WEST OLIVE, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department is turning to a tool that wasn’t really at its disposal more than a decade ago to resolve one of the longest cold cases in its history.
Deborah Lynn Polinsky was only 20 when she was found stabbed to death in a rented farmhouse on property off of New Holland Street near 152nd Avenue in Port Sheldon Township on July 26, 1977. A coworker made the discovery a day after she had failed to show up at Depree Chemical Company, and three days after she was last seen alive.
There have been no suspects arrested since that time, and while new evidence was uncovered earlier this year that led cold case investigators to believe that another woman had been at the scene when Polinsky died, there have been no additional breaks in the matter.
On Monday, the department set up a “Justice for Deb Polinsky” community page on Facebook in an effort to spur someone to come forward with new information on the matter. Such a social media outreach wasn’t available in 2004, when Hope College students produced a documentary “Who Killed Janet Chandler?” that led to the arrests and convictions of six persons in the death of the Hope College coed in 1979.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department investigative unit (616-738-4022) or Silent Observer.
