Sixty years ago this week, someone walked into a quiet home at 3381 Greenway Avenue in Bridgetown, killed a young couple and their 4-year-old daughter, and left without a trace of forced entry. Gerald Bricca, Linda Bricca, and their daughter Debbie were found stabbed to death in their home, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The case remains unsolved.
The violence was extreme even by the standards of a case that has haunted Greater Cincinnati for six decades. Cincinnati Magazine reported that Gerald Bricca suffered nine stab wounds and Linda Bricca suffered eight. Four-year-old Debbie was found dead in her bed with four stab wounds to her back that passed entirely through her small body. Initial reports placed Gerald and Linda in their master bedroom, while Debbie was killed separately in her own room.
The Enquirer reports the family murders occurred in their Green Township home, with the case now marking 60 years unsolved. Two women, per the Enquirer's reporting, hope renewed attention to the case could finally lead to justice for the family.
A Timeline That Ends in Silence
Gerald Bricca was last seen on September 25, 1966, taking garbage cans to the curb at the family's Greenway Avenue home. Neighbors checked on the family on September 27 after noticing newspapers and garbage cans, leading to the discovery of the bodies.
A retrospective analysis of the crime scene found no signs of forced entry, and a carving knife matching the stab wounds was missing from the home, according to Cincinnati Magazine. The family's two dogs had not been let outside when neighbors checked on the home.
Terror Already Gripped the City
The murders unfolded during a period of acute public fear across Greater Cincinnati, driven by the so-called Cincinnati Strangler, who killed six women between December 1965 and December 1966. The Bricca killings occurred after the Strangler's third listed murder in June 1966 and before the next in October 1966, according to NKyTribune, which says the Bricca killings had no connection to the strangulation murders.
Early detectives conducted more than 400 interviews. An alleged affair between Linda Bricca and an unidentified married man was also reported.
Modern Science Meets a 1960s Crime Scene
In 2020, evidence from the case underwent DNA retesting, WLWT reported.
In 2020, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said evidence was being retested and that an ancestry group had not found a match, according to WLWT.
True-crime author J.T. Townsend wrote Summer's Almost Gone, a book about the Bricca case.
The Case Remains Unsolved
Cincinnati Magazine reported in 2008 that no suspect had been named.
