i was kind of surprised, actually, because it s not one of the more common places we would find semen. the areas were removed then analyzed with a new dna test that needed only a very small amount of genetic material. miraculously, the tests generated a mixture of two dna profiles, one female and one male. one was julie s dna. the other was the dna of the killer. they were able to identify that dna profile as the exact match to james elmen. we were all ecstatic. i mean, it was an unbelievable feeling. and that s the reward of cold case, when you have that piece that you never had before and you re able just to put that one thing together, and, you know, you ve got the entire case. investigators confronted elmen in prison with the evidence. and i m telling you that your dna, that your semen, is in the murder scene of this murdered
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girl. i m telling you i wasn t there. i don t know anything about this girl. if you re not there, how does james elmen s semen get in the damn crime scene? that s one of those things that you could deny until the cows come home. with technology the way it is today, there s no getting around it. james elmen is a monster that now sits behind bars. i always knew that there was going to be a day that they were going to say, we got it. this case is solved. based on the dna evidence, prosecutors believe james elmen was probably walking by the convenience store where julie estes worked around 10:30 and noticed there were no customers inside. hi, there. he shut off the store s electricity, held julie at knifepoint, forced her to open the safe.
he then forced her to drive away. she was sure he was going to kill her because she could identify him, but then she saw the only chance to escape, a police officer directing traffic. what are you doing? drop the knife! the man was identified as james elmen. he was convicted for the crime and was currently serving a 22-year sentence in a nearby prison. and cold case investigators learned another startling coincidence. elmen had a close connection to the 10-year-old girl found hanging in the tree near julie s store two months before julie s murder. the 10-year-old was a half-sister of elmen. investigators now wanted to test the biological evidence
blood type as julie s, an indication she was injured elsewhere, placed in the trunk, then driven to the woods. initially, they weren t sure whether that was the scene of the murder or that was simply a dumpsite. that type of development makes investigation that much more difficult, because now you ve got two crime scenes to worry about. unfortunately, there were no foreign fingerprints found on or in the car, and investigators found no useable footprints in the mud and dirt. julie s purse was discovered at the scene with no money inside. the convenience store s money bag was there, but it, too, was empty. julie s killer had removed the laces from her shoes to tie her hands, but her shoes were missing. julie s shoes were distinctive even back in 1985 because they were purple. the next day, investigators got a potential lead.