LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Investiga-tors have solved the 1976 murder of the ex-wife of Righteous Brothers singer Bill Medley, using DNA analysis to confirm she was slain by a career burglar who was killed six years later as a prison escapee, police said on Monday.
Karen Klaas, a 32-year-old mother of two boys, was attacked in her home in Hermosa Beach, south of Los Angeles, shortly after returning from dropping her younger son off at school on the morning of Jan. 30, 1976.
She was found unconscious after being strangled and sexually assaulted, lapsing into a coma and dying at a local hospital five days later.
The killing grabbed headlines partly because of her former marriage to Medley, who with Bobby Hatfield made up the singing duo known for such hits as “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” and “Unchained Melody.” Medley and Klaas were married from 1964 to 1970.
The investigation initially focused on five possible suspects, but the case went cold when no evidence was discovered linking them to the crime, police said. The five were later ruled out by DNA testing.
The key break came last year when investigators ran a “familial” DNA search testing biological evidence from the crime scene against a national FBI database of DNA profiles from convicted felons, said Larry Brandenburg, lead detective in the case for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department since 2008.
The analysis led investigators to a new suspect pinpointed through a match between the crime-scene sample and a close male relative whose DNA was entered into the system in 2011, Brandenburg said.
Additional investigation and testing ultimately confirmed the killer’s identity as Kenneth Troyer, a 29-year-old serial burglar at the time of the Klaas slaying, the detective said.
Troyer was shot to death by police in March 1982 after escaping from a central California prison, where he was serving time for burglary. By then, he was suspected of a string of robberies, assaults and rapes while on the run.
Brandenburg said investigators believed Troyer, a stranger to Klaas, happened to be staying with a relative of his near her home.
Medley, now 76, who remained close to Klaas, appeared with authorities and her two grown sons, the older of whom she had with Medley, at a news conference on Monday to announce the case had been solved.
“It’s been a long road, and we’re just thrilled that we can close the book,” he said.
