Scott County investigators 'chipping away' at Lawless killing

As a private lab in the Netherlands prepares to perform DNA analysis on evidence in the 1992 murder of Angela Mischelle Lawless, investigators say a recently discovered witness may provide new leads in the 16-year-old case.

Last month, Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter transferred the clothing worn by Lawless to the custody of DNA analyst Richard Eikelenboom, whose lab in the Netherlands is known for handling some complex and high-profile murder cases.

Eikelenboom will use "contact DNA" analysis on the clothing in the hopes of generating a genetic profile from skin cells transferred from Lawless' assailant during the killing.

The premise of this kind of forensic analysis is that if the killer used enough force in committing the act, they will often transfer epithelial cells to certain areas of the clothing worn by the victim.

Lawless, a 19-year-old student at Southeast Missouri State University, was found slain in the early morning of Nov. 8, 1992, in her car near the northbound exit of Interstate 55 in Benton, Mo.

In 1994, Joshua C. Kezer was convicted of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the homicide. He was exonerated by a Cole County judge in February in a rare "actual innocence" ruling.

DNA testing done at several other labs, including Marshall University and the Missouri State Highway Patrol crime lab, has been unable to solidly link blood evidence in the case to any one of a handful of about seven or eight individuals considered people of interest in the case.

If Eikelenboom is able to get a genetic profile from the clothing, Walter said the Dutch lab will be able to compare that profile to some samples collected from individuals for the purpose of eliminating them as suspects.

If the comparison testing does not produce a strong match, the only alternative would be to use the profile attained by Eikelenboom and use it to search CODIS, the DNA database of samples from convicted felons.

Such a profile could not be entered permanently in CODIS because it was generated in another lab, said Cary Malone, a DNA analyst at Missouri's state crime lab in Jefferson City.

"One of the state labs has to assume ownership, which has with it a lot of requirements," Malone said.

Because that would not be feasible, Malone said, it would be possible to use the profile to do a one time search in CODIS and see if there's a hit.

When Marshall University generated a profile from blood evidence in 2007 and 2007, the highway patrol declined to use it to search CODIS, saying they could not verify work produced in another lab, though Marshall's lab has the same CODIS accredidation as Missouri's lab.

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan granted a motion ordering the profile entered into CODIS last year.

FBI requirements dictate that a genetic profile must be entered in the CODIS software program by the official crime lab of the state where the crime occurred.

Certain types of DNA analysis, such as "low copy number" analysis, which Eikelenboom said he uses as a last resort if other methods fail to produce a profile, are not viable for use in CODIS, said Susanne Brenneke, CODIS administrator for the state of Missouri.

"That's where we run up against regulations," Brenneke said.

New witness

Recently, Scott County detective Branden Caid interviewed a man who reported having seen a women thought to be Lawless arguing with someone at the exit where her body was discovered less than an hour later.

The witness said he slowed down at the exit to ask if the two people were all right, which they said they were, so he continued, Caid said.

He was able to provide Caid with a basic description of what he saw, including the vehicle, and said the man he saw was not Kezer, whose picture he'd seen on the news.

Caid, assigned to the case when Walter re-opened it in 2006, said he continues to work at whittling down leads, working down the list of people of interest in the case.

"We chip away at them every day," he said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent addresses

Jefferson City, Mo.

131 S. New Madrid St., Benton, Mo