Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to murdering Laura Purchase in 1983 after her body had been set on fire. But decades after his confession, and eventual charges, authorities aren’t convinced he’s the one who did it.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Texas announced that 75-year-old Thomas Elvin Darnell of Kansas City was arrested Thursday in connection to the Houston woman’s murder and sexual assault all those years ago. Police made the connection thanks to DNA evidence that allegedly linked him to the murder, as reported by several outlets.
Purchase’s naked body was found in March of 1983, burning off of Interstate 45 after she had been strangled and sexually assaulted. In 2007, the sheriff’s department resubmitted DNA found at the scene, which did not match that of Lucas, who famously confessed to 600 murders. His confessions are documented in Netflix’s The Confession Killer, a five-part docuseries following the results of his false confessions, using archival footage and interviews from back in the day.
Investigators soon saw Darnell as a suspect in late 2019, and after collecting “a known DNA sample” from him in March, he was eventually arrested in connection to the murder.
Now, he’s being held at Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Jail without bond and has not yet entered a plea.
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