The Strange Death of Katherine Korzilius

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9th June 2018  •  4 min read

Katherine Korzilius, 6, was discovered unconscious at the side of the road four houses away from her own. She suffered a skull fracture which led to her death. Was she a victim of a hit-and-run or was she abducted and killed by a predator?


The Strange Death of Katherine Korzilius

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6-year-old Katherine Korzilius was the daughter of Paul Korzilius, the tour manager for Bon Jovi. Katherine was a first-grader at Valley View Elementary School in Austin, Texas, and took ballet lessons as well as swimming and soccer lessons. Katherine lived in the 800 block of the upscale gated community, Elder Circle, in Austin, Texas, with her father, Paul, her mother, Nancy, and her 9-year-old brother, Chris. At home, Katherine loved to draw and build homes for the bugs that she found in their lush garden. Elder Circle was a quiet and safe street consisting of grand homes and manicured lawns; street names are chiselled on large stones sitting on top of brick pillars. Katherine would often play with the children of her neighbours who would describe Katherine as a kind and generous little girl.

The Strange Death of Katherine Korzilius

On the 7th of August, 1996, Katherine, Nancy, and Chris had been running errands. They went to the maths tutor, went to Subway for lunch, and then went to buy Paul some golf clubs for his birthday. On the way home, Nancy stopped at the cluster of communal post boxes at the top of the road near their house on Elder Circle. It was around 4PM when she pulled up alongside the post boxed. Maybe she was bored and fidgety from sitting in the car most of the day, but Katherine asked Nancy if she could walk back home from the post boxes. It was only four houses away so Nancy agreed. “She’s walked home many times,” said Nancy. “It was a route that she was very familiar with.”1

When Katherine didn’t return home, Chris walked to the post box to try and find her. Unsuccessful in finding his sister, he came back home to tell his mother. “He got hysterical and said she wasn’t there,” Nancy recalled. Nancy and Chris climbed back into the car and drove around the block searching for her. Moments later, at around 4:15PM, they discovered Katherine face down on the asphalt around six houses away from their own. She was curled in a fetal pose with her legs extended; she was unconscious. Nancy scooped her up in her arms and drove 25 minutes to Seton Medical Center. It was discovered that Katherine had suffered a head injury that had fractured her skull. At 11:30PM, Katherine died of her injuries.

While there were no skid marks or road debris near Katherine’s body, it was initially believed that she had died from a hit-and-run. “I hope somebody at least has a terrible guilty conscience. If we just knew why and when and what happened, it would never bring her back, but it would certainly close this,” said Nancy.2 Neighbours were interviewed but told police that they didn’t see or hear anything unusual that day. Elder Circle was an extremely quiet street with sparse traffic; many questioned how a hit-and-run could have happened on their quaint and up-market street. While the road that Katherine was discovered was somewhat curvy, a driver still would have been able to see Katherine from about one-tenth of a mile away – plenty of time to stop.

The Strange Death of Katherine Korzilius

If people were suspicious of the hit-and-run explanation, they had every right to be. Days later, an autopsy ruled out a hit-and-run. Travis County Medical Examiner Robert Bayardo determined that Katherine suffered no other broken bones or internal injuries that would be consistent with a car accident. He said that the small scrapes and bruises on Katherine’s elbows, knees and hands suggested that she had fallen – perhaps from a car. If Katherine had been hit by a car, she would have sustained fractured legs or ribs or some other impact injury. Moreover, when Katherine was found, she was not on the road leading towards her house but leading away.

Neighbours rallied to help the Korzilius family help whoever was responsible for Katherine’s death. They posted fliers offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. The death of Katherine shook up the residents who now feared for the safety of their own children. “My kids won’t be walking the dogs by themselves for a while,” said Ben Hathaway. Sgt. Philip Kemp with the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted early on in the investigation that there was little evidence to go on; nobody had witnessed a thing. “I’ve worked on cases where there was very little evidence, but not one where there was no evidence,” he said.3

The lack of clues led to bountiful theories. One theory was that Katherine was the victim of an attempted abduction while another theory was that Katherine had attempted to hitch a ride on the bumper of her mother’s car. The bumper theory was widely discredited, however. A summer day in South Texas is often in the late 90s and grasping at the metallic bumper would have burnt Katherine’s hands. Furthermore, Katherine had a splint on her finger from a fracture making it improbable that she could have clung onto anything. The more horrid theory – that she was the victim of a predator – soon started to hold more weight when a K-9 unit was able to pick up Katherine’s scent in an abandoned lot which was around thirty yards from the post boxes. By mid-August, investigators announced that they believed that Katherine had been snatched by a predator and then hurled from a speeding car.

The Strange Death of Katherine Korzilius
Jon Bon Jovi with Katherine.

With no leads or evidence to go on, the case eventually went cold. Fliers with Katherine’s smiling face on the front were subsequently taken down and Elder Circle soon became a playground for the local children once again. One flier did remain, however. It had been laminated by Paul Korzilius and posted at the entrance to Rob Roy on the lake near a memorial tree and plaque. Katherine’s family were unsatisfied with the “lack of communication” from DPS  about the case. They eventually turned to a private investigator that was unable to crack the case, either, and the suspicious death of Katherine Korzilius still remains unsolved.

Bon Jovi would later release a song titled “August 7, 4:15,” which is about the death of Katherine. “Jon doted on the little girl. He played games with her and treated her like his own,” said a source close to Jon Bon Jovi.4

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Footnotes:

  1. Austin American- Statesman, 10 August, 1996 – “Injuries Suggest Dead Girl May Have Fallen from Auto”
  2. Austin American-Statesman, 9 August, 1996 – “Death of 6-year-old Walking Home is Baffling”
  3. Austin American-Statesman, 15 August, 1996 – “Mother Thinks Girl was Hit Accidentally by Car”
  4. The Sun, 17 August, 1996 – “Bon Jovi Girl, 7, is Murdered”

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Angel
Angel
5 years ago

I love Bon Jovi but never knew this. RIP little angel…

Sarah Cimino
Sarah Cimino
4 years ago
Reply to  Angel

How? His song “August 7, 4:15” on the Destination Anywhere album tells the story of the tragic mystery.

Tara White
Tara White
5 years ago

Never heard about this. What a horrible tragedy. I’m certain her mother feels guilty everyday about letting her girl walk home…and instead she had to be abducted then thrown out. Just completely scary…but 5K reward? REALLY Bon Jovi?! He could’ve helped a bit more $$$$

Shanel Roberts Ransom
Shanel Roberts Ransom
5 years ago
Reply to  Tara White

5k is better then nothing and the parents being wealthy themselves could’ve put more money up for an award. There are different scenarios to this story including possibility to falling from her moms vehicle. I just saw it on an old episode of Unsolved mysteries (season 10 episode 7 or 8) it’s all very baffling.

Priscilla Boren
Priscilla Boren
4 years ago

Her mother nearly killed me with her car. Someone needs to send her mom far away from humans. She’s dangerous.

August 7, 4:15
August 7, 4:15
4 years ago

Let me guess: You think she killed her daughter. (It’s really not an irrational theory. But I think a stranger asked her if she wanted/needed a ride.)

Jen Reed
Jen Reed
2 years ago

So explain to us dont just accuse her (the mother) of something without saying what happened….

David
David
2 years ago

I doubt that your telling the truth. You probably need to be sent away if you have proof that she almost hit you with her car then why not tell the police dummy. Lie-er

August 7, 4:15
August 7, 4:15
4 years ago
Reply to  Tara White

He at the time, could’ve had (and I’m exaggerating just a little bit) a quarter of the cops in the nation working on the case. What keeps stumping me is when the K-9 unit lost her scent in that lot. I’ve been trying to find constants since yesterday. (Completely intentional that I started on August 7.)

bjorn garcia
bjorn garcia
3 years ago
Reply to  August 7, 4:15

probably means she only went as far as the lot before getting in a vehicle then driven past her house and dumped at the site. she could have been taken to a different place then returned a little later and dumped. since it was a gated community could have easily been someone who lived or otherwise had access to the community.

Darren
Darren
3 years ago
Reply to  Tara White

Back then 5k was a ton of money. But yeah he could’ve offered more

Matthieu
Matthieu
3 years ago

I’m Bon Jovi fan since many years. I have no words about this horrible story.

I hope she rest in peace wherever she is now.
Matt from France

Ray
Ray
2 years ago

From the article: “Moreover, when Katherine was found, she was not on the road leading towards her house but leading away.”

It’s Elder Circle. You know, a circle. Both directions are toward the Korzilius home and both directions lead away from the home. One is the “long way home” and the other isn’t. Katherine may have chosen to go the longer way home.

RIP Katherine
RIP Katherine
2 years ago
Reply to  Ray

Yes, I understand what you are saying but if you watch unsolved mysteries then it tells you the whole story about her death but what I don’t understand is that everyone was at home right they all say they didn’t hear or see anything but if you watch unsolved mysteries the way her body was found lying straight across the road for her mother to find her that’s the weird part… now if you see where she was away from her mother’s house don’t you think that she would be screaming as loud as she could which would lead to… Read more »

Crystal
Crystal
2 years ago
Reply to  RIP Katherine

What I don’t get, is that all was supposed to happen in 15 minutes. No way

Joanne Keen
Joanne Keen
1 year ago
Reply to  Crystal

That’s what I thought

Emily D.
Emily D.
2 years ago

On the Unsolved Mysteries website: I lived, in Austin, when this happened, work in the music business, peripherally know the husband and am very familiar with the area where it happened. It was no secret, at the time this happened, and to those who knew Paul in the Austin music business community, that the child fell off the car and the mother knew. Not intentional, but a tragic accident. Katherine got on the back of the car and fell off. She was found on the side of the ‘circle’ that the mother and her brother drove towards the home on… Read more »

Micael
Micael
2 years ago
Reply to  Emily D.

Their son died in March of 2020

jannice1964@hotmail.co.uk
jannice1964@hotmail.co.uk
1 year ago
Reply to  Micael

How did the son die ?

Rosie
Rosie
1 year ago

Car accident. He was a Deputy Sherrif and it happened on his way to work

Jimmy
Jimmy
1 year ago
Reply to  Emily D.

That sounds like it could totally be accurate, but is Katherine’s scent in the vacant lot a fabrication? Could she have been playing there at some point prior?

David
David
1 year ago
Reply to  Emily D.

Wrong! Her mother and brother took the other way home, It even says so o unsolved mysteries so do the police. Next time have some evidence to support your claim. They even say that they ruled out the theory of her being on the back of the car because she had a splint on her finger and it was like 90 degrees dumbass

Last edited 1 year ago by David
DoubtfulGuest
DoubtfulGuest
1 year ago
Reply to  David

All we have about who took what way home is the mother’s word. LEO accepts that as a fact. However, since no one was there with Katherine, no one truly knows which route the little girl chose. It sounds like the vacant lot was her usual choice, so why not assume she made that again? I know people are putting a lot of credence on the work the tracking dogs did, but if you look into the weather for that entire week, there wasn’t any rain and the winds were incredibly mild, meaning that her scent would still be there… Read more »

Tatiana
Tatiana
2 years ago

In the songs Bon Jovi talks about how the people from the news, the doctors and the police try to find who killed her. And he talks about the morning that she died. It’s really a sad song. RIP Katherine.

Suzanne
Suzanne
2 years ago
Reply to  Tatiana

That’s awful, both of their children have died.

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