Suspect in 1990s case identified

DNA points to deceased man in rape, death of woman.

CONWAY — After almost three decades, Faulkner County authorities have used DNA and genealogical research to identify a suspect in the rape and beating death of a woman who was kidnapped from a Greenbrier video store where she worked.

The sheriff’s office on Monday publicly identified “the prime suspect” in the death of Pamela Faye Felkins, 32, as the now-deceased Edward Keith Renegar, who was 32 at the time of the crime. Renegar died of natural causes in Salt Lake City in September 2002.

There’s still more work to do on the case, Sheriff Tim Ryals said.

“We will never stop until we put this thing to rest,” Ryals told Felkins’ friends and relatives who attended a news conference along with many law enforcement personnel and others. “We will never quit; I promise you that.”

Renegar served a stint in prison in the 1990s and formerly lived in Greenbrier, not far from the dump site on Clinton Mountain Road where Felkins’ body was found within a day of her Feb. 2, 1990 disappearance, Ryals said.

Renegar, who worked for Virco in Conway from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, had been a frequent visitor of the Crossroads Video Store No. 2 where Felkins was filling in for another employee on the day of her abduction.

Semen found inside Felkins’ body during an autopsy had long been the only evidence that could possibly identify her assailant, Ryals said.

About a year ago, Ryals, the prosecuting attorney’s office, the State Crime Laboratory and Pat Moore, the county coroner who has since died, began pursuing a new forensic technology. It used the DNA to create a “facial snapshot” that might help authorities identify a suspect.

When that effort didn’t lead to a suspect with matching DNA, Ryals got the crime laboratory to submit that DNA to an ancestral-research comA

pany. It turned out that some of Renegar’s family members had submitted their own DNA in the past to the company, and it tracked the DNA sample “all the way to” Renegar, Ryals said after the news conference.

Renegar was no longer alive, though, and none of his DNA was available to authorities for comparison. So, they located his family, and his biological daughter “was more than willing to help,” the sheriff added. They took a swab sample from her, and “with 99.9 percent accuracy” identified Renegar as the owner of the DNA found in Felkins’ body, Ryals said.

Renegar fit an FBI profile of the assailant and also had the physical characteristics described in the DNA facial snapshot: eye color, hair, and facial build, the sheriff said.

Ryals hopes that authorities might still find the murder weapon and perhaps DNA on it.

In July 1994, Renegar was convicted in Cleburne County of kidnapping a young woman “who was fortunate enough to escape,” Ryals said. Armed with a knife, Renegar bound that victim. He served 10 months in prison and was released in May 1995.

Friends, family and associates of Felkins did not know Renegar and knew of no association between her and the suspect, the sheriff said.

Ryals hopes that someone learning of the new developments will remember Renegar, who drove a red 1984 82200 Mazda pickup with a white camper shell. He also drove a mustard yellow, long-wheel base Ford pickup, a small gray car and a Ford LTD.

Authorities are still investigating the case, including whether there might be more than one suspect as some close to Felkins thought. “We’re not sure,” Ryals said at the news conference.

The sheriff declined to say whether Renegar might have rented or bought a video at the store on the day of the abduction.

Ryals asked that anyone who may have known Renegar or have any information about the suspect or people he associated with call investigators Kent Hill or Johnny Fowlkes at the sheriff’s office at (501) 450-4917.

Felkins’ sister, Wilma Pate of Conway, praised investigators and said the announcement was good “in a way,” though there remain “a lot of unanswered questions.”

Carolyn Pratt of Vilonia was at the news conference, too. She and Felkins had been friends since childhood.

“It’s just so encouraging … that they’ve gotten this far,” especially “after we’ve waited all these years” … and known “little or nothing,” Pratt said.

In 1998, after becoming Faulkner County sheriff, Marty Montgomery was preparing a major effort to solve the Felkins case and talked about it then with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

“Pam and I grew up together,” attending the same schools and even some classes in Greenbrier, Montgomery said at the time. “The fact that we haven’t been able to identify a killer has haunted me.”

On Monday, Montgomery and another former sheriff, Bob Blankenship, stood near Ryals and other law-enforcement personnel during the news conference.