HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Barbara Schreiber and Darlene Zetterower were just 14 years old when they were killed in June of 1975, and Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives say they have gotten closer to solving the murder mystery.
According to authorities, the two friends were last seen sitting on a bench on a busy street in Hollywood.
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“The girls were inseparable, and they were in the midst of carefree summer days as they prepared for their first year of high school,” BSO spokesman Carey Codd said in a news release. “No one could have imagined that the girls would not live to see their 15th birthdays.”
One of Darlene’s friends, Gail, told detectives she saw them both getting into a white van that pulled up to the bench.
“She was a fun going girl. I mean, she was,” Gail said about Darlene. “She had a lot of character and I always remembered how she pulled her hair back with her fingers.”
Gail says she didn’t go with them because she had a strict father who made her go home.
“I was scared for them because I didn’t know what was going on, and thank God that I didn’t follow up to go with them.”
Codd said the girls’ bodies were found the next morning by a family on a fishing outing near Interstate 75 in a part of the Everglades known as “Andytown.”
Codd said the friends had been sexually assaulted and shot to death.
“Over the years, dozens of Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives, deputies, crime scene investigators and crime lab sleuths dedicated time and resources to find the person or persons who took away Barbara and Darlene’s futures. But there were few answers,” Codd said.
BSO Cold Case Homicide Detective Andrew Gianino, however, recently identified a man named Robert Clark Keebler as a suspect in the case.
“That profile through our DNA analyst and Crime Lab was able to identify a Robert Clark Keebler,” Gianino said. “(Keebler’s) history included armed robbery, sexual assault, aggravated assault from California to South Florida.”
But Gianino is still in need of tips and other information to determine the connection between Keebler and the victims.
“We are trying to figure out how, if, their two universes would have crossed paths back in 1975. It’s difficult to reconstruct the past that’s 48 years old,” he said. “If anybody remembers Darlene and Barbara, anything about them, anything about what occurred in June of 1975, associations, friendships, I ask them to give us a call. It may mean nothing to them but everything to us.”
Authorities confirmed that Keebler died a few years ago in South Florida, but they are still trying to bring answers to the victims’ families, and Gianino believes another person was also involved in the murders.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Gianino at 954-321-4376. Those who wish to remain anonymous may contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477) or can submit a tip online at browardcrimestoppers.org, or by dialing **TIPS (8477) from any cellphone in the United States.
A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.
WATCH BELOW: Detective Andrew Gianino outlines new developments in the murders of Barbara Schreiber and Darlene Zetterower in the latest episode of BSO’s “Open and Unsolved” video series.