Another Cold Case Solved, by jay7777

[Jay7777]

Good stuff:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/colonial-parkway-murders-of-couples-terrorized-va-in-1980s-now-a-suspect-has-been-idd-in-2-of-them/ar-AA1mI0RL

'Colonial Parkway Murders' of Couples Terrorized Va. in 1980s. Now, a Suspect Has Been ID'd in 2 of Them

Alan W. Wilmer Sr., who died in 2017, is believed to have killed David L. Knobling, Robin M. Edwards and Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell

A series of murders that occurred in Virginia might have finally been solved decades later. A fisherman who died in 2017 was identified as a suspect in three unsolved killings from the late-1980s.

Virginia State Police say that Alan W. Wilmer Sr., who died at age 63 was responsible for the murders of David L. Knobling, 20, and Robin M. Edwards, 14 as well as Teresa Lynn Spaw Howell, 29.

On Sept. 23, 1987, Knobling and Edwards were found shot to death on the shoreline of a wildlife management area in Isle of White County, state police say. Edwards had been sexually assaulted and the pair were last seen four days prior.
The murders of Knobling and Edwards was one of four double homicides from 1986 to 1989 that were dubbed the “Colonial Parkway Murders.”

Howell was found dead outside of a club in Hampton on July 1, 1989, according to police. She was identified three days later, after a missing persons report was filed. Howell had been sexually assaulted and died as a result of strangulation, police say.

DNA evidence confirmed that the same person was responsible for the three murders, state police claim. But because Wilmer had no criminal record, he never had to submit DNA until his death, when it was obtained for his identification.

In 2023, the Virginia Department of Forensic Science issued a “Certificate of Analysis,” which confirmed that Wilmer’s DNA matched evidence collected at the scene of the separate murders. State police say if Wilmer had not died in 2017, he would be facing murder charges.

“I want to thank the Edwards, Knobling and Howell families for their patience and understanding over the years,” State Police Lt. Col. Tim Lyon says in a statement. “Only those who have suffered the loss of a child in this way can truly understand the depth of their sorrow; and the frustration over not knowing who was responsible for taking their loved one’s life in such a violent and cruel way. I do hope the identification of the killer brings some sense of closure and peace for them.”

Wilmer had a commercial fishing boat named the Denni Wade, and during the 1980s made his living as a fisherman farming clams and oysters, police say. He drove several pickup trucks, including a distinct blue 1966 Dodge Fargo with a Virginia license plate that read “EM-RAW.” State police also say he owned a business called Better Tree Service and was an avid hunter.

Anyone who might have known Wilmer, hunted with him or docked next to him at marinas in the Northern Neck, Hampton Roads or Middle Peninsula areas are asked to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submitting a tip online at www.tips.fbi.gov.

“As investigators look toward solving other crimes the suspect may have committed, we’re asking the public to come forward and share information about any encounters they may have had with him,” FBI Norfolk Special Agent in Charge Brian Dugan says in a statement. “We recognize relationships and loyalties change over time, as do people and their perspectives. There are occasions where people who may have had knowledge of an incident didn’t feel comfortable coming forward with that information in the past, but we want them to know it’s not too late for them to step forward.”

[almagata]

 They say in the article that they don't know why he was in prison in 1983. 

____________________

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/genealogy-testing-identifies-suspect-1975-assault-3-young-girls-left-i-rcna134679?fbclid=IwAR3ofB_OGquGO9Uj8aTZk1h29TJ7Eo1jC1XpZGCiF3XzgSTnarOGFpBks64

By Marlene Lenthang

For nearly 50 years, three women have sought the identity of a man who abducted them when they were young teenagers, bound and stabbed them, and left them for dead in an Indiana cornfield in August 1975.

Kandice Smith, Sheri Rottler Trick and Kathie Rottler all survived the horrific attack, and decades later, thanks to genetic genealogy technology, they finally got their answer.

The Indianapolis Metro Police Department, after combing through evidence and rigorous DNA testing, announced Thursday that the suspect was finally identified as Thomas Edward Williams.

Williams died in November 1983 while in prison in Galveston, Texas, at the age of 49.

The 1975 assault
On August 19, 1975, Smith, then 13, Rottler Trick, then 11, and Rottler, then 14, were leaving a gas station in eastern Indianapolis at 10:45 p.m. and decided to hitchhike home.

A white man driving a station wagon pulled over to give them a ride.

But he drove past their destination. The girls tried to escape the car and Kathie tried to hit the brakes, but her legs weren’t long enough.

The suspect then pulled out a handgun, put it to her head and threatened to shoot her, retired Indianapolis Metro Police Sgt. David Ellison told reporters Thursday.

The man ended up stopping the car near a cornfield in Greenfield, Indiana, forced the girls out of the car and bound two of them. He then sexually assaulted one of the girls and repeatedly stabbed her.

He proceeded to stab the other two girls numerous times.

“They actually played dead to avoid being stabbed anymore,” Ellison said. The suspect fled the area and the girls were left wounded in the cornfield.

Two of the girls were able to eventually make it back to the main road, where a passerby helped them and police were called.

Miraculously, all three girls survived the attack.

At the time, an investigation into the suspect led to a composite sketch, and several leads were followed and suspects ruled out. Eventually the case went cold.
Looking at the case again

In 2018, the survivors reached out to Ellison and he agreed to look at the case again. He worked with other agencies to obtain evidence from the case and have it analyzed and tested.

Evidence from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office was obtained in 2019 and analyzed and tested, and in 2021 two other pieces of evidence from the case were recovered and tested by the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency.

All three tests produced an unknown male DNA profile that matched one another, and one of the items tested had Sheri Rottler Trick’s DNA on it, as well.

“It was at that point that we knew we had our suspect’s DNA,” Ellison said.

However, that profile had no match in CODIS — the FBI’s national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders.

In January 2023, Ellison reached out to DNA Labs International in Deerfield Beach, Florida, a private lab that uses investigative genetic genealogy technology. The testing was funded by Indianapolis-based media company Audiochuck, which produces multiple podcasts including “Crime Junkies,” which investigates cold cases.

Using genealogy websites like FamilyTree.com and GEDmatch.com, genealogists at the lab were able to identify a potential daughter and son from the DNA profile.

Investigators approached the family, and the daughter and son shared DNA samples. Testing of those samples in December proved to be a match and led police to finally identify their suspect as Williams.

Originally from Indianapolis, Williams at one point was living close to the kidnapping site, Ellison said. It was not immediately clear what charges Williams was serving time for in Galveston.

“This was an act of evil that none of you deserved. I hope today brings you some sort of closure knowing that your attacker has been identified and is no longer in this world,” Ellison told Smith, Rottler Trick and Rottler, who were present for the news conference.

Kathie Rottler thanked the men who stopped to help her and Smith after the attack, crediting them with saving their lives, and thanked investigators for their diligent work.

“I stand here before you today as a survivor who has learned the true meaning of patience. I’ve learned that sometimes the answer you are waiting for can take decades to get. Nearly five decades in fact,” she said.

“There are times over the past 48 years that I felt no one was working on this case, but I kept hoping and praying and I’m so glad that I kept faith in myself and investigators,” Rottler continued. “My message is to other survivors out there is never give up and continue to fight to keep your case open. This is a day I never thought would come, but I told myself to keep going and never stop looking for answers. Today we got our answer and I’m so grateful for that.”

[elroacho]

FYI, there is no TDCJ prison on Galveston Island. TDCJ has 100+ prison units in Texas and all those inmates with serious medical problems are sent to the TDCJ Hospital in Galveston and is partnered with UTMB to provide medical care. It first opened in July 1983 and he was buried in the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville TX with inmate number 270475 since no family member claimed his body.

www.findagrave.com/memorial/93273263/thomas-edward-williams

Per another poster on another website he was arrested for 3 armed robberies in Houston in July of 1977 one year after serving 10 years in a prison in Indiana per an article in the Houston Chronicle. 

[Jay7777]

Hair trapped in victim's ring 30 years ago matches cold case murder suspect’s DNA, court hears

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/hair-trapped-in-victim-s-ring-30-years-ago-matches-cold-case-murder-suspect-s-dna-court-hears/ar-BB1huVZN?cvid=7cf1eb44173142e8cbea880adf0d7802&ei=3

A hair trapped in a murder victim’s ring led police to her killer nearly 30 years later, a court has heard.

Marina Koppel, 39, was found dead by her husband in her flat in the west end of London, on Aug 8, 1994.

The mother-of-two, who worked as a masseuse and prostitute, had suffered 140 stab wounds.

A cold case review was launched in 2022, during which the hair was matched to Sandip Patel, who was 21 years old at the time of the murder.

Patel, now 51, was then matched to a bloody, bare footprint on the skirting board in the room where Ms Koppel was found.

He had worked at his father’s convenience store near to Mrs Koppel’s flat in York Mansions, in Marylebone.

During the opening of Patel’s trial at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said Mrs Koppel had rented the flat to host clients on weekdays, and spent the weekends with her husband David, in the Midlands.

He said theirs had been a happy relationship, and Mr Koppel had accepted his wife’s line of work.

Mr Emlyn Jones added: “On Monday, Aug, 8, 1994, Mr Koppel couldn’t get hold of his wife and at about 9 that night he set off from Northampton to drive down to London.
“He was anxious, because she wasn’t answering her telephone. But what he found when he got to London was surely far beyond his worst nightmares.

“He got to the flat, in York Mansions near Baker Street Tube station, shortly before 11.30 that night. He found a horrific scene.

“In the second bedroom, the one to which Marina would take her clients, David Koppel found his wife on the floor, dead.

“There was blood everywhere, on the floor, on the bedclothes, on the furniture, on the walls because she had been stabbed to death – she had been stabbed no less than 140 times.”

He said Mrs Koppel suffered fatal injuries to the front of her neck, with her jugular vein almost completely severed.

There were also “defensive injuries on her arms and hands, consistent with her making a determined attempt to defend herself against an attack with a knife”.

Mr Koppel died in 2005 and will never see “his wife’s murderer brought to justice,” the court heard.

Tested for DNA
Police had previously matched the fingerprint on a carrier bag inside the flat to Patel, but it could have simply been handled by him in a shop previously and was insufficient evidence to charge him.

However, in 2008, the strand of hair was found stuck to Ms Koppel’s ring. It was tested for DNA when the case was reviewed in 2022.

Mr Jones said: “It turned out that there was a root on a piece of hair from that ring and DNA was obtained from it. The DNA recovered from that piece of hair turns out to be Sandip Patel’s.”

Police were also able to use photographs of the crime scene to match the bloody footprint found in the flat to Patel.

Mr Emlyn Jones explained that at the time of the original investigation Patel had not been a suspect, so his footprints were not taken.

He said: “Marina Koppel was brutally murdered. It has taken a terribly long time to solve it, but we now have evidence that she had this defendant’s hair stuck to the ring she was wearing when she was attacked and killed, and his bare foot was pressed against the skirting board next to her.

“And that, the prosecution say, can only be because it was him who killed her all those years ago.”

Patel of St John’s Wood, north-west London, denies murder.

The trial continues.

[zebra]

1975 Colorado homicide solved.

www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-cold-case-solved-half-century-teree-becker/

Nine remaining cold cases in Westminster, CO, still under investigation.

[almagata]

Feb 1, 2024 20:46:14 GMT zebra said:

1975 Colorado homicide solved.

www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-cold-case-solved-half-century-teree-becker/

Nine remaining cold cases in Westminster, CO, still under investigation.

Another guy with multiple murders. 

[almagata]

Othram id'd another previously unidentified serial killer from California this week. 

dnasolves.com/articles/pica-and-hicks-california/?fbclid=IwAR2YdAaMLkt1OQx_hqY48L5KUoPo5vejh5HhHzmXKddQdEz8cSZKmtX-Ok8

___________________________________

In May 1972, 59-year-old Nellie Hicks, was sexually assaulted and murdered in her Newark, California home. The person responsible for Ms. Hicks’ murder and assault was not identified. Seven years later in May 1979, 48-year-old Theresa Pica was sexually assaulted and murdered in Hayward, California, a short twenty-minute drive from Newark. Evidence was collected at both crime scenes; however, DNA testing did not exist at the time. In 1979, evidence connected the two cases, but the person responsible remained a mystery.

The investigation began long before the establishment of CODIS and before more recent advancements in forensic DNA testing. Years later, when CODIS testing was available, an STR profile was developed for the suspect. However, this profile never produced a match to a known identity in CODIS. Both of the cases remained unsolved for decades, in spite of tremendous investigative effort.

In 2021, the Hayward Police Department submitted forensic evidence to Othram, in The Woodlands, Texas. Othram scientists successfully used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the unidentified suspect. After successfully building the profile, the profile was then delivered to investigators who worked with the FBI's forensic genetic genealogy team to generate new leads in the case.

With these new investigative leads in hand, a follow-up investigation ensued. Investigators were eventually able to identify the suspect in these crimes as Fred Farnham, who died in 2007. At the time of his death, Farnham lived in Oregon. It is believed that Farnham could be responsible for other unsolved murders.

Attachments:

[mustangman]

www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2024/02/08/second-man-charged-in-1980-st-clair-county-cold-case-murder/

[Jay7777]

Here is more details:

dnasolves.com/articles/michigan-murder-karen-umphrey-1980-anthony-harris/

Michigan State Police & St. Clair Sheriff's Department Team with Othram to Identify an Additional Suspect in the 1980 Murder of Karen Umphrey

A second suspect, 63-year-old Anthony Harris, has been charged in the 1980 murder of 21-year-old Karen Umphrey, along with Douglas Laming, 70, who was identified as a suspect in December 2023.

Summary
In November 1980, 21-year-old Karen Umphrey was found murdered in the State Game Area of Beards Hills, Michigan near Port Huron. Port Huron is the county seat of St. Clair County. The identity of the person responsible for Karen’s death was not known and despite investigators attempts to identify the killer, the case went cold. For more than four decades, investigators continued their pursuit to identify the person responsible for Karen’s death.

In 2022, the Michigan State Police submitted forensic DNA evidence from the crime scene to Othram. A comprehensive DNA profile belonging to an unknown contributor was developed by Othram and forensic genetic genealogy was used to develop new investigative leads in the case. Using these new leads, the Michigan State Police who worked with St. Clair County Sheriff Department investigators to identify 70-year-old Douglas Laming of Fort Gratiot, Michigan as a suspect in Umprhey's murder. Laming was arrested on December 15, 2023 and was charged with first-degree murder. At the time, it was not publicly announced that DNA belonging to another contributor was discovered at the crime scene.

In 2023, the Michigan State Police submitted the additional forensic DNA evidence from the 1980 crime scene to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas. A second DNA profile belonging to the second unknown suspect was developed using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing®. Othram's in-house forensic genetic genealogy team used the genealogical profile to produce new investigative leads. The leads were returned to the Michigan State Police who continued their investigative work with St. Clair County Sheriff Department officials to identify the second suspect in the murder of Karen Umphrey. This follow up investigation led to the identification of 63-year-old Anthony Harris.

Harris was arrested on February 6, 2024 . On February 7, 2024, Harris was arraigned and charged with open murder in Port Huron's 72nd District Court for his alleged involvement in the death of Karen Umphrey. Harris' bond was set at $2,000,000.

[mustangman]

www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/us/pregnant-woman-1992-death-identified-indiana/index.html

This case shouldnt take LE too long to figure out?

"Privitt claimed that the victim married her husband, Jerry Murlin, in 1987, according to case documents.
The couple separated 1988 but Murlin never filed for divorce and never reported his wife as missing, according to authorities."

Why would you not report your wife missing??   if you loved her so much why not worry about her and call LE?  95% of the time it's because you killed them!!

[johnnyhands1]

Feb 17, 2024 0:49:34 GMT mustangman said:

www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/us/pregnant-woman-1992-death-identified-indiana/index.html

This case shouldnt take LE too long to figure out?

"Privitt claimed that the victim married her husband, Jerry Murlin, in 1987, according to case documents.
The couple separated 1988 but Murlin never filed for divorce and never reported his wife as missing, according to authorities."

Why would you not report your wife missing??   if you loved her so much why not worry about her and call LE?  95% of the time it's because you killed them!!

I think it’s strange that neither one ever filed for divorce (though stranger for the husband since he’s been alive many more years than the murdered wife who only had a two or three year window, obviously being murdered around 1991-1992.)  

As far as reporting her missing, it doesn’t seem like she would have been missing until 1991-92, many months after 1989 when estranged husband Murlin claimed to have last saw her.  So he probably didn’t know she was missing, unless a mutual friend told him.

What’s really strange is that it doesn’t appear the still-alive relatives reported her missing either (the article mentions her father and mother, alive until 2013, and two aunts.)

This is gruesome, but is there still a way to develop a DNA profile on the fetus of the deceased, pregnant woman - to do IGG to identify the father? Are authorities willing to do that, if possible? Knowing who the father was would seem to be a major lead, and to your point, mustangman, especially if it was husband Murlin who claimed to have separated two or three years earlier. (Though I’m hoping LE investigated Murlin well enough to know there’s truth to his story.)

It’s quite possible LE is way ahead of me on the fetal DNA, but doesn’t want to publicize it, to avoid tipping off the father they know his identity (or, conversely, can’t know his identity via this method because they couldn’t get the DNA) - especially if they consider that person is a strong suspect. 

[almagata]

Feb 17, 2024 0:49:34 GMT mustangman said:

www.cnn.com/2024/02/16/us/pregnant-woman-1992-death-identified-indiana/index.html

This case shouldnt take LE too long to figure out?

"Privitt claimed that the victim married her husband, Jerry Murlin, in 1987, according to case documents.
The couple separated 1988 but Murlin never filed for divorce and never reported his wife as missing, according to authorities."

Why would you not report your wife missing??   if you loved her so much why not worry about her and call LE?  95% of the time it's because you killed them!!

She may not have been murdered. 

She might have had mental illness and/or an addiction problem and went to live in on the streets and od'd like so many people do every year. 

[johnnyhands1]

www.nytimes.com/2024/02/20/us/baby-skylar-arrest-phoenix.html

A Dead Baby Was Found at an Airport in 2005. Her Mother Was Just Arrested.
The authorities said that genetic evidence was used to find Annie Anderson of Washington State. She will be charged with first-degree murder in the death of her child, who came to be known as Baby Skylar.

{PICTURE OF AIRPORT}
Police officers found a dead newborn girl inside a women’s restroom in Terminal 4 of the Phoenix airport on Oct. 10, 2005.Credit...Matt York/Associated Press


By Jesus Jiménez
Feb. 20, 2024
Updated 6:33 p.m. ET

The dead baby girl was found in a trash bin in a women’s bathroom at main airport in Phoenix on Oct. 10, 2005. Wrapped in newspapers and a towel, the newborn had been stuffed into a plastic bag from a Marriott Hotel, the police said.

Detectives immediately began investigating the death of the child, who came to be known as Baby Skylar. A medical examiner determined two days after the baby was found that she had been suffocated and was the victim of a homicide. But leads in the case eventually dried up, and the investigation remained dormant for years.

On Tuesday, more than 18 years after the gruesome discovery at Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the authorities announced at a news conference that they had identified and arrested the baby’s mother, Annie Anderson, 51, of Washington State, and that she would be charged with first-degree murder in the child’s death.

Ms. Anderson was in custody in Washington on Tuesday, and was awaiting extradition to Maricopa County, Ariz., Lt. James Hester of the Phoenix Police Department said at the news conference.

Among the few and early leads that the police had was the plastic bag in which the baby’s body had been found. That prompted detectives to investigate Marriott hotels in the Phoenix area, Lieutenant Hester said. But those leads and others proved unsuccessful.

Then, in 2019, the Phoenix police partnered with the F.B.I. to use genetic genealogy, an emerging tool in solving cold cases, to look into the Baby Skylar mystery, Lieutenant Hester said.

Dan Horan, a supervisory special agent with the F.B.I. field office in Phoenix, said at the news conference that the two agencies used a process known as investigative genetic genealogy, which uses existing D.N.A. evidence from an unknown person and tries to find family members based on publicly available genealogy databases.

In doing that, the two agencies were able to find a possible relative of Baby Skylar. That relative, whom the authorities did not identify, agreed to share a sample of their D.N.A. with the authorities for one-time use, Agent Horan said.

In January 2022, investigators traveled to Washington State, where they executed a search warrant and interviewed Ms. Anderson, the authorities said. Lieutenant Hester said that Ms. Anderson confirmed that she was the mother of Baby Skylar and gave the police an account of what had happened.

“We have a dead child, we have an identified mother, and we have her statement,” Lieutenant Hester said.
The authorities declined to share details of Ms. Anderson’s account. From the investigation, the authorities learned that Ms. Anderson was visiting Phoenix in October 2005 on business for a real estate boot camp, and that the child, most likely, was not born at the airport, Lieutenant Hester.

It was not immediately clear on Tuesday whether Ms. Anderson had a lawyer.

During the investigation, the authorities were also able to identify the baby’s father, and he was found to have no “criminal culpability,” Lieutenant Hester said. The authorities did not name the father.

Sgt. Rob Scherer of the Phoenix Police Department said on Tuesday that the investigation “touched many people at many different levels of this department and beyond” and that it “will stick with a lot of officers that have been involved.”

[mustangman]

35 year old case solved by a tip...

www.cnn.com/2024/02/25/us/missouri-kelle-ann-workman-cold-case-arrests/index.html




Three men were arrested in the 1989 killing of a woman in Missouri after someone came forward with a tip over three decades after her death, authorities said.



Kelle Ann Workman was reported missing on June 30, 1989, in Douglas County, and her body was found eight days later in a national forest in neighboring Christian County, officials from Douglas County said in a news conference on Wednesday.



Bobby Banks, Leonard Banks and Wiley Belt have now all been arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping and rape, all in the first degree, in connection with the case, according to authorities.

[Jay7777]

Former US soldier arrested as a suspect in a killing in Germany nearly 46 years ago

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/former-us-soldier-arrested-as-a-suspect-in-a-killing-in-germany-nearly-46-years-ago/ar-BB1jbcFk?ocid=iehp&cvid=7bba7ebc060e4694bf86fef546472d90&ei=16

BERLIN (AP) — A 66-year-old man accused of killing a woman when he was stationed in Germany as a U.S. soldier nearly 46 years ago has been arrested in the United States, German investigators said Friday.

The man, whose name wasn't released in line with German privacy rules, is accused of stabbing a 35-year-old woman more than 30 times at her apartment on June 11, 1978. At the time, authorities were unable to find the killer.

German police took up the investigation again in 2020, re-examining large amounts of evidence, Stuttgart prosecutors and police in nearby Ludwigsburg said in a statement. A fingerprint led them to the suspect, and further investigation — including a DNA comparison — was carried out in conjunction with U.S. authorities, including FBI offices in Albany and Berlin.

German prosecutors sought an arrest warrant on suspicion of murder. The man was detained on Feb. 13 by the U.S. Marshals Service, with support from the FBI and the New York state police, and is in custody in a U.S. jail. German authorities are seeking his extradition.

Murder does not fall under the statute of limitations in Germany.