Pocono News Section

Laureen Finn/Cold Case #2

Laureen Finn/Cold Case #2 - Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 9:39PM EST

Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 @ 09:39pm EST

Lackawanna County -

They are images that will forever be embedded in the memory of the people in the hill section of Scranton . Police officers and detectives looking over the remains of a young woman found dead in the early morning hours of December 11th, 1987 . The body was burned so badly it took more than a day to make a positive identification. Forensic experts learned it was the body of 19 year old Laureen Finn of New Jersey . She was a student at the University of Scranton .

Neighbors called police after discovering a fire in between two homes in the 400 block of Monroe Avenue . When firefighters put the fire out they found the badly charred body.

But even in the early days of this investigation, police felt this was not where the murder was committed. In 1987, James Klee with the Scranton Police says, “There's no indication of a struggle. The murder did not happen where the body was found."

As the Finn case dragged on, less than a year later, a little girl from the same neighborhood was found strangled and burned in a wooded area near Scranton . She was 9-year old Renee Waddel.

That made four unsolved crimes in the 1980's with the murders of Waddel, Laureen Finn and the disappearances of 11-year old Jolene Lakey and 22 year old Joann Williams. They all lived within several blocks of each other in the hill neighborhood of Scranton .

Even then, Eyewitness News and Andy Mehalshick was looking into a possible connection. Andy Mehalshick asked in 1988, “Are these cases connected, is it the same killer, etc etc."

Police did arrest and convict Frank Ocellani of the Waddel murder, but did not tie him to the other crimes. Twenty years later the cases remain cold.

Tpr. Connie Devens with the State Police in Dunmore says, “No, at this point in time we're not going to rule out any connection between the cases. However, we can't say they are connected either."

Frank Oscellani owned a car repair shop in the hill section. Sources close to the case tell Eyewitness News he has always been the prime suspect in all of these cases. They just can't prove it. In fact Eyewitness News is also told he used to work at the Jersey Shore on the same boardwalk that Laureen Finn had worked in the summer.