Chewing Gum Helps Solve US Teen’s Murder After 43 Years

A piece of chewing gum helped investigators solve the murder of an American teenage girl after 43 years, with DNA technology and forensic genealogy leading police to her killer.

The decades-old case ended in a conviction and a life sentence for the man identified through the investigation.

Chewing gum provided a crucial clue in the effort to establish the killer’s identity. The available details do not explain how it was collected or how investigators used it in the case.

Forensic genealogy combines DNA analysis with family-history research to help investigators identify people. Alongside DNA technology, it enabled police to make a breakthrough in the long-unsolved killing.

The conviction brought a legal resolution to a case that had remained unanswered for more than four decades.