Investigators solve 1982 murder of 8-year-old Ohio girl, link DNA to dead killer
Autumn Schoolman USA TODAY
Nearly 40 years ago, eight-year-old Kelly Prosser left her elementary school in Columbus, Ohio. She never arrived home.
Two days later she was found dead in a cornfield in a case that puzzled the community and police for decades.
But on Friday, her family finally got an answer about who killed the child. Columbus police investigators who never gave up on the cold case matched a dead man's DNA to the rape and murder of Kelly.
"Our family has spent many long years waiting for Kelly Ann's murder to be solved," according to a statement released by Kelly's family after police announced the news. "But Kelly's family is not unique. Those who have suffered the murder of their loved one knows how devastating waiting for answers can be. Nor are we the only family who has laid awake at night hoping and praying that their missing child would return home safely."
Kelly Prosser was abducted while walking home from Indianola Elementary School on September 20, 1982. Her body was discovered in nearby Madison County two days later.
Authorities said she had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled.
On Friday afternoon during a press conference, police said DNA identifies now-deceased Harold Warren Jarrell as the man behind the killing. Jarrell passed away in 1996 at the age of 67 in Las Vegas.
Read the family's full statement below:
The case was pronounced closed Friday when Columbus police said a new genealogical testing technique identified the girl's killer.
Detectives recently began working with a genealogy company called Advance DNA to use DNA from the crime scene to identify the suspect. They were able to establish a family tree and followed up on leads with possible family members. The initial family match was with a third cousin. Through the process, they determined that Jarrell was Kelly's killer.
Genetic genealogy testing and research has solved a number of high-profile cold cases nationally in recent years, including California’s so-called Golden State Killer.
Det. Dana Croom, who took over the case fully in 2016, said at a news press conference that he “couldn’t believe it when we got the match. I was numb, and I teared up a little bit.”
He said he has a personal connection with the family and thought of his own kids as he worked the case.
“All of these years of this case being open and numerous detectives working on it, it is satisfying to let the family know what happened to their little girl though it doesn’t bring her back. There are cases that stick with detectives forever and this is one of those for all of us,” said Croom, according to ABC 6.
Columbus police said their podcast helped detectives get answers in Kelly’s case.
Columbus police started a podcast in May titled "The 5th Floor" in hopes to find Prosser's killer and tell her story. Her case was chosen for the series because it is one every detective and investigator that has worked on the case has felt a personal connection with and a desire to close, said Columbus Deputy Chief Greg Bodker.
Prosser’s family had no known connection to Jarrell, Bodker said.
“This appears to be a true stranger abduction,” he said.
“I don’t know that his name would’ve come up without the DNA,” Bodker said. ”(Jarrell) was not on our radar at all as someone who committed this murder.”
Jarrell had been convicted in 1977 of a sex crime involving a child in Columbus and served about five years in prison, Bodker said.
“His DNA profile has been in CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) since it started,” he said. “If there was any other evidence in other crimes, it would’ve generated a hit.”
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