Thursday, April 05, 2007

DNA solves old murder case

DNA used to solve 1988 Houston murder case

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Houston police have solved a nearly 20-year-old murder case involving an 82-year-old Houston woman, but the man identified as her killer is already on death row.

Travis D. Green, 38, who has been an inmate at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas prison system since 2001, was identified through DNA as the perpetrator in the sexual assault and strangulation of Margaret McGinnis in 1988.

Green is on death row after a conviction in the 1999 sexual assault and murder of a 19-year-old woman.

Because he is on death row, no additional charges will be filed against Green, Houston police said.

On July 13, 1988, McGinnis was found on the floor of her bedroom in her west Houston home at 1805 Crocker.

The attacker had entered the residence through the bedroom window and barricaded the door from the inside.

At the time of the crime, there were neither witnesses nor leads in the case.

In August 2006, HPD Cold Case Squad investigators reopened the case. A review of McGinnis' autopsy led them to find a DNA profile in October. Investigators entered the profile into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) where a match was located.

In February, the match profile was identified as Green.

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