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The Killing of an 18-Year-Old Ohio Woman Was Solved With DNA Technology After 43 Years
WCPO ^ | Dec 31, 2024 | Julie Carr Smyth

Posted on 01/03/2025 12:07:56 PM PST by nickcarraway

A man who was shot dead last month as authorities attempted to serve him an indictment on federal gun charges has been identified as the killer of an 18-year-old Ohio woman in a case that had gone unsolved for 43 years, police announced Monday.

Mansfield Police Chief Jason Bammann said the cold case of Debra Lee Miller, a local waitress beaten to death with an oven grate in her apartment on April 29, 1981, was reopened in 2021 to account for advances in DNA technology and forensic investigative techniques. “They examined the case as if it had happened yesterday, through an entirely new lens,” Bammann said at a news conference. “Their findings were staggering.”

The chief said a “firm DNA profile” of James Vanest, at the time Miller's 26-year-old upstairs neighbor, emerged from evidence left from the room. Vanest had been questioned but never identified as a suspect during the initial investigation, which became mired in allegations of potential police misconduct. Miller was one of several people from the Mansfield area whose suspicious deaths in the 1980s were examined for possible links to Mansfield police officers.

(Excerpt) Read more at wcpo.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: coldcase; debraleemiller; dna; genealogy; helixmakemineadouble; jamesvanest; jasonbammann; mansfield; murder; ohio; vanest

1 posted on 01/03/2025 12:07:56 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Wow... very cool they got the animal.


2 posted on 01/03/2025 12:12:33 PM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI..)
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To: nickcarraway

Imagine going more than 40 years with that on your conscience, having decided you weren’t going to be taken alive, living every day knowing tomorrow they might knock on your door and you were going to go down shooting.


3 posted on 01/03/2025 12:17:20 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Steely Tom

I don’t think a man that kills a woman with an oven grate gives a sh!t about anyone else or had a moment’s worry.

That animal is dead. Hell is one soul fuller.

Glory to God. Her family finally has some closure.


4 posted on 01/03/2025 12:18:54 PM PST by panzerkamphwageneinz
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To: panzerkamphwageneinz

Yeah. Could be.

They think he might have killed others, apparently.


5 posted on 01/03/2025 12:19:49 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: nickcarraway

STOKE THE FIRES OF HELL! .....he’s on his way!


6 posted on 01/03/2025 12:19:54 PM PST by high info voter (Delivery )
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To: nickcarraway

What a great technology to frame enemies of the state. I’m not saying this was the case but with so many people willingly giving their DNA to strangers to learn “we wuz kangs” there is NOTHING to stop the FIBs from “matching” your DNA to any crime they want you accused of.


7 posted on 01/03/2025 12:35:04 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: nickcarraway

Well in a way justice was served albeit too late.


8 posted on 01/03/2025 12:45:07 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: SkyDancer

No pictures of the perp?


9 posted on 01/03/2025 3:09:59 PM PST by Thommas (The snout of the camel is already under the tent.)
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To: Thommas

Dunno?


10 posted on 01/03/2025 3:11:02 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: nickcarraway

Not impressed at all. The news story was crafted to hide reasonable doubt in this case - which is why they were headed for a “lead em by the nose” grand jury. The fact that the suspect made it easy for the ATF to do what they are known for (i.e., death by cop) doesn’t change that this case was not even close to air tight. Nothing to brag about - unless you were one of the cops who bedded this woman before her untimely demise in 1981.


11 posted on 01/03/2025 3:27:41 PM PST by toddmoore (Not impressed)
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To: nickcarraway; AdmSmith; agrace; AnalogReigns; Cacique; caryatid; Celtjew Libertarian; CobaltBlue; ..
h/t to sunky

Genetic
Genealogy
Send FReepmail if you want on/off GGP list
Marty = Paternal Haplogroup O(2?)(M175)
Maternal Haplogroup H
GG LINKS:
African Ancestry
FamilyTree DNA
Int'l Society of Genetic Genealogy
Nat'l Geographic Genographic Project
The List of Ping Lists

12 posted on 01/03/2025 3:35:34 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: nickcarraway

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed
that will not be brought to light. —Mark 4:22

13 posted on 01/03/2025 6:08:27 PM PST by Albion Wilde (“Did you ever meet a woke person that’s happy? There’s no such thing.” —Donald J. Trump)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

14 posted on 01/04/2025 9:31:26 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

15 posted on 01/04/2025 9:38:15 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: Steely Tom

There are no doubt many waiting for that knock on the door.


16 posted on 01/04/2025 10:00:15 AM PST by TheDon (Resist the usurpers! Remember the J6 political prisoners!)
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