Cold case leads to New York

Huntington Beach police investigators have asked for assistance from the New York Police Department after a Facebook post led to tips in the case of a woman who was found dead in a ditch more than 40 years ago.

Detectives announced last week that the woman could be “Rosie,” a New York native living in Long Beach who went missing around the time of the unidentified woman’s murder.

A friend of Rosie contacted investigators after seeing a sketch posted by Huntington Beach police on Facebook. Rosie, whose last name may have been Italian, was a waitress at a downtown Long Beach bar called The Circus Room. Police say the witness recounted that Rosie did not show up for work one day and no one knew where she went. She also may have left behind a child in New York whose nickname was “John-John.”

The New York Police Department Missing Person Squad has been active in distributing the sketch of Rosie, who may have been from Brooklyn or the Bronx.

The woman’s body was discovered March 14, 1968 by two boys who were playing in a large open dirt field Newland Street and Yorktown Ave. According to investigators, she had been beaten, raped and her throat was slashed.

She was described as white or Latino, 20 to 25 years old, 5 feet 3 to 5 feet 4, 140 pounds, medium build, with dark shoulder length hair, brown eyes, wearing a multi colored flower print blouse, purple capri-type pants, a black imitation leather three-quarter length coat and flat loafer type shoes.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Det. Mike Reilly at (714) 536-5940.

—KTLA News