Natalia Chi
After the 1988 murder of a woman in Wisconsin, a Washington state man was identified using a “family DNA search” to examine records of people potentially related to the suspect. was prosecuted.
Jean C. Meyer, 66, has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault for using a dangerous weapon in the murder of 60-year-old Betty Rolfe. Reported by WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Thursday.
Meyer lived about a mile from where Rolfe’s body was found on November 7, 1988, just outside Appleton, Wisconsin. The complaint alleges Mayer fled to Washington after the murder. He currently lives in Eastonville.
Rolf had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.
Meyer was arrested Wednesday, the Outagamie County, Wisconsin, Sheriff’s Department said. He was imprisoned in Washington pending extradition to Wisconsin.
According to the criminal complaint, investigators detected DNA amplification in samples taken from Rolfe’s body and searched DNA databases to find close relatives of the suspect. Based on that search, police determined that the only suspect could be Meyer or his brother.
The brothers provided DNA samples that ruled him out as a suspect, the complaint said.
FBI agents tracked Meyer to Washington and obtained a DNA sample from the door handle of his truck. According to the complaint, the samples matched those obtained from Rolfe’s body during an autopsy.
