Body exhumed for DNA, may help solve Bryan cold case, too
Executed in 1999, Earhart a new focus in 1986 slaying.
Six years before he shot a 9-year-old in the head and left her body to decompose in Brazos County, a man strangled and bludgeoned a real estate agent, officials say.
That woman’s death went unsolved for decades, but DNA evidence has recently linked the slaying to James Otto Earhart, who was executed more than 15 years ago for the young girl’s death.
Researchers matched DNA from the fingernails of real estate agent Virginia Freeman to Earhart through public ancestral databases, the Bryan-College Station Eagle reported this week.
Earhart’s body was exhumed from a Huntsville grave to confirm the findings with a bone sample.
“Earhart was already on our list of suspects,” Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk said. “This unsolved case has been continually on our minds, and any potential lead that has come to our attention has been followed up on.”
Freeman was 40 when a potential buyer met her at a rural property in 1981 and stabbed her in the neck 11 times before strangling and bludgeoning her. Police gathered DNA but didn’t have the technology to pinpoint her killer with it.
Six years later, Earhart kidnapped 9-year-old Kandy Kirtland from her Bryan home, tied her hands behind her back with electrical cord and shot her in the head. He was arrested two weeks later, hours before her body was found decomposed beyond her mother’s recognition. He was convicted in her slaying and executed in 1999.
He refused to give DNA samples in his 11 years on death row.
In 2017, National Geographic Explorer, a documentary series, had the DNA from Freeman’s fingernails analyzed by Parabon NanoLabs for an episode about the investigation, according to The Eagle’s report Monday.
The phenotyping tool created composite sketches showing what the killer’s eyes, skin and hair would have looked like, using the samples from Freeman’s remains. The firm also created a DNA profile of the killer’s family, using information from public databases directed at ancestry and adoption research.
The DNA ancestral analysis identified two of Earhart’s female second cousins, then determined the great-grandparents who would likely be shared by the suspect, Kirk said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety’s Austin lab indicated a match with a DNA sample provided by Earhart’s son in April 2017.
Earlier this year, ancestral DNA research helped police identify and arrest the suspected Golden State Killer decades after the murders.
Police think DNA may also connect Earhart to a third victim, a 51-year-old woman who was kidnapped from Bryan and killed in February 1986, The Eagle reported.
Investigators collected saliva and semen samples from the remains of Ruth Richardson Green, who was stabbed, shot and left in a Dumpster. The samples were not tested at the time because police did not have access to the technology.
Students may never have to step back inside Santa Fe High School’s two art rooms, where a 17-yearold gunman began a shooting spree on May 18, killing 10 and wounding 13. Instead, those rooms could be gutted this summer and turned into storage or office space.
The renovation proposals came as trustees in the Santa Fe school district this week discussed dipping into their “rainy day” reserve fund balance to add security upgrades to the rural Galveston County school. The ideas discussed included securing the perimeter with fencing, adding security doors that could be raised in an emergency and modifying one of the building’s longest hallways.
But parents who spoke at the Santa Fe district’s first regular board meeting since the shooting demanded more before they would agree to send their children back to local schools. Monday evening’s board meeting was packed with more than 100 Santa Fe families and community members, most of whom applauded speakers who called for changes. Another 20 or 30 watched from an overflow room.
“If I can’t look my child in the eye and tell her she’s going to be safe, she’s not coming back,” said Kendra Hammond, a parent who spoke during public comment.
Most at the evening meeting missed a workshop where trustees and building officials discussed security measures and renovations that could be made to Santa Fe High before students return Aug. 21. That timeline would give workers less than two months to modify large parts of the school’s building.
The majority of options presented by Jerry Bevel with Cre8 Architects proposed gutting the art rooms and converting them into storage spaces. One option would convert the rooms into an interior weight room and another would transform the room into storage and office space for the Santa Fe school district police department.
The options for campuswide upgrades ranged in price from about $322,500 to $585,000, but those estimates could change due to the availability of materials or changes trustees approve.
Bevel said his firm was contacted by the district about two weeks ago to look into making security upgrades to the high school. It was already working on a contract with the Santa Fe district to build a new elementary school.
The most substantial proposed changes to Santa Fe High include a new, larger security vestibule in the school’s lobby. Its expansion would help facilitate the use of metal detectors, although the board has not yet discussed or approved adding metal detectors as a security measure.
New floors would replace all main hallways throughout the campus, many of which were torn up and removed after the shooting. An interior weight room could be converted into new offices for the school’s growing ranks of guidance counselors. School officials discussed temporarily relocating the school’s drill and dance room from its location adjacent to the art rooms to what is now a backstage area of the school’s split cafeteria and auditorium space.
The proposals reviewed Monday would be the first in multiple rounds of renovations at Santa Fe High, said Bob Atkins, executive director of facilities, maintenance and operations.
“Phase two is long-term solutions,” Atkins said. “It may be quite radical; we may be changing a bunch of different functions.”
Board President J.R. “Rusty” Norman said he would call a special meeting “fairly soon” for the board to whittle down the proposals and vote on final changes.
But parents who spoke at the evening board meeting said the district is taking too long to make quick, decisive security changes.
Some in the audience muffled sobs as others described shortcomings they said were laid bare in the May 18 shooting.
Since then, the district has created a 30-person safety and security committee to make recommendations to the board on topics ranging from metal detectors to an increase in counselors. More than 150 people had applied to join the committee, said Santa Fe school district police Chief Walter Braun.
“No child should ever be scared of going to school, scared of thinking they’re going to be shot. We all share that common goal right now,” Norman said.