“To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe the truth.”
The quote is widely attributed to Voltaire, the 18th century French writer and philosopher. It’s also a quote that Dave Cordle, retired chief investigator for the Anne Arundel County State Attorney’s Office, holds near to his heart. “It’s important. You know, it’s just something that stuck with me,” he said.
He started working for the State Attorney’s Office in 1980 and retired in 2013. Over 33 years with the department, Cordle worked on a lot of cases. And while he helped bring many cases to resolution, there are three–still unsolved–that Dave Cordle can’t forget: the murders of Donna Lee Dustin and Elizabeth Greenberg, and the disappearance of Nancy Snow.
“I may be, or whoever I’m working with, may be the only people that will still speak for that victim that can no longer speak,” Cordle said. “They were people, living and breathing, just many, many years ago. And the potential still exists for them to be solved or at least resolved. May not result in prosecution, but the resolution of the case could be very settling for a lot of people—investigators included.”
The Donna Lee Dustin Case
It’s been more than half a century since 17-year-old Donna Lee Dustin was murdered. “Two hunters found a body at 9:53 a.m. on November 17th of 1973,” Cordle told Dateline. The discovery was originally reported to the Prince George’s County Police, but upon further investigation, it was determined the body was found just north of the Prince George’s County line, on the Anne Arundel County side. “That’s how it started. And then, you know, our detectives took over from there,” Cordle said.
Cordle said the cause of death was “blunt force trauma.” They knew right away they had a homicide on their hands. Through their investigation, the body was identified as 17-year-old Donna Lee Dustin.
The Anne Arundel County Police Department has Donna’s case listed on its website. It states that Donna’s body was found “in a wooded area off Meyers Station Road, Odenton, Maryland,” which was a popular spot “for persons from the Bowie and Crofton area to frequent.” It also confirms that Donna’s cause of death was trauma to the body, with the manner being homicide.
In 2009, the department posted about Donna’s case on their Facebook page. The post detailed the hours before Donna was murdered. “On November 16, 1973, [Donna] left her residence in the company of her date and his friend for a ‘double date,’” the post stated. Donna and her date returned to Donna’s home at approximately 12:30 a.m. on November 17. “At approximately 1:00 a.m., [Donna] drove her date to his residence in Bowie, Maryland. [Donna] and her date arrived at the residence at approximately 1:30 a.m. and [Donna] then left in her vehicle by herself. Her vehicle was later located parked in her driveway at her residence.”
The post stated that several witnesses came forward reporting that they saw Donna in various locations “between 1:00 a.m., when she dropped off her date, and the time her body was discovered by the hunters.” The post also noted that Donna died as the result of “multiple blunt force trauma to the head” and that further examination revealed evidence of sexual assault.
“There were a whole lot of suspects. Many have been cleared. Many were discounted back then and cleared back then,” Cordle said. “I did a lot of DNA work over the years, getting either voluntary samples or court-ordered samples or a search warrant if need be.”
Cordle would not go into further detail, citing that the case is still open.
At the end of the day, he still believes authorities can bring the case to a resolution. “The Donna case is just—it’s one of those things that you know can be solved,” Cordle said. “You might be sniffing around the right area, but just haven’t found that particular, you know, key to open the door you need.”
Both of Donna’s parents and her brother have since passed away.
Dateline contacted the Anne Arundel County Police to get the latest on the investigation into Donna’s case, but has not yet heard back.
If you have information about Donna’s case, you can contact the Anne Arundel County Police Department at 410-222-8050 or fill out this online form.
The Elizabeth Greenberg Case
Elizabeth Greenberg was out celebrating the 4th of July in 1988 when her life was cut short. “She was a Merchant Marine cook on board cargo ships,” Cordle said. “And it was 4th of July weekend, and she was out partying with a whole bunch of different people.”
“She had a lot of friends, very popular girl,” Cordle told Dateline.
The 34-year-old was last seen in downtown Annapolis. “Walking out of a bar, apparently trying to get rid of a man who seemed to be bothering her,” Cordle said. He says witnesses last saw Elizabeth around 1:30 a.m. on July 5. “[We] have some witnesses who heard screaming—a woman screaming sometime around 3:30,” he said. “And then the body is discovered when the caretaker—or whoever opened up the Annapolis Sailing School—came in.”
“She was found floating next to the rock jetty,” Cordle said.
The rock jetty was located at the sailing school on Back Creek, bordering the Annapolis Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay. Cordle says the jetty area was littered with trash that morning by people who had been there watching the fireworks the night before.
Cordle told Dateline that Elizabeth had been sexually assaulted, and blunt force trauma was the cause of death. He said the investigation went in many directions but has not, as yet, been solved.
An investigator with the Annapolis Police Department confirmed the case is still open.
If you have information about Elizabeth’s case, please call the Annapolis Police Department Cold Case Investigations Unit at 410-260-3428.
The Nancy Snow Case
The third case Cordle can’t forget is the disappearance of Nancy Snow. The 44-year-old mother of three girls vanished the first week of November 1980, after returning to Maryland from the campaign trail for the Republican National Committee.
The Annapolis woman was believed to have attended a party in Baltimore and vanished after being picked up from a hotel the following morning.
“There’s no way that a woman is going to drop off the face of the earth without ever contacting her daughters,” Cordle told Dateline in 2024. That’s one of the reasons Nancy’s story sticks with him. Another reason is the timing. “Nancy disappeared on the day I started my career.”
Dateline recently spoke with Cordle again about Nancy’s case again, this time for Season 4 of the Dateline: Missing in America podcast series.
“We could have gone in 20, 30 different directions, you know, with different theories and things like that,” Cordle told Dateline. “It was a very frustrating case, very, very quickly.”
Despite that frustration, Cordle believes there could be a resolution in Nancy’s case if the right person comes forward. “I’ve seen it before. Over periods of time, relationships change, people grow up, people grow old, people get religion, people want to get things off their chest,” he said.
If you have information about Nancy’s case, please call the Annapolis Police Department at 410-268-9000.
Dave Cordle retired more than a decade ago but he still thinks about the unsolved cases of the three women—Nancy Snow, Donna Lee Dustin, and Elizabeth Greenberg—one missing, two murdered. “It just never goes away. It’s been, what, almost, you know, 12 years now,” he said of his retirement. “But, you know, there’s always hope.”
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