Sonja McCaskie

Sonja McCaskie (19 February 1939 – 5 April 1963)[1] was a British alpine skier who participated in the 1960 Winter Olympics. McCaskie lived in Reno, Nevada, with her son and worked at a nearby ski resort as an instructor prior to her death in 1963.

Murder

A neighbor who was babysitting initially called the police to check on McCaskie after she failed to pick up her son. Police found McCaskie strangled, raped, and dismembered in her 2640 Yori Avenue apartment on Friday 5 April 1963.[2] She had been murdered by Thomas Lee Bean, an 18-year-old high school student who attended nearby Wooster High School.[3] Bean was sentenced to death in the Nevada gas chamber for the murder, but was taken off death row in 1970.[4] He remains incarcerated in Northern Nevada Correctional Center and is the longest-serving inmate in the Nevada Department of Corrections.[5]

The murder was sensationalized in the September 1963 issue (25-31 August early sports edition) of the National Enquirer with the frontpage headline (and a grisly photo) as: "I CUT OUT HER HEART & STOMPED ON IT".

  • 8 Sept. 1963 National Enquirer
    8 Sept. 1963 National Enquirer

References
  1. "NevadaLabor.com News Bulletins". Retrieved 4 July 2007.
  2. "POLICE FIND HEADLESS BODY OF GIRL SKIER IN RENO". Chicago Tribune. 7 April 1963. Archived from the original on 28 February 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2007.
  3. "April 5, 1963: Olympic skier found murdered in Reno". Reno Gazette-Journal. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  4. Riley, Brendan (28 April 2005). "Nevada lawmakers vote to abolish death penalty for juveniles". Archived from the original on 7 May 2005. Retrieved 4 July 2007.
  5. "Nevada killer released after 47 years in prison". Associated Press. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2022.


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