Spc. Darlene Krashoc was a 20-year-old active-duty soldier stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs Co when she was murdered on March 16, 1987. She had gone out for the evening with members of her unit to a local club called Shovels and was last seen leaving the club between 12:00 and 1:00 AM.
The next day her body
was found behind a Korean restaurant. She had been strangled. Investigators
were able to collect DNA that belonged to an unknown male from a wire hanger
that was used to strangle her.
In 2016 investigators
submitted DNA evidence to the US army criminal investigation lab for additional
testing. They were able to narrow down predictive traits for the suspect
including eye color hair color skin color in face shape two composite sketches
were made showing what a suspect may have looked like at 25 years old and 55
years old.
In 2019, investigators
made use of genetic genealogy by submitting the DNA they had to ancestry sites
(Ancestry.com) Forensic scientists
found people in Wisconsin and Texas who had similar DNA to the samples from the
crime scene and eventually they narrow down suspects to 58-year-old Michael
White who, in 1987, Michael lived just a few miles from the crime scene and was
also a soldier at Fort Carson.
Investigators followed
him from his house to his work and watched him drink from fast-food cup
investigators. From that cup, recovered from the trash, were then able to
gather enough DNA for testing which confirmed that his DNA matched the DNA from
the crime scene. He was arrested later that day and in 2021 he was sentenced to
life in prison without the possibility of parole.