Today DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced that the 44-year-old murder case of high school junior Pamela Maurer had been solved using genetic geneology to identify the murderer, a likely serial killer. He died in 1981. https://patch.com/illinois/lisle/break-expected-1976-lisle-cold-case-murder
Berlin said that in 2001, biological evidence from Maurer’s body was analyzed and the DNA was added to the county’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) system, but no matches ever came up. In 2019, experts used DNA phenotyping to determine characteristics such as the suspect’s facial traits, eye color and appearance, and create a composite image of Maurer’s killer. A public genealogy database was used to build a family tree to help identify potential new leads in the case.
The information led police to Bruce Lindahl of Aurora, who died in 1981. Lindahl’s body was exhumed Nov. 6, 2019, in an attempt to get DNA to compare with the evidence collected from Maurer’s body.
Lindahl’s DNA came up as a match for the DNA found on Maurer’s body, authorities said.
As a result of the discovery, police believe they can now link Lindahl to other victims. “We have evidence that there may be other young women who were victimized by Bruce Lindahl between 1974 and his death in 1981,” Berlin said.
Law enforcement followed the methods used in 2018 to identify and arrest the Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist in California.
Thank you to a reader for sending this link.
A few points:
1. 1976 case.
2. Look at the efforts made by this small, suburban police department over the years to solve this young woman’s murder case.
3. Press conference to announce the resolution of the case by the DuPage County’s State’s Attorney even though this piece of shit is long dead. He died in 1981 when he accidentally cut his own femoral artery while fatally stabbing an 18-year-old high school student. There’s some Karma for you.
4. When Oakland County officials and the FBI exhumed David Norberg in Wyoming for DNA testing in 1999 they found his DNA “did not match pubic hair found on 11-year-old Timothy King . . . ” https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/dna-does-not-link-wyoming-suspect-to-child-killings/article_09bf037b-a13a-57e3-b2a2-da97f541bcf2.html. No mention of the hair found on Kristine. No mention of the hair found on Mark. No mention of the hair found in the “Pontiac debris” (Arch Sloan’s red, 1966 Pontiac Bonneville). So now that these hairs have all magically appeared, how about treating them the way they did in the Golden State Killer case and the murder of this young, vibrant high school junior in 1976?
WHY HAVEN’T YOU DONE THIS? If this hair evidence cannot be evaluated in the most cutting-edge way possible (we’ve talked about this before . . .), tell us why! If you have multiple hairs (Mark, Tim, the hairs in the Pontiac) and they all are from the same source, as you have told the public, there should not be an issue with extinguishing the evidence. You have more than one hair.
Are the OCCK victims not worthy of figuring out how to use genetic geneology in this case? How can you justify not making the attempt?
As LE worms its way through all the cold cases they are, little by little, catching up on years-old cases where the discovered perp has already died. Soon, and it can’t be soon enough, they will arrive at the Present. Then the perps will have to run to Europe or off themselves to prevent arrest. The fun days are over.
Of course THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG IN MICHIGAN.
Cathy, what about getting donations to pay for billboards around Detroit demanding action by the authorities on your case?
Haven’t ruled it out, just have my hands full right now.
The same basic thing is now in the works for the DNA evidence in the Ramsey murder. This is going to happen despite the criminal trolls that want to wrongfully claim that the the DNA evidence is invalid. Through mitochondrial familial DNA, is said to be the pathway. My problem with this, in all of these cases, is that the people that are most likely responsible for these crimes will escape discovery and prosecution. You need to recognize ALL of the evidence that indicates that these were rather sophisticated crimes, crimes that didn’t involve some idiot cutting his own artery. You already can see that the “fix” is “in” on the coverup. Look at Epstein…no way was he able to inflict that kind of damage to his own body. And…then look at how everyone in that jail looked the other way while he was murdered! And this time around, the mainstream media fiends are basically muted by this same very basic evidence. Now all that’s left for the criminally operated MSM to do, is to downplay the whole works, which is exactly what they’re currently doing. My tenacity to these cases is strengthened by my realization that the main suspect, the document maker and planner, left us a journal, a journal that he’d been formulating for several years. I think that he kept himself alive by stashing key evidence for safe keeping. Too many key souvenirs left the crime scenes. I think that he constantly reminded his co-conspirators; by linking subtle, but detectable hints on the crime documents, and at the crime scenes. Doesn’t a human hair up a victim’s nose seem unlikely? I also think that when he himself was damn near nabbed in the Paul Stine murder, coupled with SFPD announcing that they had a palm print, he dipped his hands in caustic or acid, and went basically underground. He stayed on the safe side of his co-conspirators, not only because he was successful, but also because he stayed one step ahead of them. But know this; there’s no way that he could have done all that was needed to be done, all by himself. I say it again and again, gather up ALL of the evidence, especially that evidence which clearly shows sophistication.
Just watched Id Channel, Lake Erie Murders on a three part series of the kidnapping and murders of Amy Mihaljevic in 1989 in Ohio Has never been solved and because of other murders in surrounding areas with the same MO they aren’t reuling out an organized pedophile ring; in series two they brought out the OCCK and North Fox Island.
Thanks, Ann. Jane Allen’s body was dumped in a river in Ohio. I think she went missing the summer if 1976. There seems to be an Ohio connection.