A call reporting a cardiac arrest brought police to a home on Portship Road in Dundalk in October 1991, where officers found 97-year-old Irene Poulson White dead in her bed. What first looked like a natural death turned out to be something far darker: an autopsy determined she had been strangled, and more than three decades later, her killing remains unsolved.
According to WMAR-2 News, the case has sat open since police discovered White's body that October. The Baltimore County Police Homicide Cold Case Squad has said, per a Facebook post reported by the station, that the autopsy determined she had been strangled. White was taking a current events class at Dundalk Community College, now known as the Community College of Baltimore County, at the time of her death.
White was not a stranger to her community. She was an active member of Dundalk throughout her life and co-founded the Dundalk Historical Society, which traces its roots to 1970, when it launched as the Dundalk-Patapsco Neck Historical Society. Founding members included Ben Womer, White and Eleanor Lukanich, according to the society's own history.
A Neighbor's Account, and an Unproven Theory
A neighbor told WMAR-2 News that police believed a tenant living in White's house was responsible for her death but did not have sufficient information to charge him, saying, “It was a tenant in her house, but they didn't have sufficient information to charge him.” That account has not been independently confirmed beyond the neighbor's statement, and no arrests or charges have been reported in the case.
Baltimore County Police Department representative Joy Stewart emphasized how far a single lead could go in cracking open a case this old. “The smallest bit of information could crack a case wide open,” Stewart said, per the station's report. Baltimore County lists the case among dozens still classified as open, with the department's Homicide Unit Unsolved Case Squad stated to be actively investigating these files, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.
How to Submit a Tip
Baltimore County Police have asked anyone with information about White's death to come forward. Tips can be submitted to the department's Homicide and Missing Persons Unit by phone at 410-887-3943, by text at 443-862-9426, or by email at [email protected], as reported by the Dundalk Eagle. Tipsters can also reach Metro Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-866-7LOCKUP, and the outlet notes that tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.
For now, the questions surrounding Irene White's final days remain as open as the case itself. She spent decades building ties to the Dundalk community she helped document for future generations, and investigators are hoping that same community can finally help close the file on how her life ended.
