KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Kansas City, Kansas, investigators say they believe they have identified a potential suspect in the 26-year-old unsolved murder of 19-year-old college student Sarah Jo DeLeon. Police say the suspect is a woman and the motive may have been a romantic rivalry, but they are not releasing the suspect’s name, reports CBS affiliate KCTV. 
 
 Police reopened the investigation in July of 2014 after getting assistance with new forensic testing from the FBI, reports the station. Detective Scott Howard says the investigation has revealed that the suspect and an accomplice have been involved in other incidents involving the harassment and intimidation of romantic rivals. 
 
 DeLeon’s body was found dumped along railroad tracks on the western edge of the city in 1989, with a head wound and multiple stab wounds, the Kansas City Star reports. According to the paper, detectives say they may have a link between DeLeon’s killing and another cold case -- the unsolved 1994 slaying of Diana Marie Ault in Independence, Missouri. Ault, 26, was reportedly shot to death in her home near her young children. 
 
 Investigators aren’t saying why they believe the deaths of DeLeon and Ault are connected, but they also believe the two murders could be linked to a Feb. 13, 1987 abduction. In that case, they say a victim was tricked into leaving her home in a limousine and taken to the American Inn at 78th Street and Interstate 70 in Kansas City. 
 
 Police are asking anyone with information about the 1987 abduction to come forward, as it may aid in a possible prosecution in DeLeon’s murder. Tipsters should call 816-474-TIPS. ||||| THERE is one man who will be terrified of the news that cold case detectives have made a stunning breakthrough in the Cheryl Grimmer abduction and suspected murder. 
 
 For almost 47 years, the question of who abducted Cheryl has hung over her family and police trying to solve one of Australia’s most disturbing child cold cases. 
 
 In January 1970, the toddler was ripped away from her family in a daylight abduction from Fairy Meadow Beach, Wollongong, NSW. 
 
 At the time it was reported a man was seen carrying a blonde girl wrapped in a towel as he ran towards the car park. 
 
 The three-year-old was never seen again, but now detectives have announced a major breakthrough — they believe whoever took Cheryl that day is still alive. 
 
 A breakthrough in the case came two weeks ago during a re-enactment of the incident, where several witnesses corroborated the presence of a teenage boy, aged between 17 and 18. 
 
 Police said the re-enactment had been staged as a matter of course five years after Cheryl was declared dead but missing by the coroner. 
 
 “(Our view) has been strengthened because of the witnesses returning here to the scene and they’ve mentioned this person a number of times,” Detective Inspector Brad Ainsworth told reporters. 
 
 He said detectives from Wollongong are dedicated to the case and have gone through hundreds and hundreds of statements, running sheets and interviews. 
 
 “You’ve got to remember this all took place in 1970 under the old format, the old style of investigation recording. So all of that’s been reviewed, it’s been transcribed and transposed put onto our current investigation computers and our systems, so that’s how it’s come about.” 
 
 Police said the suspect was caucasian, about 152cm with brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion and, if alive, he would be in his early 60s. 
 
 The Daily Telegraphreported a review of the case exposed a major failing in the original investigation with a suspect being missed. The strike force officers’ renewed investigations are focused on that person. 
 
 There was no sign of Cheryl after she was taken from a toilet and shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach on January 12, 1970. That hot summer’s day she was at the beach with her mother and brothers. Her mother, Carole, was just a few metres away on the beach when her older brother Ricky left her alone in the toilet to get his mother to help her out. 
 
 The family had only just moved to Australia from England the year before. Her father John was in the army and based at the barracks in Penrith. 
 
 Cheryl, said to be a bubbly, happy child, just laughed when Ricky told her he was going to get their Mum to help her, he told the Telegraph. 
 
 She was by herself less than 30 seconds — but that is all it took for someone to strike. 
 
 Now the family are closer than ever to having answers. 
 
 The three brothers joined police at a press conference on Monday at Fairy Meadow Beach, where Cheryl was last seen. 
 
 “Come forward please, let us know. We really want to know,” Stephen said. 
 
 Cheryl’s brothers say they’ve never stopped thinking about “the tiny, bubbly little thing”. 
 
 “I ride past here, I walk past here and I always look, it’s always on your mind,” Stephen said. 
 
 Ricki said he has “never forgiven” himself for his sister’s abduction. “Everyone says it wasn’t my fault but come and stand where I’m standing, see what it feels like,” he told reporters. 
 
 “Just let us know where she is, give us something so we can mourn. It’s cost me and my family everything.” 
 
 Cheryl’s parents John and Carole Grimmer died never knowing what happened to their little girl. 
 
 “Mum and dad are never going to know. Please get it off your mind and let us know,” Stephen said. 
 
 After she vanished there were a few theories as to what happened, and who could be to blame. The most sensational was a ransom note sent to Cheryl’s parents Carole and John three days later. The chilling note demanded $10,000 for the safe return of Cheryl. 
 
 Undercover police waited at the drop-off point but no one came to make the pick up, leaving it unknown whether it really was the abductor, a hoax or a cruel scheme to make money off the back of a tragedy. 
 
 There was other speculation. A young girl was seen in a white car speeding away from the beach, while a mystery figure in orange swimsuit was supposedly seen grabbing her and running off. 
 
 Police hope the conscience of the person who took Cheryl will be enough to compel them to come forward. And if not, they are confident they are on the right path to finally ending one of NSW’s most enduring mysteries. 
 
 Know more? Email: andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au
– They aren't naming names yet, but police detectives in Kansas City, Kan., say they have identified a suspect in the unsolved murder of Sarah Jo DeLeon, who was 19 when her body was found in 1989. What's more, they say the suspect is a woman from the area, and that she may be linked to two other cold cases—the murder of Diana Marie Ault in Independence, Mo., in 1994, and an unsolved abduction in Kansas City in 1987, reports the Kansas City Star. "The investigation has revealed that the suspect and an accomplice have been involved in other incidents involving the harassment and intimidation of romantic rivals," Detective Scott Howard says. "We're coming to a conclusion." The Kansas City police department reopened the case in 2014 with new DNA collection and testing technology, and have spent more than $50,000 on trying to crack the DeLeon case. The teen community college student was found along railroad tracks with a head wound and multiple stab wounds, and her car was found with its door open and hazards flashing about a mile from her home, but there was no evidence of a struggle or sexual assault. Police say the suspect and possible accomplice have a motive that may involve romantic rivalry, reports CBS News. For now, investigators are asking the public for any leads on the "abduction by deception" in 1987 that involved tricking a woman out of her home and into a limousine that took her to an American Inn. "We believe that we can show a pattern of behavior that links this to the DeLeon homicide and other crimes," Howard says. (This notorious cold case also involved a female suspect.)