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"Familial DNA searching" has lead authorities to a suspect they believe murdered a Wisconsin woman over three decades ago.
66-year-old Gene C. Meyer has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with use of a dangerous weapon in the 1988 killing of 60-year-old Betty Rolf, according to CBS News. The criminal complaint against Meyer, who now lives in Eastonville, Washington, alleges he fled to Washington following the murder.
Investigators had a DNA profile from a sample taken from Rolf's body during an autopsy, according to the complaint. They searched a DNA database for any close biological relatives to the suspect. Police determined the only suspects could be Meyer or his brother, based on the search.
The brother was eliminated as a suspect after he provided a DNA sample, according to authorities. FBI agents then tracked down Meyer and took DNA samples from the door handle of his truck. The samples reportedly matched those obtained from Rolf's body.
Meyer lived about a mile away from where Rolf's body was found just outside of Appleton on November 7, 1988. "She was walking to work. She worked at the Country Aire [banquet hall]. She never made it there," Rolf's daughter, Sheila Wurum recalled of the day her mother was last seen alive. "See, it had snowed out that morning. My mother had a fear of snow. She did not drive. My mother was a driver, but she walked everywhere she went. But she wasn't going to work that way, and my brother usually gave her a ride but wasn't going in that day that early. So she decided to walk, and she never made it there."