Cold Case Files: Fifty-five years have passed with no closure in a University of Arkansas stabbing murder
- Dennis McCaslin
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
On April 12, 1971, Pauline Francis Storment, a 27-year-old University of Arkansas sophomore, was found stabbed to death in a parking lot near campus around 9:30 p.m. after leaving a night class.
The murder, one of over 2,100 unsolved homicides in Arkansas from 1965 to 2019 per Project: Cold Case, shocked Fayetteville. In 2024, the Arkansas State Police Cold Case Unit closed the case, still unsolved, but new tips could reopen it.
Storment from Ozark, was a part-time secretary at the university’s ROTC center, declined an 8 p.m. Black Gospel Music Concert invitation, citing her class, per coworker Terry Keating. Earlier, two unidentified men invited Storment and her roommate, Pat Murphy, for drinks, which they declined.
The men later went to Gordon Cummings’ residence, a detail muddied by missing case documents and no DNA evidence. Cummings, son of Circuit Judge Maupin Cummings, who presided over pretrial hearings for a suspect, later became an attorney and friend of Bill Clinton. Whether Cummings was one of the men is unknown. Murphy said she knew of no one who wished Storment harm.
Police believe Storment may have attended the concert, then studied at the university library for 30–60 minutes before heading home. She was attacked in the parking lot.
About 40 minutes later, police noticed Wallace Peter Kunkel, 17, in a car on Dickson Street, four blocks away, with blood on his jacket, shirt, and pants. Kunkel was arrested and charged with premeditated murder, but his attorney, Richard Hipp, secured his release after Kunkel passed a polygraph test and police found insufficient evidence.
A butcher knife found near Storment’s apartment was tested but not confirmed as the murder weapon. The case went cold, prompting heightened campus security.
The Arkansas State Police Cold Case Unit, formed in 2020, reviewed Storment’s case, using forensics like DNA analysis. No breakthroughs occurred, and the case closed in 2024.
Arkansas recorded 9,951 murders from 1965 to 2019, with 7,797 solved. DNA has resolved cases like Tawana Blunt’s 2000 murder, but Storment’s case persists. The Arkansas Cold Case Coalition urges tips.
The Arkansas State Police seek information at (870) 777-8944, with anonymous tips accepted. Little Rock Police can be reached at (501) 371-4605 or Crime Stoppers at (501) 340-8477.
