Oklahoma investigators say they have solved a 35-year unsolved case after finding a match for a DNA profile taken from cigarette butts collected at the crime scene.
Earl Wilson, 55, now faces a first-degree murder charge for the 1985 murder of Paul Aikman, who was stabbed to death at a rest stop on a highway connecting Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the attorney general’s office says. state.
“Advances in DNA technology are allowing authorities to take a look at these difficult cases,” Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement. “Just because the cases disappear does not mean that someone should not be held responsible, even after three decades.”
Earl Wilson has been charged with a 1985 murder after investigators linked his DNA to cigarettes found at the crime scene, prosecutors say. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections)
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The office says that in 1985, agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) collected cigarette butts while combing through the scene of Aikman’s death and were then able to develop a DNA profile from them.
The case was closed after no matches were found. But last year, OBSI criminals searching CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database, discovered that Wilson was a coincidence, according to the Office, adding that a fingerprint print taken from the crime scene also could bond with Wilson.
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Wilson is currently being held at an Oklahoma correctional center on a sexual assault conviction, the Associated Press reported, citing prison records.
“For 35 years, Paul Aikman’s family ached not knowing who was responsible for his murder,” OSBI Director Ricky Adams said in a statement. “Thirty-five years have passed, but we have not forgotten Paul.”
