HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — DNA lifted from cigarette butts led to a man's conviction Wednesday in the rape and murder of a young mother nearly 29 years ago.
Jerald L. Wingeart, 60, was found guilty of killing Dawn Lee Magyar, 20, who was abducted from a shopping mall, raped and shot in the head and back. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Magyar disappeared in 1973 while grocery shopping for her husband and 1-year-old son. Two months later her frozen body was discovered in a forest by farmers.
A gun was found in a river in 1974, and two years later police found Magyar's wallet on a nearby riverbank, but there were few leads.
In the mid-1990s, as part of a review of unsolved murders, police re-examined the case and focused on the gun.
Using cigarette butts taken from Wingeart's trash, investigators matched his DNA to semen taken from Magyar three decades ago.