The pair had heavy, unexpected news to bear. Her daughter had been murdered.

Alumna Mary Jean D’Agostino, then 30, was strangled in the hallway of an apartment complex at 787 Burcham Drive. The details of her violent death still are etched permanently into Pat D’Agostino’s mind.

Earlier that night, a resident overheard Mary Jean D’Agostino arguing in the hallway with an unidentified male. When the fight intensified, the witness heard her cry out “OK, go ahead and kill me.”

At about 2 a.m., student residents found her body lying in the hallway. She was naked from the waist down and had a cosmetic case stuffed in her mouth.

From that day on, Pat D’Agostino wanted answers.

“There’s no closure, and that makes it hard,” Pat D’Agostino said. “We don’t know who did it or why.”

The current Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. resident had no idea the news would send her on a tangled chase for the next two decades. Since that day, her daughter’s death has remained a mystery, bringing forth many suspects, but no concrete evidence linking any of them to her murder.

The D’Agostino case is one of four unsolved murders in East Lansing, three of which involved MSU students or alumni. Two students disappeared, never to be heard from again – their bodies were never recovered. One more was gunned down on the outskirts of East Lansing.

All four cases remain open, but few have struck recent leads. None have officially named suspects.

The cases are not connected to one another, but their connection to the MSU community still shapes the lives of those who lost them. Although police persevere with investigations, some family members might never see answers to why their loved ones were taken.

A new mission

Once they heard the news, Pat D’Agostino and her husband Louis endured two anxious days before leaving their home in Maryland to meet with police and make funeral arrangements. When they sat down with police, the blurry details of what happened to their daughter became more clear.

Her Nissan was parked in the complex’s parking lot. A male friend who lived in the complex, whom she visited often, was nowhere to be found. Although he was considered a person of interest at the start of the case, police quickly cleared him as a suspect. He has since died of natural causes.

Until she finds out who killed her daughter, Pat D’Agostino’s persistence will not cease.

Pat D’Agostino has corresponded with police since the beginning of the investigation. Throughout the years, East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy, the first detective on the case, said she has continued to contact detectives monthly and meets with police at least once annually.

She made sure each of the countless detectives who worked on solving the murder throughout the years were brought up to speed.

“I wanna make sure they do their back issues on the case, they know what’s been done and (know) what their plans are on top of that,” she said.

Mary Jean D’Agostino’s murder was featured on America’s Most Wanted in 2009. A few leads emerged, but none proved fruitful.

Close connections

Detectives on Mary Jean D’Agostino’s case followed up on nearly 40 leads initially and have continued to come up empty. So far, Murphy said, not even DNA taken from the scene has brought clarity.

After graduating from MSU with a business degree, Mary Jean D’Agostino stayed in East Lansing and lived by herself. She suffered from many symptoms associated with depression, allowing few friends within her inner circle.

“It was just one of these crimes where we didn’t have a lot to go on right from the beginning,” Murphy said. “All leads have really been exhausted, but she always calls, she always asks if there’s anything new, she asks if there’s any way that she can help. By reminding us of what her daughter meant to her, it motivates us to do whatever possible for her.”

Mary Jean D’Agostino had run-ins with the law as well. Court documents show she committed at least five petty crimes, mostly retail fraud and larcenies beginning in 1980, and faced three separate felony charges. She had few close friends while living in East Lansing and became well-known among police.

“She associated with a crowd of people that weren’t the most upstanding citizens, and because of that, she had contact with a lot of people that we felt would be suspects and no end to the amount of people that could’ve done this,” Murphy said.

At one point, Mary Jean D’Agostino sustained self-inflicted burns on 60 percent of her body, rendering her handicapped and unable to drive.

She was trying to start fresh when her life was cut short.

“She had some problems — she tried to resolve them, and then this happened,” Pat D’Agostino said.

At the time of Mary Jean D’Agostino’s death, many police departments didn’t have access to DNA technology. Small swatches of DNA evidence from the scene have become so degraded they no longer have evidentiary value.

The age of the case itself remains a roadblock in finding a suspect. The longer the delay, the tougher the case is to solve, said East Lansing police Detective Scott Wriggelsworth, the current detective on the case.

“I still think this is a solvable case, but as time goes on, people’s memories are not so good and evidence gets older,” Wriggelsworth said. “It becomes harder to solve, and for the prosecution, it’s harder to be able to charge somebody.”

Looking for answers

A more recent homicide also remains in the forefront of detectives’ minds — but this case has many more questions to answer, leading police to reach out to the public for help.

This month marks five years since MSU student Krista Lueth left home for the last time.

Lueth, 34, was last seen on Nov. 11, 2008, walking out of her home on Eureka Street in Lansing. That day, the horticulture student’s car stayed parked in the driveway. A dish of food sat on the stove. When she didn’t show up for her class at 6:30 p.m., friends grew worried.

Her body was never recovered, but Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Tom DeClercq said Krista Lueth is considered dead. Police believe she was murdered.

DeClercq said it was unusual for Lueth to not answer phone calls or go somewhere without giving someone her whereabouts. He said she likely would have left a trail by using her credit cards or tried to contact family if she was still alive.

“There’s been no utilization of any of her credit cards,” he said. “She is totally vanished, and based on circumstances with the investigation, we believe she was met with foul play.”

Last month, the Michigan State Police announced a $100,000 reward from an anonymous donor for any information regarding Lueth’s disappearance.

Krista Lueth’s father, St. Clair, Mich., resident Roy Lueth, contacted Michigan State Police about his daughter’s disappearance when she didn’t answer his phone calls. Roy Lueth did not return multiple requests for comment from The State News.

The disappearance of another MSU student remains one of East Lansing’s oldest unsolved cases and has left police puzzled.

Henry Ball was last seen on May 31, 1973.

Earlier that year, Ball was the victim of an armed robbery. He was declared missing shortly before the case was slated to go to trial.

Although the dust has been lifted from the case, Wriggelsworth said no significant leads have surfaced in years.

“We’ve done some DNA work on it, but as for any real leads or tips, there hasn’t been any in quite some time,” he said.

A night gone wrong

Police still aren’t completely sure what happened on Dec. 11, 2010 — the day a 20-year-old was found dead in a car on Abbot Road.

Earlier that day, officers from the Bath Township Police Department were investigating the 3600 block of Coleman Road after receiving reports that several gunshots had been fired. East Lansing police were on their way to help when they discovered the body of Adrian House, slumped over in a car on the 1600 block of Abbot Road with a gunshot wound. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

The Detroit resident had no known connection to MSU.

Police discovered House when they saw a crowd of people around the car. Wriggelsworth said House’s death could have come as a result of an earlier disagreement between two groups of people, one of which was associated with House.

“Basically it was just a disagreement at a party,” he said. “We don’t know if (House’s) people were partying or the other party was.”

Moving forward

For many unsolved cases, police believe technology plays a significant role in pinpointing a suspect and eventually solving them.

With investigations hinging heavily upon DNA evidence, Wriggelsworth said current technology does not have the capacity to bring value to dissolved DNA taken from older crime scenes.

In terms of homicides where bodies are never recovered, DeClercq said the lack of evidence makes it difficult for detectives to progress.

“Although cases can be tried without a body, you wanna have the body and the location where the body was found,” he said. “Evidence around there would help develop the prosecution.”

Murphy said many cases, including Mary Jean D’Agostino’s, could revolve around simpler matters: word of mouth.

“There is somebody somewhere that, even though it’s been twenty-something years, knows something about this case that could tell us and could lead to the case being solved,” he said. “I really believe there is a witness somewhere.”

Despite the odds, Pat D’Agostino has not given up hope, a notion that keeps police pushing the case forward when possible.

“There’s no closure until we know who did it,” she said. “The closure with me is not neglecting to try and find out who did it.”

Anyone with information regarding the disappearances and murders is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-773-2587.