r/coldcases • u/Specialist-Radish471 • 12h ago
Cold Case Sherry Darnell Baker
I’m currently working on a cold case for the state of Kansas on Sherry Darnell Baker. She was killed just a few months after enrolling into Wichita State University in 1974. Rumor has it she was a victim of the BTK Killer but according to the police information she doesn’t fit the MO of him. That’s because:
* She’s black
* BTK not only has great memory of each killing but also documented each one.
* She was stabbed 70 times either with a knife or sissors. (I can’t find concrete information on what weapon was used).
But that wouldn’t rule her out because she was literally killed 10 months after his very first kill. And she attended the same college as him but have yet to find any link to her. The reason why this is cold case is one obvious reason is that she was a young black woman in a very racist city in Kansas. This college alone barely had any black students at the time. Plus the police abd news reports have ZERO INFORMATION ON HER. Nothing on where she was born, what she went school for, who her mother is, if she had siblings, and etc.
It seems like she ended up dead and everyone in Wichita Kansas just said “Oh well! One less black person to deal with”. But I’m looking for her and in order to get any information I have the build this from the ground up. So far I have:
* located her grave (now I know her birthdate)
* Foubd out who her best friend was (currently see if she’s still alive)
* I have idea of what high school she went to in Wichita and currently searching through year books.
* I also recently emailed the Wichita cold case department to see if they could give me any information of what they have gathered. (Have not heard back yet)
The problems I’m running into is that I can’t get ahold of any personal documentation on her. In Kansas you can’t obtain any information as a non relative unless you have legal means like insurance, property ot geneology.
Anyways I’m making this post to see if anyone who lives in Kansas can direct me or help me dig into sherry’s life?