Suspected Seventies serial killer Bruce Lindahl, who has been useless for many years, has now been recognized because the offender in a 1979 chilly case homicide, Illinois authorities introduced Wednesday.
On March 29, 1979, Kathy Halle, 19, left her house to choose up her sister on the Northgate Procuring Middle in Aurora, however by no means arrived, North Aurora Police Detective Ryan Peat mentioned at a information convention. Halle’s physique was present in a river a number of weeks later, Peat mentioned.
The case stayed chilly for many years.
An undated picture of Kathy Halle who was killed in Illinois in 1979.
Courtesy of the Kane County State’s Legal professional’s Workplace
In 2019, police in close by Lisle, Illinois, reopened the 1976 homicide case of 16-year-old Pamela Maurer, and used DNA to hyperlink Lindahl to the slaying, Peat mentioned.
In 2020, North Aurora detectives engaged on Halle’s case met with Lisle investigators, and proof was re-inspected and despatched for added testing, Peat mentioned. Whereas that DNA confirmed there was a mix of two people, the DNA was too degraded for a working profile, Peat mentioned.
In 2022, the North Aurora police discovered there was a field of proof with Lindahl’s belongings on the police division in close by Naperville, Illinois, and that proof confirmed Lindahl frequented the Northgate Procuring Middle, the place Halle labored, Peat mentioned.
Peat mentioned he then seemed into a brand new DNA instrument: the “M-Vac” DNA wet-vacuum, which may also help gather DNA from older circumstances.
In June 2023, North Aurora police drove the proof from Halle’s case to DNA Labs Worldwide in Florida to be analyzed with the brand new “M-Vac” instrument, Peat mentioned.
This August, police obtained a report from the lab exhibiting that “DNA roughly 9.4 trillion occasions extra possible to have originated from Bruce Lindahl was current on Kathy’s clothes,” Peat mentioned.
Pictures of Bruce Lindahl on show on the DuPage County State’s Legal professional’s workplace, Jan. 13, 2020, previous to a information convention concerning the homicide of Pamela Maurer.
Chicago Tribune/TNS through Getty Photographs, FILE
“We’re in a position to conclude Lindahl was liable for the dying of Kathy Halle,” Peat mentioned, including that police consider Halle was kidnapped from her house complicated parking zone.
“Lindhal has been related to a number of different circumstances on this space from that time-frame,” Peat added.
Lindahl may very well be liable for the murders of as much as a dozen younger girls, in keeping with The Related Press. Lindahl died in 1981 on the age of 29; he by accident stabbed a significant artery in his personal leg and bled to dying whereas he was attacking an 18-year-old man in Naperville, the AP mentioned.
“Had he not killed himself whereas in a homicide, we’d have approved first-degree homicide expenses towards Bruce Lindahl and we’d have proceeded to trial” for Halle’s case, Kane County State’s Legal professional Jamie Mosser mentioned.
Halle’s household mentioned in a press release learn on their behalf, “Whereas revisiting this case has been extremely troublesome for our household, we’re deeply grateful to lastly have closure after 45 lengthy years. Because of developments in DNA expertise and groundbreaking investigative instruments, we’re hopeful that different households will not must endure the identical ache and uncertainty that we confronted for therefore a few years.”
