Police are convinced that a woman who died in the ValuJet crash last May was the killer of her friend several weeks earlier.
Detectives in College Park, Ga., told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 38-year-old DelMarie Walker stabbed and strangled Catherine Holmes in an argument over money in March 1996.Walker denied involvement in the crime and cooperated with the investigation by giving police fingerprints and hair samples. But she balked at giving blood that could be compared with blood stains found at her friend's apartment.
"We didn't have enough probable cause to get a search warrant to draw her blood. We didn't have enough to charge her with murder," Police Lt. Richard Chromi told the newspaper.
But police say hairs found in the victim's hand, apparently from a struggle with her killer, later matched those of Walker as did fingerprints taken from the scene.
Walker was among 110 people killed in the ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades.