In 1989, Larry Padgett Jr., 59, of Monroe County, Indiana, murdered Mary Luicile Willfong, 23. Authorities have been searching for the perpetrator for over 30 years, but none of the suspects’ DNA matched Willfong’s body.
Padgett allegedly sexually abused Willfong. He was found in a tractor trailer with a man at the Forest Park Farmers Market outside Atlanta. The case was revived in 2019. Deer hunters spotted Willfong in a Georgia woodland.
Larry Padgett Jr., who?
Willful death suspect William Padgett Jr. was arrested. As the case was revived in 2019, Marc Mansfield was assigned as an investigator and gave the old material to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for testing with current technology. Willfong’s DNA was tested in Miami for genetic genealogy. That test implicated Padgett Jr. The FBI Evidence Recovery Unit and Washington Police Department in Indiana issued warrants last week. Willfong’s autopsy showed sexual assault. Strangulation caused death. Police traveled to Indiana to arrest him once the warrant was issued. The suspect is in Indiana until extradition.
DNA-traced killers
Technology has shown similar examples. The Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, was caught using DNA after a murder and rape spree. Former police officer DeAngelo, now 77, evaded authorities for years as the Golden State Killer earned life sentences for brutal rapes and murders. DeAngelo was convicted guilty of 13 1975–1986 murders and rapes. DeAngelo admits to victimizing 87 people at 53 crime locations over 11 years. August 2020 saw DeAngelo sentenced to life without parole.
In another instance, former Seattle-Tacoma truck driver William Talbott II was convicted of murdering Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and her lover, Jay Cook, 20. Talbott was arrested in 2018 for the 1987 incident. A genealogy website helped police identify him from the victim’s DNA. Chelsea Rustad, Talbott’s cousin, won a DNA “spit kit” contest and uploaded her profile to the internet, starting the arrest process. Said, “He would not have been arrested without my DNA,” the police stated. No trial. That family would never know “Daily Mail. 1987 killed 19-year-old Jennifer Brinkman. Her killer was found in 2022. His DNA was detected on the ax that killed her. Jeffrey Paul Premo, 52, was detained. He was held in Snohomish County Jail on $250,000 bail after the pair met on a chat line in 1987.