Woman hopes billboards over Baltimore will help solve twin sister's murder

BALTIMORE (FOX 5 DC) - A Maryland woman, haunted by the murder of her twin sister 23 years ago, is using billboards in Baltimore to call attention to the case. The latest sign sits high over the Jones Falls Expressway and asks for help from Governor Larry Hogan.

On the night Jody Locurnu was killed -- March 2, 1996 -- she was hanging out with friends at the Mt. Washington Tavern. She had just had a fight with her boyfriend and was not planning to go home.

Instead, she gave a ride to one of the bar's employees and then drove to a parking lot off York Road in Baltimore County. That was 23 years ago. It was a night Jenny Carrieri, Jody's identical twin sister, says will never forget.

"My parents called my fiance because they didn't want to call me directly and had him come tell me and it was just... like you don't... you just go into shock," said Carrieri.

For more than two decades, Jenny has been obsessed with the case. She has sued the police for information, she has written to prisoners and she says she has put herself in danger investigating the case on her own.

Then she saw a Hollywood movie -- three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri -- which launched Jenny's latest effort to get the case solved.

"I wanted to put this in Annapolis, but I don't know that there's a lot of billboards. You know we gotta think about costs and the placement and yeah, my next one is to the state's attorney to ask about Jody's records, so that's like in the works right now," said Carrieri.

On the night Jody was killed, she was in the parking lot making phone calls when a gunman came up alongside her car and fired one round. Although badly injured, Jody was able to drive out of the parking lot and across York Rd. where she circled the Giant parking lot one time and then came to a stop.

"The suspect follows her across the street. He comes up to the car and takes something out of the car, and then leaves. He drives southbound on York Rd. headed back into Baltimore City." said Shawn Vinson with the Baltimore County Police. "The description we got from witnesses was this was a black male, stocky build, wearing a green type of Army fatigue jacket and he was driving a white BMW."

Police say at this point, despite worldwide publicity, the billboards have yet to generate any real credible tips for investigators to follow.

"I want to find her killer, and I feel, I really feel that there's a lot that hasn't been done in her case... I mean, from my own investigation," said Carrieri.

Jody's family is offering a $100,000 reward for information.