Man nabbed in cold case rape and murder of Colorado woman that took place nearly 40 years ago... all thanks to a beer mug
UNION COUNTY, FLORIDA: A 62-year-old truck driver has been charged in the murder of a Colorado intern nearly 40 years ago after authorities used genealogy websites to identify a suspect.
On January 16, 1980, James Curtis Clanton allegedly abducted Helene Pruszynski, 21, as she was walking home from a bus stop in the Denver area, investigators said.
Almost four decades after the rape and murder, authorities announced Clanton's arrest in Union County, Florida, on December 16. According to them, they were able to track down the suspect via a combination of DNA analysis and good old-fashioned police work.
At the time of her death, Pruszynski had been working as an intern at KHOW radio station for just two weeks.
The Massachusetts native was found stabbed to death on Daniels Park Road the following day. Police believe she was kidnapped near Union Avenue and Broadway in the Englewood area.
In the weeks leading up to her murder, police were investigating whether a series of sexual assaults in the area were connected to one another.
However, the good preservation of evidence from the crime scene ultimately allowed the case to reopen, according to District Attorney George Brauchler.
The case is now moving forward thanks to advances in genealogy led by organizations such as Parabon NanoLabs and United Data Connect.
In a bid to find the suspect, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) Cold Case Unit in 2017 implemented tools like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch.com before the investigation moved its focus to finding Clanton's relatives in recent months.
Police received an alert of a possible DNA match of an individual living in Lake Butler, Florida, before Douglas County sent a team of detectives to work with Union County Sheriffs in surveillance and evidence collection.
For the following six days, Colorado detectives followed Clanton in Florida and were able to gather three mugs from a bar where he had been drinking.
It was a successful match after authorities found the same DNA on the victim's body and clothing.
It was found that two years after the murder, Clanton had moved to Florida and changed his name from Curtis Allen White.
Earlier this month, authorities obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect. He was finally apprehended on December 11.
Clanton is now being held in jail on four counts of felony first-degree murder and one count of felony kidnapping.
"We are proud to see justice finally served and this person having to answer for the crime he committed almost 40 years ago," Union County Sheriff Whitehead stated. "We pray that the friends and family of the victim can now have peace knowing this murderer is captured. It was great to work with the professional men and women from Douglas County (CO) Sheriff’s Office."
Clanton had lived in Union County for 10 years and had had no run-ins with the law in that period, cops said.
"This is a young girl who was just starting her life who came to Colorado to have an opportunity to make a difference," Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said. "She wanted to be in journalism. She wanted to be apart of a bigger story. She was involved in her choir at home, and from all accounts, was a wonderful, decent, nice young lady."