DNA evidence

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Couple's Killer Caught by a Hair—Literally

Erik Sparre arrested in 1985 fatal church shootings in Georgia

(Newser) - A southeast Georgia man was arrested and charged in the 1985 killing of a couple at a Black church after the original suspect was exonerated on DNA evidence, authorities said Monday, per the AP . Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, was jailed on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault in the...

Nearly 50 Years Later, Man Charged in Deaths of 3 Women

Authorities say Mississippi's Warren Alexander strangled victims in 1977 in Southern California

(Newser) - A 73-year-old man has been charged in the strangulation deaths of three Southern California women in 1977 after cold case detectives obtained a DNA match, authorities said Thursday, adding they believe there could be more victims. Warren Luther Alexander of Diamondhead, Mississippi, made his first court appearance Thursday, but arraignment...

Niagara Falls Victim's Body Was Found 140 Miles Away

Vincent Stack's remains likely drifted for 16 months

(Newser) - Remains found on the shores of Lake Ontario 32 years ago have now been identified as those of a New York man who's believed to have gone over Niagara Falls. CBS News reports the "badly decomposed and mostly skeletal" remains were found some 140 miles from the falls...

Report: 'Star' DNA Scientist Manipulated Evidence

Colorado probe into work of Yvonne 'Missy' Woods says her manipulation affected at least 652 cases

(Newser) - An esteemed analyst known as "Colorado's star DNA scientist" purposely manipulated evidence for years, involving hundreds (if not more) of the cases she worked on and putting the spotlight on her entire career, according to an investigation. According to a report released Friday by the Colorado Bureau of...

Man Who Blamed Identical Twin for Rapes Gets 140 Years

California's Kevin Konther ultimately didn't get away with attacks that happened more than 25 years ago

(Newser) - In 2019, DNA testing led investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Department to haul in two suspects for a set of cold-case rapes in California—identical twins, each insisting they were innocent. In fact, Kevin Konther blamed his brother for the crimes, which included the rape of a 9-year-old...

They Were Stabbed and Left to Die. 50 Years Later, a Suspect

Indianapolis cops say Thomas Edward Williams, attacked 2 sisters, friend in 1975; he has since died

(Newser) - A nearly 50-year-old cold case surrounding three young girls stabbed and left to die in an Indiana cornfield has finally reached a conclusion, although it's one that will end without justice. In a Thursday presser , the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department announced that DNA evidence was able to help identify...

Here, Doggy DNA Is Key to a 'Poo Crackdown'

Bolzano province in Italy setting up database to nail pooches pooping in public, with a fine for owners

(Newser) - An Italian province is sick of this crap, and it's not going to take it anymore. A database is being set up in Bolzano, in the northern part of the country, to register DNA info from the region's 40,000 or so dogs, so that when they poop...

California Detective Has Become a Cold Case Ace
California Detective Has
Become a Cold Case Ace
LONGFORM
Jan 14, 2024 2:20 PM CST

California Detective Has Become a Cold Case Ace

'San Francisco Chronicle' profiles one who has solved eight of them in seven years

(Newser) - Cold cases hold particular fascination in the true crime genre, and detective Matt Hutchison can relate. He's managed to solve eight of them in seven years as an officer rotating into the robbery-homicide beat in California's Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. And while detectives disguising themselves as busboys...

Court Filing Reveals DNA Evidence Against Kohberger

DNA on knife sheath a 'statistical match' to suspect

(Newser) - DNA on a knife sheath found at the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death last fall is a "statistical match" to that collected from suspect Bryan Kohberger, prosecutors disclosed in a court filing. In the June 16 filing, prosecutors said the STR profile, a...

Killer Receives Life Sentence in 1999 Deaths of Teenage Girls

DNA testing tied Coley McCraney to the slayings

(Newser) - An Alabama judge sentenced a man to life imprisonment without possibility of parole on Thursday, bringing a close to the case of the slayings of two teenage girls in 1999. Coley McCraney was convicted of capital murder in April by a jury that decided the sentence, which the judge was...

Sweet Potato Leads to Arrest in Massachusetts Cold Case

Officials were able to match DNA from the root vegetable left at the scene with suspect

(Newser) - After Todd Lampley was shot in the bedroom of a Massachusetts home on February 27, 2011, police recovered evidence outside the bedroom window: shell casings, a cellphone, and a sweet potato. Twelve years later, there's finally an arrest in the case, and authorities say DNA left on that sweet...

A 52-Year-Old Piece of Evidence Leads to Killer

Vermont police say Rita Curran was killed by her upstairs neighbor

(Newser) - A cigarette butt was found next to 24-year-old Rita Curran's body in 1971. Some 52 years later, it would unmask her killer. The Washington Post reports that officials in Burlington, Vermont, on Tuesday said genetic genealogy has identified the late William DeRoos as the killer. He and his then-wife...

'Nightmare' Fire Destroys 30 Years of NYPD Evidence

Forensic evidence in unsolved crimes lost in Tuesday's blaze at Erie Basin Auto Pound

(Newser) - A New York Police Department warehouse burned Tuesday morning and along with it "the possibility of justice in untold cases," the New York Times reports, as "troves of evidence gathered over decades" were damaged or destroyed. The Erie Basin Auto Pound in Brooklyn held impounded vehicles, forensic...

Woman Sues After Cops Use Rape Kit DNA to Arrest Her

She reported sexual assault in 2016, was arrested in theft case in 2021

(Newser) - A woman whose own rape kit was used against her by police now wants some payback. The woman identified only as Jane Doe has sued the city of San Francisco for unspecified damages over the case that made national headlines, reports BuzzFeed . After the woman reported a sexual assault to...

Cold Case Arrest Made Thanks to DNA, and a Twist

Investigator pored over old immigration ties to Italy to zero in on suspect

(Newser) - That DNA evidence appears to have cracked a cold case isn't too unusual. But this one required some unique additional sleuthing, reports Lancaster Online . The case in question is the brutal 1975 murder of 19-year-old Lindy Sue Biechler, a married woman who was stabbed inside her apartment in Pennsylvania'...

Quest to Free Inmate With DNA Test Made Things Worse

New evidence implicates him in another murder he'd been acquitted of 25 years ago

(Newser) - DNA evidence has increasingly been used to help free persons wrongly convicted of crimes they didn't commit. In a three-decade-old case out of Florida, however, authorities say it did just the opposite and proved that a man acquitted of murder was actually the killer all along. Per the New ...

Police: DNA Match Solves Murder After 34 Years

But it won't be possible to prosecute the suspect

(Newser) - Almost exactly 34 years ago—May 23, 1988—two of Lucille Hultgren's many friends stopped by her house to check on her after she didn’t show up for church, only to find her body. The 79-year-old was a recent widow and mother of two adult sons. The coroner...

30 Years Later, Female Found in Ditch Has a Name

Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr., 17, IDed thanks to DNA evidence; now it's a homicide investigation

(Newser) - For three decades, the identity of a body found along an Indiana highway remained unknown, a cold case that stumped Boone County officials. Now, a name to that body, thanks to a curious sister and advances in genetic genealogy. FOX59 details the case of 17-year-old Ohioan Margaret Ann Sniegowski Jr....

40 Years After Couple's Murder, Their Baby Is Still Missing

Female named Hollie Marie by her parents would be closing in on 42 now

(Newser) - Harold Dean Clouse gathered up his wife, Tina Gail Linn, and new baby, Hollie Marie, and moved from Florida to Texas, with a promise of a well-paying job as a carpenter. "I can take better care of Tina and the baby," Clouse's mother recalls him saying. Instead,...

DNA Solves Case of Waitress Killed in Restaurant Bathroom

Danny Lamont Hamilton allegedly drowned Priscilla Lewis in 1996

(Newser) - A DNA match has helped cold case investigators solve the killing of a San Francisco Bay Area waitress whose body was found in a restaurant's basement bathroom 25 years ago, authorities said Thursday. A murder charge was filed by prosecutors against prison inmate Danny Lamont Hamilton, alleging he drowned...

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