Who Murdered Terry Schmansky - Burkholder?

27/01/2025

I hope you’re up there crocheting baby clothes and afghans. I hope you’re baking Boston cream pies and talking to your African violets. I hope you’re watering your dogwood trees and that they bloom year round for you while you listen to Richard Marx on repeat. But mostly, I hope that you’re at peace.
Happy Birthday Mom.

23/09/2024

Those close to Terry affectionately called her Kitten, because of her tiny stature, and kind-hearted ways.
She loved to write her friends and did so often.
She was crafty, crocheting baby clothes for friends and family.
She named her plants, African Violets and spider plants, and they thrived under her care.
She loved listening to Richard Marx, and stayed in the car until the song was over.
She planted a dogwood at every home she had, often gifted by her older sister and brother-in-law.

But on September 22, 1989, under a last quarter phase moon 🌗on the night of the fall equinox, a period of dwindling daylight that ushered in a season of loss, she fought an attacker in the living room of her apartment across the street from Squire’s restaurant in Dundalk, MD, a suburb of Baltimore County.

She was found on this morning, 35 years ago today, on the living room floor of her apartment, brutally beaten, strangled, and stabbed to death.

Her family has never stopped searching for justice. Detectives are currently processing DNA found at the crime scene, trace amounts that weren’t detectable until now, but we still could use your help.

If you have any information, whether you saw or heard something back then, or you’ve learned something years later, big or small, it could be the key to keeping a killer behind bars. I believe the reward is up to 5k now. I pray you do the right thing. You can call Baltimore County police, or call or text 4104104883

11/04/2024

“Whoever killed my mom, stole my piggy bank” I told my cousin, a few months after my mom’s murder.

I thought this, because the day of, or the day after her death, my aunt and uncle took me and my sisters back to our apartment on Holabird Avenue, across from Squire’s restaurant, which was also the crime scene. I stayed in the car, but my uncle asked me what I wanted from the home.

We didn’t have much to save, and most was replaceable, but I wanted my piggy bank and my bowling trophy. He couldn’t miss either one, they were displayed on the hutch in the living room. I added change I’d find in the alley to the bank often.

My uncle returned to the car and said the bank was gone.

I brought this bank up from time to time to my sisters. Theories of how its disappearance could be connected to the case. I envisioned its ceramic smashed open with a hammer for a measly $25 or so.

Maybe a few weeks before the murder, Mom parked the old station wagon in front of the house as she always did, and when we got out of the car, a pile of change was in the dirt. Too much change to have been dropped from a pocket or purse. My sister and I excitedly scooped up the change that had seemed to magically appear- but had that money been stolen from our apartment? From me or my sister’s banks? Had we surprised the intruder, who dropped the change and ran when he saw our car chugging down the alley?

The apartment we lived in was really a small historic home split into four individual units, 2 on top, and 2 on the bottom. Yet they were all connected through the basement and attic. It wasn’t difficult to access each others’ space.

I’ve always considered found penny’s as signs from my mom. They’ve shown up on the road when I’m thinking about her, taking walks in the evening. They’ve shown up on windowsills in the empty first home I bought.

And then last month, Stephanie Schmansky found it! When she and my father divorced in the early 2000’s, she packed her boxes and moved on. Somehow this bank was among the wreckage of their marriage. Marked in a box with my name on it.

After 35 years, I have my childhood piggy bank back.

And it’s not how I remembered. Time fades and memory becomes malleable. I don’t remember it being powder blue, I don’t remember it being this large, I don’t remember the delicate hand painted flowers (by mom of course). Only its face stayed the same.

It’s all bothersome. What else has my memory distorted? And if someone (most likely my father) had packed up some of our belongings prior to my aunt and uncle getting there, what does this make of my theory? I’m always (and still) looking for a reason. Why did this person do this to her? Money? Revenge? Jealousy? S*x? And the more I uncover, the more theories are crossed from the list. At the bottom of that list, the last rusted penny at the bottom of the bank, is just - senseless crime. Things that happen for no good reason. The person was on drugs, or drunk, or both, deluded out of their mind. They barely even remember that night. It was one of many bad decisions. Dead is dead, and motive or none, it doesn’t bring her back, but pointless feels like added insult.

Al Capone once said, “Be careful who you call your friends. I’d rather have four quarters than one hundred pennies.” And while Mom certainly had some quarters in her inner circle, the amount of penny’s we’ve had to sift through is exhausting.

And as is the case, for every answer I get, for every lost object found, ten more questions take its place.

06/02/2024

Terry’s killer worked overtime cleaning up the crime scene and trying to destroy evidence.

For the technology in 1989, he did a good enough job. But 2024 is a different story- where DNA can be extracted from a mere touch.

Evidence from the scene has been re-submitted. Where a few years ago, we only had enough DNA to say it was definitively male, this time, we are more likely to get an exact match to the man who left her there in that apartment. ⏰

27/01/2024

14/12/2023

Justice and closure don’t always go hand in hand, it’s not synonymous.
If you had to choose one which would it be? Having the answers to your lifelong questions or a killer paying his debt to society through prison time?

This holiday season, my sisters and I are thankful for the hard work of Baltimore County detectives for the significant movement in Mom’s case.

We say it every year, but let’s hope the New Year brings this case to a close.

27/09/2023

For those interested in the longer version of the details of the case, here it is.

Baltimore County Police have really stepped up their game. The resources being poured into cold cases is unprecedented. I wish I could tag them publicly but I’m not sure it’s appropriate, sometimes they like to fly under the radar- but none of this would have happened without their dedication.

23/09/2023

So far, at least 3 news outlets have picked up Terry’s story. Her family and friends are grateful for the consideration.

Today marks 34 years since her life was stolen. 34 years since her killer cleaned up the crime scene, and likely attended her funeral shortly after, stood over her casket and mourned. Shook hands with her friends and family with the same hands that stabbed her repeatedly. Were you crying for her or yourself?

Terry ran out of time, but you haven’t. There’s still time to fix this. It’s time to do the right thing. Tell your side of the story. Let the burden rest at your feet, your shoulders have sagged under the weight of this night for too long.

22/09/2023

22/09/2023

Hi Everyone! We lost some of the access to the previous page for Terry, so we are starting fresh here with updates. Tomorrow will be 34 years since Terry's murder. We are a long way from justice but closer than we've been in a long time, thanks to all the detectives who have worked on her case, and especially the 2 most recent detectives on the case.

To her friends and family, I hope you are well and thank you for all of the support in putting her killer behind bars!