The case was solved through modern DNA and genealogy technology and the careful preservation of evidence from the crime scene in 1971. The most incriminating evidence: a cigarette butt found next to Rita Curran's body.
The Burlington Police Department reactivated the case in 2019 when Lt. Detective Commander Jim Trieb put his whole team of detectives on the case. Trieb said in a report that his team determined forensic evidence would be key to solving the case because of its age.
Key pieces of evidence had been kept in storage, however, and in 2014 several items – including a LARK cigarette butt found on the floor next to Curran after the murder – were sent to a forensic lab in New York City for DNA testing. More evidence, including Curran's clothes, was sent to a lab in Florida in 2022 where they performed new DNA-extracting techniques.
CeCe Moore, scientist and genealogy expert at Parabon Nanolabs, was able to match the DNA to William DeRoos withinMoore, who was at the news conference via Zoom, credited the databases of DNA that are now available to scientists because of genealogy testing and the detectives who collected evidence at the time of the murder.
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