Subpoena for DNA in 1980s murders is upheld

Investigators can collect DNA samples from a Jackson man suspected in the 1982 murders of two Cape Girardeau women, a judge has decided.

On Friday, Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp denied a court motion filed by Roger L. McIntyre, 38, who was trying to nullify a subpoena that ordered him to submit DNA samples. He must now submit samples -- cotton swabs rubbed inside his mouth by an investigator and more than a dozen hairs pulled from both his head and pubic area -- on Tuesday at the county prosecuting attorney's office.

Margie Call and Mildred Wallace, who lived blocks apart in Cape Girardeau, were killed during a time when investigators could use only blood types to eliminate suspects. Call, 57, was strangled in January 1982, and Wallace, 65, was found shot in June. More than a dozen people remain suspects, police say, but no arrests were ever made.

Public defender Bryan Keller filed a motion March 20 to quash the subpoena, saying it was a violation of his client's rights to privacy and against self-incrimination. On Friday, Keller said his client has not decided whether to take further legal action.

Improved technology

A blood sample was drawn from McIntyre in 1982 to determine blood type, but such an old sample could be unusable for DNA testing, said lead investigator detective Jim Smith.

Over the last 20 years, technology has improved. Methods to compare a suspect's sample with DNA found at a crime scene have been available for about seven years, said Pam Johnson, a forensic chemist with the SEMO Regional Crime Lab in Cape Girardeau.

Smith did not know why a DNA test was not requested in these murder cases until now.

"We have had a turnover at our office and over the years everybody who was involved in investigating these cases has since left," he said. "We developed an interest in these cases and decided to take another close look at the evidence."

Former lead investigator John Brown, now retired, said over the last several years there were no viable suspects in the killings to warrant the expense of DNA tests.

A private lab can charge up to $1,000, but a government lab would not charge a fee, Johnson said. Depending on the specific kind of testing and the agency doing the lab work, results can take anywhere from four weeks to 18 months before being available.

In Kamp's ruling, he said complying with the subpoena is neither unreasonable nor oppressive and that DNA evidence from McIntyre has a "high probative value, in that it could either eliminate him as a suspect or make a case against him as the murderer."

Earlier this month, another suspect -- unnamed by court documents -- cooperated by submitting DNA samples, but McIntyre refused to comply. That's when the criminal investigative subpoena was issued by the court.

Smith said McIntyre matches an FBI psychological profile of the killer: a white male in his teens or early 20s, lived in the neighborhood, made obscene phone calls and probably knew the victims.

The detective was pleased with Kamp's ruling and is anxious to get the samples.

"Now we can get to moving on this, especially on our suspects," he said. "It would be great to give the families of the victims some closure after all this time."

The deaths of Call and Wallace have held the attention of the city for more than 20 years, and their grip on the minds of the families and police has not loosened.

Brown has lived with the specter of these unsolved cases for more than two decades, he said.

"They're terrible cases that I would like to see solved -- at least the mystery of it -- before I die," he said.

Call's niece, Margie Sewing of Jackson, is hoping this is not another false start.

"We've been told they were pretty sure they had him twice before," she said of her aunt's killer. "But they never got confessions and we've been left hanging on without a resolution."

She's hoping the DNA testing will provide some answers to more than just who killed her aunt.

"It would definitely bring us closure to know who for sure and maybe why -- we want to know why," she said. "There has to be a reason. That may not help us understand, but it may put an end to it."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160