FREDERICK, Md. -- A Frederick, Md., homicide detective has spent years trying to solve a murder and ease the pain of a mother who lost her teenage daughter.

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Police Look For Teen's Killer

The pain has been magnified not only by the mystery of who killed her, but why. And, now, police need help on this cold case.

Joe Krebs has our report:

Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster was 15 years old when she was murdered more than seven years ago.

Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster was last seen around lunch time at her home on Oct. 1, 1996. Her mother came home from work about five hours later, and she was gone.

She had disappeared. And it wasn't until more than 2½ months later that her body was found in the woods in the southeastern part of the city of Frederick.

"Well, she was found in this general vicinity right here," said Lt. Tom Chase of the Frederick Police Department, pointing to the area where her body was found.

Chase, who has been living with this case since the beginning, says two homeless men, combing the woods for aluminum cans to sell, spotted a blanket on the ground.

"And as he pulled this blanket up off the ground, the body actually moved with the blanket itself, and he saw the blanket and the underside of the blanket and the body," Chase said.

She had been bound, hands and feet, and strangled.

Police believe she was killed here, in the woods, less than a mile from her home.

"That's one of the mysteries that we have yet to truly solve in reference to this particular investigation. What circumstances brought about her being here?" Chase said.

Police cordoned off the area and spent days digging for evidence.

"We found some shoes that she had worn. We found a pair of sweatpants, and we found, you can't see it now, but there was also the roped off area, the encampment that was roped off near where she was found," Chase said.

A homeless man had marked off a camping area with yellow nylon rope, the same kind of rope with which Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster was bound.

At this point, police have ruled out, as suspects, the two men who found her body, but they're not so certain about the man who had roped off his encampment.

"We've worked that person as well, but we're not in a position where we can comment any further as far as his activities, his involvement, is concerned," Chase said.

Police are looking for help.

"We're hoping that this particular crime was committed under circumstances where more than just the person responsible. If that person would come forth, (it) would give us an additional lead or two," Chase said.

Chase says the last seven years have been very difficult for Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster's mother.

"She is relying on us, the police, to help her rectify how someone, with the life she had in front of her, that Stacy did at the tender age of 15, could die under these circumstances. And we sure want to help her and bring about the closure that Mrs. Hoffmaster has told us that she would love, well, virtually needs, to have for her life," Chase said.

If you can help, Lt. Tom Chase would like you to call the Frederick City Police Department at (301) 694-2100.