DNA puts 1969 murder to rest
DA: Career criminal raped, killed Harvard grad student
Jane Britton’s family never found justice for her 1969 murder, but yesterday, nearly a half-century after the 23year-old Needham woman’s death, they learned who prosecutors say killed her.
Using DNA testing, investigators have determined that Michael Sumpter, a now-deceased career criminal who has been linked to the rapes of four other women and the murders of two of them, sexually assaulted and bludgeoned the Harvard anthropology graduate student in her University Road apartment in Cambridge, said Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan.
“A half century of mystery and speculation has clouded the brutal crime that shattered Jane's promising young life and our family,” the victim’s brother, the Rev. Boyd R. Britton, said in a statement. “As the surviving Britton, I wish to thank all those — friends, public officials and press — who persevered in keeping this investigation active, most especially State Police Sgt. Peter Sennott. The DNA evidence match may be all we ever have as a conclusion. Learning to understand and forgive remains a challenge.”
On Jan. 7, 1969, his sister’s body was found at 12:40 p.m. in her fourth-floor apartment by her boyfriend, who had come to check on her after she missed an exam that morning, Ryan said.
Sumpter likely entered Britton’s apartment through a window because another tenant in the building reported hearing someone on the fire escape that connected to her flat, the DA said. Another witness reported seeing a man running in the street nearby at 1:30 a.m.
Three years after Britton’s murder, Sumpter was convicted of assaulting a woman he had met at the Harvard MBTA station, Ryan said.
In 1975, he was convicted of raping a woman in her Boston apartment. He died of cancer at the age of 54 in 2001, 13 months after he was paroled from his 15- to 20year sentence for that rape.
The year after his death, Sumpter’s DNA was linked to a 1985 Boston stranger rape committed after he escaped from work release, Ryan said.
It wasn’t until 2010 that his DNA came back as a match to DNA taken from the 1972 murder and rape of 23-yearold Ellen Rutchick in her Beacon Street apartment in Boston.
In 2012, his DNA was matched to the 1973 rape and murder of Mary Lee McClain, 24, in her Mount Vernon Street apartment.
Last year, authorities decided to perform additional DNA testing on the remaining evidence from Britton’s murder.
And four months ago, the State Police Crime Lab told investigators the male-specific profile that resulted from that testing matched the DNA sample from Sumpter that was still on file, Ryan said.
Using geneology, including Ancestry.com, the DA said, investigators were able to track down and obtain a DNA sample from his brother, who has the same malespecific profile. Testing on that sample confirmed that Michael Sumpter was Britton’s killer, Ryan said.