The unsolved 1984 Robin Wellso murder

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Grand Rapids Police Lt. Ralph Mason was on patrol in 1984 when 22-year-old Robin Wellso was found dead on the back porch of a home.

The Michigan State graduate's body lay beaten, stabbed and partially clothed outside the Charles Avenue residence. The home was vacant when Wellso was found Dec. 31 and it remains empty today.

"This one sticks with me," Mason said Monday. "Because I remember coming back here as a young officer. There was nobody out here. It was freezing cold like it is now."

Wellso had been missing for two days. She left two girlfriends at the nearby Intersection bar at around 1 a.m. Dec. 29, apparently to walk to her home on Lake Drive.

But a woman matching Wellso's description showed up about an hour later a few blocks away at a Domino's pizza, asking one of the employees how to get back to the bar.

"So she came, she went and she headed that way and that's the last we seen of her," that employee told 24 Hour News 8.

When cold case detectives reviewed Wellso's case, they had hoped to find old DNA they could test with new technology. They also were looking for any connection to a series of killings known as the Hill murders.

The Kent County Metro Cold Case Team -- comprised of several police departments and based out of the sheriff's department -- ultimately solved the Hill murders with the arrest and conviction of Lamont Marshall in 2008.

But the team found no evidence tying him to Wellso's murder, and there was no DNA to retest. The plea for help from police in 1984 still stands.

"To be dumped on this porch, in the middle of the night in the winter ... She deserves justice," Mason said. "This needs to be solved."

Cold case detectives received several phone tips after they made public pleas for help on two cases: Deanie Peters' disappearance in 1981 and the mystery surrounding a woman's bones found in an Ada park in 1997.

The team started working on Peters' case about 1.5 years ago. Detectives want to know more about a fight the teen allegedly was involved in before she vanished from her brother's wrestling practice at Forest Hills Central Middle School, Feb. 5, 1981.

Police have received new tips on the Peters case weekly and told 24 Hour News 8 they are following up on each one.

As for the unidentified bones, the cold case team released photos of a clay reconstruction of the woman's face in early December.

Detectives are getting DNA from "various individuals" who say they believe she may be a family member. The process is slow because they have to obtain dental records and do comparisons on each one.

If you have any information on any of the cases listed, or any other crimes, you are strongly encouraged to call Silent Observer at (616) 774-2345.