BROOKLYN 1980 Cold Case Solved by DNA After 40 Years — She Was a Bridesmaid at His Wedding

Brooklyn cold case solved by DNA after 40 years: Lorraine Snell was murdered in East Flatbush in 1980, and fingernail DNA finally named the Staten Island bishop who killed her. True crime, told for listening. ▶ EVERY CASE — one playlist, built for listening    • No More Cold Crime   On a rainy night in late September 1980, 19-year-old Lorraine Snell, a legal secretary who worked for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, walked out of the Midwood Terrace catering hall on Flatbush Avenue next to James Burrus, the man who had married her cousin. She had been a bridesmaid at his wedding. The next afternoon she was found strangled in the back of a station wagon behind a supermarket on Nostrand Avenue. Detectives suspected him from the start, but in 1980 there was no DNA testing. Burrus went to prison for a taxicab-stand robbery he committed the same night, came out a preacher, and founded a small church in a garage on Staten Island. In 2014, Lorraine's mother, Pearl, wrote to a reporter. The case was reopened, the scrapings from under Lorraine's fingernails were tested again, and in March 2020 he was arrested. In January 2025 he pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter. He was sentenced to 4 to 8 years, entered state prison in March 2025, and was released on parole that July. CHAPTERS 0:00 The man from the catering hall 1:22 The bridesmaid 2:56 The catering hall 4:26 Nostrand Avenue 5:33 Filed away 6:33 The bishop 7:35 The interview 10:21 "Not this again" 12:13 Five years 13:47 The plea 15:50 Pearl MORE CASES LIKE THIS GRESHAM 1980 Cold Case Solved After 44 Years — The DNA Was on the Gum He Spat Out    • GRESHAM 1980 Cold Case Solved After 44 Yea...   SAN FRANCISCO 1976 Cold Case Solved After 33 Years — The Killer Was the Deacon    • SAN FRANCISCO 1976 Cold Case Solved After ...   LANCASTER 2013 Cold Case Solved After 12 Years — His DNA Was on the Wrong Brand Cigarette    • LANCASTER 2013 Cold Case Solved After 12 Y...   SOURCES & ON-SCREEN RECORDS Brooklyn District Attorney's Office — "Staten Island Man Indicted for 1980 Cold Case Murder of Lorraine Snell" (March 12 2020). Excerpts are shown on screen. https://brooklynda.org/2020/03/13/sta... New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department — People v Burrus, decision and order on motion (May 2 2025). Excerpt shown on screen. https://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/mot... Reporting: Mary Murphy (PIX11, 2014–2022, and marymurphyofficial.com, January 2025), New York Daily News, New York Post, Oxygen, ABC7 New York. The photo of Lorraine Snell and the photos from March 12 2020 appeared in New York Post, New York Daily News and PIX11 coverage. Conviction, sentence and release dates: New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Incarcerated Lookup (retrieved September 29 2026). The plea hearing was reported by Mary Murphy. This episode names only people who have been convicted, and people who spoke on the record. Nobody else is identified. Subscribe — one cold case, told properly, every Monday and Friday. — No More Cold Crime #truecrime #coldcase #brooklyn #newyork #dnaevidence