Benjamin L. Holmes, 38, was arrested in the 2001 killing of college student Christina Franke.
(Orlando Police Department)
Posted on 11/11/2018 11:45:15 AM PST by ETL
A family's nearly two-decade wait to find out who killed their beloved daughter came to an end this month, as investigators announced an arrest in the cold case.
The Orlando Police Department said Monday that 38-year-old Benjamin L. Holmes was arrested in the murder of Christina Franke.
Franke was 25 and a student at the University of Central Florida majoring in education when she was found dead in her Audubon Park apartment in October 2001, according to FOX35. The college student had been robbed and assaulted, and her killer had left a large amount of DNA at the scene, police said.
Holmes was identified after the Orlando Police Department worked with Parabon Nanolabs to run a DNA sample to create a computer-generated composite of what Christine's killer could look like. The composite initially didn't come up with a match.
-snip-
Fields added that there was no apparent connection between Franke and Holmes, but that the 25-year-old had likely come home from work with $300 in cash, which officers on the scene were not able to find.
“It’s safe to assume that he took the cash,” Fields said.
-snip-
At a news conference announcing the arrest, Franke's mother said she never thought she would know who killed her daughter.
"I honestly thought they would never find him," Tina Franke said. "This is such a blessing for our family."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
With his DNA they can match him to other crimes, because he didn’t just commit just this one.
ACLU will have a field day with this method of finding rapist and killers.
“The Orlando Police Department said Monday that 38-year-old Benjamin L. Holmes was arrested in the murder of Christina Franke.
Franke was 25 and a student at the University of Central Florida majoring in education when she was found dead in her Audubon Park apartment in October 2001, according to FOX35.”
Somebody’s math is really messed up. If the perp was 25 in 2001 he’s now 42. Also, majoring in education at 25? Professional student?
“ACLU will have a field day with this method of finding rapist and killers.”
Yep, that DNA had better find more crakers than bros, ‘’cuz otherwise, it’s gonna be racisssssssssss.
>>ACLU will have a field day with this method of finding rapist and killers<<
Only if they are colored.
But you bring up a VERY interesting point. If people know their DNA can be gotten without subpoena and then match to crimes it could kill the DNA analysis industry.
And what do they do if you did it but only 1/1024th?
I had to read it twice too. The girl was 25 at the time of her mother not the perp.
I kind of doubt that this bag of dirt was - when not raping and murdering girls - sitting up late at night at his computer, compiling his genealogy, or spending hundreds of dollars for DNA tests.
The connection was probably effected through a relative of his who had submitted his DNA for testing.
Regards,
Huh? It makes sense to me. I understood it the first time I read it.
Well, those of us who have no chance of being implicated in a crime, and have some curiosity about ancestry - will keep submitting samples. Those who are criminals and sufficiently intelligent to understand what alleles, chromosomes and genes are, may try to avoid databases. But I would think that folks like this fall into the nicely defined group that commits such crimes, leaves a lot of DNA to be found, couldn’t identify Watson & Crick at the point of a gun, and may not be able to spell “gene”. And that’s where this will be extremely helpful.
The suspect left his DNA at the crime scene. Collection of DNA samples is a routine task at crime scenes. The police went to a public web site, GEDMatch and compared the suspect DNA with their database and identified possible close relatives. Those relatives had provided their own DNA to GEDMatch using the DNA sample that they had obtained from Ancestry or one of the other commercial DNA analysis companies. This is a common activity among people who are using DNA to find relatives. GEDMatch is a free site. Unless you or your twin brother is a murderer, this is unlikely to have an effect on GEDMatch, who have probably enjoyed free publicity from stories like this.
They will give it try for sure. The lawyers here could give a better analysis than I can, but the only people who have standing to object would be those who have already submitted their DNA. Once the police obtained information leading to the identify of the suspect, further information was obtained from cooperating family members. The police were able to eliminate the brother as a suspect when they got his DNA from a discarded bottle. They watched the suspect discard a cigar and beer can and got a DNA match from those items. As long as the evidence was obtained without objection from the people supplying it, and was obtained by the suspect who discarded it, the ACLU would be wasting their time.
Thanks for clarifying — I wasn’t sure of the mechanics of the search/match process.
That still is quite a chilling scenario. That my BROTHER’s DNA could be matched to a crime scene and then used against me is disturbing.
You could avoid that scenario by ensuring that you don’t leave your DNA at a crime scene.
I would think most likely they found him by matching his dna, left behind at the crime scene, with the dna of a cousin or two and that he wasn’t dumb enough to take a test himself.
Unless of course, your brother is an identical twin.
In which case they will have to find other ways to find out who did what.
/s
Nonetheless I better go check the body is really well hidden.
bbs
Oh geez.
Franke is the victim, not the perp.
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