'This case has haunted the community for 39 years'; arrest made in Michelle Martinko murder

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - On the 39th anniversary of her brutal murder, Cedar Rapids police announced Wednesday an arrest in the Michelle Martinko case.

Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested Wednesday morning and is facing a first-degree murder charge in the case. Michelle Martinko was murdered in the parking lot at Cedar Rapids' Westdale Mall on the night of December 19, 1979. Her body was found early the next morning.

Officials said they were able to solve the cold case using DNA technology to develop a suspect profile. The initial sample was announced on Oct. 2, 2006 and was sent to the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. This database compares samples to the DNA of convicted offenders. No match was made through CODIS.

A covert DNA sample collected from a suspect by police was matched to blood found at the crime scene. With this evidence, investigators questioned Burns at his workplace in Manchester, where he denied committing the alleged killing. He was unable to offer an alternative explanation for why his DNA would have been found at the crime scene. He will appear in Linn County Court Thursday morning.

Last year, Martinko's case had new breakthroughs. In May 2017, local and state authorities announced they had used DNA, recovered from the crime scene, to generate renderings of what the teen's killer might look like.

Decades old case affected the community

In 1979, authorities found Martinko’s body in the early morning hours of Dec. 20 with stab wounds to the face and chest. She was inside her family's Buick, parked at Westdale Mall. Investigators at the time concluded the homicide to be "personal in nature."

Elizabeth Laymon, a friend, and classmate of Martinko's remembered that day well.

"We went to school that day and it wasn't announced," Laymon said. "We all kind of found out through classes we were in. I'd sit through classes where people were crying and I didn't know why, until someone finally told me. The media showed up and then it was real."

This is an active and ongoing investigation.

https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Police-arrest--503174101.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37436639)

It won't be limited to murderers either. Even so-called "date rapists" are going to end up in prison

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38214312)

Charges: New DNA testing led to man's admission of guilt in 1991 murder

A South St. Paul man now charged in a murder that had gone unsolved for nearly three decades admitted to police that he killed the victim after DNA evidence tied him to the scene, according to a criminal complaint.

Fifty-six-year-old Donald Clifton Jenkins Jr. faces one count of second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of Belinda Thompson.

The 20-year-old was found dead in an apartment on Grand Avenue South in Minneapolis on Dec. 19, 1991. She had been stabbed 11 times and bled to death, according to the medical examiner.

During a search of her apartment, officers noticed a knife missing from a set in a kitchen drawer. They found the missing knife bloodied and tucked between the couch cushions in the living room.

Officers also found a washrag in the bathroom with blood on it.

Jenkins was identified as a suspect in 1991, but he gave an alibi and the case went cold in 1992, according to the complaint.

In 2008, a new form of DNA testing revealed Jenkins' DNA may have been on the washrag. Authorities needed a current sample for comparison purposes.

In 2010, Jenkins was extradited from Louisiana to Minnesota. Authorities obtained a new sample of his DNA and interviewed him, but he again denied ever being inside Thompson's apartment.

When authorities asked Jenkins if his DNA would be present in her apartment, he said, "Let's find out!" according to the criminal complaint.

Later that year, another DNA test again showed Jenkins' DNA could not be excluded from the mixture found on the washrag. In another interview with police, Jenkins said he had been in Thompson's apartment "a couple of times" and that he did not know why his DNA would be on the washrag.

Earlier this year, the washrag was tested again, and once again Jenkins' DNA was a likely match. Just this week, police interviewed Jenkins again.

"My DNA is there, I did it," he told police, according to the criminal complaint.

He allegedly admitted to going to Thompson's apartment "chasing dope," and that he did not think anyone would be home at the time. The complaint states he said he grabbed a knife off of the table, hit the victim and then "just blacked out" before stabbing her.

Jenkins allegedly said he killed Thompson because "he thought [her] boyfriend would kill him for coming over to the apartment alone."

The murder charge against Jenkins carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.

https://kstp.com/news/charges-new-dna-testing-led-to-mans-admission-of-guilt-in-1991-murder/5186553/?cat=1

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37443450)

California cold case solved nearly 50 years after 11-year-old Linda O'Keefe was found strangled

Police in Southern California have arrested a suspect in the decades-old murder of 11-year-old Linda Ann O’Keefe, sources told ABC News on Tuesday.

O'Keefe vanished while walking home from school in Newport Beach, California, on July 6, 1973, according to police. Her strangled body was discovered the following day in the Back Bay area, but no suspects were named. A witness told investigators later that she saw Linda standing next to a turquoise van and talking to the driver -- a white man in his mid-20s or early 30s.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News that police arrested a male suspect in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Monday in connection with the young girl's murder.

Officials with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and Newport Beach Police Department said they arrested a suspect in connection with a 1973 Newport Beach cold case murder on Tuesday evening, but did not offer any additional details.

“As the Orange County District Attorney, I am committed to protecting the community. My office will never forget about cold cases," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to the victim and the victim’s family in this case, having to endure decades without answers."

He said the Colorado Springs Police Department had assisted in the investigation, but he did not elaborate on the department's role.

“But now, 45 yrs later, I have a voice again. And I have something important to say," the department tweeted, mimicking O'Keefe's voice. "There is a new lead in my case: a face. A face that comes from DNA that the killer left behind. It’s technology that didn’t exist back in 1973, but it might change everything today."

The department also recreated O'Keefe's abduction and killing in a Twitter stream last year to help the public "relate to the victim on a personal level," Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella told ABC News in July.

"We started out at 8 a.m. going to school through to the next morning when her body is found. And people who followed along got to have that experience," Manzella said.

The reaction has been "overwhelming positive," she added, at the time. "Both from people who knew Linda, her classmates, her friends ... to people who had never been familiar with her story before."

Authorities have scheduled a press conference to discuss the arrest in Newport Beach on Wednesday morning.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/california-cold-case-solved-50-years-11-year/story?id=61181451

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37811952)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37811959)

Texas police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 61-year-old man in connection with the rape and murder of an 83-year-old woman 32 years ago.

A niece found the body of the victim, Dovie Dykes, in her home in San Angelo, Tex., on July 11, 1986, authorities said. The cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia suffered during the attack.

San Angelo Police announced the arrest of Adolph Gonzales, of Lawrenceville, Tex., on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the cold case.

At a news conference, San Angelo Police Chief Frank Carter said Gonzales was linked to the crime during a routine FBI search of a database containing DNA profiles of convicted offenders.

The search resulted in a match of DNA found at the crime scene with Gonzales' genetic profile, which was on file because of a previous conviction for a federal crime, Carter said.

The chief said investigators also discovered Gonzales and Dykes were neighbors at the time of the murder.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/dna-helps-solve-cold-case-murder-of-83-year-old-texas-woman

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37883184)

https://i1.wp.com/iowacoldcases.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Michelle-Martinko-1979-twirler-pose-1.jpg?resize=400%2C326&ssl=1

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37883215)

Florida authorities arrest man in connection to 1984 murder of Navy recruit who was ‘beaten and strangled’

Florida law enforcement on Thursday announced the arrest of a suspect in connection with the decades-old murder investigation of a Navy recruit who was “beaten and strangled.”

The apprehension of Thomas Lewis Garner, 59, on Wednesday came more than 30 years after Pamela Cahanes’ body was found in the side yard of a Sanford, Fla., home in August 1984, a news release from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said.

Cahanes, who was 25 years old at the time, was discovered “on her knees” and “only wearing her underwear,” Sheriff Dennis Lemma said, according to Fox 35.

“Using genetic genealogy research, investigators were able to develop a DNA family tree that eventually matched the suspect to DNA found on the victim,” authorities said in the news release.

The suspect had attended the Orlando Naval Training Center with Cahanes, the department said.

Garner was taken into custody at his home and booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility, according to the news release. He was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and held without bond, according to the arrest report provided by the sheriff’s office.

“Quite literally, he was probably under the belief that he's getting away with murder,” Lemma said.

The sheriff praised authorities in the news release for their “persistence” in the case.

“Our hearts go out to Pamela Cahanes’ family members who have been steadfast in their search for justice,” Lemma said.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-authorities-arrest-man-in-connection-to-1984-murder-of-navy-recruit-who-was-beaten-and-strangled

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37933327)

Follow the DNA: Charges filed against suspect in 1976 double homicide

Investigators used a series of DNA tests – using samples collected from the garbage, during a coffee chat, and the envelope from a survey – to identify the man allegedly responsible for a decades-old double murder.

A week after announcing the arrest of Raymand Vannieuwenhoven for a 1976 double murder, formal charges were filed against him Thursday. An initial court appearance is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

Vannieuwenhoven, 82, faces two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree sexual assault for the deaths of David Schuldes, 25, and Ellen Matheys, 24, at McClintock Park in Silver Cliff. Matheys was also sexually assaulted.

The investigation after the murders yielded no arrests. DNA samples were tested in the mid-1990s, which determined the sample was from one male but there was no match. And when DNA samples were tested in again in 2001, no matches were found.

In 2018, Marinette County investigators contacted a Virginia DNA lab, which tested a sample from the sexual assault.

The company, Parabon Nanolabs, at first identified a broad genealogical background of the suspect, but then was able to narrow it down even more.

“The genealogist was able to narrow down a suspect pool to a specific family with ties to the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area. She identified the family of Gladys M. Brunette and Edward K. Vannieuwenhoven as possible suspects in the homicide. Gladys and Edward had 6 children, and the genealogist thought the suspect could be one of their four sons or four of their grandsons. The genealogist identified Gladys and Edward’s four sons as Edward S. Vannieuwenhoven, Francis W. Vannieuwenhoven, Raymand L. Vannieuwenhoven, and Cornelius R. Vannieuwenhoven,” the complaint states.

Investigators retrieved garbage from outside the home of Cornelius Vannieuwenhoven. Socks, a bandage and an inhaler were tested. And while it was not an exact match, the tests determined the suspect was from that family.

Police then turned their attention to another brother, Edward Vannieuwenhoven. A neighbor agreed to keep a cup Edward used the next time he stopped for coffee. It was tested, ruled out Edward, but again indicated it someone from his family.

Investigators then approached Raymand Vannieuwenhoven at his home, under the pretense of doing a survey about policing in the area. The officer asked Vannieuwenhoven to seal the survey in an envelope. The saliva sample was sent to the crime lab, which determined it matched that from the crime scene sample.

The victims were shot with .30 caliber firearm. A search of Vannieuwenhoven’s property turned up a “30-30 level action rifle” in his garage. But it does not cite any ballistics tests to match the weapon specifically to the murders.

The complaint contains no comments from Vannieuwenhoven about the incident.

https://fox11online.com/news/local/charges-filed-against-man-in-1976-double-homicide

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37970301)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina police say they’re charging a man now living in Georgia with breaking into homes and raping women at knifepoint almost four decades ago.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Friday they’ve charged 64-year-old Johnny Ealey with burglary and raping two women in 1981.

Police say evidence collected from both women were analyzed in 1981, but underwent additional testing in both 2014 and 2016 that identified Ealey as a suspect.

Authorities say Ealey was arrested by his parole officer in Georgia on Tuesday and will be extradited to North Carolina.

Charlotte police continue investigating a string of cases from the summer of 1981 in which break-ins led to victims being threatened with knives and sexually assaulted.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/mar/22/man-charged-with-1981-rapes-at-knife-point-in-n-ca/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#37974068)

Man arrested in 1973 cold case murder of 2 young women who were slain on vacation in Virginia Beach

An 80-year-old man has been arrested in the cold case killings of two 19-year-old women who were slain in 1973 while on vacation in Virginia, officials said.

Ernest Broadnax was arrested Monday in New York City and charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Lynn Seethaler and Janice Pietropola, said Macie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

roadnax was also charged with one count of rape, said Allen.

Seethaler and Pietropola, both from the Pittsburgh area, were on vacation in Virginia Beach when they were "found brutally murdered" at a motel cottage on June 30, 1973, according to Virginia Beach police. Allen would not say how the teenagers were killed.

The case went cold for decades, until the fall of 2018, when cold case investigators "began aggressively researching a strong lead they had received," according to Virginia Beach police.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-arrested-1973-cold-case-murder-young-women/story?id=62281331

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38063974)

Sounds like it was pretty gory.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38064003)

Investigators in North Carolina have solved a 1972 cold case murder of a woman who was left dead with her baby still alive and cradled in her arms -- by re-testing a rape kit taken at the scene.

Bonnie Neighbors, 33, disappeared on Dec. 14, 1972 after she left to pick up her 7-year-old son from school, ABC Durham, North Carolina affiliate WTVD reported. Her body was found days later in a migrant worker housing unit near Benson, North Carolina, with unidentified gunshot wounds. Her 4-month-old son was found alive, still in her arms, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell said in a press conference Tuesday.

The infant survived in the cold for several nights before he and his mother's body were found, Bizzell said, adding that he was finally able to inform the now 47-year-old man that an arrest has been made in his mother's killing.

"I was able to look that little baby boy -- who is now a grown man -- in the eyes, and I was able to tell him we have found and arrested your mother's murderer," Bizzell said.

The suspect, 65-year-old Larry Joe Scott, was arrested on Monday in Bradenton, Florida, after investigators at the North Carolina State Crime Lab tested a rape kit taken at the scene using technology made available in 2017, authorities said. He was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping after a DNA match.

Scott was a resident of Benson when the murder occurred but was living on the streets of Brandenton, where he would eat at a soup kitchen daily, when he was arrested, Bizzell said.

The case struck a cord with local authorities. Bizzell recalled learning about the brutal murder when he was a 14-year-old boy, he said. One retired Johnston County Sheriff's detective decided to come back to work after Bizzell re-opened the case in 2007, and the former case agent for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation -- who was 26-years-old when the murder occurred -- was present in the audience when the news of Scott's arrest was announced, Bizzell said.

Last year, authorities counted more than 15,000 untested rape kits statewide, but each kit costs $700 to test, officials said. The state's crime lab is currently raising funds to pay for the testing, officials said.

Scott is awaiting extradition to Johnston County, according to WTVD. It was not immediately clear if he has yet retained an attorney.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/authorities-arrest-suspect-1972-cold-case-woman-murdered/story?id=62735032

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38166917)

Genetic genealogy used to identify suspect in 25-year-old Vancouver homicide

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Using genetic genealogy, Vancouver police detectives identified a man accused of raping and murdering a woman 25 years ago.

Police arrested Richard Knapp, 57, on Sunday for the death of Audrey Hoellein Frasier in 1994.

Genetic genealogy (GG) is a tool that can be used to identify a person using DNA found at a crime scene. Hundreds of thousands of genetic markers are read from a DNA sample.

Using software tools that objectively compare genotype profiles, it is possible to determine how much, if any, DNA is shared between two people.

Genealogists cross-reference DNA results with census records, obituaries, newspaper archives and traditional genealogy methods to build a family tree.

Genealogists then identify individuals who best match the profile. The information is ultimately returned to the law enforcement agency.

It proved to be an incredibly helpful tool for the Vancouver Police Department.

"I think you will see more and more law enforcement agencies using it," VPD Detective Neil Martin said, "because they can do things with the DNA to provide us or point, or give us investigative leads."

Another reason why GG is becoming so popular, detectives say, is because not all DNA profiles are found in the FBI's public database, known as CODIS, or the Combined DNA Index System. Law enforcement agencies use this system to compare and match DNA to known offenders.

Martin says Knapp's DNA was not in the system even though he served a year in Oregon's prison system for a 1986 rape conviction.

Oregon State Police says the FBI founded CODIS in 1990, but the system was not fully operational until 1998.

A spokesperson with the Oregon Department of Corrections says they currently collect DNA on all Oregon inmates, but was unsure of DOC's procedures in 1986.

"The collection from people or offenders hasn’t necessarily caught up to basically provide us all of the matches that we wish we could say were in there," Martin said. "There’s this misnomer that CODIS has all of the samples in there, and that’s not necessarily the case."

The GG process cost VPD roughly $6,800. The agency said it would pay for the service again, but says not all cold cases contain quality DNA samples that are strong enough to be tested.

"Some of our challenges, is that some of our cold cases don't have an abundance of physical evidence, in the form of DNA, that allowed us to solve this case. Those [cases] are sometimes few and far between," Dustin Goudschaal, a Vancouver police detective, told a KATU reporter. "The [older] the cold case is, the [less] likely you’re going to have that physical evidence or the ability to trace it back to somebody who might be living, that can then get you closer to the person involved."

https://katu.com/news/local/genetic-genealogy-used-to-identify-man-in-25-year-old-vancouver-homicide

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38168174)

A California man classified a "sexually violent predator" has been arrested in the cold case rape and murder of an 81-year-old woman decades ago.

Police said Thursday they arrested Lenard Chester, 58, in the Dec. 1, 1980, murder of Leah Sarah Bullis in Oxnard through a DNA match.

Cops found Bullis near death when they responded to her home for an assault.

She gave investigators some information before dying in the ambulance to the hospital.

She was beaten and raped, police said.

“It appeared as if someone entered Bullis' residence, attacked her,” Oxford police said.

Oxnard police said in 2018 the crime lab uploaded DNA from the rape to the FBI’s DNA database where it matched to a profile of a convicted offender who turned out to be Chester.

“This case is an example of how the passing of time, advances in forensic technology, and multiple law enforcement agency collaboration come together to further cold case homicides,” Sgt. Scott Aaron said.

Chester spent decades in prison after being sentenced in 1982 to sexually assaulting four women after breaking into their homes. He was paroled in 2008.

“When Chester was paroled, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office conducted a civil hearing which resulted in Chester being listed as a sexually violent predator,” Aaron said. “The court ordered Chester be placed on a civil hold and receive treatment at a state hospital.”

After his arrest, Chester was remanded to the Ventura County Jail.

He could face the death penalty, the Ventura County Star reported Friday.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-sexually-violent-predator-arrested-cold-case

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38186965)

Greenville police make arrest in Alice Haynsworth Ryan cold case

For more than 30 years, the family of Alice Haynsworth Ryan didn't know who killed the 80-year-old woman in her Cleveland Park home.

Advancements in DNA technology made it possible for Greenville Police to offer them some answers.

On Monday, Greenville police announced Brian Keith Munns, 51, of Americus, Georgia is charged in connection with Ryan's death.

Ryan was the daughter of mill president H.J. Haynsworth, the aunt of Judge Clement Haynsworth, and great-aunt of Greenville Mayor Knox White.

On Oct. 8, 1988, Ryan's daughter, Kathryn Stribling, dropped her off at home on Woodland Way following Ryan's brief hospital stay. After dropping her mother off, Stribling left for about an hour to run errands around 2:30 p.m.

When Stribling returned to the home, she found Ryan stabbed to death and her vehicle missing. The rear door of the house had been forced open.

"For over three decades, many dedicated detectives have worked to find answers for the Ryan family," Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller said.

Police began investigating the case immediately. They talked with friends, family and neighbors, followed tips from the community and analyzed evidence, Miller said.

"Despite the police department's best efforts, the killer eluded investigators and this case went cold," Miller said.

DNA technology helped lead to the arrest in the case.

In April of 2017, Miller said the department's newly formed cold case unit began an extensive review of the nearly 30-year-old homicide file.

Upon reanalyzing DNA on an item found in Ryan's vehicle shortly after it was recovered, the four investigators were able to obtain a DNA profile. They uploaded the profile into an FBI database, known as CODIS, to look for potential matches.

In late 2017, investigators were able to link that DNA to a registered sex offender who was living in Georgia.

Officers interviewed the man in December 2017 and served a search warrant to obtain saliva samples and further confirm a DNA match.

In February 2019, investigators moved forward with criminal charges, including possession of a stolen vehicle and accessory after the fact to murder.

The suspect was arrested in Georgia and later transported back to Greenville, according to Chief Miller.

Miller said the Police Department didn't publicize the initial February arrest while the investigation continued.

"Releasing information about this individual would not allow detectives the ability to corroborate statements provided by witnesses and informants," Miller said.

Since the arrest, more than 30 interviews have been conducted by cold case detectives. One of those interviews revealed detailed information about Ryan's death, giving investigators the information they needed to file additional charges against the suspect.

In that interview, an acquaintance of the suspect revealed details about how the suspect entered the home, injuries inflicted, where the encounter happened, the location of evidence and the timeline of events.

"This information was knowledge only a person who was at the scene of Alice Ryan's murder would know," Miller said.

That interview supported by DNA provided "critical missing pieces" in the investigation, according to Miller.

Munns was further charged with murder, burglary, armed robbery and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, Miller said. Munns is being held in the Greenville County Detention Center with no bond, Miller said.

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/south-carolina/2019/05/06/alice-haynsworth-ryan-greenville-sc-cold-case-dna-forensics-americus-ga-brian-munns/1093943001/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38195946)

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. - A man was arrested in Burke County on Thursday, accused in a Hollywood murder mystery that’s been unsolved for 34 years.

Ed Hiatt is charged in the death of well-known television director and producer Barry Crane.

Federal agents said the 1985 murder of Crane in Los Angeles sat cold for decades, but new evidence led them across the country to Hiatt.

Crane had a hand in some of television’s most iconic shows, including “The Six Million Dollar Man,” "Mission: Impossible," "Wonder Woman," "Dallas," “Chips” and “The Streets of San Francisco.”

Hiatt was arrested at a repair shop where he worked in the town of Rutherford College. Friends said he lived in a camper there.

The FBI staked out Hiatt and collected his discarded cigarettes and a foam cup to get DNA.

Hiatt was 18 years old when Crane was beaten and choked to death inside his Studio City home in L.A.

Crane’s body was found wrapped naked in some sheets in his garage in July 1985.

Nothing was missing from the condo except Crane's wallet and Cadillac.

LAPD detectives ran prints on the car last year for the fourth time and one of the prints belonged to Hiatt, according to warrants.

The FBI and LAPD linked Hiatt to the crime through the DNA they gathered.

Hiatt was taken into custody by the FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Channel 9 caught up with Hiatt as he was being escorted to jail by police.

“Did you ever think they would catch up with you?” reporter Dave Faherty asked Hiatt on Thursday.

“I didn’t have any clue what was going on when they first met me,” Hiatt said.

“You had no idea?” Faherty asked.

“No,” Hiatt replied.

“This is a shock to you?” Faherty asked. “It’s a different life today.”

“Do you not remember what happened in 1985?” Faherty asked.

“I don’t have a really good memory,” Hiatt said.

“Could you have done this murder in 1985?” Faherty asked.

“Anything is possible back then because I was big into drugs,” Hiatt admitted.

The FBI tracked Hiatt through social media to North Carolina where he was working at the auto repair business in Burke County.

“Do you remember Barry Crane?” Faherty asked.

“I don’t remember the guy until they told me his name, and then I didn’t remember his picture” Hiatt said.

What we don’t know tonight is the possible motive for the murder or when Hiatt will be extradited back to California.

https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/burke-county-man-arrested-in-1985-murder-of-well-known-hollywood-tv-producer/947982714

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38214273)

The identification in February of a 10-year-old boy whose body was found under a North Carolina interstate billboard 20 years ago has led to an indictment charging the child’s father with the cold-case murder.

The indictment returned in Orange County, N.C., also accuses John Whitt, 57, of concealing a death.

The boy, Bobby Whitt, was identified using DNA and genetic genealogy. His body was found off I-85 in Orange County in May 1998.

Police believe the boy and his mother, Myoung Hw Cho, were killed within months of each other in 1998.

Her body was found off I-85 in South Carolina four months after Bobby's body was found. She was identified after her son was identified.

“We believe both murders occurred in Concord (N.C.),” prosecutor Jim Woodall told WRAL-TV.

He told the station that because the Orange County Sheriff’s Office had investigated the case, “we thought this was the appropriate venue to bring the case against him for the death of his son.”

Woodall said he wasn’t sure when Whitt would be bought to North Carolina.

Whitt is serving time in a federal prison for armed robbery.

Police said Whitt confessed to killing the boy and his wife.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/man-charged-cold-case-murder-of-son-billboard

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38234406)

Police arrest Idaho man in 23-year-old cold-case murder of Angie Dodge

The moment an Idaho Falls mother has waited decades for came today, as police announced an arrest in the 1996 murder of her daughter.

Idaho Falls police announced that 53-year-old Brian Leigh Dripps of Caldwell, Idaho has been charged with murder.

“His DNA matches the DNA left at the scene of the crime and he has also confessed to the crime in the interview – both the rape and murder,” Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson said in a press conference Thursday.

Dripps is accused of raping and stabbing to death 18-year-old Angie Dodge in her apartment in June of 1996. Police revealed Thursday that at the time of the homicide, Dripps lived across the street from Angie’s apartment.

“He knew Angie as an acquaintance,” Captain Bill Squires of the Idaho Falls Police Department’s Investigations Bureau said at the press conference. “Not friends, he just knew of her.”

Captain Squires continued to say records show police had made contact with Briggs in the early stages of the investigation.

“There was a field contact with him -- yeah, there was a canvassing interview with him, back then, just days after the homicide,” Captain Squires said Thursday. “We did have his name in a file -- on a report like that.”

Authorities say Dripps was linked to the murder using forensic genetic techniques similar to those that led to the arrest of the suspect in the notorious Golden State Killer case in 2018.

“The history of the case is long. I can’t count the amount of hours spent on the case by so many people,” Chief Johnson said. “I think we submitted over a hundred samples to the state lab for DNA testing. Negative, negative, negative, negative, negative. Frustration. At some point we thought we would never get here, I think, but it was a long – a long walk.”

CeCe Moore of Parabon Labs said at Thursday’s press conference that genetic genealogy has “never been done in a suspect case with such a degraded DNA sample.”

“What we learned from this case is going to go on. And it’s going to inform other cases. So Angie has given us something here,” Moore said. “It is going to be felt in waves that go far beyond just this one case.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/police-arrest-idaho-man-23-year-old-cold-case-murder-n1006726

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38246672)

Suspected serial rapist arrested in 2nd cold case murder nearly 45 years later

A former Stanford University employee was arrested in connection to a cold case murder from the 1970s this week, just months after genetic genealogy linked him to another decades-old slaying.

John Arthur Getreu, 74, already was in custody on Thursday when officers with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office charged him with the 1974 murder of 21-year-old Janet Taylor.

Taylor vanished while hitchhiking home from a friend's house in Palo Alto, California, not far from the Stanford University campus, on March 24, 1974. She was found strangled to death on the side of a nearby highway the next day.

There was no evidence of her being raped, but investigators said the crime appeared to be "sexually motivated."

Police said DNA found on the young woman's clothes led them to Getreu, a convicted rapist police said could be connected to several other murders.

Rothaus said his office re-initiated the investigation into Taylor's death last November when authorities in nearby Santa Clara County arrested Getreu in the cold case murder of 21-year-old Leslie Perlov. She was found strangled to death near Stanford in 1973. Police said new DNA and genetic genealogy technology connected Getreu to that crime.

"After the identification of the suspect in the suspect in the Santa Clara County case, our investigators at the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office collected more evidence in the Janet Taylor case and submitted additional items to our crime lab," Rothaus said. "Through our combined investigation we learned much more about the suspect in this case."

Rothaus said Getreu, a carpenter who previously worked for Stanford University, had ties to the Palo Alto area around the time when both women were murdered and previously was convicted on rape charges in Santa Clara County. He also was put on trial in 1964 for rape resulting in the death of a 16-year-old girl in Germany, Rothaus said.

Police said Getreu could be responsible for other cold case crimes as well.

Getreu was being held in police custody without bail as of early Monday morning.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspected-serial-rapist-arrested-2nd-cold-case-murder/story?id=63143084

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38259510)

Man arrested in 'brutal' 1986 murder of woman slain in her Florida apartment: Sheriff

A man is in custody for the 1986 murder of a Florida woman and authorities say the suspect lived less than 1 mile away from the victim at the time.

Danny Lynn Emitt, 50, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was arrested Wednesday for the murder of 38-year-old Eveline Aguilar, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

Three of Aguilar's four sisters gathered to watch Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma announce the arrest on Thursday.

Aguilar's body, covered in stab and cut wounds, was found in her apartment on July 14, 1986, said the sheriff's office.

Lemma described it as a "brutal homicide and sexual battery."

But no suspect was initially identified and the case went cold, the sheriff said.

Lemma said the case was most recently re-opened in May 2018 and semen from the crime scene was resubmitted to the Combined DNA Index System -- the law enforcement database known as CODIS.

The semen sample matched a DNA sample Emitt had voluntarily submitted in 2005 in connection with a Melbourne, Florida, case, the sheriff's office said. Emitt was not arrested in the Melbourne case, authorities said.

Emitt's palm print was also found on a window sill at the crime scene, said authorities. A window pane was smashed to gain entry to the apartment, Lemma said.

Emitt lived about half a mile away from Aguilar's apartment at the time of the crime, said Lemma. He had never been a suspect in the case.

Emitt has lived a "crime-ridden" life with over 30 arrests, said Lemma.

He was booked at the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility in Tennessee on charges of first-degree premeditated murder and burglary, according to the sheriff's office. He is expected to be extradited to Florida for a first court appearance but a date has not been set, the sheriff's office said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-arrested-brutal-1986-murder-eveline-aguilar-slain/story?id=63231156

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38278605)

Genealogy links former Marine to 1976 O.C. murder of woman

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Orange County Sheriff's Department investigators have arrested a man suspected of murdering a 30-year-old woman in 1976 and dumping her body near the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, officials said Thursday.

Eddie Lee Anderson, 66, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Friday at his home in River Ridge, Louisiana.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on May 18, 1976, military police found the body of Leslie Penrod Harris lying on a roadway near the base in Irvine. It was determined she had been strangled.

On May 17, 1976, the victim had been at dinner with her husband at a Costa Mesa restaurant, but left alone at approximately 8:30 p.m. When the restaurant closed and Harris had not returned, her husband reported her missing to police. Her body was found approximately five hours later, a press release from the Orange County Sheriff's Department stated.

Investigators say they used DNA from the case. And, like they've done on many of these older cases, turned to genealogy.

Investigators say Anderson was a Marine living at that Air Station at the time Harris was murdered.

https://abc7.com/genealogy-links-former-marine-to-1976-oc-murder-of-woman/5323967/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38317621)

Convicted pedophile charged in 1993 killing of Missouri girl

O'FALLON, Mo. – A convicted pedophile who ran an international child pornography ring has been charged with the 1993 abduction, rape and killing of a 9-year-old Missouri girl, after previously undetected DNA found on her clothing implicated him in the crime, authorities announced Wednesday.

Earl Webster Cox, who has been in custody for years because the state deemed him a sexually dangerous person likely to re-offend if set free, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and sodomy in the death of Angie Housman, St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar said at a news conference.

Angie disappeared after getting off her school bus on Nov. 18, 1993, less than a block from her home in St. Ann, a St. Louis suburb. Her body was found nine days later in the August A. Busch Wildlife area, which is about 20 miles west of St. Ann, in St. Charles County.

Investigators said she had been sexually assaulted, starved and handcuffed, and that she died just hours before she was found. Lohmar said her head was covered in duct tape except for her nose and that she had tried hard to free herself.

"She was dehydrated, she was malnourished and she was alive when she was left out in the woods to die," Lohmar said, noting that investigators don't know where she was kept while she was missing.

Angie's mother, Diane Bone, died of cancer in 2016 at age 52. Her stepfather, Ron Bone, told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday, "I can't say anything about being happy until he's found guilty."

The disappearance of Angie and a 10-year-old girl, Cassidy Senter, the following month caused a panic in the area. Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers searched for Angie before a deer hunter found her body. Cassidy, meanwhile, was later found dead in a St. Louis alley.

Investigators feared that a child serial killer was on the loose before determining that Cassidy's killer was one of her neighbors, who was eliminated as a suspect in Angie's death.

In late February, St. Charles County crime lab investigators caught a break: They found previously undetected DNA on a pair of Angie's Barbie-themed underwear that was found at the crime scene that matched a DNA profile in a national crime database.

"They were looking for a needle in a haystack without a magnet and still found the needle," Lohmar said.

Lohmar said investigators have spoken with Cox about the killing, but he declined to say if Cox acknowledged knowing anything about it. He also wouldn't say if his office will pursue the death penalty, and that investigators "have reason to believe that Earl Cox was not the only suspect," though he didn't elaborate.

Cox, now 61, grew up in the St. Louis area. He was living in another suburb, Ferguson, when Angie was abducted, but he had relatives who lived near her school and not far from her home, Lohmar said.

Cox enlisted in the Air Force in 1975 but was dishonorably discharged in 1982 after being convicted in a court-martial for molesting four young girls for whom he babysat while stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany. He was paroled in 1985 and returned to the St. Louis area, where he was questioned in at least two reported instances of child molestation in the four years before Angie's killing.

He was arrested in October 1989 in Overland, which borders St. Ann, after he allegedly had inappropriate contact with two 7-year-old girls. Cox was not charged in that case, according to court records, but the arrest led authorities to revoke his parole for crimes in Germany and he was returned to federal custody from January to December 1992. He got out 11 months before Angie was killed.

At some point during the 1990s, Cox moved to Colorado. In January 2003, he set up a meeting with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl whom he had asked to become his sex slave. It turned out to be an undercover federal agent.

After Cox was arrested, police seized about 45,000 images of child pornography from his computer and discovered that he led an international online child pornography ring known as the "Shadowz Brotherhood." The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of about 60 people in 11 countries.

Cox was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Before he was scheduled for release in 2011, Cox was certified as a sexually dangerous person, which allowed authorities to keep him incarcerated even after he completed his sentence because he was considered likely to re-offend. He has unsuccessfully appealed the government's decision to keep him incarcerated, arguing in part that his poor health makes it unlikely that he would re-offend.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/convicted-pedophile-charged-in-1993-killing-of-missouri-girl

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38345472)

Convicted pedophile charged in 1993 kidnapping, murder of 9-year-old Missouri girl

Missouri prosecutors announced Wednesday that they have charged a convicted pedophile who once ran an international child pornography ring with the 1993 abduction, rape, and killing of a 9-year-old girl.

Prosecutors in St. Charles County said previously undetected DNA evidence found on Angie Housman's clothing helped investigators crack the case of her death.

Earl Webster Cox, 61, was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and sodomy. Cox has been in federal custody in North Carolina since 2003, when he was arrested and convicted for his role in the child pornography ring.

St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar said on Wednesday that previously undetected DNA found on her clothing implicated him in the crime.

"I never thought we'd solve this case," St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar told reporters.

Housman was last seen alive on Nov. 18, 1993, after getting off the school bus less than a block from her home in the St. Louis suburb of St. Ann. Her body was found nine days later by a hunter in the August A. Busch Wildlife area, about 20 miles west of St. Ann.

Her “nude body was found partially covered with snow, with her head wrapped in duct tape, her hands handcuffed behind her back, and her left arm bound to a tree,” according to the probable cause statement.

“Crime scene evidence revealed that A.H. had clearly suffered from a significant, violent sexual assault,” the document said. “Crime scene evidence further indicated that A.H. was alive as she was bound and left in the woods, and struggled extensively to free herself before she ultimately perished.”

Investigators said Housman died hours before she was found. Court documents said temperatures were below freezing the night before her remains were discovered and Lohmar said her official cause of death was hypothermia. The prosecutor noted that investigators still don't know where the girl was kept while she was missing...

Cox grew up in the St. Louis area and was living in another suburb, Ferguson, when Housman was abducted. However, his sister lived near Housman’s school and less than a mile from where the girl was last seen, court documents say.

The suspect enlisted in the Air Force in 1975 but was dishonorably discharged seven years later after a court-martial convicted him of molesting four young girls he babysat while stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany. He was paroled in 1985 and returned to the St. Louis area.

In October 1989, Cox was "investigated for sexual abuse of two juvenile females," which were alleged to have happened behind the school Housman attended, according to the probable cause statement. Those charges led authorities to revoke his parole and he was brought back to prison. He was released 11 months before Housman was killed.

Cox later moved to Colorado and in 2003 set up a meeting with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl but turned out to be an undercover federal agent.

After he was arrested, police seized about 45,000 images of child pornography from his computer. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Before he was scheduled for release in 2011, Cox was certified as a sexually dangerous person, which allowed authorities to keep him behind bars.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/convicted-pedophile-charged-in-1993-murder-of-9-year-old-missouri-girl

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38373979)

Man indicted on 5 capital charges in slayings

DOTHAN, Ala. - Grand jurors have indicted a south Alabama trucker on five counts of capital murder in the slayings of two teenagers who were killed two decades ago. Local media reports a prosecutor and defense attorney as saying a Dale County grand jury returned the charges against Coley McCraney in the slayings of Dothan teens J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett.

The move puts the case one step closer to a judge setting a trial date for McCraney, who was arrested earlier this year. A defense lawyer and relatives say the long-haul trucker and part-time preacher is innocent. The bodies of the two 17-year-olds were found in the trunk of a car in 1999. Authorities say they linked McCraney to the slayings using genetic genealogy techniques on crime scene DNA.

https://www.wvtm13.com/article/man-indicted-on-5-capital-charges-in-slayings/27948169

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38380894)

Arrest made in Norwalk cold case murder of Kathleen Flynn, 11

NORWALK — A Maine man has been arrested in connection with the 1986 sexual assault and murder of an 11-year-old Norwalk schoolgirl.

Norwalk police said 53-year-old Marc Karun was arrested by a tactical team on a fugitive from justice warrant around 11 a.m. Tuesday as he left his home in Stetson, Maine.

Authorities have confirmed that the arrest was related to the sexual assault and murder of sixth-grader Kathleen Flynn.

According to Maine's sex offender registry, Karun was convicted of a sexual assault in Connecticut in 1989. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and became a lifetime registrant on the registry. He was also convicted on felony burglary and larceny charges in Connecticut in 1997.

According to public records, Karun was raised in Norwalk and continued living in the city until at least 2011, in apartments on Princes Pine Road in West Norwalk and Van Zant Street in East Norwalk. He is also listed as having Connecticut residences in Manchester, Rocky Hill and Shelton before moving to Maine in 2012.

Maine state police helped the Norwalk Police Department in Karun's arrest. Karun is being held at the Penobscot County Jail in Maine until his terms of extradition are determined. He is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.

Kathleen was reported missing by her mother at 5:12 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1986, after she did not arrive home after school. The mother had driven to the school looking for her two hours earlier, checking nearby neighborhoods and all along the route she usually took home.

Kathleen normally walked home from school using a path that leads to Hunters Lane and then to Fillow Street.

Several of Kathleen’s friends were contacted that day, and one or two said they last saw the girl walking toward the path by some tennis courts a few minutes after school ended.

Teams of searchers scoured the woods on both sides of the path. Eventually, Kathleen’s body was found in a secluded area more than 100 feet off the path. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

Over the years, police have received numerous tips about possible suspects, some with vague descriptions and some as mere hunches. Some descriptions were fabricated by people who thought it would help the investigation.

A flyer was produced at one point with composite sketches of three white men with long, dirty hair in a green vehicle with New York license plates that was seen outside the school. It’s possible the car was not involved in the Flynn case, but rather a group of teenagers that borrowed the car and took off when a teacher approached the vehicle.

The unexpected murder in a quiet neighborhood beset the city with a sense of paranoia and fear that only grew the longer the case remained unsolved....

In 2016, the Norwalk Police Department said it hoped recent advancements in DNA technology would lead investigators to the perpetrator. In February, police used DNA to solve 26-year-old mystery regarding a dead body that was found off the Norwalk coast on Shea Island.

https://www.thehour.com/local/article/Arrest-made-in-Norwalk-schoolgirl-s-cold-case-13985824.php

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38384355)

Arrest made in Colorado Springs cold case, 20-year-old female Fort Carson soldier murdered

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - More than three decades after a Fort Carson soldier was found strangled to death, police believe they caught her murderer.

Colorado Springs Police announced the arrest of 58-year-old Michael Whyte on Friday for the murder of Darlene Krashoc. Krashoc, 20 at the time, was found dead behind the Korean Club Restaurant on March 17, 1987. Krashoc was an active duty soldier stationed at Fort Carson, assigned to the 73rd Maintenance Company. Police say she was out the night before with members of her unit at a local club named Shuffles. She was last seen leaving the club between midnight and 1 in the morning.

Authorities are reporting Krashoc was strangled to death and her body had likely been moved and placed at the Korean Club Restaurant. Following hundreds of interviews the case went cold.

"In 2016, Special Agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID), in concert with Colorado Springs Police Department, submitted evidence to the United States Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory for additional DNA testing in a collective effort to identify additional potential leads. The testing included re-analysis of previously submitted items for Y-STR and evaluation for Phenotyping," Colorado Springs Police wrote in a press release.

Using the DNA, experts were able to find "produced trait predictions" for the suspect. Those traits included eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape. By combining these attributes of appearance, a “Snapshot” composite was produced depicting what the suspect may have looked like at the age of approximately 25 –years-old, as well as a composite picture depicting what the suspect may look like now at the approximate age of 50 to 55-years-old (the age depictions of the suspect are approximate as the true age of the suspect remains unknown).

Police wanted to make it clear that the DNA profile was a scientific approximation.

On March 13, 2017, the DNA composite profile was shared with the public.

This year, CSPD and Army CID sought laboratory completion of Genetic Genealogy (GG) DNA analysis on the unknown suspect DNA profile. As a result, the investigation culminated in identifying 58-year-old Michael Whyte as the suspect in this investigation.

On Thursday, Whyte was arrested in Thornton. He was taken to the Adams County Detention facility with a no-bond warrant for first-degree murder.

https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Arrest-made-in-Colorado-Springs-cold-case-20-year-old-female-Fort-Carson-soldier-murdered-511319641.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38390624)

Florida inmate charged with murder in 1986 Michigan slaying

PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) - A Florida prison inmate has been charged with murder in the strangling of a woman in southwestern Michigan more than three decades ago.

Prosecutors charged 49-year-old Robert James Waite last week in the killing of 59-year-old Wilda Wilkinson of Bangor during a home invasion in July 1986.

Michigan State Police tell WOOD-TV that they matched partial DNA found on Wilkinson’s clothes to Waite. Detectives say Waite confessed to killing Wilkinson when they interviewed him in April. Authorities say Waite knew specific details about the slaying.

Waite is imprisoned in Florida on unrelated kidnapping and sexual battery charges. He will be extradited to Michigan.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/24/florida-inmate-charged-with-murder-in-1986-michiga/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38433921)

Massachusetts man named as new suspect in 1978 child rape case

GRETNA, La. (AP) - A Massachusetts man indicted for raping three Louisiana children 40 years ago is now a suspect in the 1978 kidnapping and murder of one of them.

Nola.com/The Times-Picayune reports 72-year-old Jason Franklin is charged with raping Stephanie Hebert, but isn't charged in the 5-year-old Waggaman girl's death.

Capt. Jason Rivarde says the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office identified Franklin as a suspect in spring 2018.

Hebert's remains were found six months after she disappeared from her suburban New Orleans home.

Franklin is accused of raping Hebert sometime between 1975 and 1977.

Franklin is also charged with aggravated rapes of two other children, a boy and girl, during the same period in Jefferson Parish. Arrested in December, he remains jailed in Jefferson Parish. It's unclear if he has a lawyer.

https://www.wbrz.com/news/massachusetts-man-named-as-new-suspect-in-1978-child-rape-case

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38465374)

DNA leads to arrest in decades-old assault cases

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —

A man has been arrested in connection with a trio of brutal sexual assaults that happened in the Sacramento area more than 20 years ago, thanks to DNA technology, officials said.

Mark Manteuffel, 59, is facing a slew of charges, including torture and rape, in connection with assaults in Sacramento, Sacramento County and Davis, Sacramento police said at a news conference Monday.

Manteuffel attended Sacramento State and worked as a part-time lecturer on criminal justice, police said.

Federal agents arrested Manteuffel on Friday in Georgia. He is expected to be extradited back to Sacramento in the next few days.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said authorities were able to link him to the crimes using genealogy technology.

“If the tools are there, we are going to use them,” said Schubert.

“This case is about a forward-thinking DNA analyst from our crime lab who knew the value of preserving rape kits far longer than the law required at the time,” she added.

https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-cold-case-arrest-1992/28251222

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38470885)

Warren man arrested in 30-year-old murder case

A Warren man with a history of attacking women has been jailed in Jefferson County after DNA testing linked him to a 30-year-old unsolved murder case.

Other agencies are investigating whether he could be a suspect in their unsolved cases, too.

Daniel Andrew MacGinnis, 60, has been charged in connection with the death of Patricia Ann Jacobs. He is being held on a $1 million bond.

The Silsbee woman's body was found in the Neches River near Old Ferry Landing Road on October 6, 1988, one day after she failed to return home from work, according to previous reporting by The Enterprise. The following morning, her truck was found in the parking lot of the Silver Spur tavern in Hardin County.

MacGinnis, who had been convicted of sexual assault of a 19-year-old four years before, was interviewed at the time of the crime and denied involvement, according to information from Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham.

Investigators were not able to establish a connection between MacGinnis and Jacobs.

But a recent request from the victim's daughter to reopen the case allowed for DNA testing not available in 1988.

"We agreed to look at the case," said Texas Ranger Brandon Bess. "After we read through some of the files, we contacted...the Port Arthur Police Department."

The two departments worked together, Bess said, and within weeks received DNA results that pointed to MacGinnis, who had since become a registered sex offender with additional convictions of rape by force in 1990 and an attempt to commit aggravated kidnapping in 2007.

Wortham said other law enforcement agencies have contacted Jefferson County and made arrangements to transport MacGinnis to their jurisdiction and try him against other outstanding cases. He did not elaborate on which agencies.

"[Jacobs'] family members were obviously delighted," Wortham said. "I'm sure they are re-grieving."

MacGinnis is expected to be indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury Wednesday.

https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Warren-man-arrested-in-30-year-old-murder-case-14382034.php

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38758148)

Oregon man arrested in 1978 death of Alaska teenager

Alaska State Troopers say they've arrested a 62-year-old Oregon man in connection with the 1978 death of teenage Anchorage girl.

Troopers say Gresham Police assisted in the arrest Friday of Donald F. McQuade in connection with the death of 16-year-old Shelley Connolly.

The teenager's body was found in a ditch along the Seward Highway, about 15 miles south of Anchorage.

Troopers say genetic DNA testing linked McQuade to her death, and he was never a suspect before that match.

Past media reports say an autopsy determined the girl was sexually assaulted, beaten, dragged by a car and thrown down an embankment. Her fingernails were broken, indicating she might have tried to crawl back up the embankment.

Online Alaska court records don't list an attorney for McQuade. He's scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday morning.

https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-man-arrested-in-1978-death-of-alaska-teenager

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38782168)

DNA led to suspected Utah serial rapist, but the call is out to find more evidence, victims

Detectives found the man they suspect as a serial rapist by first using DNA to locate the defendant’s half brother, a Utah police chief said Thursday.

Finding that family pointed police to Mark Douglas Burns, the 69-year-old man arrested Wednesday in Ogden. Clearfield Police Chief Kelly Bennett said Burns was “calm” and asked why he was being arrested.

For now, Burns is charged in two rape cases in Clearfield, but investigators say Burns, a truck driver, is suspected of rapes in Layton and Ogden as well as in cities in Wyoming from 1991 to 2001.

“For that reason,” Bennett said, alluding to Burns’ occupation, “we do believe that Mr. Burns did not stop in 2001.”

Bennett asked other police forces across the West on Thursday to let investigators know about unsolved rapes similar to those in which Burns is accused and to upload DNA samples from those attacks into law enforcement’s national database.

Burns was convicted of rape in North Carolina in 1974, Utah court documents state, and served a “lengthy prison sentence” there before moving to Utah.

In Utah, the Davis County attorney in 2003 charged a John Doe with felonies related to violent assaults in Clearfield. Tuesday, those charges were amended to specify Burns was the defendant. He currently faces 17 counts, including sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery and burglary.

In a July 29, 2000, assault, the updated court documents describe a suspect entering through a sliding-glass door. A nude man then woke up a woman living in the residence, He said not to say anything or he would cut her throat. He raped her and bound her wrists and feet before leaving.

A family was victimized May 22, 2001. Court documents say a woman heard her bedroom door open and thought it was her 20-year-old son coming home from work. Instead it was a man with a nylon stocking over his head and wearing gloves.

The suspect pointed a flashlight and a gun at the woman, waking her husband in the process. He then asked who else was in the home. Soon, the suspect had four members of the family bound in the bedroom. When the son did come home, he was bound, too.

The intruder raped the woman and sexually assaulted her 19-year-old daughter.

Bennett said his department plans to stay in contact with the victims in the two Clearfield episodes as well as the victims from the cases that have not yet been charged.

“It’s important to continue to have that relationship with the victims and law enforcement,” Bennett said. “We think that’s crucial with their healing process.”

The Wyoming cases include a Rock Springs assault in 1991 and one in Laramie in 1996. Those episodes, as well as the ones in Utah, showed a similar modus operandi, Bennett said.

The victims lived along trucking routes near industrial centers, the chief said. They usually resided in apartment complexes, and the perpetrator liked to enter through an unlocked sliding-glass door, the chief added.

In 2010, DNA helped link the multiple attacks, but a suspect remained elusive. The national law enforcement DNA database is mostly comprised of people who have already been convicted of a crime in the digital age.

Then, Bennett said, a genetic genealogist named Barbara Rae-Venter was able to find a “very distant relative” with DNA similar to the suspect’s. That relative led investigators to a man who turned out to be Burns’ half brother.

Bennett said the half brother was not necessarily a suspect, but investigators needed to know more about him and who else was in his family. That led the detective to Burns.

Detectives conducted surveillance on Burns’ home in Ogden, the chief said, collected his garbage and were able to get a DNA sample from it.

Police often try to corroborate DNA evidence by finding other proof a suspect was in the vicinity of where the crime happened, if only so defense attorneys can’t argue there was an error in processing the DNA. The updated court documents don’t say whether police have evidence Burns was in Clearfield on those dates in 2000 and 2001.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/09/26/dna-led-suspected-utah/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38891574)

Arrest made in 27-year-old murder of Federal Way teen Sarah Yarborough

The King County Sheriff’s Office has made an arrest in a cold case that is more than 20 years old.

Sarah Yarborough was a 16-year-old honor student when she was raped and murdered Dec. 14, 1991, near Federal Way High School.

She was last seen leaving her home to go to a high school dance competition. Her car was found in the school parking lot and her body was discovered in a wooded area on campus later that day.

The suspect in the case is 55-year-old Patrick Leon Nicholas, according to police. He was booked into the King County Jail Wednesday night.

Sources told KIRO 7 Reporter Amy Clancy a familial DNA match led to Nicholas’ arrest.

The day of the murder, witnesses worked with investigators to help create a sketch of a potential suspect seen shortly before Yarborough’s body was found, partially hidden, near the school’s tennis courts.

Last year, a company called Parabon Nanolabs used DNA markers and genetics to create a series of composite sketches to predict what Yarborough’s killer may have looked like at ages 18 and 25, and how he may look today.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/arrest-made-in-27-year-old-murder-of-federal-way-student-sarah-yarborough/993201087

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38924920)

Sex Crime Cold Case Spanning 20 Years Culminates With Arrest of Longtime Visalia Resident

VISALIA, CA (KMJ) — A sex crime cold case spanning 20 years culminates in the arrest of a longtime Visalia resident.

Police Chief Jason Salazar and District Attorney Tim Ward held a news conference Thursday to announce details about the arrest of 52-year-old Nick Duane Stane.

At the news conference Chief Salazar said the crimes happened in the City of Visalia 20 years ago, between 1999 and 2002.

Stane was taken into custody on a DNA John Doe Warrant issued in 2009 in Tulare County Superior Court.

Chief Salazar said there were 7 sexual crimes that happened from July ’99 to August ’02 that had similar descriptions and how the crimes were committed, leading investigators to believe they were done by the same suspect.

Four of the 7 crimes committed were so similar they were included in the warrant issued in 2009.

A DNA profile was created from the 4 cases by the Fresno Crime Lab, which became the basis of the ’09 warrant.

On Wednesday, Oct. 2 – Visalia police served a search warrant at Stane’s home just before noon in northeast Visalia on the 3500 block of East Willow Court.

Visalia Police brought in its emergency operation center trailer plus Fresno PD sent down a crime scene investigation van.

Officers had the cul de sac blocked with crime scene tape.

At one point, two investigators were seen carrying a tool to break down a door plus a heavy duty crow bar.

One neighbor who declined to talk on camera to our News Partner Fox 26 described Stane as nice but weird.

http://www.kmjnow.com/2019/10/03/sex-crime-cold-case-spanning-20-years-culminates-with-arrest-of-longtime-visalia-resident/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38931340)

DNA technology solves decades-long unsolved mystery of serial murder in South Korea

Advancement in DNA technology has helped police catch a murderer, solving a series of mystery cases that took place between 1986 to 1991.

The killer, Lee Chun-jae, confessed to the murder of 14 victims after detectives extracted DNA from the evidence left at the crime scene using recently developed DNA restoration technology.

Based on the identified DNA, police compared it with the DNA database of inmates at the penitentiary. The prisoner DNA database was put together in 2010, according to police.

It turned out Lee, who is in his 50s, has been in prison with a life sentence for the past 20 years for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law.

In September, South Korean police pegged Lee with at least three killings of the notorious serial murder case in Hwaseong, a rural town South of Seoul. Since then, police have carried out a daily face-to-face investigation. Veteran profilers talked to him and police pressured him with the DNA test results pointing to him as the real criminal.

Last Friday, Lee not only admitted to the accused murder but also confessed to having committed 5 more murders and 30 other rapes and attempted rapes. Police are trying to confirm the facts based on his confession.

“Suspect claims that he is responsible for the incident that the police concluded as a copycat crime in 1988, the police are investigating on the reliability of his statement,” an official from Gyeonggi South Provincial Agency told ABC News.

When the verification process ends, it will put an end to some of the most heinous unsolved crimes in South Korea. The serial murder case is known to have mobilized the largest manpower in South Korea’s investigation history, as over two million (2,050,000) police officers were committed to solving the case. Experts say that the absence of scientific investigation left the case unsolved for decades.

“This case signals a victory of scientific investigation and proves that there is no perfect crime,” Lee Soo Jung, forensic psychology professor at Seoul-based Kyonggi University told ABC News.

The statute of limitations on the serial murder case ran out in April 2006, so even if the suspect is determined to have the criminal, the justice department cannot convict him guilty of the serial killing.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/dna-technology-solves-decades-long-unsolved-mystery-serial/story?id=66091310

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38936338)

COLD CASE: Pennsylvania man arrested in 1993 Delaware sexual assault case

NEWARK, Delaware (WPVI) -- Newark, Delaware police have arrested a man over 26 years later, who's now facing two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Police have arrested 54-year-old Jeffrey King of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He's being accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman on August 4, 1993.

A detective was assigned to the case in 2017, and worked on it for more than 2 years as a follow-up after funding from the SAKI program, which is a grant program designed to address the growing number of unsubmitted sexual assault kits in law enforcement custody.

The arrest of King is a result of that funding, bringing justice decades later, according to police.

"You have to realize we didn't have DNA testing like we do now, in 1993," said Lt. Andrew Rubin, with Newark police.

Police said the 22-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk on Barksdale Road in the area of King William Street, around 3 a.m., when the sexual assault happened in 1993.

Police said the woman immediately reported the sexual assault after King ran from the area, taking personal property and clothing belonging to the victim. Police said the victim never knew King before the incident. Now, thanks to a combination of technology, science and police work, authorities believe this case has been solved.

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Delaware cold case from 1990 solved, according to authorities. Katie Katro has more on Action News at 5 p.m. on October 15, 2019.

By Katie Katro

Tuesday, October 15, 2019 8:48PM

NEWARK, Delaware (WPVI) -- Newark, Delaware police have arrested a man over 26 years later, who's now facing two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Police have arrested 54-year-old Jeffrey King of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He's being accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman on August 4, 1993.

A detective was assigned to the case in 2017, and worked on it for more than 2 years as a follow-up after funding from the SAKI program, which is a grant program designed to address the growing number of unsubmitted sexual assault kits in law enforcement custody.

Ex-University of Delaware athlete found guilty of rape

"There's no backlog in Delaware. Eight hundred twenty-one kits have been sent for testing and have been returned," said Michael Kelly, the statewide coordinator for SAKI. "So all the kits have been tested and they're in various stages of investigation."

Newark Police have arrested 54-year-old Jeffrey King of Coatesville, Pa. He’s being accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman on August 4, 1993, in Newark DE. pic.twitter.com/jM7Lappsjw

— Katie Katro (@KatieKatro6abc) October 15, 2019

The arrest of King is a result of that funding, bringing justice decades later, according to police.

"You have to realize we didn't have DNA testing like we do now, in 1993," said Lt. Andrew Rubin, with Newark police.

Police said the 22-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk on Barksdale Road in the area of King William Street, around 3 a.m., when the sexual assault happened in 1993.

Jeffrey A. King

Police said the woman immediately reported the sexual assault after King ran from the area, taking personal property and clothing belonging to the victim. Police said the victim never knew King before the incident. Now, thanks to a combination of technology, science and police work, authorities believe this case has been solved.

Fake ride-share driver assaults woman near Univ. of Delaware

"The victim in this case no doubt faced the physical, emotional and mental challenges that all rape victims do, but I can tell you she is truly a rape survivor and has gone to live the kind of life so many of us would hope for," said Kathleen Jennings, the attorney general of Delaware.

Police do not know of any other victims of King, who is out on bail. His arraignment is set for Friday, at 8:30 a.m., at the New Castle County Courthouse.

https://6abc.com/pa-man-arrested-in-1993-delaware-cold-case/5621290/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#38990268)

Merrillville man charged in 1988 rape, murder cold case

The FBI has arrested a 56-year-old Merrillville man in connection with the 1988 rape and murder of Colleen “Daphne” Callahan, 23, in Gary.

On Tuesday, Tyrone Andrew McKee, 56, was charged in Lake County Superior Court with one count of murder, one count of murder while committing or attempting to commit rape, and one count of rape.

Callahan’s body was found on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 1988, in an abandoned house in the 2400 Connecticut Street, according to the Post-Tribune archives. Callahan was found lying on a floor littered with broken glass and pieces of a window frame, and she had numerous injuries and deep lacerations to her legs, the archives stated. Police said, at the time, that she had been sexually assaulted.

The autopsy indicated the cause of death was injuries from a blunt instrument, the archive stated.

In a release, the FBI credited the filing of charges against McKee as the culmination of work by the FBI Gang Response Investigative Team (GRIT) who began re-investigating the case in 2018.

“With the advances in technology, especially DNA, increased resources and once reluctant witnesses now willing to come forward to provide information years later, cases that once did not have enough evidence to charge now become cases that can be prosecuted,” said Det. Sgt. Nicholas Wardrip of the Hobart Police Department, who is GRIT Task Force Officer, in the release.

According to Post-Tribune archives, police initially thought that there were links between Callahan and two men whom she testified against in a 1987 burglary trial, but their names were never released by police. Police said, at the time, that she was accompanied by the men on the night before she was found dead.

At the time of her death, Callahan was the mother of four daughters, ranging in age from 1 to 6 years.

The release stated that this is the sixth cold case solved by Gang Response Investigative Team in the last year.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-fbi-cold-case-arrest-st-1024-20191023-5rirm333a5grnfb6elwnmk4bf4-story.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39027025)

Suspect in 1990s Potomac River Rapist case arrested

A suspect has been arrested in the 1990s Potomac River Rapist case, in which a woman was murdered and multiple other women were raped in the Washington, D.C. area over the course of seven years.

Giles Daniel Warrick, 60, was arrested in Conway, South Carolina, on Wednesday, police said at a Thursday press conference. The alleged rapist "brazenly and brutally preyed upon women" from 1991 until 1998, when a National Academy of Sciences intern died, according to the FBI.

Christine Mirzayan, 29, was walking home from a summer cookout at a friend's place in the Georgetown area during the summer of 1998 when she was raped and bludgeoned with a 73-pound rock. Witnesses later told police that they saw Mirzayan walking along a dark stretch of road with a man following her, according to the FBI.

Witnesses were able to help authorities create a composite sketch of a suspect, which was age enhanced in 2011 to help catch the suspect.

Authorities have suspected that Mirzayan's death was connected to other rapes in the area that were perpetrated using similar violent methods. Seven of nine suspected cases were linked through DNA evidence. The suspect was generally described as an African-American male in his 40s or 50s.

Montgomery County Police Department Capt. David Gillespie said in a 2011 FBI press release that the rapist stalked and hunted women before his attacks.

“The rapist used a blitz attack, surprising his victims with force — sometimes wielding a knife or screwdriver— and throwing a blanket or towel over their heads,” Gillespie said. “He often stalked his targets, breaking into their homes and waiting, sometimes for hours, for them to come home.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/authorities-arrest-suspect-1990s-potomac-river-rapist-case-n1082411?cid=public-rss_20191114

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39119127)

Arizona man, 73, arrested in 1979 cold case murder of California woman

Cold-case investigators may have solved a 40-year-old murder with the arrest of a 73-year-old Arizona man.

Charles Gary Sullivan was charged Friday with open murder of 21-year-old Julia Woodward of San Rafael, California, 40 years after the woman's bludgeoned body was discovered in a shallow grave near Reno, Nevada, authorities said.

Sullivan is scheduled to be arraigned in Washoe District Court on Nov. 19, according to authorities.

Woodward had left her family's California home on Feb. 1, 1979, to go job hunting in Nevada. Two months after her arrival, her body was found in a canyon in Hungry Valley, about 20 miles north of Reno.

Police said her eyes were sealed shut with bandaids, her legs were zip-tied, and it appeared that a blow to the head killed her.

Using DNA tools that were unavailable four decades ago, investigators tied Sullivan to Woodward's death, according to an indictment filed in August and unsealed this week.

"The defendant, Charles Gary Sullivan, in or about 1979, within the County of Washoe, State of Nevada, did willfully, feloniously, without authority of law, and with premeditation, deliberation, and malice aforethought, and/or in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of a sexual assault, kill Julia Woodward by striking her with a rock," the indictment said.

Sullivan is being held without bail, according to jail records.

This was not Sullivan's first brush with the law relating to a crime against a woman. Sullivan, according to court documents, was charged, but not convicted, with kidnapping a 25-year-old California woman. A Nevada County, Calif. jury did find Sullivan guilty of false imprisonment and making a criminal threat.

Sullivan, court documents read, picked up a woman hitchhiking from her aunt's funeral in Utah to Yuba City, California. Instead of taking her there, he allegedly zip-tied her wrists and ankles and took her to a remote area off the interstate. The woman was able to escape and fled to the road and flagged down two men driving by on an ATV.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/arizona-man-73-arrested-1979-cold-case-murder/story?id=67063768

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39128631)

DNA On Plastic Spoon Leads To Livermore Man’s Arrest For 1997 Rapes

A Livermore man had been arrested after DNA obtained from a discarded plastic spoon linked him to two 1997 cold case rapes including the sexual assault of a woman as she was walking to a BART station, prosecutors announced Monday.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said Gregory Paul Vien was being held in Santa Rita Jail on multiple felony sexual assault charges.

In a news release, O’Malley said Vien has been implicated by DNA testing in the May 6, 1997, attack of a woman as she walked to BART after work. She was dragged to a secluded area where she was sexually assaulted. Union City Police detectives were able to obtain a sample of the suspect’s DNA from the victim’s clothing.

On September 7, 1997, Vien allegedly attacked a second victim while she was on a walk near Livermore High School. She was sexually assaulted and the Livermore Police Department was able to collect a DNA sample from the crime scene.

The DNA samples from both crime scenes were analyzed in a timely manner, and found to be a match to each other, meaning that law enforcement knew that the same person was responsible for both assaults.

The samples were uploaded to CODIS, the national DNA data base. However, no “hit” was made at the time to determine the identity of the assailant.

In 2019, Livermore police detectives developed additional leads through a genetic genealogical search in their quest to solve the 22-year old sexual assault crimes.

Those leads enabled investigators to focus on Vien. Detectives followed Vien and were able to obtain a plastic spoon he had used with his DNA on it. The sample identified him as the assailant in both crimes.

“Every victim deserves justice, and in this case, it’s really rewarding because it’s so old,” said Livermore Police Sgt. Steve Goard. “He was around Livermore during that time and had connections to all the locations.”

Investigators said there were three additional unsolved brutal sexual assaults that occurred in Livermore between 1995-1997. Those unsolved cases have similar characteristics to those perpetrated by Vien. At this point, police believe Vien may be a suspect in those cases.

Vien was arrested at his Livermore home — the same one he’s lived in since the assaults more than 20 years ago.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/11/18/livermore-man-arrested-for-1997-sexual-assaults-dna-testing-played-major-role/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39147027)

Virginia cold-case murder leads to arrest of Michigan man whose adopted daughter vanished 30 years ago

Virginia police say they’ve cracked a 1980 cold case murder with the arrest of a Michigan man whose adopted daughter disappeared 30 years ago and has never been found.

Dennis Bowman, 70, of Allegan, was charged Friday with the Sept. 11, 1980, murder of 25-year-old Kathleen Doyle.

He was tied to Doyle’s murder, which took place in her home in Norfolk, through forensic evidence, Norfolk police said without elaborating.

Doyle’s husband was a U.S. Navy pilot officer who was on deployment at the time of the killing, the news release added.

Norfolk detectives descended on Bowman’s home after his arrest, Fox 17 Grand Rapids reported.

“As a result of the arrest and the suspect living here in Allegan County, search warrants have been obtained so that or Norfolk Police Department investigators can search the residence obviously looking for any kind of evidence that would link the suspect to their cold case homicide,” Allegan County Sheriff Frank Baker told the station.

Bowman’s adopted daughter Aundria Bowman was 14 when she disappeared in Michigan in 1989, the station reported Friday.

Bowman was the subject of an investigation into the disappearance but was never charged by police who haven’t ruled him out as a suspect either, the station reported.

"I think there are answers; someone knows something,” Aundria’s biological mother Cathy Terkanian told the station after Bowman’s arrest. "She didn't just fall off the face of the earth, and that someone is very likely the someone they put in jail today."

Terkanian had put Aundria up for adoption when she was an infant and learned she was missing in 2010.

According to The Charley Project, a nonprofit publicizing missing-person cases, Aundria disappeared shortly after she accused Bowman of sexually abusing her.

At the time he was on parole for attempting to kidnap a teenage girl so he could rape her, the group alleged. He was released from prison in 1986.

Bowman told police Aundria ran away from home after she stole money from him, according to the group.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-cold-case-murder-michigan-man-adoptive-daughter-vanished-police

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39167184)

James Curtis Clanton Arrested In 1980 Murder Of Helene Pruszynski

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) — A suspect has been arrested in the 1980 homicide of Helene Pruszynski, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday morning. The suspect has been identified as 62-year-old James Curtis Clanton. Investigators used genetic genealogy to link him to the crime.

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, 21-year-old Helene Pruszynski was found stabbed to death in a field on Daniels Park Road, on Jan. 16, 1980. Investigators believe she was abducted near Union Avenue walking from the bus stop, returning home from her internship at KHOW Radio.

She moved from Massachusetts and had only been in Colorado for a few weeks when she was raped and murdered, Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said at a news conference held Monday morning.

District Attorney George Brauchler said evidence maintained and cared for over the past 40 years made a big difference in this case. In 2017, the DCSO Cold Case Unit reviewed advances in genetic genealogy and, with the help of Parabon NanoLabs and United Data Connect, as well as tools such as Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com, they were able to identify the suspect.

Clanton now faces five charges and will appear in court Monday afternoon.

During the weeks leading up to the murder of Pruszynski, Englewood had experienced a series of sexual assaults in the area from where it is believed she disappeared and police were investigating whether the cases were related.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/12/16/james-curtis-clanton-helene-pruszynski-suspect-arrested-1980-murder/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39275111)

Genealogy database leads to Michigan man’s arrest for 1998 Florida rapes

A Michigan man has been nabbed for two-decade-old rapes in Florida after DNA in the cases matched a distant relative of the now-61-year-old suspect.

Genealogy database GEDmatch linked Robert Brian Thomas to the pair of sexual battery cases in Venice and Indian Rocks Beach in 1998, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told reporters Monday during a press conference.

A 20-year-old victim told police that she was raped and forced to perform oral sex on a nude man who approached her at Indian Rocks Beach on Oct. 8, 1998. The suspect then forced the woman to wash off in the Gulf of Mexico before he fled, Gualtieri said.

DNA evidence was collected from the victim, but no matches were found in national and state databases at the time. Months later, investigators were able to link that genetic material to another 1998 rape that happened in Venice, the sheriff said.

Detectives later identified more than 90 people of interest in two sex attacks, but no arrests were made.

Investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement accepted the cold case as part of its genealogy mapping program in December 2018, allowing police to work backward from an identified family member toward a suspect, Gualtieri said.

A match to a distant relative in Ocala — Thomas’ fourth cousin, who shared an ancestor with him at the “great-great-grandparent level” — was identified in March, narrowing the search to one genetic line in the family, including five possible suspects.

Authorities were able to obtain a DNA sample earlier this month from Thomas, who was living in Niles, Michigan, at the time, but didn’t say how they got it. His DNA matched the genetic material from both rape cases, Gualtieri said.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/17/genealogy-database-leads-to-michigan-mans-arrest-for-1988-florida-rapes/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39295453)

New DNA testing in 1981 murder leads Florida police to coach

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Detectives solved the 1981 murder of a Florida woman by using advanced DNA testing to discover the suspect was the football coach of one of her sons, police said.

The Lakeland Police Department said Joseph Clinton Mills, 58, has been arrested on charges he raped and killed Linda Patterson Slaten, on Sept. 4, 1981, when she was 31. Slaten was found strangled with a wire hanger around her neck, and partially undressed. There didn't appear to be signs of struggle in the bedroom, but the window was not locked and the screen had been removed.

“He was my football coach, and I trusted this man. He would take me to the games and brought me home afterwards,” Tim Slaten, now 50, told reporters at a news conference.

Mills was a coach for the Lakeland Volunteers football program. The night before Slaten was found dead, he picked Tim up for football practice and dropped him off again in the evening. Mills continued to drive Tim to and from practice after his mom's death, Tim Slaten said on Thursday.

Authorities could not match the DNA collected during Linda Slaten's autopsy to any law enforcement databases back in 1981.

The Tampa Bay Times reported that a Florida Department of Law Enforcement official asked Lakeland detectives in 2018 to submit DNA collected from the 1981 murder to Virginia-based Parabon Nanolabs. The company uses genealogy databases to look into the possible suspect’s familial line.

The company released a report in June supporting the case that Joseph Mills was a likely suspect, saying genetic connections were found to both sides of his family tree, the newspaper said.

Detectives started monitoring his residence to collect DNA using cotton swabs, adhesive patches, colostomy bags and a plastic spoon. Authorities also found that fingerprints taken from Slaten's window were a match to Mills' prints taken after an unrelated arrest in 1984.

Mills initially said under oath that he hadn't been inside Slaten's apartment and had never had sex with her, The Ledger reported. But in a statement to detectives, he admitted he had crawled through her bedroom window, and had “wild” sex while twisting a wire hanger around her neck until she lost consciousness.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dna-testing-1981-murder-leads-florida-police-coach-67856783

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39302088)

Suspected ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ who terrorized South Florida women in early 1980s arrested

For years, a man dubbed “The Pillowcase Rapist” terrorized South Florida, slipping into apartments in the dark, his face shielded by cloth, mercilessly raping women at knifepoint.

A Miami-Dade police task force chased tips, conducted stakeouts, analyzed forensic evidence and even commissioned a lifelike sculpture from the one victim who glimpsed his face. All to no avail — the task force disbanded in 1987 and the case went frustratingly cold.

But thanks to a DNA hit, authorities have arrested a man they believe is the Pillowcase Rapist. Law-enforcement sources identified the suspect as 60-year-old Robert Eugene Koehler, a registered sex offender from Palm Bay, who was arrested on Saturday and is being held at a jail in Brevard County to await transfer to Miami-Dade.

The details of the evidence that led Miami-Dade police, prosecutors and state and federal agents to Koehler remained secret on Monday. Law-enforcement agencies declined to speak publicly. An arrest warrant for Koehler remained sealed.

For now, one source said, Koehler is being charged with only one rape, but others are expected down the road.

The news of the arrest was welcomed by old-time police detectives who hunted the rapist. Dave Simmons, the retired Miami-Dade sexual battery detective who spearheaded the task force, called the news “tremendous.”

“Thank goodness for the victims. I’d talked with most all of them over the years,” Simmons said. “They would call periodically to check on the progress of the case. It’s good for them to have closure.”

The Pillowcase Rapist terrorized women from South Miami to Deerfield Beach between May 1981 and February 1986. Using a pillowcase, towel or shirt to hide his identity, the soft-spoken rapist broke into town homes and apartments and attacked more than 40 women.

Investigators also explored the possibility that the attacks might have been committed by more than one rapist. Although the numbers have varied slightly in press accounts, Simmons believed at least 44 were committed by the same man.

“He was careful not to leave physical evidence — hence how he was able to escape detection for so long,” Simmons said.

The first reported rape occurred May 1, 1981, at the Alisian Lakes apartments, 4920 NW 79th Ave. So was the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth. The next summer the crimes began to occur in Coconut Grove, then Broward County, then back to Dade.

He was so bold that he returned to one victim’s apartment five weeks after one rape, masturbating on her lingerie.

On Edgewater Drive in Coral Gables he raped a woman in a fashionable high-rise apartment. He returned four weeks later and raped her neighbor, one door away.

Among his victims were a schoolteacher, nurse, airline flight attendant, artist, model, health spa instructor, insurance executive, publicist and student. All but one lived in townhouses or apartments. He usually entered their homes through unlocked sliding-glass doors and open windows, threatening them with a knife, assaulting them quickly and sometimes stealing cash.

“I would like to see him slowly die, piece by piece,” one victim told the Miami Herald in a magazine story published in 1985.

At the time, police detectives said the rapist was likely young, athletic and white and with no discernible accent. From lab tests, they concluded his blood type was O, but with a rare subgrouping characteristic found in 1 percent of the population. They also knew he wore a size 10 1/2 shoe.

Edna Buchanan, the Miami Herald’s legendary crime reporter, relentlessly covered the hunt for the rapist in a series of stories in 1985. It was part of the work that won her the Pulitzer Prize.

The task force, headed by the indefatigable Simmons, labored for years until it was officially disbanded in 1987.

The case was not forgotten. In recent years, the Pillowcase Rapist case was investigated by Miami-Dade police, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and agents from U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.

DNA technology, so crucial to rape investigations today, was not available to rape investigators back in the early 1980s.

It was unclear Monday whether Koehler’s DNA had ever been placed in any law-enforcement databases.

Koehler would have been in his early 20s during the sex-attack spree. FDLE lists him as a registered sex offender for a sexual battery conviction in 1991 in Palm Beach County. But the conviction was before Florida law required convicts to submit DNA.

Increasingly, do-it-yourself DNA tests, which are then submitted to companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA — have led to breaks in decades-old cases.

Most famously, investigators identified the so-called Golden State Killer using DNA hits generated by sites such as Ancestry.com, which allows people to upload their DNA profiles in hopes of finding distant relatives or ancestors. Police used GEDMatch, a free site that allows police and the public to scour genetic profiles.

In Florida, last month, investigators announced they used genetic information from distant relatives to link Robert Brian Thomas, 61, to two savage rapes in Pinellas County. He is awaiting trial.

Koehler, described in court documents as a mechanic, remained jailed in Brevard County on Monday. He’ll eventually be brought to a Miami-Dade jail to await trial.

His criminal history showed a smattering of arrests over the decades — including one for aggravated assault in Miami in 1980. The outcome of the case was unclear on Monday.

Most recently, Koehler was arrested in September in Melbourne after his girlfriend called 911 to report he was trying to “force himself into the residence via the rear window,” according to a police report. Koehler and the woman have a toddler son together. He destroyed some potted plants in front of her home and sent her threatening text messages, police said.

Ultimately, Brevard prosecutors did not file formal charges against Koehler and the case was dropped.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article239423768.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39462187)

California man charged with killing 5 of his infant children in decades-old cold case

A man already behind bars in California was arrested and charged with the cold-case slayings of five children, all his own and none of them older than 6 months, authorities said Monday.

Paul Perez, 57, is accused of killing the babies between 1992 and 2001, and he was charged with five counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances that could make him eligible for capital punishment, officials said.

Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez and District Attorney Jeff Reisig, speaking to reporters about the arrest, declined to reveal details of the murders and investigation — but said DNA evidence, discovered this past October, cracked the cold case.

The authorities also declined to say if Perez had other children or if the victims came from more than one mother.

"The investigation in this case uncovered a deeply disturbing, chilling case of infanticide," Reisig told reporters in Woodland, California, about 20 miles northwest of Sacramento and about 80 miles northeast of San Francisco.

"Today, we are announcing charges against Paul Perez for the serial murder of five of his own children, all babies."

Authorities said they have the remains of victims Kato Allen Perez and Nikko Lee Perez.

The remains of three other siblings, officials said, have not been found yet: Mika Alena Perez, Nikko Lee Perez and Kato Krow Perez.

Three-month-old Nikko Lee Perez's remains were found, submerged in an irrigation canal, by a fisherman on March 29, 2007, near Woodland, setting off the decade-plus-long investigation, officials said.

Officials said the investigation is ongoing and left the door open that there might be more victims.

Perez was arrested at a state prison days before he was expected to be released on unrelated charges, officials said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-man-charged-killing-5-his-infant-children-decades-old-n1124156

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39497514)

Long-haul truck driver, 69, charged with raping at least 11 women 'has now confessed to being a SERIAL KILLER'

Accused rapist Mark Douglas Burns allegedly has admitted to killing at least three people

Burns was arrested in Utah last year and charged with 17 counts in connection to 11 rapes in Utah and Wyoming between 1991 and 2001

He has now been linked to July 2001 shooting death of Sue Ellen Gunderson Higgins, 28, in Evanston, Wyoming

Higgins' husband was charged with her murder in 2005, but the case was dropped a year later

Burns, a long-haul truck driver, also is being investigated in connection to additional rapes

Burns, who lived in Ogden, Utah, was arrested in September 2019 following a years-long investigation using familial matching DNA samples in collaboration with a true-crime TV show.

Burns was charged in Utah with 17 felony counts, including aggravated sexual assault, aggravated burglary and kidnapping, stemming from 11 rapes that took place between 1991 and 2001.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39508377)

Murder charge in cold case murder of California student

Authorities in Fresno announced Wednesday that have filed a murder charge in the rape and killing of a college student 24 years ago.

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp announced the charges against Nickey Duane Stane, 52, in the 1996 slaying of 22-year-old Debbie Dorian.

Authorities said they linked Stane to Smittcamp’s killing through a DNA match when he was arrested last year in a string of attacks on young women in Visalia from 1999 to 2002. He was arrested on those charges in October and remains in custody in neighboring Tulare County.

An attorney for Stane, Tom Faulkner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/29/murder-charge-in-cold-case-murder-of-california-st/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39510041)

Man arrested for 1975 killing of Navy worker in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A man suspected of killing a Navy dental technician in California more than four decades ago was arrested in New York, police said Wednesday.

Dennis Lepage, 62, was arrested in Troy last Friday and was being held pending extradition, San Diego police said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney.

“Emerging forensic sciences and technology” helped break the case, police said in a statement.

Lepage was held on suspicion of killing 28-year-old Alvaro Espeleta, who was found dead in his San Diego home on Dec. 31, 1975 by co-workers after he failed to show up for work, police said.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/29/man-arrested-for-1975-killing-of-navy-worker-in-sa/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39511020)

Florida truck driver pleads guilty to rape and murder of journalism intern, 21, in 1980

By Luke Andrews For Mailonline 07:41 EST 24 Feb 2020 , updated 10:12 EST 24 Feb 2020

26mins ago

A truck driver has pleaded guilty to raping and murdering a 21-year-old journalism intern in 1980 after he was snared by DNA.

James Curtis Clanton, 62, abducted Helene Pruszynski as she got off a bus in Englewood, Colorado, and sexually assaulted her before dumping her body in a field.

He was finally caught after police sequenced genetic material on a beer mug he had used and matched it to semen left on Ms Pruszynski's coat.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39643151)

Ohio single mom's 1991 cold case murder solved using DNA uploaded to public genealogy site

A single mother’s cold case murder in Ohio has been solved with an arrest after nearly 29 years.

Racheal Johnson was 23 when she was raped, beaten, stabbed and set on fire on March 30, 1991. Her daughter was three at the time.

On Thursday, Akron police charged Daniel Rees, 57, with the murder.

Police said Rees, of Akron, was identified as a suspect after a Texas company uploaded crime scene DNA to a public genealogy website.

Distant relatives of Rees had uploaded their DNA to the website, leading to an eventual match, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

Detective James Pasheilich told the paper Rees had been in the same area where Johnson was last seen and knew the family. But Rees was never mentioned in the case file.

“He’s a ghost in the investigation,” Pasheilich said. “He’s never anywhere in it.”

Online records show Rees was arrested in a felony assault case in Summit County, which includes Akron, two years after the murder. He served a six-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor.

Johnson’s body was found after her friend got a flat tire on the way home from a bar. Johnson got out and got into another car that pulled up, according to reports.

"The family, the daughter, the grandkids, we all deserve to know what happened and have closure," her stepmom June Johnson told Fox 8 Cleveland in 2013 for a report on the unsolved case.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/ohio-single-mother-1991-cold-case-murder-solved-using-dna-genetic-genealogy

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39758335)

Florida man arrested in 35-year-old cold case murder thanks to DNA on cigarette

DNA evidence lifted from a discarded cigarette led Florida police to the man they believe killed a young mother 35 years ago, authorities said Thursday.

Tonya Ethridge McKinley, then 23, had just left a New Year's Eve celebration before she was strangled and sexually assaulted in Pensacola, allegedly by Daniel Leonard Wells, now 57, according to police.

Detectives said they spoke to dozens of friends and other revelers at Darryl’s Bar & Grille, not far from where McKinley was found on Jan. 1, 1985. But for most of this time, they had no suspect in the killing of McKinley, who was survived by an 18-month-old son.

"Despite having a good bit of physical evidence and dozens of interviews, over time, the trail went cold," according to a police statement on Thursday. "It seems that every couple of years a new lead would pop up and we would drop everything to run it down. We did this time and time again. In the meantime, a baby boy grew up without a mother, parents buried their daughter without knowing justice, and a killer was walking around free. "

But DNA in a public database linked detectives to distant relatives of McKinley's killer and eventually to Wells, police said. Detectives eventually suspected Wells and they secretly followed him before collecting a cigarette he threw away — matching DNA off that butt to DNA found at the crime scene.

"Each time, evil won, just out of reach," police said of the 35-year gap. "Until today. Today, the evil that took Tonya from her friends and family was arrested for her brutal murder."

Wells' DNA is being offered to other nearby law enforcement with unsolved sex crimes, because he's lived locally this whole time, Pensacola police spokesman Mike Wood said.

"The reasons why this happened, how evil crossed Tonya’s path, may never be answered and in the end may not be important," according to police. "What is important is that no one forgot Tonya. "

Wells was booked into the Escambia County Jail on Wednesday and held without bail. He's been charged with murder and sexual battery.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-man-arrested-35-year-old-cold-case-murder-thanks-n1164051

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#39809933)

Iowa man arrested in 1990s killings in Tennessee and Wyoming

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - Investigators on Wednesday arrested an Iowa man whom they suspect in the killings of two women in Wyoming and a third in Tennessee in the early 1990s.

Police arrested Clark Perry Baldwin, 58, at his home in Waterloo, Iowa, on warrants from Tennessee and Wyoming charging him in slayings that date back to 1991 and 1992. He’s being held in the Black Hawk County jail pending extradition proceedings.

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation said in a news release that “advances in technology” linked Baldwin to the crimes, but it didn’t elaborate.

In Wyoming, he is charged in the deaths of two unidentified women whose bodies were found in the spring of 1992 in separate attacks in Sweetwater and Sheridan counties. The agency referred to the victims as “Bitter Creek Betty” and “I-90 Jane Doe.”

In Tennessee, Baldwin is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1991 killing of a pregnant woman, Pamela McCall, and her fetus, the release said.

Baldwin, who has previously lived in Nashua, Iowa, and Springfield, Missouri, was a cross-country truck driver at the time of the killings. He spent time in federal prison in the late 1990s after he was convicted of counterfeiting U.S. currency.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/6/iowa-man-arrested-in-1990s-killings-in-tennessee-a/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#40162116)

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2020/05/06/arrest-made-in-1987-cold-case-murder-of-barbara-blatnik-thanks-to-genetic-genealogy

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#40167506)

DNA genealogy test led police to arrest in decades-old cold case

DNA technology is a real-life game changer for local law enforcement, and it recently led to the arrest of an alleged serial rapist in Cincinnati accused of crimes that date back to the mid-1990s.

Cincinnati Police arrested 62-year-old Stoney Brown Saturday, and charged him with 11 counts of rape, four counts of kidnapping and four counts of burglary in crimes he allegedly committed in the Clifton area.

“Short of murder it’s the worst type of crime you can commit, to break into someone’s home, hold a knife to their throat, and rape them. In one case the woman had a 2-year-old baby laying next to her,” said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.

Brown flew under the radar in Cincinnati for years, until someone in his family sent their DNA to a genealogy website to explore their family roots.

That led law enforcement right to his doorstep.

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/dna-genealogy-test-led-police-to-arrest-in-decades-old-cold-case

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#40253746)

Man arrested, charged in serial rapes in Riverside County

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- A man was arrested and charged in serial rapes and assaults that date back nearly 25 years in Riverside County, officials said.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin, joined by Corona Police Chief George Johnstone and Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez, announced the arrest on Wednesday.

Darin Edward Cooke, 50, was arrested in Prescott, Ariz. earlier this month.

Some of the cases go back to 1996 and 1998 in Riverside, and 2007 in Corona, officials said.

The district attorney says there are 6 victims.

Officials said in the 90's and 2000's, Cooke lived in the Inland Empire.

Although authorities say they collected DNA evidence at the time, and they had a feeling many of the cases were linked, it wasn't until the FBI helped with a genealogy profile that the case was cracked.

As soon as the profile became available, they came up with a list of names, and from those names, the investigation led them to Cooke.

"Mr. Cooke was a true predator in the sense that he was stalking, watching his victims, waiting for them to be alone and then he would take his chance and opportunity to hold them at gunpoint or knife point and violently rape them and assault them, and I think that he did that over and over again," Hestrin said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The investigation started accelerating last year when authorities in Corona decided to dive into some of its cold cases. They contacted Riverside, they realized there was a match, that's when they brought the FBI in.

Cooke is expected to be arraigned on Wednesday.

The DA's office says even though there are only six victims at this point, as far as the charges are concerned, they believe there might be more.

https://abc7.com/darin-edward-cooke-cold-case-serial-rapist-arrest/6252594/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#40438284)

https://futurehuman.medium.com/dna-is-now-solving-decades-old-newborn-killings-67dd0f9ccf82

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4159283&forum_id=2#41561591)