Dateline: Cold Case Spotlight—Who was Renee Freer and what happened to her? Disturbing details of the 1977 case, explored

Dateline: Cold Case Spotlight featured the 1977 case of Renee Freer, who disappeared on the day before the last day of school in Monroe, Connecticut.

Renee Freer was an 8-year-old girl who lived with her mother, brother, and grandparents in Monroe. She was best friends with Tawny Syrotiak, who was with her on that fateful day.

On June 22, 1977, Renee and Tawny returned from the school together, and that was the last time the latter ever saw her best friend again.

As featured on Dateline, Renee went to play outside in the neighborhood after dinner, and shortly afterwards, the Monroe Police Department found her body in the woods. Renee's case remains unsolved after 48 years.

More on the Dateline case in our story.

Dateline: What happened to Renee Freer in 1977?

After reaching home from school, Renee Freer left her house to play outside in the neighborhood. While it was quite late (around 6:30 pm), it was common for children to play outside in the Monroe neighborhood till dark.

Renee's mother (Felicia) was baking cookies for the last day of school, and when she called out for her daughter at 7 pm, she got no response. Thinking that Renee might be busy playing with the other children, she resumed her baking.

It was only around 8 pm that Felicia started growing uneasy and concerned about her daughter, as Lt. McKellick recalled on Dateline:

“After a little while, she became uneasy. And so she stopped with the cookies, went back out again a second time, and began looking for her.”

When Renee's mother and brother could not find any trace of the girl, Felicia contacted the Monroe Police Department. An instant search was initiated, and the whole neighbourhood came together to find the missing 8-year-old Renee.

Approximately an hour after the search, the police found Renee's body in the woods. Her face was smashed, and she has also suffered blunt force trauma to her head. Lt. McKellick also recalled that her shirt was torn, but there were no signs of sexual assault.

Recalling the process of discovering Renee's body, Lt. McKellick told Dateline:

“She was actually found, um, relatively quickly. At, um, 10:12 at night, she was found in the woods behind, uh — behind her house. There was a rock found right next to her body that was believed to be the murder weapon.''

Dateline: The Monroe Police Department is still working on Renee's case after 48 years

Since the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was performing forensic autopsies on two other bodies, Renee Freer's body was taken to a nearby hospital.

While it is difficult to say if things would have been different if Renee had gotten a forensic autopsy, the Monroe Police Department is still working on her case.

On Dateline, Tawny recalled the general hysteria of the town after Renee's murder and how it changed the town's trajectory forever. Children were not allowed to play outside after dark or wander in the woods alone.

While Renee's murder case had no suspects, Lt. McKellick hinted to Dateline that the department is working on a potential suspect profile,

“It is possible to make an arrest. We do have a suspect...We believe the suspect is a lone juvenile male known to Renee.”

He added,

“We have been actively working with the crime lab here in Connecticut over the years, but I can’t go into specifics of what we’re doing.''

While Renee's mother died in 2020 without knowing her daughter's killer, Renee's family and friends still want justice.

McKellick urged people of the neighborhood to come forward and provide any crucial information that might help them in solving Renee's cold case.

“And if they were to come forward and tell us the information, they might have the thing that we need to bring this case to a conclusion.”

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