Charles William Davis Jr. has been in Maryland's prisons since 1978. He was convicted of the murders of three young women in Maryland, Kathleen Cook and Lydia Victoria Norman in 1975 and Peggy Ellen Pumpian in 1976, and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms, The Baltimore Banner reported in October 2026. For almost half a century a fourth death stayed on the books as an open case: that of Roseann Sturtz, a 20-year-old woman whose body was found in Columbia, Howard County, in December 1975.
In March 2025 the Howard County Police Department announced that Davis, by then in his 70s, had confessed to killing her. He will not be prosecuted. In 1981 the county's state's attorney gave him written immunity in return for his cooperation, and the current state's attorney, Rich Gibson, reaffirmed that promise. Police said the case had been exceptionally cleared.
Davis was convicted of the murders of Kathleen Cook, Lydia Victoria Norman and Peggy Pumpian, according to The Baltimore Banner, and received three consecutive life terms. Lydia Norman, like Kathleen Cook, died in 1975. In its October 2026 account the Banner reported that Davis had lured Cook and Norman from a nightclub in Catonsville. Little is on record about his early life or the investigations of those killings. The Banner also reported that, after he was sentenced, prosecutors dropped charges against him over a 1974 assault on a woman who survived.
He has been held at the Jessup Correctional Institution since 1978, according to the Howard County Police Department. CBS Baltimore and WMAR-2 News, reporting in March 2025, described his sentence as three life terms plus 45 years.
Roseann Sturtz was 20 and went by Ann. She was reported missing on August 24, 1975; CBS Baltimore reported that a relative made the report that evening, and that she had last been seen alive outside a club in downtown Baltimore. Her body was found in Columbia on December 15, 1975. Coworkers helped identify her after a sketch was printed in a newspaper, CBS Baltimore reported. She had four sisters, who still lived in the area in 2025.
Her death went unsolved. In 1981 Howard County detectives interviewed Davis, then serving his sentences, about the case, and recorded the conversation. In that interview he did not positively identify Sturtz from a photograph. The Banner reported that the picture he was shown was her high school photo.
The same year, the Howard County state's attorney, William R. Hymes, signed a letter granting Davis transactional immunity, a promise that he would not be prosecuted for the crime, on the condition that he cooperated fully and told what he knew about the case, according to The Baltimore Banner. Because Davis had not identified her, the case stayed open. With time, the tape and the letter were misplaced.
The case was taken up again by Cpl. Wade Zufall, a detective who runs the Howard County department's cold case unit. The Baltimore Banner reported that he was hired in 2019; he began working the Sturtz case in 2022.
In the fall of 2023 Zufall spoke as a guest to a cold case class at Loyola University Maryland. A senior in the class chose the Sturtz case for her term paper. At Zufall's suggestion she looked through newspaper coverage from around 1975, and in it she found reports about Davis and his convictions. She saw similarities between those cases and the Sturtz case and told Zufall, according to the Banner's account in October 2026. "We get attached to these people we never met and want to bring closure to these families," she told the paper.
Zufall then located misplaced investigative files from the 1970s. Among them were an unmarked cassette holding the 1981 interview with Davis and the prosecutor's letter granting him immunity. "He just turned out to be a really, really good suspect," Zufall told the Banner.
Zufall began writing to Davis. In 2024 he interviewed him again, this time with a different photograph of Sturtz, taken in July 1975, a month before she was reported missing. CBS Baltimore described the picture as a mugshot. Davis recognized her. "She still had the scar," he said, according to Zufall.
Davis then told Zufall that he had met Sturtz at a bar, that they had left together, and that he had killed her, The Baltimore Banner reported. The Howard County Police Department said detectives believe he met her at a Howard County bar on August 24, 1975. Zufall said the chance to give her family some closure was what made Davis willing to talk.
The family learned the actual date of her death in November 2024, according to a statement reported by FOX45 News.
Police announced the result at a news conference in Ellicott City on March 11, 2025. Chief Gregory Der called it the department's second-oldest cold case. "This is our second-oldest cold case, and its closure makes clear that we will never rest in our pursuit of justice," he said in the department's release. "She was loved, and continues to be loved," he said, as reported by WMAR-2 News.
State's Attorney Rich Gibson reaffirmed the 1981 immunity, so Davis cannot be charged with her death. "While this outcome does not provide specific justice for the killing of Ms Sturtz," Gibson said, according to WMAR. CBS Baltimore and WMAR noted that Davis would stay in prison for the rest of his life on his existing sentences.
County Executive Calvin Ball called it "a day of remembrance, closure, and justice," and said the case showed "the power of persistence through investigative work." He said 24 homicide cold cases remained open in Howard County, and that the county had expanded its cold case unit and raised its reward for information to $30,000.
The family's statement, read at the news conference, said they could "finally put to rest the answers we never had." Another line was reported by WMAR: "We just wanted Roseann to rest in peace, and now she can." The sisters did not attend. Zufall said it had been an honor to call the family. "If there's such thing as closure, I hope I was able to provide them with that," he said, as reported by CBS Baltimore.
The department's 2025 annual report listed the Sturtz case among three cold case successes that year, and repeated that Davis had been held at Jessup since 1978 and had confessed.
The partnership with Loyola continued. Zufall and the chair of Loyola's forensic science department set up an internship in the spring of 2024, and by October 2026 ten students had helped sort and digitize old case records, the Banner reported. The first intern was later hired part time as a special investigator, doubling the size of what had been a one-person unit. "I'm one person working in the unit, so I could certainly use some help," Zufall said.
The reports differ on several details. Most of the 2025 coverage, and the Banner in 2025 and 2026, date the immunity letter to 1981; WMAR reported that prosecutors gave Davis immunity in 1980. CBS Baltimore said he was interviewed in 2024 at the department's northern headquarters in Ellicott City, while the Banner's 2026 account said Zufall visited him at Jessup. The police said the two met at a Howard County bar; CBS Baltimore reported that she was last seen outside a club in downtown Baltimore.
The Sturtz killing has not been tried in court. It rests on Davis's own confession to police, which he made under a grant of immunity.
1974: An assault on a woman who survived; the charges against Davis were later dropped.
1975: Kathleen Cook and Lydia Victoria Norman are killed.
August 24, 1975: Roseann Sturtz, 20, is reported missing.
December 15, 1975: Her body is found in Columbia, Howard County.
1976: Peggy Ellen Pumpian is killed.
1978: He begins serving his sentence at the Jessup Correctional Institution.
1981: Howard County detectives record an interview with him; State's Attorney William R. Hymes grants him immunity in the Sturtz case.
2019: Wade Zufall is hired, according to The Baltimore Banner.
2022: Zufall takes up the Sturtz case.
Fall 2023: A Loyola student's term paper points to Davis.
2024: The 1981 tape and letter are found; Davis identifies Sturtz from a July 1975 photograph and confesses.
November 2024: The Sturtz family learns her date of death.
March 11, 2025: Howard County police announce the case closed; State's Attorney Rich Gibson reaffirms the immunity.
October 2026: Davis is reported still held at Jessup.