Four murder cases that went unsolved for 40 years in Colorado have been solved thanks to the use of DNA from the killer's exhumed body.
Four women were killed in the Denver metro area between 1978 and 1981. They were Madeleine Furey-Livaudais, 53-year-old Dolores Barajas, 27-year-old Gwendolyn Harris, and 17-year-old Antoinette Parks. Four women were killed. Denver Police Commander Matt Clark said in a press conference Friday that there was an "underlying sexual component" to the murders.
In 2009, a detective reviewed the Parks case and picked some pieces of evidence. In the 1980s, forensic DNA analysis was not an option. A detective used a glass tube that had been used to hold evidence to find a man's DNA profile. The man's profile was entered into a database and linked to three other women's cases.
The Denver Post reports that police traced the suspect's genetic genealogy and found a positive ancestry link in Texas. They were able to locate a close biological relative of the suspect.
The police identified Joe Michael Ervin as a suspect. In 1981 he died by suicide while in jail for the murder of a police officer. His remains were exhumed late last year, and his genetic material was similar to that of the male in the four cases.
George Journey said at the press conference that the Parks family has "closure" now that her killer has been identified.
Journey said that they can finally have peace knowing who did this.
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