CrimeCon 2026

On November 16, 1983, 16-year-old Sheri Jo Elliott left home to catch the bus to Flint Carman High School. She never made it. Four days later, her body was discovered 30 miles away in a rural ditch. Sheri had been abducted, sexually assaulted, and shot multiple times. Evidence suggested she may have been held captive for days before she was killed. Then, silence.

For four long decades, her case haunted a community. Now, the silence is finally broken.

Hear from Othram Labs Co-Founder Kristen Mittelman, Michigan investigators, and Sheri Jo’s family, who refused to let her story fade. After the case was reopened in 2023, Othram’s Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing helped develop a suspect profile pointing to Roni Collins, a 75-year-old man living just miles from Sheri Jo’s hometown of Flint.

Before detectives could confront him, Collins died by suicide in 2026. But the truth didn’t die with him. DNA recovered during his autopsy delivered the answer Sheri’s family had waited 40 years to hear – it was him.

This is the story of a case that refused to be forgotten — and the science rewriting what’s possible for cold case justice.