Dateline: A Promise to Gloria - A complete investigation overview of the Gloria Pointer case, explored

Dateline features a chilling true crime story in its episode titled "A Promise to Gloria" on NBC. It recalls the 1984 murder mystery when Gloria Pointer, a 14-year-old girl, headed to her school but never arrived. She disappeared after that, and her body was found in the basement of a building located near her school, in Cleveland, Ohio.

The case remained unsolved till the DNA breakthrough happened in 2013, which changed everything. Dateline episode presents the facts in a narrative style, through several interviews with law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and family members involved in the case. Read on to know the complete overview of Gloria Pointer's case as shown on Dateline.

Dateline: A Promise to Gloria - A complete investigation overview of the Gloria Pointer case

As mentioned, Gloria Evett Pointer was a teenager studying in high school. One day, when she heads out for his school, she disappears. The incident happened on December 6, 1984, when she was slated to receive a perfect-attendance award. According to her mother, Yvonne, she walked towards the school via a known shortcut. When the investigators dug more into it, they discovered that Gloria never made it to school that morning.

The school asked about her absence, and later, in the basement behind a building near the school, her body was found. She was lying unresponsive in the basement beneath the fire escape, with her ID and backpack were found next to her. When the autopsy report came, it revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and then beaten to death with multiple blunt trauma impacts to her head and upper torso.

The initial investigation revealed that Gloria was seen walking with a male wearing some heavy clothing near the school. However, no witness saw the man clearly because of the morning fog. The investigators interrogated her stepfather and her boyfriend at the school, along with a neighbour who had once kissed Gloria. However, they didn't get sufficient evidence against any of them.

The investigators also connected this case with some other murders of 14-year-old girls in Cleveland at the time. The suspect, Romell Broom, was also considered, but the investigators didn't find any evidence tying him to Gloria's case.

After several attempts, when the investigators hit a dead end, they diverted their attention to new cases, and this case became unsolvable. It was Gloria's mother who tried to keep the pressure alive, writing letters to the authorities and meeting law enforcement.

It was finally in 2013 when some advanced DNA technology came that matched the killer's DNA profile to Hernanadez Warren, a 58-year-old man at the time. Warren had some prior record of rape and assault and had lived near the area during the time of the murder.

Here is how Warren was arrested and sentenced to prison for Gloria's murder, as shown on Dateline

On May 13, 2013, Warren was arrested for brutally murdering and raping Gloria, a minor. It was in 2014 that he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

After the arrest, Gloria's mother considered advocating and spreading awareness about female safety. She initiated community programs to keep the kids off the streets and used her daughter's case as a platform for advocacy. She made sure to make the society and area safer for future generations to come, and that nobody would again suffer the same fate as her daughter.

Gloria's murder mystery remains one of the chilling stories covered by Dateline, as it was unsolvable for years. It was an advancement in DNA technology that enabled Gloria to get justice.

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