Will DNA Finally Solve the 1959 Walker Family Murder Mystery?

A detective who first learned as a child of the tragic unsolved murders of the Walker family in southern Florida hopes that DNA will help him solve the case on the eve of his retirement.

The annihilation of a couple and their two children in late December 1959 may sound familiar if you've read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, in which the crime is mentioned; the eerie parallels to the Clutter case had some briefly considering whether the cases were connected. (If you have the 1993 edition, it's on p. 258.)

The DNA has now been processed, as explained in a recent article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. The evidence was actually submitted quite some time ago, but the chronic, scandalous underfunding of DNA labs meant years and years of waiting for results. Now the lab work is done and a DNA profile is ready for comparison.

A second piece in the Herald Tribune includes headlines and images from the original news reports. A third piece takes a broad view of the tragedy, and a fourth names the critical suspects and evidence.

Here's hoping Detective Ron Albritton gets his man. Or at least an answer to the mystery, 49 years later. And I'm getting ahead of the story but here's wishing too that some true crime writer in Florida takes that solution and puts it in context in a book and explains to us not only what befell this family but why.

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(Thanks to Jim McCord for the links.)

Comments

[Trucrym15]

There's also this link from the Herald Tribune: http://tinyurl.com/2wrrh2

Weird....this is very similar to the Sims murder in Tallahassee in 1966, also unsolved.

[ray]

Who dunnit? Have they matched the DNA yet?

[robin matson]

I would suggest that police compare DNA from the scene to that of Emmett Spencer..and take a fresh indepth look at Spencer's confession.