The Oldest Cold Case From Every State

According to the Spokesman-Review, Candice Elaine Rogers, or just Candy, was a 9-year-old Camp Fire Girl in March 1959 when she went door-to-door in neighborhoods near her home in the eastern Washington state city of Spokane selling mints as a fundraiser. And then she was never seen alive again. A few hours after she vanished, according to Unsolved Mysteries Fandom, boxes of Camp Fire mints were found by a bridge, and police collected more than 700 tips from locals. Two weeks after her disappearance, the body of Rogers was found in the woods, underneath a heap of pine needles. Spokane Police investigators theorized that she'd been abducted, assaulted, and strangled with a portion of her own clothing.

Detectives interviewed dozens of persons of interest, and over the decades, more than a dozen men confessed to the Rogers' murder, albeit falsely, and they were ruled out as suspects. Police were especially interested in Hugh Bion Morse, a serial killer who struck the Spokane area twice, but DNA testing in 2011 disproved the theory. Another possible murderer, according to authorities was Alfred Graves, who committed suicide the day Rogers' body was discovered. 

In 2021, thanks to DNA testing of a sample taken from Rogers' clothing, Spokane Police Department detectives were able to narrow matches down to now-deceased John Reigh Hoff. They exhumed his body and confirmed the match. At the time of Rogers' murder, Hoff was a 20-year-old Army man and lived in the same neighborhood as the young girl. He made waves a couple of years later after assaulting a woman and fleeing the scene. He was caught and served six months, after which he was dishonorably discharged. He died by suicide in 1970.

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