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From: whitescum@republicans.com

A man accused of raping and murdering a teenage girl 30 years
ago was nabbed after he submitted DNA for a recent domestic
violence conviction and it matched genetic material taken from
the 1985 crime scene, authorities revealed Monday.

Michael Jones, 62, showed no expression as prosecutors outlined
the case against him in a DuPage County, Illinois, courtroom.
Behind him were relatives of Kristina Wesselman, who was 15 when
she was apparently ambushed in broad daylight as she walked
through a field near her suburban home on a summer Sunday.

"My initial reaction is one of shock and awe," the girl's
brother, Bill Wesselman, said afterward. "We've been waiting for
this for 30 years."

At the time of Kristina Wesselman's death, the use of DNA to
solve criminal cases was in its infancy. As the science
improved, investigators submitted DNA from semen found on her
body to a national database, hoping that they would one day get
a hit.

That happened, prosecutors said, after Jones pleaded guilty in
July on a felony domestic battery charge and was sentenced to a
year on probation and was ordered to provide a DNA specimen to
authorities.

DuPage County authorities were notified of the match on Sept.
10. Investigators obtained a search warrant for Jones' home in
Champaign, Illinois, about 150 miles south of the murder scene.
On Friday, they arrested him, and two days later charged him
with murder and sexual assault.

"This is a huge sense of relief," DuPage County State's Attorney
Robert Berlin told reporters after Jones' morning court
appearance, in which the defendant was ordered jailed without
bail. "The pain, grief and fear have never gone away."

Berlin revealed that prior to Wesselman's death, Jones had
served more than six years in prison for raping and kidnapping a
27-year-old woman. He was on parole for that crime when he
allegedly killed Wesselman.

Wesselman, a popular athlete and president of her high school
freshman class, was last seen by her mother on July 21, 1985. It
was Sunday, and the two of them planned to spend the afternoon
watching old movies, Sandra Wesselman later recalled. She sent
Kristina out to buy a candy bar, telling her, "Be careful,
princess; I love you."

Her daughter never returned. Early the next morning, her body
was found near a dirt path between her home and a nearby grocery
store. She was believed to have been ambushed in broad daylight.

Over the years, DuPage County detectives ran down hundreds of
leads that sent them all over the country, authorities said.
They questioned suspects, searched pawn shops for the girl's
missing pearl ring, canvassed the neighborhood repeatedly. None
of it led to the killer.

In the end, all they needed was the DNA.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dna-match-led-cops-man-who-
allegedly-killed-girl-30-n430941

 

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