The Allison Feldman murder cold case in Arizona got a big break this week after police made a roundabout DNA link between a suspect and her gruesome death in 2015.
Police in Scottsdale announced the arrest of 42-yeard-old Ian Mitcham on Tuesday, KNXV-TV reported, with the help of familial DNA testing of his brother who was in prison on an unrelated charge.
Mitcham now faces first-degree murder and second-degree burglary charges, per the ABC station.
Feldman, 31, was found murdered and naked in her home, according to court records, and her body smelled of bleach. She had been sexually assaulted with a beer bottle, strangled and bludgeoned to death, the Arizona Republic reported.
The killer left DNA on the broken beer bottle found at the scene and also on a bloody couch and a knob in the laundry room, the newspaper reported.
Authorities performed a "familial" test on the DNA found in Feldman's home against known criminals and found that it belonged to a "close relative" of Mark Mitcham, 54, who was in Arizona state prison after being convicted in 1994 on multiple child molestation counts, the Republic stated. He is the brother of Ian Mitchum.
Scottsdale police said blood from Ian Mitcham after an arrest for driving under the influence helped them establish a DNA profile that matched DNA found at the murder scene.
"It's something that we’ve obviously been wanting for a long time," Feldman's sister, Kelly Feldman Weinblatt of Minnesota, told the Republic. "… But at the same time, it's bittersweet. This isn't bringing her back. We're likely never going to get the answers that we want.”
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