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1982 murders could be topic of Discovery Channel show

NICOLE FORMOSAsummit daily news

BRECKENRIDGE – The unsolved murders of two women last seen in Breckenridge more than 24 years ago could be featured on a new Discovery Channel program that uses psychics to help solve cold cases.Annette Schnee, 21, and Barbara Jo Oberholtzer, 29, were both last seen on Jan. 6, 1982, hitchhiking separately out of Breckenridge toward Park County. Oberholtzer’s body was found the next day near the summit of Hoosier Pass, and Schnee’s body was found six months later down a rural road past Alma. Both died from a single gunshot wound.No arrests have been made in the case.”Sensing Murder” enlists the help of psychics to help find new clues in unsolved murder cases, and possibly point police in a new direction. It is scheduled to premier on July 6 with an 8-year-old case involving a murdered CU Boulder student, said Discover Channel spokesperson Jill Bondurant.Additional episodes are scheduled to air in September and one show may involve a case from the Breckenridge area, Bondurant said.Local investigator Charlie McCormick said he was contacted by the show’s producers about a month ago about the possibility of shooting an episode of “Sensing Murder” this weekend in Breckenridge and Park County. McCormick is a member of the 11th Judicial Homicide Task Force, which heads up the investigation of the Oberholtzer/Schnee murders. He has worked on the case for nearly 20 years.Producers plan to have McCormick and Jim Hardtke, the lead detective on the case for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in 1982, interview possible psychics for the show while filming in the area, McCormick said.McCormick said he’s not sure whether the television show will bring any answers to the decades-old case. “Well, one can only hope, you just don’t know. Certainly publicity is always good for a case like this,” he said.This would not be the first time the chilling murders have made national television. In the early 1990s, the case was featured on “Unsolved Mysteries.”For more information on the murders, visit http://www.rockymountaincoldcase.comNicole Formosa can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 13625, or at nformosa@summitdaily.com.


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