For almost five decades, Roseanne Michelle Stirts’ family lived with the same painful uncertainty: What happened to Anne, and who was responsible for her death?
In 1975, Roseanne was only 20 years old.
Her disappearance would become a decades-long mystery. Investigators eventually identified her remains, developed a possible connection to a convicted killer, and even questioned that man about her case.
But there was a problem.
The truth was hidden inside an old legal agreement.
And when the answer finally came nearly 50 years later, the law had already made it impossible to prosecute the man who confessed.
The Young Woman Known as Anne
Roseanne Michelle Stirts was known to the people around her as Anne.
In the summer of 1975, she was living in Baltimore and working as a dancer at the Tik Tok Club on Utah Street.
Unfortunately, very little documentation survives about her early life. The surviving records tell investigators where she worked, where she was last seen and what happened afterward—but they provide only a small glimpse into the person she was.
Anne was part of Baltimore’s nightlife at a time when the city was experiencing economic pressure and rising crime.
On August 24, 1975, she was seen outside the Tik Tok Club during the early morning hours.
That sighting would become the final confirmed moment anyone could place her alive.
No later witness came forward with a reliable account of where she went.
There was no phone call from Anne.
No message explaining where she was going.
Nothing that could tell investigators who she was with after leaving the area.
Later that same day, a relative reported her missing to Baltimore City Police.
At the time, there was no obvious reason for anyone to connect her disappearance to another jurisdiction. She lived in Baltimore, had last been seen in the city, and her disappearance was therefore handled as a Baltimore missing-person case.
Then the trail disappeared.
The Discovery Four Months Later
For Anne’s family, the days became weeks.
The weeks became months.
There were no meaningful leads.
Then, nearly four months after she disappeared, everything changed.
On December 15, 1975, human remains were discovered in a wooded area near Route 108 in Columbia, Maryland.
The location was in Howard County, placing the investigation in a different jurisdiction from the original missing-person report.
But investigators faced a major obstacle.
They didn’t know who the woman was.
The remains had been exposed to the elements for months. Only limited physical evidence remained, including strands of hair, clothing and jewelry. There was nothing resembling the modern forensic evidence investigators can rely on today.
And in 1975, DNA testing was not available for criminal investigations.
There were no computerized databases capable of instantly comparing evidence with thousands of records.
Investigators had to work with whatever fragments had survived.
Most importantly, they needed a name.
A Face Reconstructed From a Skull
With no identification, investigators turned to forensic reconstruction.
An anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution worked with a police sketch artist to create an approximation of what the unidentified woman may have looked like.
The resulting image was published in a newspaper in the hope that someone would recognize her.
That strategy worked.
People who had worked with Anne at the Tik Tok Club recognized the reconstructed face.
Investigators were then able to compare fingerprints and finally establish her identity.
The unidentified woman was Roseanne Michelle Stirts.
For her family, this answered one terrible question.
But it created another.
Who killed her?
Another Murder Investigation Was Already Underway
As investigators continued examining Anne’s death, another disturbing pattern was developing elsewhere in Maryland.
Several young women were murdered during the following years.
Among them were:
- Lydia Norman, 16, who was killed near BWI Airport
- Kathleen Cook, 24, who was killed after leaving a nightclub on Route 40
- Peggy Pumpion, 23, who was killed near Interstate 95
The cases occurred in different places, but investigators began noticing similarities.
A name eventually emerged:
Charles William Davis Jr.
Davis was in his late 20s at the time and worked as an electrician in the Baltimore area. He had also reportedly volunteered with a local ambulance organization, giving him familiarity with emergency-response environments and, potentially, how investigations operated.
In 1978, Davis went to trial.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kathleen Cook, Peggy Pumpion and Lydia Norman.
The sentences were severe: three consecutive life terms.
But investigators had reason to believe there might have been another victim.
Roseanne Stirts.
The timing and circumstances appeared to fit a possible pattern.
There was still no proof connecting Davis to Anne’s death.
That would soon change.
The 1981 Interview
Three years into his prison sentence, Davis agreed to speak with investigators again.
This time, there was an important condition.
Howard County’s state’s attorney offered him immunity in exchange for information about unsolved cases, including Roseanne’s murder. The agreement was broader than simply protecting his statements from being used against him—it provided protection from prosecution for the offense covered by the agreement.
Investigators had an opportunity they rarely get.
A convicted murderer was willing to talk.
The interview was recorded.
Davis provided information about an unsolved case.
Then investigators showed him a photograph of Roseanne.
And Davis said he didn’t recognize her.
That single response changed the direction of the investigation.
Without him positively identifying Roseanne, what he had said wasn’t enough to establish that he had killed her.
The interview ended.
The recording was stored away.
And for decades, the case remained unresolved.
The File Wasn’t Dead
For years, Roseanne’s case had nowhere obvious to go.
The evidence was old.
The suspect was already serving life sentences.
And the immunity agreement complicated any future prosecution.
But the case was never completely forgotten.
Howard County eventually strengthened its cold-case efforts, giving older homicide investigations another opportunity to be reviewed.
Then, in 2022, Corporal WDE Zufall took another look at Roseanne’s case.
He didn’t simply skim the old paperwork.
He went through the records and recordings again, looking for something earlier investigators might have missed.
And he found something.
Not new DNA.
Not a new witness.
Not some previously unknown piece of physical evidence.
It was a photograph.
The Photograph That Changed Everything
The original 1981 interview had included a photograph of Roseanne.
But there was another photograph in the case file.
It had been taken in July 1975, just one month before she disappeared.
It showed Roseanne closer to the way she actually looked around the time of her death.
Zufall realized that Davis had never been shown that particular photograph during the original interview.
So investigators tried again.
Decades after the first interview, they placed the newer photograph in front of Davis.
This time, he recognized her.
The woman he had failed to identify in 1981 was now familiar to him.
And the investigation that had stalled for decades suddenly moved forward.
A Confession After 49 Years
In late 2024, Davis spoke with investigators again.
He told Zufall that he had met Roseanne at a bar in Howard County on the night of August 24, 1975.
What followed was a confession concerning Roseanne’s death.
According to the investigation, Davis provided details about what happened that investigators considered significant because they came from someone claiming to have been present.
After nearly half a century, investigators finally had what the case had been missing:
A confession from the man they had suspected decades earlier.
But there was one enormous complication.
The 1981 immunity agreement was still legally binding.
The Confession Could Not Lead to a Prosecution
Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson reviewed the old immunity agreement.
The conclusion was clear.
The agreement still applied.
Davis could not be prosecuted for the crime covered by the immunity he had been granted in 1981.
That meant something extraordinary had happened.
Investigators had obtained an apparent confession to a nearly 50-year-old murder.
But the person who confessed could not be charged for that murder because the government had already promised him immunity decades earlier.
The agreement had been made long before anyone knew how important it would eventually become.
And the state was bound by its own promise.
The Case Was Officially Closed
On March 11, 2025, Howard County police officially closed the investigation.
There would be no prosecution.
No trial.
No jury.
No guilty verdict for Roseanne’s murder.
Instead, the case ended with a confession and the legal determination that the confession could not result in prosecution because of the existing immunity agreement.
Police Chief Gregory Durr, County Executive Calvin Ball and State’s Attorney Rich Gibson publicly discussed the decision.
For Roseanne’s family, however, the legal outcome was only part of the story.
After nearly 50 years, they finally knew what had happened to Anne.
Her family expressed gratitude to Corporal Zufall and the Howard County Police Department for continuing to work on the case and finally providing answers.
An Unusual Ending to a Cold Case
Most murder investigations follow a familiar path.
A crime occurs.
Investigators identify a suspect.
Evidence is gathered.
An arrest is made.
The case goes to court.
A verdict follows.
Roseanne Stirts’ case ended differently.
Her killer was identified through an investigation that stretched across five decades.
The suspect ultimately confessed.
But because of an immunity agreement signed in 1981, the confession could not result in a prosecution.
The strange twist is that two things hidden inside an old case file helped solve the mystery:
A photograph that had not been shown to Davis in 1981—and an immunity agreement that never expired.
The photograph helped investigators obtain the recognition they needed.
The immunity agreement determined what they could legally do with the confession.
Roseanne Finally Has an Answer
Roseanne Michelle Stirts disappeared in Baltimore when she was just 20 years old.
For decades, her family had no idea what happened after she was last seen outside the Tik Tok Club.
Her remains were discovered months later.
Her identity was established through painstaking investigative work.
A possible connection to a convicted murderer emerged.
A 1981 interview came and went without solving the case.
Then, more than 40 years later, a detective reopened the file.
One overlooked photograph changed the conversation.
And eventually, a man already serving life sentences acknowledged that he had been involved in Roseanne’s death.
After 49 years, the mystery finally had an answer.
But there would never be a courtroom verdict.
For Roseanne’s family, that may not erase the pain of everything they lost.
But after almost half a century of uncertainty, they finally know what happened to Anne.
And sometimes, in a cold case, that answer is the one thing a family has been waiting for all along.
This story is based on publicly available information and reported facts. It has been independently written and presented for informational purposes. Images, if any, belong to their respective owners.
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