Police in central Florida claim they've cracked a 20-year-old homicide investigation by matching a tax cheat's DNA to evidence at the murder scene.
David Lee Hedrick, 50, a computer and television salesman from Apopka, began 15 years of probation for tax fraud on Nov. 21 by providing a DNA sample to state officials, The Orlando Sentinel reports.
When they ran his genetic ID through crime records they come up with a match to a grisly crime that had vexed investigators for two decades, according to The Associated Press.
In 1991, Betty Clair Foster was found stabbed to death inside the computer store where she worked as a receptionist. A customer spotted blood on the ground outside the shop, The Sentinel says.
At the time of the murder, Clair was believed to be the only employee in the store. The doors weren't locked, but the window curtains were closed, according to the newspaper. No money was taken from her purse.
Investigators worked the case, but the trail went cold until Hedrick was convicted for withholding $72,000 in sales tax to the state on the sale of $764,000 of televisions to two Walt Disney World hotels, The Sentinel says.
The subsequent felony conviction required Hedrick to register with the state and supply a DNA sample, according to radio station WDBO.
During the registration, it was noted that Hedrick bore unspecified signs of old scars on his fingers, WDBO says.
Test results came back weeks later showing that Hedrick's DNA matched samples found at computer store crime scene. Seminole County sheriff deputies arrested him on Monday and charged him with first degree murder, according to WKMG