Montgomery County Police Department Teams with Othram to Identify the Suspect in 2001 Murder of Leslie Preer
— Read on dnasolves.com/articles/leslie-preer-maryland/
Sent to jail for raping a child, Dutch beach volleyball player qualifies for Paris Olympics representing the Netherlands
A Dutch beach volleyball player who served time in prison for raping a child 10 years ago will represent the Netherlands at this year’s Olympics.
— Read on www.yahoo.com/news/sent-jail-raping-child-dutch-130101163.html
A suspect in the 1996 Shenandoah National Park murders of two women is identified.
Another cold case solve was announced this week. Walter Leo Jackson, Sr., a convicted serial rapist who died six years ago at age 70 in an Ohio prison in is believed to be the killer of a couple at a campground in 1996.
Genetic evidence from the women’s remains and clothing was used to link this monster to the killings.
In 2021, a new FBI Richmond investigative team was assigned to conduct a methodic review of the case. FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, and other FBI Richmond employees reassessed hundreds of leads and interviews. They spent countless hours to identify and prioritize evidence from the crime scene to retest and submitted the items to an accredited private lab.
Recently, the private lab successfully pulled DNA from several items of evidence and, with assistance from the Virginia State Police, the profile was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). There was a positive match to Walter Leo Jackson Senior (born November 2, 1947). Jackson was a convicted serial rapist, originally from the Cleveland, Ohio area.
“Even though we had this DNA match, we took additional steps and compared evidence from Lollie and Julie’s murders directly to a buccal swab containing Jackson’s DNA. Those results confirmed we had the right man and finally could tell the victim’s families we know who is responsible for this heinous crime,” said Stanley M. Meador, the FBI Richmond special agent in charge.
How is it that in the OCCK cold case, involving the abduction, captivity, sexual assault and murder of four children–FOUR separate homicide cases–there is nothing for a third-party lab to work with and the Michigan State Police and the Michigan State Lab are content to ignore this case? Both entities have worked with Othram Inc. (Othram Labs) in other cold cases. Has Othram been consulted in this case and rejected it?
Why did DNA Labs International reject the OCCK case a few years ago? It sounds like they would only work with the mtDNA hair samples and the Y-str sample from Kristine’s autopsy, but concluded that genetic genealogy could not be used with that evidence. Glad you had your little secret and apparently worthless meet and greet. After almost 50 years, no one can say a word about any of this? Sorry, but after this fail there have been other advancements in forensic DNA testing. Yet they are all content to let sleeping, contaminated children’s clothing and other evidence lie.
As a reader pointed out, every very cold case that is solved via DNA forensics simply emphasizes the blatant hollowness of the silence surrounding these four child murders (supposedly linked to the same serial killer(s)), but NOT ONE case can be solved on its own? What are the odds?! Was every police agency that touched these cases completely incompetent? Why won’t they test the “Allen” letter and envelope/stamp? You took all that grant money decades ago and wasted untold amounts of tax dollars. You don’t get to skimp on evidence testing now.
It reeks of public corruption.
They don’t answer because they don’t have to. They don’t want a press conference or announcement that puts a spotlight on what happened in Oakland County in 1976 and 1977. They simply take the fail and close the file cabinets. They do not ever want to “finally” tell the victims’ families they know who is responsible for these heinous crimes.
We have a right to know what evidence still exists, the testing that has been done and the status, and what can still be tested. The silence, in the face of the gaslighting and mistreatment of the families by law enforcement since Day 1, says it all. The number of cold case solves around the country every week and the glaring absence of anything in the OCCK case does, too.
Is there not one articulate person at the state lab who can explain how we find ourselves at this juncture in a heinous, unsolved, serial homicide of little kids? Make up some bullshit about how it was another era, a different day, a bunch of suburban cop shops, but we pinky swear it will never, ever happen again?