Law officials say an arrest has been made in connection to a 38-year-old cold case.
According to a press release from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office on Friday, authorities arrested Edward Morgan, 60, for the 1984 murder of Mary Jane Thompson, 21.
The arrest comes nearly 38 years to the day that Thompson was found behind a warehouse on Irving Boulevard in Dallas after being sexually assaulted and murdered on February 13, 1984.
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Thompson’s case was considered unsolved, and her attacker remained at large.
The case was reopened in 2009 and DNA testing was completed on swabs from the autopsy. An unknown male DNA profile was identified but never matched to a specific suspect so the case went cold again.
With new forensic testing techniques, the case was reopened nine years later by Dallas Police Cold Case Homicide Detective Noe Camacho and the Dallas County DA Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) team.
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In 2020, the FBI joined forces and submitted the case for Forensic Genetic Genealogy analysis (FGG), the same technology used to catch The Golden State Killer.
"This case is yet another example of the incredible collaborative effort between the Dallas Police Department, the FBI, and the District Attorney's SAKI Cold Case team,” said Dallas County Assistant District Attorney and SAKI Chief Leighton D'Antoni. “Working together, we continue to solve the most difficult cold cases that Dallas has ever seen."
According to investigators, the FGG software identified Morgan as the suspect.
This week, DNA testing confirmed Morgan matched the unidentified profile from the swab taken in the 1984 autopsy, the release stated.
"I look forward to working with all our local law enforcement agencies to utilize the advancements in forensic testing techniques to identify, arrest, and prosecute the most dangerous predators hiding among us,” said D’Atoni. “We never, ever forget about these cases, our victims, and their families."
Morgan faces one count of capital murder and is being held in the Dallas County Jail.
