Texas Cold Case Solved After 38 Years

DNA has led to the arrest in a 38-year-old cold case in Texas.

Edward Morgan, 60, was arrested Friday (February 18) and is facing capital murder charges in the death of Mary Jane Thompson, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in a statement to NBC News. Morgan was identified as the suspect in Thompson's death using the same DNA technology used to catch California's "Golden State Killer," a forensic genetic genealogy analysis.

Thompson was last seen in February 1984. Her body was found two days later behind a warehouse, strangled with her own leg warmers. She was also sexually assaulted, NBC News reported.

The case was reopened in 2009. "DNA swabs from her autopsy turned up DNA from a possible male suspect, prosecutors said. But no exact matches were found and the case went cold," NBC News reported.

The case was reopened again in 2018 by a cold case detective with the Dallas Police Department, who used new technology like ancestry databases for potential leads. NBC News reported that in 2020, Morgan was identified as the suspect in Thompson's death when the case was submitted for forensic genetic genealogy analysis. Morgan's DNA matched the DNA swabbed in 1984.