DNA from newspaper letter solves 34-year-old cold case

58-year-old who died in 2018 identified as killer 35 years after murder

A 1988 murder of a 26-year-old mother has been solved after DNA evidence was found on a letter sent to a local paper outlining the gruesome killing.

Anna Jean Kane, 26, was found strangled and beaten to death on 23 October 1988 along the Ontelaunee Trail in Perry Township, Pennsylvania.

The murderer has been identified as Scott Grim, almost 35 years after her death. The identification comes after advances in DNA genetic genealogy technology, according to Pennsylvania State Police and Berks County District Attorney John Adams.

After the murder, DNA evidence was gathered from the clothes Ms Kane was wearing at the time. But when it was tested, it only outlined the DNA profile of an undetermined man, and no match was discovered.

A local paper, The Reading Eagle, published a story on its front page in 1990 concerning the death of Ms Kane, requesting information from the community.

In February of that year, the paper was sent a letter signed only “concerned citizen” which included “numerous intimate details” about the killing, State Police Trooper Daniel Womer said at a press conference on Thursday, according to NBC News.

“This led investigators to believe that whoever wrote the letter had committed the homicide,” he said.

The envelope the letter arrived in was sealed using saliva and it was tested for DNA, and it matched the evidence found on Ms Kane’s clothes.

Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia conducted genetic genealogy tests using that DNA profile this year and it was determined that Mr Grim was a possible suspect. He died in 2018 at the age of 58 of natural causes and would have been 26 years old at the time of Ms Kane’s death.

Police collected a direct sample of Mr Grim’s DNA, which matched the DNA found on the letter and on Ms Kane’s clothes. The authorities didn’t specify how they collected the sample.

“We were able to take the direct sample from Scott Grim ... We had our Pennsylvania State Police Lab do a direct comparison to the DNA from the letter in 1990, as well as the original evidence from the victim’s clothing, all of which showed the same contributor being Scott Grim – his DNA profile was on all of those items,” Mr Womer said.

Police said the decision by the investigators in the late 1980s to collect DNA evidence was crucial for the case to be solved following the evolution of DNA technology.

Law enforcement noted that Mr Grim couldn’t be found in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which was started in 1998.

Police discovered that Mr Grim, from Hamburg, Pennsylvania, had been arrested in 2002 following allegations that he sent threatening letters to a previous business partner.

The authorities said the investigation into Mr Grim will continue, including examining his relationship with Ms Kane.

Law enforcement said that interviews with individuals who knew Mr Grim haven’t yet disclosed any information about a possible relationship.

“That doesn’t mean there wasn’t some connection we haven’t found yet,” Mr Womer noted, adding that it has been reported earlier that Ms Kane was a sex worker and Mr Grim could have been a customer.

According to The Reading Eagle, Ms Kane had three children. Officials said that she had lived in Reading before moving to Birdsboro not long before she was killed.

“I know in some respects the fact that he is deceased, he will never face justice as we all would have hoped for this homicide,” Mr Adams said. “But we solved it. We gave some closure to the family.”