The Murder of Pauline Storment

It was a warm April night in Fayetteville, Arkansas when 27-year-old Pauline Stormant was brutally murdered. The medical examiner’s reports confirmed the gruesome details – Pauline had been stabbed with a sharp instrument, her lifeless body stained with her own type A blood.

The investigation quickly honed in on seventeen year old Wallace Peter Kunkel, Witnesses placed a man who looked similar to Kunkel, not even Mike Adair who got a decent look at him would swear on oath that it was Kunkle, near the crime scene that fateful night of April 12th. A knife was found plunged into the earth nearby behind a vacant house but investigators were not convinced that it was the knife used. As the evidence mounted, prosecutors charged Kunkel with first-degree murder.

But Kunkel maintained his innocence, weaving an alibi about a night of doing drugs with friends. According to him, he had been at the Gray House taking preludin pills and shooting up with people like Michelle Phelan, Richard Finley and others. His lawyers prepared to take the case to trial.

The police report painted a picture of chaos in the aftermath of the murder. A community in shock. Potential witnesses were interviewed and investigated themselves as potential suspects. One man even walked into the station to confess, though he quickly wavered on the validity of his admission.

Amidst the search for answers and justice, one thing was clear – a young woman’s life had been suddenly and violently extinguished on the streets of Fayetteville that spring night in 1971. Pauline Stormant’s fate lingered as an open wound for the small Arkansas town as Wallace Peter Kunkel’s trial loomed.

UNSOLVED: The Tragic Murder of My Cousin Pauline Storment.

 For most of my life, the haunting tale of my cousin’s brutal murder has lingered in the shadows of my mind. Pauline Storment, my first cousin twice removed, was the niece of my mother’s paternal grandmother, Lela “Storment” Stacks – my great-grandmother. This macabre tragedy has gnawed at the back of my brain since childhood, but it wasn’t until my forties that a burning curiosity ignited within me, yearning to unravel the enigma surrounding her case.

Ever since the day I filed my first FOIA request, I’ve been plagued by the quintessential questions: who killed her, why, and how were they able to vanish into the night of April 12th, 1971, leaving a trail of unanswered riddles in their wake? This case has been a perplexing conundrum, to say the least.

Let’s delve into the fateful night that unfolded:

Pauline was a university student at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, studying Anthropology. She worked at the Malco Movie Theatre and as a secretary at the campus R.O.T.C. office through a work-study program. Around 7:30 PM, a woman named Terri Keating (Stella Terri Keating) encountered Pauline at the R.O.T.C. office. Pauline invited her to attend a black gospel concert hosted by the group Black Americans for Democracy as part of Black Emphasis week at the Union Ballroom in the Memorial Hall building, adjacent to the R.O.T.C. building.

Reflecting on the social climate of 1971 from our present-day perspective, one can’t help but wonder if a white racist might have taken offense at a white girl attending a black gospel concert – an easy conclusion to draw, but mere speculation nonetheless. The concert was scheduled to last no more than an hour, leaving Pauline ample time to attend and still squeeze in some studying at the Campus Library, as she often did well into the late hours, typically not returning home until 11 PM.

However, something or someone must have spooked Pauline at the library, prompting her to leave around 9:15 PM or 9:20 PM, only to be tragically stabbed around 9:45 PM. The author David DeKok agrees that drawing a parallel between Pauline’s murder and that of Betsy Aardsma, who was killed in a library on a college campus, based solely on their shared dark hair, is a stretch. Yet, it’s no more of a creative leap than suggesting Ted Bundy as the perpetrator, given his penchant for targeting young co-eds and his known presence in Arkansas, coupled with a witness statement from Joe Clifton, who claimed to have heard a yell for help while driving through the Summit Terrace Apartments parking lot, initially mistaking it for a drunk girl or a young lady having a good time. This raises the unsettling question: did Pauline know her killer in some capacity?

Flash forward to the investigation conducted on behalf of the Arkansas State Police between Memphis, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. Iris Fletcher, Pauline’s former roommate, revealed that Pauline had married Charles Joseph Pate on June 4th, 1944, and was deathly afraid of her ex-husband at the time of the murder. Could he have been involved? One newspaper article even suggests that Pauline went by the name “Whitney” – was she hiding from Pate? We may never know, as he passed away on June 11, 2016. However, detectives felt he was not the killer since he attended Pauline’s funeral, though the details of their questioning remain undocumented.

In the 1970s, it seemed as if killers lurked around every corner. The notorious Ed Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer of California, and the elusive Zodiac immediately come to mind. While none were explicitly linked to Arkansas, there was one man who claimed to be both the Zodiac and the Phantom Killer of Texarkana. Then there was the University of Arkansas student Henry Booker “Doodie” Tennison, who committed suicide by consuming mercury cyanide poison on November 5th, 1948, leaving behind an elaborate suicide note in which he claimed to be the Phantom Killer. Unless, of course, there’s truth to the folklore surrounding the broken 1900 stone on Senior Walk at the University of Arkansas campus, which allegedly cursed any student who stepped on it with the inability to graduate. But surely, a misstep by Pauline couldn’t have sealed her fate – that would be a premise worthy of an Eli Roth horror flick.

Without any solid leads, we’re left to ponder the theory of wrong place, wrong time. Witness accounts suggest that after walking south along Duncan Avenue from the University, Pauline was stabbed eight times upon arriving at the intersection of Duncan and Treadwell. However, one witness, Mike Adair, claimed to have seen a six-foot-tall man with messy, blondish hair combed to the side, wearing glasses and a brown sports coat, following Pauline as she walked along South Duncan, crossing Center Street. By the time Adair pulled behind his apartment building at 16 South Duncan (in the vicinity of today’s Atmosphere Apartments) and stepped out of his vehicle, he heard Pauline’s screams for help echoing through the blocks.

While I hold little hope for this case to be solved or for closure to be found, I choose to raise Pauline’s story because her memory must never be forgotten. To those who relish unsolved true crime tales, may her tragic fate ignite a fire within you to seek justice. And to those who knew and loved Pauline, may the retelling of her story offer a cathartic release, a heartfelt tribute to a life cut short by the cruelest of fates.

Unveiling Shadows: The Enigma of Pauline Storment's 1971 Cold Case

Picture it: the night of April 12, 1971, a peaceful evening in Fayetteville, Arkansas. A young woman named Pauline Storment was walking south along Duncan Avenue, having just left the University of Arkansas. Little did she know, this seemingly ordinary walk would tragically mark the end of her life. Storment was brutally stabbed seven to eight times, and the echoes of her harrowing murder still reverberate through time. Over fifty years later, her case remains a haunting unsolved puzzle, casting a shadow over the city.

Amidst the backdrop of this chilling crime, another figure emerges: Wallace Peter Kunkel. On that fateful day, April 12th, Kunkel found himself in police custody after a routine vehicle stop on Dickson Street. Mike Boyd, the driver, was at the wheel when the officers intervened. What followed was a sequence of events that would etch itself into the pages of history.

Intriguingly, Kunkel’s clothes bore traces of blood, raising eyebrows and suspicions alike. He fit the profile of a potential killer, but a puzzling twist lay in the blood evidence – it wasn’t the copious amount one might expect from such a violent crime.

A captivating detail comes to light: the blood found on Kunkel’s clothing matched both his own blood type and that of the victim, Pauline Storment. Furthermore, the murder weapon – a Mantover or was it Hantover brand Inc knife with a wooden handle – held the same type A human blood. Regrettably, due to the technology limitations of the time, further tests on the blood’s age or origin couldn’t be conducted, leaving the case with a frustrating void.

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 An intriguing figure emerges from the shadows – Mike Boyd. During questioning, Boyd admitted to being in the vehicle when the Fayetteville PD pulled them over. He placed himself at the Gray House,  an apartment building at the corner of University and Whiteside, until 9:30 PM only to return at five till 10 PM but did not provide any hint of where he went. 

This window of time aligns with the period of Pauline Storment’s tragic demise.

52 years later and I have questions based on Boyd’s own testimony in a Prosecuting Attorneys Hearing.

**SIDE NOTE** 

Richard Finley’s testimony states that Peter Kunkel, Terry Smith, Mike Michaels, and Tim Copeland all had taken speed that night. Yet, he also stated that neither Mike Boyd nor himself had taken speed that night. 

 

Could Boyd’s movements be purely coincidental, or is there a deeper connection? Witness statements from Robert L. Spray and John A. Hall provide a tantalizing insight. They recount seeing an impaired man park a vehicle at 12 South Hill on the night of the murder, hinting at a possible timeline for the crime.

Delving into modern tools, Google Maps reveals the spatial dimension of this decades-old enigma. The distance between 35 Duncan Ave, the site of the murder, and the Gray House, Boyd’s claimed location, paints an intriguing picture. It takes about nine minutes to cover this ground on foot, allowing for a plausible sequence of events or fast via a car of which there was no description provided.

Witness reports provide a vivid snapshot of the events:

Mike Adair recounts an intriguing sight – a man with disheveled hair, swept to the side, closely tailing Pauline.

In a moment of clarity, Joe Clifton engaged with Pauline, querying whether the individual trailing her was her assailant. Her affirmative response painted a chilling picture. Joe further detailed the man’s appearance: a brown sports coat enveloping his frame, hair that teetered between blonde and sandy hues, and a height ranging from 5’10” to 6′, complemented by glasses.

Consider, then, the confluence of these reports with a media-documented witness testimony. The depicted man, matching the potential description of the assailant, sprints eastward on Center Street, sculpting a plausible narrative.

Could it be that someone embarked on a perilous journey? A journey that led them from 12 South Hill – a drive punctuated by drug-induced haze – to the harrowing act of stabbing, followed by a northward dash along Duncan, followed by an eastward sprint on University, perhaps utilizing the path through Evergreen Cemetery to reach the Gray House.

Linda Langenbruch’s account introduces an eerie auditory dimension. Secluded in her rear bedroom, she distinctly hears a female voice urgently command “Get Out” twice, the words resonating with clarity. Silence befalls before the abrupt sound of a rapidly receding car, the voice and vehicle originating from the northwest section of her home. The address 27 South Duncan, situated on the western side of the street, suggests that unless the sound ricocheted off nearby vehicles, the speeding car might have raced down Harmon Avenue.

Yet, an enigma lingers: the hastening car on Harmon Avenue. Could it be linked, or might it remain an elusive thread in this intricate tapestry of events? Regrettably, answers might forever remain shrouded in uncertainty.

It’s essential to underline that these observations don’t assign guilt to Mike Boyd. Rather, they shine a light on the curious coincidences and gaps in the case. As time passes and memories fade, the story of Pauline Storment’s tragic death continues to beckon amateur sleuths and seasoned investigators alike. The past may hold the key to unveiling the truth, and it’s up to those captivated by this cold case to unravel the threads and bring justice to a long-forgotten victim.

Possible Suspect: Meet John Hubbard of Effingham, Illinois.

Following the tragic murder of Pauline Storment, the Arkansas State Police became involved in the case. This led the Police Departments of Memphis, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia to conduct their own investigations in hopes of finding clues to close the case.

Before long, they received information from Mr. Sanders, a manager at the Mark Lipman company. According to him, an employee named John Hubbard had a connection to Pauline Storment. Hubbard had worked for Guardsmark (now Alied Universal), a company under Mark Lipman, from May 20, 1969, to July of 1970. Sanders believed that Hubbard and Storment had an affair between July and August of 1969. Hubbard’s last known address was 320 Hampden Drive, Northeast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He had been working for a law firm on 14th Street in Des Moines, Iowa. Hubbard hailed from Effingham, Illinois, where he also attended high school.

Mr. Sanders mentioned that Mr. Stensrud of Liberty Mutual Insurance Company might have a more recent address for Hubbard due to a compensation claim regarding an old back injury, with claim number C47844240XOD.

DESCRIPTION OF SUSPECT:

Within the 97-page PDF of case files provided by the Arkansas State Police, there was a document describing John Hubbard as a possible suspect. Born on May 13, 1942, Hubbard stood at 5 feet 9 inches, weighed 180 pounds, had green eyes, light brown hair, and scars on both little fingers. He resided at 320 Hampden Drive Northeast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

It’s possible that the Arkansas State Police reached out to the Cedar Rapids Police Department or possibly even the FBI, although concrete evidence is elusive due to missing or misplaced case documents.

The document indicated that the Mark Lipman Company possessed information stating that Hubbard was residing at the address on March 15, 1971. He was employed as an investigator for a law firm on 14th Street in Des Moines, Iowa. The Liberty Mutual Insurance Company might offer information if Hubbard had moved from that address due to his job-related injury claim.

 

 

 Though the FBI’s involvement remains uncertain, the information supplied by the Mark Lipman company was not thoroughly verified based on the documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (F.O.I.A.).

 

In light of this, I decided to utilize my Ancestry.com account to build John Hubbard’s family tree starting with his name and city. I found a John Hubbard born in 1942 from Effingham, Illinois, and the family tree assembly was surprisingly smooth. My aim was to confirm his presence in Dallas in 1969. After much searching, I found an obituary for John Hubbard’s father, confirming his residence in Dallas.

 

With this confirmation, I was hopeful that I was on the right track. Another discovery came in the form of a marriage announcement for a John Hubbard in 1963, revealing his middle initial as P and his father’s name as John Wesley Hubbard from Effingham, Illinois.  

However, my findings took another twist. In August 1968, a Decatur Herald article revealed that Carol (Breeden) Hubbard, John’s bride, married another man named Charles Dewight Leeper. This added complexity to the story.

While this information provides insight into the life of John P. Hubbard from Effingham, Illinois, it doesn’t conclusively connect him to Pauline Storment’s murder. It’s essential to stress that this only gives a face to a suspect in the case.

 

Kunkel's Memory of the Night

The following is the statement Wallace Peter Kunkel provided to the police. 

I interviewed the aforementioned suspect on April 23, 1971. He provided the following account of the events on the night of April 12, 1971. According to his statement, at around 5:30 p.m., MICHELLE PHELAN called him at his residence and informed him that she possessed a prescription for 30 pills. She requested him to meet her, along with TERRY SMITH and TIM COPELAND, at the Gray house. Around 6:00 p.m. or slightly later, his mother dropped him off at COLLIERS DRUG. As he walked towards the Gray house, he encountered JIM PARKER and informed him of their planned meeting in about an hour and a half. Subsequently, he walked to the laundromat, where he met MIKE MILLER and a girl who offered him a ride to the Gray house.

   

Upon arriving at the Gray house, he observed MIKE Michaels working on the pills, processing them to create an injectable liquid. He explained that he assisted MIKE with the process and that RICHARD FINDLEY and MICHELLE PHELAN arrived around 7:00 p.m. Shortly after 7:00 p.m., he, MICHELLE, and MIKE took their initial doses. He continued processing the pills alongside MIKE and, at approximately 7:30 p.m., he went out on the porch with MICHELLE and RICHARD.
He recounted that they subsequently left for PAT BAILEY’S and later visited the Jet Set to obtain a sprite. After returning to the Gray house, he sought MICHELLE’s approval to give a couple of pills to JIM PARKER, which she granted. He went to PAT BAILEY’S residence once more to deliver the pills to PARKER, returning to the Gray house around 7:45 p.m.

Around 8:15 p.m., they took their second dose of speed. At approximately 10:00 p.m., he attempted to contact his parents using the laundromat’s phone, but it was occupied. They then used an outdoor phone to successfully reach his parents. As they returned to the Gray house, they encountered STEVE COOPER, who inquired about the time, and the clock displayed between 9:20 and 9:25 p.m.
Returning to the Gray house, around 9:30 p.m., RICHARD FINDLEY requested a ride home. He sought permission from MIKE MICHAELS to use his motorcycle and departed the Gray house between 9:35 and 9:45 p.m. He described their route from the Gray house through the parking lot to Dickson Street, then Store Street, and finally Mount Comfort Road, where FINDLEY disembarked at the corner of Addington and Mount Comfort.
He returned to the Gray house, where he remained until approximately 10:30 to 10:40 p.m. At that point, he left the Gray house and was subsequently picked up by the Fayetteville City Police Officers.

The following is the transcript of Wallace Peter Kunkel’s recollection of his whereabouts leading up to, during, and after the time in which Pauline Storment is stabbed.

How Google's Historical Street View Images Brought Pauline Storment's Story A Bit More Clarity.

For the longest time, I had operated on the assumption that Pauline Storment had been walking on the west side of the road, the left side of this photo, where the better sidewalk is.

Yet going back and reviewing the witness statements from Robert L. Spray and John A. Hall both stated they saw a man park his car close to their address of 12 S. Hill and when he stepped out he was wearing a sport coat possibly brown, he was medium in height, and had a slight build as well as appearing to be very drunk or under the influence of drugs.

 

Being
perplexed about the location of the only utility pole I could find in
the area on the street in 2022 had me thinking my cousin put up one hell
of a fight for her belonging to have been scattered at the light pole
as Gary Gammil had stated, so I went back in time with Google Street
View to 2007 and it revealed a much closer light pole at the
intersection.

This
new discovery now suggests Pauline Storment was indeed walking South on
Duncan Ave and she was on the east side of the road/right side of the
photo when she was stabbed seven times. It was at this point the killer
may have been spooked because Pauline let out a loud enough scream that
her murderer fled the area, likely to the east towards 12 S. Hill, where
Robert L. Spray & John A. Hall saw the strange man.

However,
unless during her last moments she was very confused, which is
possible, she told Mike Adair that her attacker ran back towards the
University which would have been north on Duncan and not towards 12 S.
Hill ,

From Composit Sketch to Realistic A.I. Photo

Half a century ago law enforcement only had their carefully curated sources of information and their individual guts to solved crimes but now technology can be used to bring a cold case that much closer to being solved & closed.

With this said, I bring to you those who are following this site such a technological leap.

I must state this doesn’t mean our killer looks like this it is just an deep learning based educated guess. 

Do you have a family member who looks like this and lived near or was likely traveling through Fayetteville, Arkansas on or around April 12, 1971.

If so, contact the Fayetteville Police Department. 

Some Cold Cases are Icebergs: Can a 51yr old Cold Case be solved when DNA evidence nolonger exists?

When I began my journey to learn as much about my twice removed first cousin Pauline Storment’s tragic April 12, 1971 murder, I have submitted more F.O.I.A. requests that I ever imagined I would. What I learned was a 51yr old case and it’s files have in that amount of time have apparently grown legs and is either hiding from record keepers or the files jumped in a retired detective’s bag in a question to solve the case, or maybe, and most likely the case, they were accidentally destroyed.

Since I learned the Pauline Storment case files were misplaced/lost, I chose to introduce myself to a Lieutenant with the Fayetteville Police Department. He seems to be knowledgeable of the case and in fact the last time he looked at the case files was in 2011. That said, when I questioned the possibility of using modern DNA tools to build out a family tree of the suspect and catch the murderer that way I was met with the “We have no evidence related to the case for DNA testing.”

This struck me odd, because via Newspaper articles it was clearly stated a bloody jacket, shirt and pants were collected from the suspect, not to mention the clothing Pauline was wearing which was sent in 1971 for analysis and came back indicating the suspect and Pauline Storment shared the same blood type.

My question what happened to this evidence? 

    Was there not enough collected in 1971, to facilitate for further testing? 

    Was it thrown in an improper storage container, or was it also misplaced, whereabouts unknown to            those in the Fayetteville Police Department.

 

 

Will They or Won't They: A community waits with baited breath.

Based on witness reports who went on the record and stated they saw Pauline Storment being followed then shortly after her blood curdling screams the assailant ran.

Police would catch up to a 17yr old Fayetteville Highschool student.

But wait there is more, for they find what what they believe to be the murder weapon stuck in the ground behind a house about 100ft from where Pauline Storment bleeds out.

Prosecution considers bringing fourth charges.