Brian Day will have a great story in Sunday’s paper about how investigators using DNA evidence caught up with a man who killed a Baldwin Park couple 22-years-ago as they slept:
From Brian’s story, which we slugged COLDCASE:
Twenty-two years after a Baldwin Park couple was fatally stabbed by intruders as they slept in their bed, DNA left at the scene pointed to one of their killers.
Martin Talavera, 44, was convicted earlier this month of the stabbing deaths of Sylvester Flood, 74, and his fiance, Peggy Johnson, 61, in their home in the 4800 block of Elizabeth Street on Jan. 10, 1986*, said Deputy District Attorney Stefan Mrakich, who prosecuted the case in court.
Flood was pronounced dead at the scene, and Johnson died 14 months after the incident from injuries determined to be related to the attack, Mrakich said. Johnson was also raped her during the ordeal.
“It was just a horrific, brutal crime,” Mrakich said, adding that Flood’s face was filled with “that horrible gaze of fear” and his hands were still held up in front of him as if to defend himself against his attacker in crime scene photographs.”
I’ll have some crime scene photos posted up here Sunday.
*As you see I’ve changed the date from ’96 to ’86
Brian’s story is now online. Here’s a link.
I posted the first few paragraphs of the story up here as I was editing it Friday night. So there are some structural changes. See the comparison and the photos on the jump.
Continue reading “DNA helps catch killer*” »