ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The body of a woman found in a drainage ditch 35 years ago has been identified as that of an 18-year-old Texas hitchhiker who was assaulted and killed by a former Minnesota state trooper, state authorities said Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Michelle Yvette Busha's remains were identified over the weekend through DNA testing. Her body was found on May 30, 1980, and had been buried anonymously at a cemetery in the southern Minnesota city of Blue Earth for the past three decades. <\/p>\n
Robert Leroy Nelson, a state trooper at the time, had confessed to killing a woman nine years later, but investigators had been unable to determine her identity. <\/p>\n
\"This was a case of not whodunit, but who was she,\" said Faribault County Sheriff Michael Gormley. <\/p>\n
Busha's remains were exhumed in August and DNA was collected as part of a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension effort to identify dozens of unidentified human remains in the state. <\/p>\n
BCA Forensic Science Services Director Catherine Knutson said investigators built a DNA profile, and entered that information into a national database for missing persons in mid-February. The results matched DNA samples submitted by members of Busha's family in 2007. <\/p>\n
\"Michelle's family has experienced a terrible loss, but they now have answers about what has happened to their daughter,\" Gormley said, adding that her family was surprised to learn she was in Minnesota. <\/p>\n
Jerry Kabe, former chief deputy sheriff in Faribault County and a former lead investigator on the case, said Nelson was being questioned in the sexual assault of a child in Texas when he admitted to killing an unidentified woman in Minnesota. Nelson was convicted in both cases and remains in prison, authorities said. <\/p>\n
Kabe said Nelson told investigators he was watching traffic when a dark van let a young woman out. He followed her, put her in his car, and sexually assaulted, handcuffed and tortured her. He then strangled the woman with a cord, and left her body in a ravine near Interstate 90, east of Blue Earth. <\/p>\n
Busha's family reported her missing in Texas on May 9, 1980. The body was found weeks later. <\/p>\n
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\nDNA identifies woman slain by Minnesota trooper in 1980<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"