California law enforcement recently cracked the case of a woman’s murder that had gone unsolved for three decades.
Danielle Clause, aged 42, was killed in 1991, but the perpetrator remained unknown until Ventura Police employed sophisticated genetic genealogy methods to identify the murderer.
After 33 years, investigators concluded that Larry Welch was responsible for Clause’s death. Welch, who passed away in 1999, was not believed to have known the victim. An autopsy revealed that Clause had been sexually assaulted and died from injuries caused by blunt force trauma to her head.
Clause’s body was discovered on July 16, 1991, near downtown Ventura, partially undressed. She was last observed the previous night speaking with an unidentified man.
Douglas Auldridge, a retired lieutenant, mentioned that the authorities had exhausted all leads at the time before labeling the case as cold. In 2021, the decision was made to perform DNA testing on evidence collected during the initial investigation, which eventually matched Welch.
By July 2022, genealogists had constructed a family tree for Welch. A female relative of his provided a DNA sample to the police, helping them focus on Welch and his brother as potential suspects. To exclude the brother as a suspect, his DNA was also tested.
The test confirmed that Welch was indeed the murderer of Clause.
Marcie Forte, Clause’s sister, expressed her relief and gratitude that the murderer had been identified, noting that Clause was “so badly beaten that she was unrecognizable.” She shared her longstanding hope to discover the identity of her sister’s killer in a video released to announce the breakthrough.
Police across the country are increasingly turning to DNA technology to resolve long-standing cold cases.
Another cold case, the murder of 19-year-old Barbara Tucker, was solved in 2021 using DNA technology. Robert Arthur Plympton, 60, was convicted of the murder in March by an Oregon court.
