Katherine Korzilius

[SJP1313]

Katherine was the daughter of Bon Jovi's manager, Paul Korzilius. Anyone know of any update on this strange case?

[nohwheregirl]

I tried to find new info on this case a few months ago and didn't really come up with anything. It's a very disturbing case. My guess is that someone in the neighborhood knows what happened...perhaps it was a young person who committed the crime. Hopefully, rumors will start to fly or someone will want to unload and new information will come to the surface.

From what i know about the Austin area, her neighborhood is relatively secluded...in the hills on the west side of town. I can't imagine a predator coming from outside the area looking for kids. Evidently, Katherine's walk home from the mailbox was a regular routine...someone could have been stalking her.

[UMfan77]

I wonder if the police ever looked into finding out if anyone had moved out of the neighborhood soon after Katherine's murder. If so, someone is trying to get away. I think a lot of murderers get caught by needing to unload, how can anyone in their right mind live with themselves after doing something like that.

[Mr. Fuji]

I'm unfamiliar with this case. Can anyone explain the details of it?

[nohwheregirl]

Katherine was about 9 or so years old. She lived on a circular street in a nice neighborhood in Austin, Texas. She and her brother had been running errands with their mom when they stopped the car to get their mail at the community mailbox. Katherine got the mail and then decided she wanted to walk home from there (about a 1/4 mile). Mom and brother went in the opposite direction in the car (b/c that's the direction the car was facing).

Katherine didn't come home, and none of the neighbors had seen her. Her mother and brother went in the car to look for her. They found her lying face down in the street on the other side of the circle from their house (in other words, Katherine would have had to walk far past her own house to get there). She had a fractured skull and other injuries (the coroner says it's consistent with falling from a vehicle). She was basically brain dead when found...about 15 minute after they picked up the mail.

Her mother said that Katherine's body looked like it had been displayed for her to find in the street. Her hair and clothing were smooth and in place. Police theorized that she may have jumped onto the back of her mom's car and accidentally fallen off. A P.I. ruled out that scenario b/c it was an extremely hot day (the car would have been too hot to touch), there was basically no where for Katherine to grab on, and Katherine had a broken thumb in a splint at the time.

Dogs had tracked Katherine's scent to a vacant lot in the neighborhood where the scent was lost. Perhaps she was abducted near the lot and left for dead at the other end of the neighborhood. The show didn't mention any suspects or whether Katherine had been sexually assaulted (she was wearing all of her clothes when found).

A footnote: Katherine's dad worked for Bon Jovi and they wrote a song about her death.

[CrushedVelvet]

I have always believed that someone in the neighborhood accidentally hit her with their car which is why she was found still in the neighborhood and hair all smoothed aout (the person was probably a parent themselves) and felt terrible buut is scared to come forward. Now that the case has been on UM and so well covered, I doubt that person will ever come forward. If she had been abducted she would most likely have been found in the woods and from what I understand, no evidence of sexual abuse, etc. was found. I agree about the moving list. If they ran a check on everyone who moved out soon afterwards they might find a link.

[icomeinpeace]

This is probably one of the most disturbing episodes for me. That image of the little girl laid out in the street never really left me. I wish they'd solve it!

I get the feelling that maybe the girl was picked up by somebody, realized she was in danger, and jumped from the car to save herself. One fact that confused me though: didn't bloodhounds track the girl's scent into a nearby vacant lot?

I live in a neighborhood kind of like that -- very enclosed and secure. There are, however, always "strangers" in the neighborhood, like people who tend to lawns and perform other services. Sometimes you don't even notice these people, even though they are right there in your yard. I'm sure the police have exhausted all leads, but that seems like an obvious answer to me.

[Bluejay]

That was one of the most sickening things I ever saw on Unsolved. My bet is that someone struck at Jon Bon Jovi through his publicist.

[CrushedVelvet]

Blue Jay, that is an interesting theory I hadnt ever thought of. Stranger things have happened. Thats how bizarre murders, etc. get solved, by throwing out ideas and random theories. So mysteroius.

[ddelta]

After watching this episode the other day i think i have changed my opinion on this. I would like to point out some parts in this story that just did not make sense to me.

1. I don't really buy the hot day and the car was too hot to touch. i have touched my car on steaming hot days and you can touch it. I mean the sun would of had to be beating down on that car door and remember it was being driven so it was not in one place. Also the woman in the segment they hired to disprove this theory pointed out that if Katherine had held on to the door opener on the back of the car the door would of openend. Now i am no car specialist but i would figure that the trunk could of been locked and that would not of happened.

2. The fact that Katherine was laid out in the street to be found. It was 4:15 in the daytime so anyone who drove past her would of seen her. This would lead you to think the person who did this was someone who either grabbed her or hit her with their car and then panicked. The way the body was laying was perfectly place. But we must remember we are basing this on the moms eyewitness account who picked her up in a panic. So there is no real way to sustantiate this except a mother who was probably panicking. One can recall things later that might not be true and might not realize it. I mean they showed the mother running to her daughter and picking her up right away. I could not see myself in a panic catching the details of how she was laying and that her hair was combed out.

3. The bloodhounds tracked Katherine's sent to a vacant lot in the direction she was walking (that her mom saw her) and then it stopped. However Katherines body was found past her mom's house on the other side of the circle. This to me suggest someone picked her up (a neighbor perhaps) and told her he would drive her home, and then started to try and either molest her or something to that effect and she jumped from the car. However this explanation then does not really explain why she was laying the way she was in the street. That person is not going to get out in broad daylight and fix her up.

Anyway, what i am trying to point out here is that clue 2 and 3 contradict both theories. I personally do not think she was perfectly laid out as she was as her mom says. She was not molested either.

My feelings are one of two things happend.

1. She did jump on her mothers car and fell off. (Contradicts the Bloodhounds)
2. She was hit and run by a driver who panicked and drove off (contradicts her mother statement on how she was found)

I do not believe this was someone trying to kidnap her or do something to her because she was not sexually assualted, she lived in a very secure community, and she was laid out in the street.

ANyway, its a tragedy for sure, but i think it was an accident.

[toddjharp]

I'd go with the grabbing the car theory. She may have played in the field earlier which would not contradict the bloodhounds. I think this is tragic but I am not sure that there was anything that could have been done to prevent it. I still do not agree with the story about the hot car because I feel she could have jumped on the bumper and grabbed it and then fell off, coming to rest in a certain position laid out on the road.

[Awsi Dooger]

I also prefer the car grabbing theory. Very basic reason -- it requires no other variables, completely unlike all the accident or conspiracy theories. Within a 15 minute window, I love my chances of being correct. As opposed to someone(s) else appearing, causing the death and vanishing without being detected.

The body's position is a non-issue. There are only so many ways a human can land, compliments of gravity. It's not like a dead little girl could have been balancing on one elbow.

I always embrace the simple explanation, whenever it's viable or there's no proof of stranger involvement. For instance, I'm amazed it took a year for someone to propose the missing scriptwriter -- Devore -- had plunged into a watery California grave, as opposed to all the abduction and conspiracy stuff.

Especially since I remember a somewhat similar incident in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. Five or six teenagers attended a concert in the '70s and then disappeared along with their van. There were all kinds of rumors of kidnapping or intentional departure, including reported sightings in the New York area. Then maybe 15 years later a canal alongside the road near the concert arena was being cleared. A van turned up, completely unexpected. When it was being pulled out of the canal, human bones fell out of the mud in the back of the van. Only then was the van connected to the missing teenagers, more than a decade earlier. They had obviously driven off the road and drowned on the night of the concert.

[ddelta]

I like your observations Aswi. I look at things the way you do.

Just think about Bill Rundle and Tracy Kirkpatick case. I never thought they drove off or were kidnapped. Even when the hat showed up in a spot the cops supposedly checked. Two people don't disappear with a car and are never found again. They had all these sorted stories and then the car is found in a feed lot with both of them in it. I don't think the hat was even Bill's.

Thats why in this case i don't put too much credit in the mothers eyewitness account. THe fact she was found along the same path her mom drove leads me to think she held on to the car too. THe fact the bloodhounds captured her scent can be also because of the fact that she walked that way numerous times.

Honestly if someone was trying to kidnap her or molest her they would of taken her somewhere and hid her. THe fact she was not attacked sexually and out in plain site just does no jive with the kidnapper story

[ddelta]

Bump - someone brought this case up the other day and might want to read these theories.

[Bluejay]

Ignore the fact that she was not sexually assaulted. Not all kidnapped children are sexually assaulted; that's a stereotype. Sexual molestation wouldn't have been the purpose here. If Katherine was kidnapped and murdered, the purpose would have been to send a message. Remember, all this took place within a very brief time period. The message would have been "see how easily we can get to the people around you, the people you care about"?

One wonders what Jon himself thinks about this. Aside from the song, has he made any statements or is he under a police gag order until they can determine what really happened?