DNA engineering can help fix 1980 murder of Eve Wilkowitz on Extensive Island

BAY SHORE, N.Y. — Slicing-edge DNA know-how assisted fix a 42-year-aged chilly case murder on Extended Island.

Wednesday, the household of a younger girl murdered a long time ago bought their initially glimpse at shots of the guy who killed her. As CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff stories, they are grateful for lengthy-sought responses.

It was a 1980 tragedy and secret. 20-year-aged Eve Wilkowitz was walking home from the Bay Shore educate station right after returning from her work as a secretary in Manhattan. She was kidnapped and identified days later, raped and strangled. Her murder was unsolved right up until now.

“We solved the 42-yr-previous homicide situation of Eve Wilkowitz  … The perpetrator of that criminal offense, a Herbert Rice, who is deceased,” Suffolk County District Lawyer Ray Tierney declared Wednesday.

Her sister, Irene Wilkowitz, is overcome with aid.

“I continue to can not feel I heard people text, ‘We have determined the human being dependable for the dying of Eve,'” she explained.

Tierney phone calls it a study in persistence and willpower. Law enforcement held DNA from the criminal offense and over the years continued to compare it to felony databases. Eventually, with new technologies and obtain to general public DNA databases, they uncovered a relative’s match. They acquired a sample from a cooperating relative of Rice and exhumed Rice’s overall body, confirming a match.

“This is my 1st time seeing him. I did not Google him even although I understood his identify for a pair of months now. I didn’t want to see the last face that Eve observed though she was continue to alive,” Wilkowitz mentioned.

It’s a smaller evaluate of closure for a family members and relentless detectives.

“A lot of really, truly dogged investigators functioning collaboratively with the assistance of an unbelievable family,” Tierney claimed.

“Irene … who by no means lost faith in our investigators’ commitment,” Suffolk Law enforcement Commissioner Rodney Harrison stated.

Rice died of most cancers in 1991. Prosecutors feel it was a criminal offense of opportunity. He was dwelling on the block wherever Eve Wilkowitz was kidnapped and her system dumped.

“Mostly she appreciated staying a big sister to me. She under no circumstances got a probability to satisfy her goals,” Irene Wilkowitz reported. “I have lived these very last 42 years afraid all the time that I was heading to be killed upcoming.”

This is first time a DNA match from a public database has solved a Suffolk murder case. The victim’s sister is  hoping it can aid other households. She and prosecutors thank Rice’s family members in helping to resolve this situation.

Prosecutors stated they do not think Rice was accountable for any other murders.