New DNA evidence collected in killing of two women at Kansas bakery 20 years ago: “It’s promising”

Investigators announced Tuesday that they’ve collected new DNA evidence they hope will result in a break in the killing of two Kansas women at a bakery 20 years in the past.

A supply driver discovered the our bodies of 24-year-old Mandi Alexander and 79-year-old Mary Drake the night of Sept. 4, 2002, at a Dolly Madison Bakery outlet in Great Bend, Kansas.

Drake was a buyer, and Alexander had begun working as a clerk the week she was killed.

Investigators stated they had been killed with a pointy object, however the homicide weapon was by no means discovered. Although cash was lacking from the bakery’s money drawer, authorities aren’t positive if theft was the motive for the crimes.

A male’s DNA was discovered in a pattern taken from one of the victims, Cory Latham, particular agent for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, stated in a news convention. He didn’t say which girl the DNA was taken from.

Latham stated in the final 12 months, KBI brokers and forensic scientists reviewed all of the evidence collected in the case, specializing in expertise that has superior past what was accessible in 2002.

Investigators didn’t discover sufficient DNA to enter it right into a nationwide database of felony offenders. However, investigators may examine it to a pattern of somebody’s DNA in the event that they had been to discover a suspect.

“So while useful, it doesn’t help answer the question as to who that person is today. But it’s promising and we hope it will help us in the future,” Latham stated.

He stated Great Bend police, Barton County sheriff’s deputies and KBI brokers collected quite a few DNA samples in the previous and held Tuesday’s news convention to encourage somebody who might need even the slightest element related to the case to return ahead.

The new evidence is giving new hope for family and friends of the victims, CBS affiliate KWCH-TV reports.

“It is solvable. This happened in broad daylight on the busiest intersection in town,”

Alexander’s good friend, Kathye Phelps, informed the station.

Still, Alexander’s older sister, Desiree Worth, expressed frustration Tuesday in the course of the KBI’s press convention updating the case, the station reported.

“You try to find some positive in life, but it gets difficult and you stay stuck, you stay mad,” Werth stated.

The KBI is offering a $17,000 reward to assist remedy the case.