83-year-old Ann Furst told a friend on Monday, October 16, 1989 that the following day would be hard.
Her husband Rudolf's funeral was planned for Tuesday.
He'd died of cancer, and they'd held a wake for him on Monday.
Ann and her daughter, 56-year-old Helen Larkin left the wake late Monday night, around 10 or 10:30 p.m.
Police estimate it took them about a half hour to arrive back at the Fursts' home on Maxa Road in Aberdeen.
Ann went to bed, Helen stayed up to watch TV.
Neighbors told police they heard something that night.
"Either it was a loud popping, a loud bang or glass breaking," Detective Tammy Burns of the Harford County Sheriff's Office told WMAR-2 News back in 2018. "It's the description that we pick up from every neighbor."
A brick had gone through the back door.
And while neighbors flipped their lights on, no one called the police, despite reports later of a woman's scream.
"[I]n 1989 that's what you would do is you would look around, you didn't jump to call 911," said Burns.
Helen's husband and children arrived at the house Tuesday morning for the funeral and found the women, bludgeoned to death.
Helen's daughter, Maribeth, was 19 at the time, and spoke to WMAR-2 News in 2018.
"I saw them," she said. "I remember seeing my mother. She was sitting in a chair up against the wall and she had been beaten in the head. So I do recall seeing that. Very quickly, my father got us out of the house."
A family was left devastated and police were left with few leads.
"We're not sure what the weapon was. The weapon was not left on the scene," Burns said in 2018. She also told us that there was no DNA left behind either.
A family friend told WMAR-2 News back in 1989 how hard this was.
"I can't imagine anyone hurting neither one of the Fursts," she said, adding "[T]hey are the nicest people."
Maribeth remembered her mother's kindness.
"My mom was the sweetest nicest woman ever. She was an artist. she worked wit young kids in daycares. So it's just hard to fathom how someone can just come in, or maybe more than one person, and do something like that," she said.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
If you have any memories of that night of October 16, 1989 on Maxa Rd or have any other information that could help police, please call the Harford County Sheriff's Office at (410) 838-6600.
If you have a Cold Case you want us to highlight, please email us at storyideas@wmar.com.
