Post by Scumhunter on Dec 8, 2013 21:16:21 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: tuscaloosanews.com)
Investigators in the Starkville, Miss., area are asking for help to solve one of the most brutal unsolved crimes in the city's history.
It's been 23 years since two women were raped and murdered by a man who has never been identified. Police recently released an updated composite photo of what the suspect might look like now and have asked residents in surrounding areas if he looks familiar.
According to police, a man knocked on Katherine Crigler's door on Old Highway 82 on Sept. 3, 1990. Upon entering, he stabbed 61-year-old Betty Jones before sexually assaulting her body. He then approached Crigler, 81, and said she would meet the same fate if she didn't stop screaming.
Crigler survived the rape, but died from injuries a month later. She was able to give investigators a good description of the assailant, a blond, blue-eyed man in his early 20s.
Starkville Police Detective Bill Lott asked the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to update a composite photo of the suspect that was created for an episode of “America's Most Wanted” that aired in 1993. The new photo depicts a man in his 40s.
Lott hopes to generate new leads in the case by circulating the photo in areas surrounding Starkville.
“At the time, the house was right on what was Highway 82. The suspect could have easily gone straight on to Tuscaloosa,” Lott said.
Jones was a friend who acted as a sitter for the older Crigler. The women loved to watch baseball games together, Lott said. Jones was an avid supporter of Mississippi State's baseball team and often prepared home-cooked meals for the players.
Will Clark, Jeff Brantley and Rafael Palmeiro, former Mississippi State players who played Major League Baseball at the time, appeared on the AMW episode to talk about what Jones meant to the team and the community.
Lott feels confident the women weren't the killer's only victims.
“This perversion of the mind would drive him to do more of these type of crimes,” he said. “This isn't a one-shot guy.”
A DNA profile created in 2005 didn't match any profiles on the FBI's database. Lott compared it to at least 50 people who were suspects at the time and has ruled all of them out. He recently contacted Interpol and said investigators have agreed to run the DNA through their database that includes information from several countries.
“We can't rule out any possibility, we've got to look at everything that's available to us,” Lott said.
Analysis of a DNA sample sent to a lab in Florida revealed that the suspect was of 90 percent European ancestry and 10 percent American Indian, he said.
Lott, who was raised by an older aunt, said he will work this case as long as it takes to solve.
“You just treat folks the way you would want your family to be treated. I'm never going to let go of this case. As long as I'm able to work on it, I will,” he said. “When I retire from the Starkville Police Department, I want to say that I did all I could do with the time I had. I want to lay my head down at night knowing that I did my best.”
Anyone with any information on this case should call the Starkville Police Department at (662) 323-4134
www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20131208/NEWS/131209762
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