A single drop of blood led to the arrest of a New York man who is suspected of killing his former in-laws more than 30 years ago.
The suspect, Michael Anthony Louise, 79, was taken into custody on Thursday at his home in Syracuse and charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
He is charged with killing George Peacock, 76, and Catherine Peacock, 73, at their Danby, Vermont, home on Sept. 17, 1989, Vermont State Police announced in a news release.
The old couple had been brutally stabbed multiple times and was reportedly found by their neighbor.
Louise, who was married to one of the Peacock’s daughters, had been identified as a potential suspect about two weeks after the killings but detectives could not “establish a conclusive link” tying him to the crime, the release states.
There were no signs of forced entry into the house and no important items had been removed, according to authorities.
According to local police, the killings went unsolved as there were no new developments until, in May 2020, forensic testing “confirmed a DNA match to George Peacock in a spot of blood found inside Louise’s car in October 1989.”
Louise is being held at the Onondaga County Justice Center until he is extradited to Vermont.
DNA testing in Forensic Science and Investigation has been a real blessing, as the authorities are now able to crack many unsolved cases and murders.
In Pennsylvania, authorities were also able to crack the 1988 strangulation death of a mother after breakthrough genetic genealogy technology linked DNA from the victim’s clothing to a saliva-sealed anonymous letter that was written to a local newspaper about two years after the killing.
