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| DNA Links Inmate To Oklahoma Beating Death |
| By AP |
| Published: 08/09/2004 |
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DNA evidence has linked an Oklahoma prison inmate to the 1998 beating death of an 85-year-old Ponca City woman, authorities said. The female inmate, who is being held at the Mable Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud, was linked to the death of Margaret Mock by using hair Mock pulled from the attacker during the killing. Charges have not yet been filed. An affidavit should be submitted to the Kay County district attorney by the end of the week and the accused attacker will be named at that time, Ponca City Police Chief Clayton Johnson said. Police have already interviewed the inmate accused in the killing. "We believe it was absolutely random," Johnson said. "The (woman) told us she had left a party where she had been doing coke and drinking heavily. "She needed a ride and a phone. She picked that house because its porch light was on." Before the DNA testing, investigators had no motive for the slaying of Mock, who died after being severely beaten. Mock lived alone and officers did not determine that anyone broke into her house, which was in an older neighborhood near the middle of town. Johnson said one of his detectives recently spent months reviewing the case without making headway. Then came the test results from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. "We hadn't given up on this case at all," Johnson said. "The call from the OSBI? You talk about a godsend." DNA testing has also had an impact on two homicide cases in the Oklahoma City area in recent weeks. On August 3, Oklahoma State Reformatory inmate Charles Edward Scott Jr. was charged with murder in the April 1997 strangling death of Bryant Keith Frazier after a DNA sample taken from the Oklahoma City crime scene matched his profile in a database. Late last month, investigators announced that DNA had linked another Oklahoma prison inmate to the December 1996 shooting death of University of Oklahoma ballet dancer Jewell "Juli" Busken. Authorities have not named the inmate accused in Busken's death. |
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