1959 US rape, murder case finally solved with DNA evidence

The rape and murder case of a 9-year-old girl in the US was solved after 62 years, thanks to advanced DNA technology. The victim was raped and murdered by a man 11 years older than her after she went missing from her home in 1959.

On the day of the incident, she was selling campfire mints in her Spokane’s West Central neighbourhood and did not return home. Her body was recovered two weeks later, and the accused, John Reigh Hoff, was never found guilty. He died in 1970, the Independent UK reported.

John Reigh Hoff was a US Army soldier and stationed at the Fairchild Air Force base in Spokane County when the incident took place in 1959, a Spokane police statement said.

In 1961, when he was 20-years-old, he was arrested for “2nd degree with intent to rob” after a woman was found tied-up and strangled.

The case was so difficult to solve prior to the evolution of advanced DNA technology that it was dubbed as the ‘Mount Everest’ case by Spokane authorities.

It was then found that his sample matched the sample taken from the victim’s body. “The department was able to confirm that it was 25 quintillion (18 zeroes) times more likely to be his DNA than another person,” according to the report in the Independent UK.

“It took the determination of a community, the evolution of technology, and the perseverance of generations of detectives to finally solve the mystery surrounding the horrific killing of Candy Rogers,” the department said in the press release. Sixty-two years later, there is finally some semblance of closure.”