COLUMBUS (AP) — Columbus police say they have solved the nearly four-decade-old case of an 8-year-old girl abducted on the way home from school, then raped and killed.
COLD CASE HOMICIDE SOLVED:
Columbus Police holds news conference announcing the 1982 sexual assault/murder of 8yo Kelly Prosser has been solved.
DNA links Harold Warren Jarrell as the little girl’s killer.https://t.co/Wn1zPlokzJ
CPD Cold Case #podcast https://t.co/zdlGWvCXUa pic.twitter.com/9Ylg9Dfaej
— Columbus Division of Police (@ColumbusPolice) June 26, 2020
Authorities say the new investigative technique known as genetic genealogy testing led them to suspect Harold Warren Jarrell, who is now deceased.
Police announced the identification of Jarrell as the killer of 8-year-old Kelly Prosser at a Friday news conference.
The girl was abducted on Sept. 20, 1982, and her body discovered in a Madison County cornfield two days later.
Genetic genealogy testing allows investigators to trace suspects through family trees via DNA.