Police charge man in 18-year-old murder case

Police were finally able to use DNA to place a suspect at the scene of the crime.

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A man who did odd jobs as a teenager for a woman who was killed nearly 18 years ago has been charged with complicity to murder because improved DNA testing shows he was at the crime scene, police said.

“The technology finally caught up with the evidence,” said Sgt. Don Barton.

James Hollis, 37, of Circleville, also was charged with complicity to rape and is being held on $3 million bond. Prosecutors plan to present their case to a Pickaway County grand jury in June.

Police say they always suspected that he was involved in the death of Mary Cook, 83, in July 1990. Her body was discovered when neighbors noticed her window blinds were uncharacteristically closed and asked police to check on her.

The Franklin County coroner’s office determined that she had been raped and died of asphyxiation caused by a broken bone in her neck.

Evidence recovered at the scene could not be linked to any of several suspects at the time. But in October 2005, the county prosecutor ordered the evidence sent to the new forensic laboratory at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

Last September, the recovered DNA connected Hollis to the scene, and a second lab confirmed the results, prosecutors said.

“I’m really glad it happened on my watch,” said Police Chief Wayne Gray.

Gray said investigators are hopeful of making another arrest in the case.

“We do believe there’s more to this story than what we have presently,” Gray said. “We’re not naming any other suspects at this time, but there is a possibility of people with more information on this case.”

Police believe the killing began as a robbery or burglary.

Kristin Cook, the victim’s granddaughter, said she was glad that Circleville police stayed on the case. Her father, Blenn Cook, died at age 80 in 2005, his decade-old offer of a $25,000 reward for an arrest in his mother’s death unclaimed.

“Technology does not move at the pace we like,” Kristin Cook said. “We knew we had all the information that could be gathered. It was just waiting for technology to catch up.”