Investigators in Alaska used genetic genealogy to rule out the killing of Jessica Baggen’s cold case, who was raped and murdered after celebrating her 17th birthday in 1996, authorities said Tuesday.
A suspect identified in the case, Steve Branch, 66, died last week by suicide after state police investigators traveled to his home in Austin, Arkansas, to interview him about the Baggen murder in the town of Sitka, southwest of Juneau, Alaska State Police Maj. Dave Hanson told reporters.
After authorities tried to obtain a DNA sample, Branch denied involvement in the slaughter of the toe and refused to supply one, Hanson said. Thirty minutes after officers left to get an arrest, Branch died by suicide, Hanson said.
“Although Branch in this case will never face a jury of his peers, we can finally say that Jessica’s case has been resolved,” said Amanda Price, Alaska’s public safety commissioner.
Baggen disappeared on May 4, 1996, after leaving a birthday party at her sister’s house to run home, Hanson said.
Her body, which was found two days later, was buried in the woods, he said.
Nine days later, a man contacted local police and confessed to sexually assaulting them, but no physical evidence linked him to the crime, and he was later released during a trial, Hanson said.
In 2018, investigators of the cold case submitted a suspicious DNA drive, taken from Baggen’s body to Parabon NanoLabs, which uploaded it to public genealogy databases, he said.
Eventually, Branch came out as a suspect, Hanson said. He was living in Sitka when Baggen was murdered, and he was charged – and released – in the sexual assault of another local teenager around the time of Baggen’s murder, Hanson said. He moved to Arkansas in 2010.
After a DNA sample was obtained from a relative of Branch’s, investigators determined that he was probably a match with the suspected DNA.
After Branch’s death on August 3, scientists matched DNA obtained from his body during an autopsy to the suspect’s DNA, Price said.
