Barbara and Patricia Grimes left their Chicago-area home on Dec. 28, 1956, for a night at the movies. The sisters, aged 13 and 15, planned to see Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" at the Brighton Theater. They never returned. Weeks later, a grim discovery confirmed their family's worst fears: The girls were gone forever. PEOPLE revisited this long-ago murder case, unsolved for nearly seven decades.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Retired detectives now lead a renewed push to find the killer, refusing to let the trail stay cold.
A Night That Turned Tragic
Three nights after Christmas, Barbara and Patricia set out to enjoy Presley's film and meet their older sister and younger brother at a bus stop afterward, A&E noted in a true crime blog. When they failed to appear and didn't return home, their family alerted police. Panic set in.
The search became one of Chicagoland's largest missing persons efforts, the outlet noted. Hundreds of officers scoured the area for over three weeks during winter's harshest months. Even Elvis issued a public plea for their safety, per the Illinois Missing Persons Awareness Network. Answers eluded the family until late January 1957.
Bodies Found, Murder Case Stalls
On Jan. 22, 1957, a local man found the sisters' naked bodies in snow along a road in Willow Springs, a Chicago suburb, according to the Missing Persons Awareness Network. An autopsy first pointed to freezing weather as the cause of death, but police ruled the cases homicides, the group said.
Detectives focused on Bennie Bedwell, a drifter seen with the girls, WGN reported. Bedwell confessed, but later retracted, claiming police beat him into it. No solid suspect has emerged since, the outlet added.
Renewed Efforts Bring Hope
Decades later, the case still captivates. Retired Chicago Police detective James Hennigan spends his retirement probing the murders. He runs a
Facebook page with thousands of followers dedicated to solving it. Hennigan suspects a link to the 1955 murders of brothers John, Anton, and Robert Schuessler, who vanished after a movie and were found dead in a forest preserve, WGN said. Retired officer Ray Johnson also continues the hunt for answers.Nearly 70 years on, the double murder mystery persists. "It haunts me, especially around Christmas," James Grimes, the sisters' younger brother, told The Chicago Tribune in 2013. "How many nieces and nephews would I have?"
He once doubted resolution but now sees possibility. "Maybe there's hope," he said, and maybe there is.
