Edward Morgan.Photo: Dallas County district attorney’s office
In February 1984, the body of 21-year-old Mary Jane Thompson was found crumpled behind a warehouse in Dallas, Texas.
For decades, authorities searched for the man who sexually assaulted and strangled the aspiring model with her own leg warmers as her family waited for answers.
Nearly 38 years to the day that Thompson’s body was found behind the warehouse on Irving Boulevard, a suspect has been arrested in connection with her murder, the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Officeannounced Friday.
Edward Morgan, 60, of Dallas, faces a capital murder charge, the DA’s office said in a release.
On social media, Thompson’s family shared their relief that police have finally arrested a suspect.
“Missing you sis on Friday when i got that call i been waiting 38 years for,” Thompson’s sister, Selena Tomasello, wrote on Facebook.
Saying that the FBI had reached out to tell her that her sister’s alleged killer had been captured, Tomasello wrote, “he will be in jail for the rest of his life,” she said. “i know you are looking down. And happy that they finally got him.”
Thompson moved to Dallas in August 1984, where she worked in a restaurant and at a flower shop as she pursued her dreams of becoming a model, theDallas Morning Newsreported.
Before that, she had lived in Houston and Los Angeles.
She was last seen on Feb. 11, 1984, when she went to the Trinity Medical Clinic on Industrial Boulevard, theDallas Morning Newsreported. But when she got there, the clinic was closed.
Two days later, her body was found behind a warehouse on the 2300 block of Irving Boulevard, near railroad tracks.
Investigators on the case “spent countless hours over multiple years working diligently on what, at times, seemed like an impossible case to solve,” Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Leighton D’Antoni said in the release.
“It is not every day we are able to solve a 38-year-old cold case capital murder,” D’Antoni said.
“We never, ever forget about these cases, our victims, and their families,” he said.
In 2009, Dallas police reopened the case and performed DNA testing on swabs from the autopsy, according to the release.
“An unknown male DNA profile was identified but never matched to a specific suspect,” authorities said.
In 2018, Dallas Police Cold Case Homicide Detective Noe Camacho reopened the case and worked with the Dallas County DA Sexual Assault Kit Initiative team on new types of forensic testing techniques, the DA’s office said.
In 2020, the FBI joined the case, which was submitted for forensic genetic genealogy analysis — the same technology used to catch the Golden State Killer. Morgan was then identified as the suspect.
“This week, DNA testing confirmed he matched the unidentified profile from the swab taken in the 1984 autopsy,” the DA’s office said.
Morgan remains held in the Dallas County Jail. It is unclear if he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
“It is not every day we are able to solve a 38-year-old cold case capital murder,” D’Antoni wrote.
source: people.com
