The cold case of the 1988 murder of her mother was finally solved thanks to DNA evidence found on a cold letter sent to a local newspaper decades ago with poignant details of the crime.
Anna Kane was 26 years old when she was strangled to death and her body was found on October 23, 1988 along a trail in Perry Township, Pennsylvania.
Nearly 35 years after her death, her killer has been identified using groundbreaking DNA genealogy technology, a local official said.
He was named Scott Grim during a press conference on Thursday.
After the 1988 murder, DNA evidence was collected from Kane’s clothing. An unidentified male DNA profile appeared, but no matches were found.
In 1990, the Reading Eagle ran a front-page story about Kane’s murder, asking for help with information on the case.
In February 1990, the newspaper received an anonymous letter signed by an “involved citizen” containing “many intimate details” about the murder, Sheriff Daniel Womer said.
“This leads investigators to believe that whoever wrote the letter committed the murder,” he said.
The saliva-sealed envelope the letter was sent to was tested for DNA, and it matched the DNA profile found on Kane’s clothing.
This year, genetic genealogy testing from that DNA profile was completed by Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia, a lab that has helped solve a series of cold cases.
The results identified a possible suspect as Scott Grim. He died in 2018 of natural causes, aged 58. He would have been 26 years old at the time Kane was killed.
The police then obtained a direct DNA sample of Grim’s for them to test for themselves and it matched the DNA profile on the envelope and the file found on Kane’s clothing. Officials did not elaborate on how they took that sample.
“We were able to get a sample directly from Scott Grim. We asked our Pennsylvania State Police Laboratory to compare it directly with the DNA from the 1990 letter as well as the initial evidence from the victim’s clothing. , all show the same contributor. , is Scott Grim – his DNA profile is on all of those entries,” Mr Womer said.
Police praised the work of the original investigators in the case, saying their gathering of evidence was key to solving the case now that DNA technology has advanced.
Police said Grim did not appear in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which was introduced in 1998. They discovered that Grim, who was from the Hamburg area, was arrested in 2002 in Berks County during a raid. harassment in which he allegedly sent threatening letters. letter to his former business partner.
Officials say an investigation is continuing into Grim’s history and background, including his exact relationship with Kane. Police said that so far in interviews with people who know Grim, they have not revealed any relationship between the two.
“That’s not to say we haven’t found a link yet,” Womer said.
He admitted there was prior information that Kane worked as a prostitute and it was possible Grim could have been a client.
The Reading Eagle describes Kane as a mother of three. She had lived in Reading but moved to the Birdsboro area shortly before her murder, officials said.
Pennsylvania State Police and Berks County Attorney John Adams praised the administration for their diligent work on the case.
“I know in some respects the fact that he’s dead, he’ll never face justice like we all hoped for this murder,” he said. “But we’ve worked it out. We’ve given some family closures.”
Original story can be found here.
