DNA technology has been used to solve a 50-year-old rape-murder case in Riverside County, revealing that investigators caught the man early in the investigation, but he was cleared after he passed a polygraph test. It became.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release that 17-year-old Esther Gonzalez was found “in a snowpack” along Highway 243 south of Poppet Flat Road in Banning after being attacked on Feb. 9, 1979. It was announced that the body was found abandoned in a dumped area.
Esther Gonzalez is seen in an undated photo provided by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. An undated photo provided by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office shows Randy Williamson.
Gonzalez was walking from her parents’ home in Beaumont to her sister’s house in Banning when she was raped and bludgeoned to death.
Her body was discovered a day after an unidentified man reported finding a body to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, but deputies said the man was “reasonable” and it was unclear whether the body was male or female. I didn’t.
Five days later, investigators identified Lewis Randolph “Randy” Williamson as the caller, but Williamson was “cleared of any wrongdoing” after passing a polygraph.
Williamson died in 2014, but earlier this year a blood sample taken during an autopsy matched a semen sample taken from Gonzalez’s body.
Anyone with information about Williamson, Gonzalez or any other possible victims is asked to call 951-955-2777 or email coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.
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