A Loogootee, Indiana man has been arrested in connection to the 1989 murder of 23-year-old Mary Luicile Willfong.
Willfong was found by deer hunters in the woods of Georgia after being sexually assaulted and strangled, police said.
Over the years, police went after several suspects but said the DNA did not match the evidence taken from the victim’s body.
The case then went cold for north of 30 years.
Larry Padgett Jr., 59, was arrested and charged last week with the murder and sexual assault of 23-year-old Mary Luicile Willfong outside of Atlanta, Georgia in 1989
Padgett being arrested by officers from several departments around the country last week in Indiana
At the time of the murder, investigators had been told that Willfong, prior to her murder, had been seen getting into a tractor-trailer with a man at the Forest Park farmers market outside of Atlanta.
That tip prompted several suspect interviews, but all were eventually dismissed.
But then, in early 2019, Investigator Marc Mansfield was assigned to the freshly re-opened case and submitted the original evidence to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab to be tested with newer technology.
He also took the evidence to Miami for a genetic genealogy trace using DNA from Willfong.
As a result of his actions, investigators were able to identity 59-year-old Larry Padgett Jr. as a suspect.
The FBI Evidence Recovery Team and Washington Police Department in Indiana were able to get DNA evidence from Padgett and match it to the DNA taken from Willfong’s body.
Last week, arrest warrants were issued for Padgett and police drove to Indiana to arrest him.
During the course of the investigation, law enforcement officers discovered more evidence linking Padgett to Willfong’s murder.
Padgett is currently being held in Indiana until he can be extradited.
Padgett during his arrest in Indiana last Wednesday
Padget is one of many killers who committed murder several decades ago and is just now being brought to justice because of advancements in DNA testing technology.
Other killers who were ultimately apprehended thanks to advancements in DNA tracing used by law enforcement include: the Golden State Killer, the 1987 killer of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg, and the killing of Jennifer Brinkman in 1998.
The Golden State Killer: DNA used to nab Joseph James DeAngelo decades after he terrorized Californians in murder and rape spree
Joseph James DeAngelo, now 77, a former cop who eluded authorities for years as the Golden State Killer is serving multiple consecutive life sentences for sadistic rapes and murders
DeAngelo is pictured in the early 70s when he worked with the Exeter Police Department
Californians were terrorized in the 1970s and the 1980s by the Golden State Killer before a suspect was finally apprehended.
Dozens of rapes and murders went unsolved until Joseph James DeAngelo, now 77, was captured in 2018 with the help of advances in DNA technology.
To finally identify and arrest DeAngelo, investigators compared the killer’s DNA from the crime scenes to the genetic profiles that are publicly available on genealogical websites.
Law enforcement found that it matched one of DeAngelo’s relatives, which eventually led to him, proving that DNA could be the most innovative way to catch killers.
DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges that spanned much of California between 1975 and 1986.
He also admitted victimizing at least 87 people at 53 separate crime scenes spanning 11 California counties, though some of the crimes were too old to be formally charged.
On August 21, 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The plea deal spared him the death penalty.
Free ‘spit kit’ leads to conviction of Washington trucker in 1987 double murders of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg
William Talbott II, a truck driver from Seattle-Tacoma, was convicted of killing Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and her boyfriend, Jay Cook, 20, in 1987. Pictured: Van Cuylenborg and Cook in front of their van
Talbott II was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in 2019. Pictured: Talbott is helped to a wheelchair by Snohomish County Sheriff’s Deputies after being found guilty
The case went cold until a genealogy site was used to build a family tree and find the suspect
William Talbott II, a former truck driver from Seattle-Tacoma, was convicted of killing Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and her boyfriend, Jay Cook, 20.
The killings occurred in 1987, but Talbott wasn’t arrested until 2018, after authorities used a genealogy website to identify him as the person who left his DNA on one of the victims.
In 2015, Talbott’s cousin Chelsea Rustad entered a contest and won a DNA ‘spit kit’ and uploaded her profile – which led to Talbott’s connection to the murders.
He became the first person convicted as a result of genealogy research, PEOPLE reported.
‘Police told me that without my DNA, he would not have been arrested,’ Rustad previously told PEOPLE. ‘There would have been no trial. That family would have never had answers.’
Advanced DNA technology used to link Jeffrey Paul Premo to DNA found on ax used to kill Jennifer Brinkman in 1998
Jennifer Brinkman, 19, was killed in 1998, but her alleged killer was not caught until 2022
Jeffrey Paul Premo, 52, was arrested in December 2022 in connection to the 1998 death of 19-year-old Jennifer Brinkman.
The arrest was made more than 20 years after Brinkman’s murder with the help of advanced DNA technology and genetic genealogy.
Investigators say they matched his DNA to an ax that was used in the murder and found at the crime scene in 1998, PEOPLE reported.
Brinkman is believed to have met her killer on a phone chat line. Investigators from early in the investigation found a letter the suspect wrote to Brinkman before her death that indicated the pair had met, police said at a press conference in 2022.
Premo was booked into the Snohomish County Jail and posted a $250,000 bond in December 2022.
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