A Niskayuna, New York, man has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in a 29-year-old case out of Fairfax County, Virginia.
On Monday, police announced that Stephan Smerk, 51, had been arrested as the primary suspect in Lawrence’s death, following a trip by detectives to New York.
While a DNA profile was created in the case in 1994, police were only able to obtain a match recently. At the time of Lawrence’s death, Mr. Smerk was living and working as an active-duty service member at the U.S. Army base in Fort Myer near Arlington, Deputy Chief Cory said.Pictures of Mr. Smerk from 1988, when he was 16, and 1998, when he was 26, were compared by detectives to a digital composite based on the DNA in the case by Parabon NanoLabs.
In this case, the DNA evidence taken in 1994 was run through Parabon’s predictive model to create a digital representation of what the suspect might look like. That image was then compared to the real-life photos of Mr. Smerk, police said.“This was really a randomly selected act, there was no connection between the two of them,” Deputy Chief Cory said.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The anatomy of suppressing dissent in Fairfax County Public SchoolsWhile Fairfax County Public Schools are defying Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) model policies for public education, the school board is also trying to suppress dissent among teachers, parents, and students.
Read more »
New York Fashion Week Finds a New Way ForwardWhile designers celebrate anniversaries, returns, and remixes, they're also discovering a balance between past and present
Read more »
New York state declares Lunar New Year a school holidayLunar New Year is the biggest holiday of the year for millions of East Asians around the world.
Read more »
Lunar New Year now a holiday for New York public schools: What to knowAsian Lunar New Year is now a holiday for all public schools in New York after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the legislation into law.
Read more »
New York adds Lunar New Year as public school holiday“It is not just a day off from school — it is an opportunity for our children to learn about and celebrate their own or different cultures and traditions,” Gov. Hochul said.
Read more »
Hudson County Schools of Technology to rename middle school complex in honor of county executiveAfter more than 20 years as county executive, DeGise decided not to run for re-election in November.
Read more »