Nicknamed “The Black Dahlia,” Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress, was brutally murdered in Los Angeles, California, her body cut in half and severely mutilated. Her body was found on January 15, 1947, in a vacant lot near Leimert park. The Black Dahlia’s killer was never found, making her murder one of the oldest cold case files in L.A to date, as well as the city’s most famous. Elizabeth was born on July 29, 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the third of five daughters born to Cleo and Phoebe Mae short. Cleo abandoned the family when she was 5 years old. At a young age, Short developed a strong affinity for cinema. By her teens, she had set her sights on becoming an actress. By the mid-1940’s, Short was living in Los Angeles, California, working as a waitress to support herself while dreaming of catching her big break into Hollywood’s acting scene. Her chance at stardom, however, would never come. In January 1947, a horrific tragedy occurred: At the age of 22, short was brutally murdered in Los Angeles, her body cut in half and severely mutilated. Her body was found nude and posed by a local female resident on January 15, 1947, in a vacant lot near Leimert park, on the 3800 block of L.A’s South Norton Avenue. “It was pretty gruesome,” Brian Carr, a detective on the Dahlia case, later said. “I just can’t imagine someone doing that to another human being.” In addition to dissecting and mutilating her body, Short’s killer had drained her corpse of blood and scrubbed it clean. The case quickly became heavily covered by the media (her moniker, “Black Dahlia,” became widely known shortly thereafter, as it was used more frequently than her real name by the press). “The case itself took on a life of its own,” Carr said. “Early on, I think for two months it was front-page news in all the local papers every day.”