It was 1974. A cold, February night in Burlington, Vermont. John Orner was just a guy trying to make a living, driving a taxi for the Yellow Cab Company. He was 43 years old. He had a family. He had a life that was supposed to keep going, but it stopped abruptly on a lonely stretch of Hinesburg Road.
People don't realize how different police work was back then. No DNA databases. No cell phone towers to ping. Just blood, tire tracks, and a lot of dead ends. Orner was found shot in the back of the head. His cab was abandoned, and his wallet was gone. It looked like a robbery gone wrong, a random act of violence that left the community shaken and the Burlington Police Department scratching their heads for nearly half a century.
Honestly, for a long time, it seemed like whoever killed John Orner had gotten away with it. The file sat in a cabinet. It collected dust. It became one of those stories local old-timers would bring up when talking about how the city used to be "different." But cases like this don't just disappear; they wait for technology and persistence to catch up.
Why the Murder of John Orner Went Cold for 40 Years
The initial investigation was a mess of "could-haves." Detectives at the time did what they could. They interviewed neighbors. They talked to other cab drivers. They looked for the weapon, a .22 caliber pistol. They even had a person of interest early on—a young man named George DeForge. But back in '74, "knowing" someone did it and "proving" it in a court of law were two very different things.
Evidence was thin.
Without a confession or a witness, the trail went cold. You have to understand the era. Forensics was basically fingerprinting and blood typing. If the prints were smudged or the blood type was common, you were stuck. The murder of John Orner stayed in limbo because the legal system lacked the tools to bridge the gap between suspicion and a conviction.
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For decades, the Orner family lived with the silence. Imagine every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, knowing the person who took your father or husband was likely walking around, breathing the same Vermont air, maybe even sitting in the same diners. It’s a specific kind of torture.
The Turning Point: Modern Science Meets Old Fashioned Grunt Work
Things changed in the early 2010s. The Burlington Police Department didn't just stumble onto the answer; they decided to look for it again. This is where the story gets interesting. It wasn't some flashy CSI moment with glowing lights and spinning computer screens. It was about a detective named Leo Dumas re-examining every single scrap of paper and every piece of physical evidence in the locker.
They found a bloodstain.
Specifically, they found a small bloodstain on a piece of clothing that had been preserved since 1974. In the seventies, that stain was useless. In the 2000s, it was a roadmap.
- They sent the sample for DNA testing.
- They cross-referenced it with modern databases.
- They re-interviewed people who were "scared to talk" forty years ago.
By 2015, the pieces started clicking. The DNA didn't just suggest George DeForge was involved; it placed him right there. DeForge was 70 years old by the time the handcuffs finally clicked. He had spent his entire adult life with this secret hanging over him, probably thinking he’d cheated the system. He hadn't.
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What Most People Get Wrong About This Case
There's a common misconception that cold cases are solved by one "aha!" moment. It's usually a slog. In the murder of John Orner, the "break" was actually a series of small wins. People often think the police just "forgot" about Orner. They didn't. What actually happened was a shift in how law enforcement views "unsolvable" crimes.
Some folks think the robbery was the only motive. While DeForge did take money, the brutality of a shot to the back of the head suggests a level of callousness that goes beyond a simple mugging. It was an execution.
Another weird detail? DeForge had actually been in and out of trouble over the years. He wasn't some mastermind criminal hiding in a basement. He was right there. He lived a life. He got old. He probably thought the world had moved on from a cabbie's death in the seventies.
The Reality of Seeking Justice Decades Later
When George DeForge was finally charged, it brought up a lot of complicated feelings. Is it "justice" when the defendant is an old man in poor health? Some say yes. Others feel the window for true accountability closed somewhere in the nineties.
During the court proceedings, the weight of time was visible. The witnesses were elderly. Some were dead. The lead investigators from the original scene were long retired or gone. This is the tragedy of cold cases: even when you "win," you’ve lost so much time.
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DeForge eventually pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of manslaughter in 2017. He was sentenced, but due to his failing health, he didn't spend decades behind bars. He died shortly after. To some, that feels like a letdown. But to the Orner family, it meant the record was finally set straight. The man who killed John Orner was no longer "unknown." He was named.
Moving Forward: Lessons from the Orner Investigation
What can we actually take away from this? For one, the murder of John Orner proves that "cold" doesn't mean "dead." If you're following a similar case or have an interest in true crime, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding how these cases are handled today.
- Evidence preservation is everything. If those detectives in 1974 hadn't properly bagged and tagged that clothing, the DNA would have been contaminated or lost.
- Technological patience pays off. Sometimes, the best thing an investigator can do is wait for the science to catch up to the crime.
- Community memory matters. Small details provided by neighbors decades later can still tip the scales.
If you’re looking into cold cases in your own area, start by looking at the public records requests. Many police departments now have dedicated cold case units that are more transparent than they used to be. You can often find updated lists of unidentified remains or unsolved homicides on state police websites.
Support for families of cold case victims is also a huge, often overlooked area. Organizations like the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases (AISOCC) provide resources for both law enforcement and families who are still waiting for their "1974 moment."
The Orner case serves as a grim reminder that the past is never truly buried. It’s just waiting for someone to dig deep enough with the right tools. Justice might be slow—frustratingly, agonizingly slow—but as George DeForge found out, it usually has a very long memory.
Check your local police department's cold case logs. Many departments, especially in smaller states like Vermont, have digitized these files. Seeing the names and the dates makes it real. It reminds us that behind every "file number" is a John Orner—a person who was just trying to get home at the end of a shift.