DNA hit leads to arrest in 30-year-old murder case
An Illinois man has been charged with the 1985 murder and rape of a 15-year-old Chicago-area girl after his DNA was matched to evidence recovered from the crime.
Michael R. Jones, 62, is being held without bail in the DuPage County jail on two counts of murder and one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault, the Chicago Tribune (sub. req.) reports.
Jones was linked to the murder of Kristina Wesselman after his conviction last summer on an aggravated domestic battery charge, according to DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin. A DNA sample he provided in connection with the domestic battery case was submitted to a national DNA database, and it was a match for semen recovered from Wesselman during her autopsy.
Wesselman was raped and stabbed to death in broad daylight while walking home from a grocery store.
Jones has denied killing Wesselman, telling deputies over the weekend that he had “never seen her before.” But Berlin said the DNA evidence is irrefutable.
At the time of Wesselman’s murder, Jones was still on parole after serving seven years in prison for the sexual assault of a Chicago woman.
