Pauline Storment's Murder Has Been Unsolved For

"A myth or legend is simply not made up out of a vacuum. Nothing is--or can be. Somehow there is a kernel of truth behind it, however distorted that might be." -ISAAC ASIMOV        A little over half a century ago my cousin, Pauline Storment, had her life stolen from her at 9::45 on a warm April Monday night, the 12th, of 1971, to be exact, and for the better part of my life I can recall knowing very little about the case and what I did know was that she was a University of Arkansas student and who was murdered while walking home from the college and that the guilty person was a student and that one or both of his parents were university officials a professor or dean and that guilty person was protected from prosecution and quietly sent out of state to evade that cops.      So, how does an Isaac Asimov quote fit into this case, it's simple the truth of what happened to here and the facts of the case are indeed within the details where the devil will be found. So, how exa

After the murder of Pauline Storment the Arkansas State Police would become involved in the case which lead to both the Police Departments of the cities of Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia conducting their own investigations into the death in the hope that a clue might be found that would lead to the case being closed.  It wouldn't be long before they would hear from a Mr. Sanders a personal manager for the Mark Lipman company which would go on to stated that they had an employee by the name of John Hubbard who had been employed with it's company Guardsmark (now Alied Universal) from from May 20, 1969 to July of 1970, and to his knowledge, Pauline Storment & John Hubbard met in Dallas, Texas, in July of 1969 while both were employed by Mark Lipman Co. but working on different assignments. Mr. Sanders went on to say that the company felt that Mr. Hubbard and Miss Storment were having an affair during months of July to August of 1969. He also stated that their last kno

The following is the transcript of Wallace Peter Kunkel's recollection of his whereabouts leading up to, during, and after the time in which Pauline Storment is stabbed.     Kunkel timeline of events. *Keep in mind that two witnesses say a man who appeared to be drunk or on drugs park his vehicle near 12 South Hill which takes only a minute to drive. Also other witnesses reported in the press that a man was seen running east on Center which runs along the south side of Evergreen Cemetery directly back to the 12 South Hill Area where a vehicle was seen parked. Is this something or just coincidence?

 For some some time now I have been curious about the possibility of taking whatever DNA was provided by the accused attacker and re-testing it with modern technology but that hope appears to have been lost for now, short of finding enough proof to convince a judge to exhume a few bodies. Armed with knowing that on April 15, 1971 at 11:25 AM that Arkansas State Medical Examiners officer signed and received the evidence collected by the Fayetteville Police Department, I sent an email the the directors of the 2022 Arkansas State Crime Lab with a list of questions. The response was cases this old any evidence would be returned to the original investigating agency.  I thought great, the one agency which when I filed an FOIA in the very beginning of my search for answers I was told by the person over the F.O.I.A. requests that my FOIA request would remain opened but it appears after an exhaustive search including one of an off site storage facility that the case files have either been mispl

For the longest time, I had operated on the assumption that Pauline Storment had been walking on the west side of the road, the left side of this photo, where the better sidewalk is. Yet going back and reviewing the witness statements from Robert L. Spray and John A. Hall both stated they saw a man park his car close to their address of 12 S. Hill and when he stepped out he was wearing a sport coat possibly brown, he was medium in height, and had a slight build as well as appearing to be very drunk or under the influence of drugs.   Being perplexed about the location of the only utility pole I could find in the area on the street in 2022 had me thinking my cousin put up one hell of a fight for her belonging to have been scattered at the light pole as Gary Gammil had stated, so I went back in time with Google Street View to 2007 and it revealed a much closer light pole at the intersection. This new discovery now suggests Pauline Storment was indeed walking South on Duncan Av

Who was Pauline Storment?  Pauline, was an All-American girl,  born on to Paul Storment and Lillian Elam on April 3, 1944, in Ozark, Arkansas.   She was also the granddaughter of former Monterey County, California Sheriff's Deputy Benjamin W. Storment.   At Ozark High School, she served as the President of the Freshman Class, as seen in the picture above. Her closest friends describe her as a kind gentle soul who was very studious and didn't have time for what was called tom-foolery. After attending two years at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, she would eventually marry Charles Joseph Pate in June of 1965 in Booneville, Arkansas. The marriage would only last a year based on an Arkansas State Police multi-state investigation into her death between Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia though , if there ever was an official divorce certificate by 2022, no record can be found. It was also, discovered by the Arkansas State Police via a statement from, Iris Fletcher, a f

Half a century ago law enforcement only had their carefully curated sources of information and their individual guts to solved crimes but now technology can be used to bring a cold case that much closer to being solved & closed. With this said, I bring to you those who are following this site such a technological leap. I must state this doesn't mean our killer looks like this it is just an deep learning based educated guess.  Do you have a family member who looks like this and lived near or was likely traveling through Fayetteville, Arkansas on or around April 12, 1971. If so, contact the Fayetteville Police Department. 

Where's the Evidence? Was it destroyed somehow someway? Was it tragically lost, due to human failure? If it is still stored somewhere, let's pull it out of storage and test it with modern DNA technology.  It may not help solve Pauline's murder but maybe someone else's.  So, let's find it and...

 A while back I submitted a F.O.I.A. request to the Fayetteville Police for the records on my twice removed first cousin, Pauline Storment's April 12, 1971, stabbing death I was informed after an exhaustive search of the station and off site storage they were unable to find the case files, and stated the would keep the request active should they turn up. It was at that point I chose to submit a F.O.I.A. request to Washington County Sheriff''s Office of which three days have passed and I have heard NOTHING from them not even an acknowledgement that they received my request. I also submitted a request to the Arkansas State Police and after on the 7th day including the weekend I was emailed the case files they had archived. Click Below to Download Pauline Storment - Arkansas State Police F.O.I.A. Request Results.

When I began my journey to learn as much about my twice removed first cousin Pauline Storment's tragic April 12, 1971 murder, I have submitted more F.O.I.A. requests that I ever imagined I would. What I learned was a 51yr old case and it's files have in that amount of time have apparently grown legs and is either hiding from record keepers or the files jumped in a retired detective's bag in a question to solve the case, or maybe, and most likely the case, they were accidentally destroyed. Since I learned the Pauline Storment case files were misplaced/lost, I chose to introduce myself to a Lieutenant with the Fayetteville Police Department. He seems to be knowledgeable of the case and in fact the last time he looked at the case files was in 2011. That said, when I questioned the possibility of using modern DNA tools to build out a family tree of the suspect and catch the murderer that way I was met with the "We have no evidence related to the case for DNA testing."

Why do I care so much about closing the book, if you will, on the unsolved murder of Pauline Storment? The short answer is she is family, my twice removed first cousin to be exact. Yet, I can also say this my late maternal grandfather AJ "Buddy" Stacks is a first cousin to Pauline or maybe I should say that my AJ mother, my later great grandmother Lela (Storment) Stacks was Pauline's aunt because Pauline's dad Paul was my great grandmother's brother. They say blood is thinker than water, and this is true and while being that I was born in 1978 a whole seven years after her murder I still feel as if I know her. Blood is DNA it's the building blocks of everything and without it we have nothing. This brings us to our slow understanding of how things work in the scientific world. In 1971, the only tool law enforcement had was to send the suspects blood stained jacket to a lab and hope it reveled the victim's blood type. Yet, in Pauline's case both victim a

In 1971, had the headline read Pauline Storment, a California Deputy Sherrif's granddaughter murder would the cause still be unsolved in 2022? I am thinking an affirmative NO. The attached image is an obituary for Benjamin Storment a retired Sheriff's Deputy out of Salinas, California.  I post this because in 1971, some 1,768 miles Benjamin's grand daughter Pauline Storment was stabbed to death and to this day the case remains unsolved.

Earlier this month I submitted a F.O.I.A request to the Fayetteville, Arkansas Police Department  Seeking as much case information as possible, sadly after 51yrs the case file had been misplaced/lost. I still have F.O.I.A requests out for the Washington County Sherrif's Office and the Arkansas State Police, hopefully one of the other two agencies which worked on the case will come through with better record keeping.

In my digital copy it is very difficult to make out the text but the article basically states as follows: Pauline Storment (27) attends a Musical Production then stops by the library. After the attack her roommate told police for her to have been stabbed around 9:30pm she must have left the campus an hour earlier than normal.  (Why? Was she being compelled to by a cat calling creepy guy?) Witnesses heard her screams carry for at least a block away and some ran to her aid.  She tells them, "He hit me in the chest", "He's wearing glasses" & "He ran towards campus." Less than 40mins after the attack 17yr old Wallace Peter Kunkel, a high school drop out & son of a Physicist, was in custody. He had blood on his jacket, shirt and pants. Kunkel lived in what was called the Grey House, officers knew it as a transient house located on the southwest corner of University & Dickson set off the road on the Northside of Evergreen Cemetery.  (

 It is often stated Justice is blind, but by the end of 1971, one might be hard pressed to believe that adage particularly if your names were Paul and Lillian Storment the parents of Pauline Storment, a the recently slain 27yr old University of Arkansas student who stabbed to death seven times while walking home from the campus library around 9:30pm on April 12th. Why, lose faith in the justice system?  Well, I imagine that as the days and weeks turn into months and than years, it might be very easy to lose one's faith in a system which feels like it's full force of protection are more often than not used to help those with social or financial status. Was Wallace Peter Kunkel allowed to walk free, we may never know because he passed away in 2020/21 depending on which online obituary is correct. Now, as a long time supported of the West Memphis Three, three young men who were sentence to prison for murder largely based on the style of clothing the wore. I stated this because I d

Based on witness reports who went on the record and stated they saw Pauline Storment being followed then shortly after her blood curdling screams the assailant ran. Police would catch up to a 17yr old Fayetteville Highschool student. But wait there is more, for they find what what they believe to be the murder weapon stuck in the ground behind a house about 100ft from where Pauline Storment bleeds out. Prosecution considers bringing fourth charges.

Some say, Paulette Storment was walking home from the library and one account suggested the ROTC building where she worked.  Assuming neither of these buildings has relocated this is the most likely path which led to her tragic death. One witness stated he had just gotten home to Summit Terrace Apartments when he heard her loud her screams for help were. Lastly, the above comes from an article which was published by the Arkansas Traveler on March 13, 1971.