More than 40 years ago, the 19-year-old student was kidnapped and murdered Barbara Tucker in Oregon in the USA.
The breakthrough in the investigation only came in 2021, when they managed to identify the perpetrator.
Unaware that he was being watched, the killer spat out a piece of chewing gum – which became the investigators’ final piece of the puzzle.
Student Barbara Tucker was kidnapped in January 1980. She was sexually assaulted, raped and beaten to death near a school parking lot. Her body was found the next day by schoolmates who were on their way to the first lesson of the morning.
After 20 years, forensic tests were carried out on Barbara Tucker and a lab managed to produce a dna profile based on the samples, writes the prosecutor in a press release.
It took over 40 years to find the perpetrator
Despite the new DNA profile, it took more than 20 years before the investigators were able to find the perpetrator. In 2021, a genealogist at a forensic science lab found that Robert Plympton, 60, matched the profile. The police then chose to monitor Plympton.
Unaware that the investigators were following him, Plympton spat out a piece of chewing gum, which the investigators picked up. Based on the chewing gum, it was possible to obtain his DNA and compare it with the forensic samples taken 20 years later, and they got a hit.
In June 2021, Robert Plympton was arrested and at the end of February the trial against him began.
Police: Shocking murder
In mid-March, the court announced the verdict and he was convicted of the murder of Barbara Tucker.
– Barbara’s murder was shocking and the pain, grief, pain and loss has been there for generations. I hope that the conviction against Plympton can provide some kind of closure for her family and friends, says Police Chief Travis Gullberg.
Robert Plympton denied the charges, he was also not prosecuted for the rape as there was insufficient evidence against him.
“We will appeal and we are confident that his sentence will be overturned,” his lawyers Stephen Houze and Jacob Houze said in a statement to CNN.
The hearing regarding the sentence to be imposed is scheduled to be held in June later this year.