An arrest has been made in a Dallas case that had gone cold for decades.
In February 1984, Mary Jane Thompson was found dead behind a Dallas warehouse on Irving Boulevard. Police say she had been sexually assaulted and murdered. The culprit could not be found, and the case went cold.
When DNA technology advanced in 2009, Dallas police reopened the case. An unknown male DNA profile was identified after testing was completed on swabs from the autopsy. However, the profile could not be matched to a specific person, so the case went cold again.
In 2018, Dallas Police Cold Case Homicide Detective Noe Camacho reopened the case. Together with the Dallas County DA Sexual Assault Kit Initiative team, the cold case team worked on new types of forensic testing techniques. The FBI joined the investigation task force in 2020.
A forensic genetic genealogy analysis was carried out, and Edward Morgan was identified as the suspect. Later, DNA testing done on the unidentified profile from the swab taken in the 1984 autopsy allegedly confirmed Morgan was a match.
Edward, now 60 years old, was arrested and charged with the 1984 murder. He faces one count of capital murder and is being held in the Dallas County Jail.
Per CBS 11 News, Dallas County Assistant District Attorney and SAKI Chief Leighton D’Antoni attributed the success of the investigation to the “incredible collaborative effort between the Dallas Police Department, the FBI, and the District Attorney’s SAKI Cold Case team.”
D’Antoni also said that the force would continue to work hard to solve seemingly impossible cases.
“Working together, we continue to solve the most difficult cold cases that Dallas has ever seen. I look forward to working with all our local law enforcement agencies to utilize the advancements in forensic testing techniques to identify, arrest, and prosecute the most dangerous predators hiding among us,” said D’Antoni.
D’Antoni further said on behalf of law enforcement that cold cases are never forgotten, nor are the victims and their families.
