Police used DNA analysis to identify the killer of Karen Klaas, the ex-wife of Righteous Brothers singer Bill Medley, 41 years after she was murdered.
The murder was the longest-running cold case in Hermosa Beach where Klaas lived with her two young children. Klaas was sexually assaulted and killed when she returned home after taking her son to school Jan. 30, 1976, according to The Washington Post.
Police say the 32-year-old was strangled with her pantyhose, and was unconscious when police found her. Five days later, Klaas died in the hospital without ever regaining consciousness, the Post reported.
Medley was notified when police identified Klaas’s killer as Kenneth Troyer, who was linked to several sexual assaults in southern California. Troyer was killed by police in a shooting in 1982 after escaping from prison, the Post said.
Medley spoke at a news conference Monday with Klaas’s two sons also present, the Post reported.
“I just kind of became numb,” he said of learning that the killer was identified. “This is something you’ve been hoping for or speculating about for 40 years. All of a sudden, they say, ‘We got it.’”
Medley also said he was “more rattled today than I’ve been for years,” adding that he had always hoped the murder would be solved. “There’s been a voice in the back of my head—probably Karen’s—telling me since about 20 years ago to drop it, let it go,” CBS News reported Medley as saying. “This guy is either dead or in prison.”
Familial DNA was used to identify Troyer through a relative’s DNA, CBS News reported.
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