In the autumn of 1971, Nancy Anderson, just 19 years old, left Colorado to seek new adventures in Hawaii. "She was trying to find herself," recalled her younger sister, Mary Schiattone.
Once in Hawaii, Nancy quickly settled in, sharing an apartment in Waikiki and snagging a job at a local McDonald’s. She made a lot of friends and embraced her outgoing personality. "She was very much an extrovert," said Mary.
During her first Christmas in Hawaii, Nancy returned home to enjoy time with her large, lively family. "There was always something going on," shared her older sister, Carol Sampson.
Tragedy struck on January 7, 1972, when Nancy’s roommate, Jody Spooner, discovered Nancy dead in her room, having suffered 63 stab wounds. “It was unimaginable,” her brother Jack Anderson said. “A beautiful 19-year-old girl with her whole life ahead of her. Why? Who could do this?”
The questions surrounding her brutal murder haunted her family and law enforcement for over five decades, making it one of Hawaii’s oldest unsolved cases.
Nancy’s story is highlighted in "The Aloha Murder," an episode of People Magazine Investigates, which will air on Investigation Discovery on Monday, December 2, at 9/8c and will be available for streaming on Max.
The episode dives deep into the search for Nancy’s killer, revealing how her sister Carol urged authorities to revisit the case in 2001. The investigation picked up steam in 2019 when Jack contacted renowned genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who helped identify a startling suspect and led to an arrest in 2022.
Carol expressed her emotions upon hearing about the arrest, saying, “This was beyond anything we could possibly even dream of after all these years. This was the man. This is who killed our sister.”
"The Aloha Murders" will air on December 2 at 9/8c on ID/Investigation Discovery and will also be available for streaming on Max.
