Cold Case Murder of Pennsylvania Mom Finally Solved Thanks to DNA From Letter Sent To Local Newspaper

The 1998 cold case murder of a mom from Pennsylvania has finally been solved thanks to DNA evidence found on a chilling letter sent to a local newspaper decades ago containing intimate details of the gruesome crime.

Anna Kane was only 26 years old when she was strangled to death on October 23, 1988. Her lifeless body was discovered along Ontelaunee Trail in Perry Township, according to NBC News.

Pennsylvania State Police and Berks County District Attorney John Adams announced at a news conference on Thursday, August 18, that Kane's killer had been identified as Scott Grim. Nearly 35 years after the victim's brutal death, they finally cracked the case thanks to breakthrough DNA genetic genealogy technology.

DNA evidence from victim's clothes and letter sent to paper matched

DNA evidence was collected from the victim's clothes after the killing, but when it was tested, no match was found to the undetermined male DNA profile it yielded. The Reading Eagle newspaper ran a front-page story back in 1990 about Kane's death, asking the public for information regarding the crime.

State Police Trooper Daniel Womer said the paper got an anonymous letter back In February 1990 that a concerned citizen signed. The letter had numerous intimate details about the homicide, leading investigators to believe whoever wrote it had committed the homicide.

The letter's saliva-sealed envelope was then tested for DNA. It matched the DNA profile that was found on Kane's clothing. Genetic genealogy testing from the suspect's DNA profile was completed by Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia this year. The company has helped solve a slew of cold cases recently.

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Grim was 26 at the time of Kane's killing

The DNA results determined that a possible suspect in Kane's murder was Scott Grim. He will, however, never face justice as he died back in 2018 of natural causes. Grim, who died at age 58, would have been 26 at the time of the victim's murder.

Cops then obtained a direct sample of Grim's DNA for their own testing, matching the DNA profile on Kane's clothes and the profile found on the letter's envelope. Officials did not elaborate, however, on how they managed to get his sample.

Womer said they could take the direct sample from Scott Grim and had their Pennsylvania State Police Lab compare the evidence from the victim's clothing and the DNA from the letter in 1990. Womer said the results showed the same contributor, Scott Grim, as his DNA profile was on all those items.

Police praised the original investigators of Kane's murder, saying that their collection of evidence was the key to solving the case now that DNA technology has evolved, according to the U.S. Sun. Cops said Grim did not appear in the Combined DNA Index System of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which was launched back in 1998.

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