Newly tested DNA evidence has prompted a Travis County, Texas, grand jury to indict Robert Elmer Kleasen for the 1974 murders of two missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Although he was never tried for the murder of Elder Gary Darley, Kleasen, 69, was convicted in 1975 of killing Elder Mark Fischer and sentenced to die. Two years later, however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction based on a faulty search warrant.
Advances in DNA analysis and other forensic tools allowed the new indictment, Travis County District Attorney Ronald Earle said Wednesday.
Prosecutors aren't saying exactly what evidence they've tested, but attorney Ken Driggs, who has written a book on Kleasen and the missionary murders, said it's possible the samples came from blood and hair found on a jumpsuit discovered on Kleasen's property after the murders.
The jumpsuit was stuffed in a barrel outside of Kleasen's trailer, located behind a taxidermy shop west of Austin in 1974. During his 1975 trial, prosecutors alleged Kleasen dismembered the victims and buried the remains. Their bodies were never found.
Investigators, however, did find hair samples matching Fischer and Darley on a band saw inside the taxidermy shop. Other body hair was also found on the saw, but it could only be identified as body hair.
If the blood and hair found on the jumpsuit matches that of Fischer and Darley, Driggs said that could be the best new evidence against Kleasen.
"If they got a match on that, that's a strong piece of evidence," Driggs said. "It's likely the jumpsuit was worn when they were cut up."
But convicting Kleasen of a murder that happened more than 26 years ago won't be easy. The two missionaries were scheduled to have dinner at Kleasen's trailer on Oct. 28, 1974. Police believe Darley, 20, of Simi Valley, Calif., and Fischer, 19, of Milwaukee, kept that date and were shot to death.
Police found Fischer's bloody watch and bullet-punctured name tag in Kleasen's trailer. They also found a missionary film strip and a letter from Darley to Kleasen confirming their Oct. 28 dinner appointment.
Whether those items and the new DNA evidence are enough to convict Kleasen remains to be seen.
"If the state put all this on and the defense made a motion to dismiss, I'm quite certain it would survive a motion to dismiss," Driggs said. "Which would put Kleasen in a position of either putting on a defense or hoping the jury would find there wasn't enough evidence to convict him."
But some of the evidence might be difficult to admit at a trial, Driggs said.
According to Driggs, a watch with blood flakes on it and name tag were returned to Fischer's family, which means defense attorneys could argue they were not kept properly as evidence.
"You have a chain of custody problem with the state," Driggs said.
Family members of both missionaries have struggled to deal with the tragic deaths.
"It would just be nice to have absolute closure once and for all just so we don't have to ever have this conversation again," one of Darley's family members told the Deseret News in an interview last year. "I just feel sorry for anybody that he (Kleasen) gets involved with because he's not going to deal straight with anybody."
Kleasen served time in a federal prison for firearms violations and in New York for assault. He was paroled in 1988.
In 1990, Kleasen moved to England, where he was convicted in June 2000 and given a three-year prison term for illegal firearms/munitions possession.
He is awaiting extradition back to Travis County, where he faces life in prison if convicted of the missionaries' murders.
"I would be quite surprised if Kleasen ever pleaded guilty to this because he has a long history of absolute denial that he's ever done anything wrong," Driggs said.
Driggs' book, "Evil Among Us: The Texas Mormon Missionary Murders," is currently in its second printing.
Contributing: The Associated Press
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com