For the last seven years, Dorothy Gause has volunteered at Crime Stoppers, which allows people to report illegal activity anonymously.
Gause hopes an anonymous tip will help police find the person who killed her daughter, Lisa Gause, 26 years ago.
“I want to just ask (The murderer) why,” said Dorothy. “That’s it.”
Authorities found Lisa’s dead body on Oct. 14, 1997, at 3:30 a.m. The killer strangled and assaulted Lisa, leaving her body under a bridge on 12th Street near I-94 in Detroit.
The family received the news a day later, on Lisa’s daughter’s 18th birthday.
“She came in all happy because it was her birthday,” Dorothy said. “She saw the detective there, and she said, ‘What’s going on?’ And all I said was, ‘Lisa,’ that’s all I said. And she fell to the floor.”
Dorothy remembers Lisa as a loving woman.
“I call Lisa my love child,” Dorothy said. “She was just, she loved everybody. She had a quiet spirit about her.”
Dorothy says she deals with the grief of Lisa’s death daily but can’t think about it constantly. Instead, she focuses on her daily life and the lives of her great-grandchildren.
During harrowing moments, though, Dorothy’s need to know why her daughter was killed compels her to call the Detroit Police Department’s Homicide Division.
“I have to do a press conference,” Dorthy said. “I have to do something.”
The police are doing their part to help. Detroit police Capitan Donna McCord is asking the public to remember.
Twenty-six years ago, no witnesses came forward, and investigations came to a standstill. On Friday (Oct. 13), McCord hopes to change that.
“We want to appeal to anyone who may have been in an area who drove by and may have saw something that they may not have discovered at the time, what it was to give us that information,” said McCord.
Missing witnesses are not the only reason Lisa’s killer hasn’t been found. In 1997, authorities didn’t have as many DNA samples in their system as they do now.
Modern technology may have helped solve the murder at the time it was committed. The only hope left to bring Lisa’s killer to justice today is through witness accounts.
Dorothy hopes that someone will remember something that will help close the case.
“Maybe (There were) two or three people who were involved or who (knew),” Dorothy said. “Maybe they’re dead, but they may have told somebody else. Somebody knows.”
In the meantime, Dorothy works to help others through Crime Stoppers. When a crime gets solved, it encourages her to keep her faith in finding her daughter’s killer.
Dorothy asks readers to pick up their phones and call homicide at 313-596-2260 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-Speak-Up if they have any information regarding her daughter’s death.
Crime Stoppers is completely anonymous and takes away the danger associated with traditional witness testimony.
There is a cash prize of up to $2,500 for the anonymous tip leading to Lisa’s killer’s arrest.
“It doesn’t matter how long, how many years, it can still happen,” Dorothy said. “I still have hope it’s gonna happen.”
All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous. Click here to submit a tip online.