Genetics reveal suspect in 1981 beauty queen murder

A police officer discovered her home in 1981 while trying to serve a court summons, but no suspect had been identified until now

A suspect was identified in the 1981 murder of a 23-year-old beauty school student (New Hampshire Department of Justice)

Four decades after a 23-year-old beauty school student was killed, police say DNA has led to a suspect.

Laura Kempton was found dead in her Portsmouth, New Hampshire apartment in 1981. On Thursday, the state’s attorney general announced in a release that the case had been solved, yet “no arrest will be made, and no prosecution commenced,” as the suspect died of a drug overdose in 2005.

It wasn’t until 2022, though, that investigators used forensic genetic genealogy technology to analyse DNA samples from the 1981 crime scene. The perpetrator, the release said, was Ronney James Lee, who was 21 years old at the time of Kempton’s death. Genetic evidence indicated that the same person “sexually assaulted and murdered Ms. Kempton in the early morning hours of September 28.”

If Lee were still alive, authorities would have sought first-degree murder charges against him, according to the release.

Attorney General John Formella said he hopes his announcement “will be the long-awaited first step in providing what closure the criminal justice system can provide for Laura Kempton’s family and community.”

Kempton was last seen the morning of 28 September 1981; later that evening, a police officer discovered her home in an attempt to serve a court summons for parking meter violations.

The details of her murder – described in Mr Formella’s report – are gruesome. She was found naked in her bed with a gray telephone cord around her neck and shoulders and a green pillowcase covering her head. Her legs were tied together with a white cord from an electric blanket, and the top part of her body was covered with a blanket.

Investigators also noted a wine bottle beside her body, which was believed to be a possible weapon. An autopsy later revealed that she died as a result of “massive trauma to the left side of her head” caused by being struck by a “heavy blunt object,” the report states, which could have been from the wine bottle.

Blood was everywhere, but so were his fingerprints, according to the report. The supsect was believed to have come in through a door panel leading to her apartment from the hallway.

The attorney general said at a news conference that the investigation’s end was “bittersweet,” but should “send a message to anyone who has been affected by a case that has gone cold in this state that we will never stop working these cases.” He added, “We will never forget about these victims.”