FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Nearly 50 years after the deaths of teens Darlene Zetterower and Barbara Schreiber, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Homicide Unit and Crime Lab have announced they have brought to light the perpetrators behind the double homicide cold case from 1975.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony made the announcement at a news conference held Thursday.
“Justice doesn’t have an expiration date — not in this organization, not in this community,” he said.
Authorities said the girls entered a white van while walking the streets of Hollywood, near Stirling Road, on June 18, 1975. The next day, their bodies were found by a family fishing on the edge of the Florida Everglades.
Investigators said Zetterower and Schreiber, who were best friends, were sexually assaulted and shot.
Tony said the victims had just completed the eighth grade and were excited to start high school.
“They were no [older] than 14 years of age,” said Tony. “The day of this incident, in which they were kidnapped after they had just got their report card from school.”
According to officials, two men, Robert Clark Keebler and Lawrence Stein, were responsible for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering the two girls.
Decades after the murders, investigators were able to link Keebler and Stein to the crime, thanks to new information from witnesses and advancements in DNA testing.
DNA samples taken directly from the girls’ clothing were instrumental in solving the case, according to BSO Detective Andrew Gianino, alongside a team of investigators from BSO’s Crime Lab.
“Applied a new technique and was able to get a complete profile of one of the two defendants and a partial profile of a second defendant,” said Gianino. “From that, it was a lot of hard analytical work, a lot of investigative hours.”
Keebler and Stein, both in their early 20s at the time of the murders, had extensive criminal histories marred with violence, burglaries and child kidnappings, in Florida, California and Arizona, dating back to around 1972.
“As we looked at their criminal history going back, starting back from 1972 through the time of their deaths, it’s been nothing but tragedy and violence in their lives,” said Gianino.
Although both men are dead and thus will not stand trial for their crimes, Gianino said the case is considered exceptionally cleared. He hopes that despite the passage of time, the answers provided by these new developments will bring peace to their families.
“The two suspects that we’ve been able to identify and confirm were responsible for this tragedy are now deceased. But it is not a matter of whether or not they’re alive or dead; our obligation is to find justice for this community,” said Tony.
Kimberly Schreiber, Barbara’s sister, said she is thankful that the team never gave up.
“This team has done everything to find the people that did this tremendous, horrible thing to our family,” said Kimberly.
She was only 5 years old at the time of the murders, and she still wonders who Barbara would have become if it hadn’t been for the tragic incident.
“It devastated us. It destroyed us. It didn’t break us, but our hearts will forever be broken,” said Kimberly. It does hurt, and it does destroy, and it does give us some closure in our days, in coming to smile again.”
BSO said this is the 31st cold case out of 300 that they’ve solved since starting their Cold Case Unit full time in 2019.
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