Police confirmed Monday that the advanced DNA technology helped them finally reveal the identity of the perpetrator, writes abcnews.
Victims, Jennifer Harbison, Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas and Amy Ayers, are attacked in the store and were all killed in the head, the main investigator Daniel Jackson said. Girls were found naked and tied, with traces of sexual assault. The building was then set on fire to cover up evidence, and the perpetrator escaped.
In 1999. four suspects were arrested. The two acknowledged the crime, but later withdrew the recognition. The charges against two were rejected, while the other two were convicted of murder. However, these judgments were later annulled for constitutional omissions. Before the new trial, advanced DNA analysis pointed to another person, so they were both released in 2009. years. Jackson emphasized that no physical evidence had never associated those men with the crime scene.
Key turnaround thanks to technology
Investigator Jackson, who took the case in 2022. years, in June, he was reusing the caliber’s sleeve .380 found at the crime scene. “It was not entered in the Nibin system for many years. Nibin is a national integrated ballistic information network – something like Codis for cocoons,” Jackson clarified.
In July, it was confirmed that the same weapon was used in the unresolved murder in Kentucky with similar details. Since 2008. Investigators used various DNA methods, getting a Y-p pic of suspects, ie DNA Y chromosome. Jackson said the police contacted Laboratories that implement the Y-str typing and asked for an unknown profile manual verification – and received match. The only laboratory that had a match was in South Carolina.
In August, a connection was found with the sexual attack and the 1990 murder. In Greenville, and the profile belonged to Robert Eugene Brashers. Police Austin then tested Y-str DNA again found under the Nail of the victim Amy Ayers. “He was directly compared to the Brashers profile – and coincided,” Jackson said.
Brashers served prison sentence before these murders for shooting in a woman, and was released on 1989. Years. DNA now connects it with more unresolved murders and sexual attacks across the country. Brashers committed suicide in 1999. years after the conflict with the police.
Police Chief Austin, Lisa Davis called the murders “one of the most destructive and the lifestiest cases in the history of the city.” Barbara Ayres-Wilson, the mother of the Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, said: “It’s been so much time, and all we ever wanted for this case. We never wanted anyone to go to prison – revenge was never a goal.”
District Prosecutor José Garza said the mistakes that were wrong: “The predominance of the evidence points to the guilt of one man and innocence of the investigation, as I will say, I will say that I am sorry, though I would never be enough.”
(Vijesti.ba)
