2 Sisters Vanished After an Elvis Movie — Found Naked in the Snow, Their Deaths Led to a Stunning Twist

It was supposed to be a fun night out at the movies for Barbara and Patricia Grimes, who ventured out from their Chicago-area home on Dec. 28, 1956, to see Elvis Presley star in a new film.

But after Love Me Tender ended, the two sisters — aged 13 and 15 — never showed up at the bus stop where they had planned to meet their older sister and younger brother before heading back home. Weeks later, a gruesome discovery would confirm the terrible truth for the Grimes family: The two young sisters were never coming back.

PEOPLE is looking back at the 1956 murder case, which has remained cold for nearly 70 years — despite a renewed interest from several retired local detectives who have vowed not to give up on searching for Barbara and Patricia’s killer.

A Movie Night Gone Wrong

Three nights after Christmas, the Grimes sisters planned to see Presley’s new film at the Brighton Theater in Chicago and then meet back up with their siblings, according to A&E. However, when the girls never showed up to meet their siblings and didn’t return home later on their own, the Grimes family grew worried and contacted police, according to NBC News.

The search for the girls became one of the most intensive missing persons searches in the history of the Chicagoland area, according to the outlet. The outlet reported that several hundred officers joined the search, which lasted more than three weeks in the coldest months of winter.

Even Elvis made a public plea for the girls’ safe return, according to the Illinois Missing Persons Awareness Network. But still, the Grimes family was left without answers until late January 1957, when a gruesome discovery confirmed the worst.

Grimes Girls Are Discovered

The search for Barbara and Patricia ended when a local man discovered their bodies abandoned naked in the snow on Jan. 22, 1957, along a road in Willow Springs, Ill., a western suburb of Chicago, according to the Missing Persons Awareness Network. Although an autopsy initially ruled they had likely died because of the freezing weather, police ruled their deaths homicides, the organization recalled in its account of the Grimes case.

Chicago detectives soon zeroed in on Bennie Bedwell, an out-of-state drifter who was spotted with the girls by witnesses, according to local WGN. Police thought the case was closed when Bedwell confessed to the killings, but he later recanted his statements and said he was beaten by police into a confession.

Since then, investigators haven’t found another suspect, according to the outlet.

A New Interest and Renewed ‘Hope’

Decades since the trail went cold, there’s still immense interest in finding out what happened. Retired Chicago Police detective James Hennigan has dedicated a large chunk of his retirement years to investigating the Grimes murders, launching a Facebook page with thousands of members dedicated to researching and solving the case.

One of Hennigan’s leading theories is that the Grimes girls’ murders have a possible link to the 1955 murders of three young brothers, John, Anton, and Robert Schuessler, according to local WGN. The Schuessler boys similarly went to see a movie and never returned home, and were later discovered naked in a forest preserve on the northwest side of Chicago.

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Meanwhile, retired police officer Ray Johnson has also dedicated years to hunting for the killer.

But nearly 70 years since Barbara and Patricia first went missing, there are still no answers.

“It bothers me, especially around Christmastime and the holidays,” the Grimes sisters’ younger brother James Grimes told The Chicago Tribune in 2013. “I always wonder if they were alive today how many nieces and nephews would I have?”

James added: “I just assumed it was never going to be solved. (But) maybe there’s hope.”