CNN
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After greater than three a long time of questions and grief, Tamika Reyes lastly is aware of who killed her mom.
Anna Kane was 26 when her physique was discovered on October 23, 1988, in a wooded space close to Reading, Pennsylvania, with baling twine round her neck. An investigation revealed she’d been strangled elsewhere and dumped within the woods.
A neighborhood newspaper, the Reading Eagle, ran a front-page story searching for data on Kane’s demise. In February 1990, about 15 months after she was killed, the paper obtained an nameless letter from a “concerned citizen” with data that solely the killer would know, police mentioned.
The letter author additionally left his DNA when he licked the envelope. The DNA from the saliva matched what was discovered on Kane’s clothes, authorities mentioned this week.
But years become a long time, and police nonetheless didn’t know who the suspect was. Finally, in 2022, Pennsylvania State Police used genetic family tree testing to determine the killer – a neighborhood man named Scott Grim – regulation enforcement officers mentioned at a news conference last week.
Now Reyes lastly has some solutions – though she’s unhappy for her grandmother, who died earlier than studying the case was solved.
“I felt a little bit of everything when I found out,” she advised CNN. “I was happy to finally put a face behind the monster who took her from us, (and) upset that he will never be able to face consequences.”
For 34 years, Reyes, together with her two brothers and their grandmother, have puzzled who killed Kane. The lack of closure has added to the misery of dropping their mom, she mentioned.
Then Reyes obtained a name final week from a detective a couple of gorgeous growth within the case.
After years of ready for justice, she was relieved investigators lastly had named her mom’s killer. But she was dissatisfied to be taught that Grim had died in 2018 of pure causes at age 58 and won’t pay for robbing her and her siblings of a childhood with a mom.
Reyes was 9 when her mom was killed, and mentioned she thinks about her each day.
“She was a firecracker – very outgoing, not afraid of anything, very honest, blunt and caring,” she mentioned.
Reyes mentioned one in all her fondest childhood reminiscences was taking walks with her mom and seeing her instantly dance to random music taking part in in shops as they handed.
After her demise, Reyes’ aunt took her in and raised her whereas her two brothers moved in with their father.
Reyes mentioned she’s nonetheless bothered by the picture the media painted of her mom, who was unemployed on the time of her demise. Although her mom had a darkish previous that included drug use and prostitution, she was making an attempt to show her life round, Reyes mentioned.
“She was portrayed as this slain prostitute, like she deserved what happened to her,” mentioned Reyes, 43, who lives in Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania. “It was hurtful. She was more than that, she was a victim. She was a mother. She was loved. No one deserves what happened to her.”
Investigators mentioned they identified Grim because the killer utilizing genetic family tree, which mixes DNA proof and conventional family tree to seek out organic connections amongst individuals.
In current years, corporations like 23andMe and Ancestry have inspired individuals to discover their family tree by spitting right into a tube and sending it off for evaluation. These corporations then ship again data on their purchasers’ ethnic heritage, genetic well being dangers and household tree – in addition to a uncooked information file of their DNA.
With thousands and thousands of customers searching for to discover their genetic roots, the apply has develop into a giant enterprise. It’s additionally develop into a beneficial software for regulation enforcement officers making an attempt to resolve outdated crimes.
DNA collected from crime scenes can now be uploaded to an on-line service that compares it to DNA submitted by individuals utilizing corporations like 23andMe to discover their family tree.
If a doable match is discovered, genealogists can construct out household bushes to assist police discover potential suspects. In current years this technique has helped clear up among the nation’s most high-profile chilly instances, together with the one of the notorious Golden State Killer.
Investigators analyzed Kane’s clothes and located traces of an unknown man’s DNA. They later decided that it matched the DNA on the envelope from 1990, confirming investigators’ perception that the individual behind the letter was the killer.
But whereas whereas investigators had Grim’s DNA profile, there was nothing to determine him as a result of he had by no means been arrested for something that required his DNA to be put into the system, authorities mentioned.
That’s the place genetic family tree got here in. Genetic family tree’s effectiveness in chilly instances is determined by the standard of crime scene DNA and whether or not it has degraded, State Police Trooper Daniel Womer mentioned at a information convention final week.
The detectives’ cautious preservation of DNA proof in 1988 offered a stable basis for as we speak’s investigators to look at with new expertise, Pennsylvania State Police Sgt. Nathan Trate mentioned on the information convention.
“All of that stuff was … preserved the way it should be, because they knew probably somewhere down the line whatever they collected could be that little piece of evidence (to solve the case),” Trate mentioned. “Well, here we are in 2022, and that little piece of evidence that they collected was exactly what we needed.”
Investigators don’t know a lot about Grim aside from he lived within the close by Hamburg, Pennsylvania, space.
They’re making an attempt to find out whether or not he knew Kane, and have urged anybody who is aware of the character of their relationship to succeed in out. So far, they’ve discovered no ties.
“But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t some connection that we haven’t figured out yet,” Womer mentioned.
Kane was reportedly working as a prostitute on the time she was killed and will have been assembly a buyer, Womer mentioned, including that police try to find out whether or not it was Grim.
The Pennsylvania State Police have declined to launch the 1990 letter to the newspaper or to elaborate on precisely what it mentioned.
“There was just intimate details about where she was disposed of, how her clothes were displayed, stuff like that,” Womer mentioned. “This led investigators to believe that whoever wrote the letter had committed the homicide.”
Investigators mentioned the most important breakthrough within the case occurred this yr after they obtained a brand new pattern of Grim’s DNA to match with the older proof. They declined to elaborate how they obtained his DNA when he’s been lifeless for 4 years.
“It was obtained legally through a search warrant,” Trate mentioned.
Now that they have identified Grim’s DNA, police will evaluate different open chilly instances to see if he was concerned, Womer mentioned.
Meanwhile, Reyes nonetheless misses her mom.
“It has been hard growing up without a mom,” she mentioned. “No child should ever have to grow up without their mom.”
Reyes nonetheless has so many questions she’d ask Grim if he was nonetheless alive. Why did he kill a younger girl who was simply making an attempt to care for her youngsters? And what went via his thoughts when he realized she had a household that cherished her?
Reyes is aware of she’ll by no means get the solutions. But she’s glad her household lastly is aware of her mom’s killer.