assault and that sort of thing,” he says. “Unfortunately, in 1984, there was no DNA testing of that kind, so it was basically an analysis of the local population in the area.”

Because forensic and DNA technology was not particularly advanced at the time, investigators focused on whether similar crimes in Western Maryland and Pennsylvania could link a suspect to the case.

“They were trying to figure out if they were related to something or not, and unfortunately they weren’t,” Taylor says.

Police then turned to victimology, trying to learn as much as possible about the victim.

At the time, her parents told police she did not have a boyfriend, although police tend to take that answer from a parent with a grain of salt.

“As we all know, sometimes parents don’t really know who their kids are hanging out with,” Taylor says.

But when Zimmerman’s parents contacted police, either on the night of the 6th or the next day, they also said that Lori had some educational limitations, indicating she might be more vulnerable.

She had been described as a shy but normal student, Taylor says, who hung out with friends, a typical teenager.

If her murder had happened today, technology might have been able to help with more than just DNA.

“There was no cell phone data, you know, there was no video surveillance,” Taylor laments.

He took up the case again about two years ago.

“We’re going to continue to work as hard as we can and move forward,” she tells WMAR-2 News. “In the end, the important thing is that the family can get closure. They deserve to know what happened to their loved one, they deserve to get some kind of answers.”

If you have any details that could help the Maryland State Police piece together this case, no matter how small, please call 410-996-7881.