CORAL SPRINGTS, Fla., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The murder of a 20-year-old south Florida woman 23 years ago has finally been solved because of improvements in DNA technology and procedures, police say. <\/p>\n
However, the suspected killer was executed in 2011 for a 1989 triple murder, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse was found naked and asphyxiated in November 1990 in a Coral Springs neighborhood three hours after she left work at a Broward County mall. Investigators gathered genetic evidence, said cold-case investigator Dan Cucchi, but the technology at the time was less sophisticated than today. Additionally, there was no database of DNA from convicted criminals with which to compare it. <\/p>\n
Cucchi and his partner, Brian Koenig, were assigned the case in August. They asked for DNA evidence collected more than two decades to be retested. <\/p>\n
The DNA matched Oba Chandler, convicted in 1994 in the rape, strangulation and killing of Joan Rogers and her two teenage daughters in St. Petersburg. <\/p>\n
He was executed by lethal injection three years ago. <\/p>\n
Chandler's DNA was collected when he was convicted, four years after the death of Berrios-Beguerisse, but \"it's just that we didn't have a profile from our victim's rape kit at that time,\" Cucchi said. <\/p>\n
In the interim, forensic technology also changed. <\/p>\n
\"Back in 1990, rape kits and the DNA collection process were not the same but now it's way more advanced,\" the detective said. \"You can actually take a smaller sample and through the new technology they can develop potential profiles and suspect DNA, where in the past they could not.\" <\/p>\n
Koenig said he and Cucchi are also examining other cold cases that might have similar evidence. <\/p>\n
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More: CORAL SPRINGTS, Fla., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The murder of a 20-year-old south Florida woman 23 years ago has finally been solved because of improvements in DNA technology and procedures, police say. However, the suspected killer was executed in 2011 for a 1989 triple murder, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday Continue reading
\nBetter DNA technology helps Florida police solve 23-year-old murder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"