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U.S. NEWS Saturday 6 OctOber 2018

Police: DNA links 3 deaths to killer who died in 1999

By JIM SALTER killings or the rape case at said.
Associated Press the time. DNA technology improved
ST. LOUIS (AP) — An Arkan- Police gathered DNA evi- and in 2006, the crime
sas man who killed him- dence over the years that scene DNA was entered
self during a 1999 police linked the crimes, but it into the CODIS system, pro-
standoff at a Missouri motel wasn't until earlier this year ducing a match to the April
was a killer and rapist who that a private company 6, 1990, killing of Zitricki, who
strangled a South Caro- helped make the connec- was 28 when she was stran-
lina woman in 1990 and tion to Brashers. Investiga- gled. Her body was found
gunned down a Missouri tors hired Parabon Nano- April 6, 1990, in her South
mother and daughter eight Labs, whose technology Carolina apartment after
years later, authorities said combines DNA testing and failing to report to work.
Friday. genetic genealogy analy- In May 2017, another DNA
Advancements in DNA test- sis. The company's testing match was discovered,
ing enabled investigators to indicated that the DNA linking the same suspect to
link the three killings and the was from Brashers. the rape of a 14-year-old
1997 rape of a 14-year-old Because he was dead, in- girl in Memphis on March
girl in Memphis, Tennessee, vestigators obtained DNA 11, 1997. Police said the
to Robert Brashers, the Mis- samples from Brashers' rela- attacker knocked on the
souri State Highway Patrol tives. That DNA evidence door of a home, pulled out
said. Brashers, a Paragould, led authorities to exhume a gun and pushed his way This undated photo provided by the Missouri State Highway Pa-
Arkansas, man who had a Brashers' body last week to inside. trol shows Robert Brashers.
long criminal record, killed take DNA from his corpse The patrol said Brashers had Associated Press
himself during a four-hour that was matched to DNA a long criminal history that
standoff at a motel in Ken- found at the crime scenes. included a 1986 convic- burglary, impersonating an was arrested in Paragould
nett, a city about 30 miles Stevens said that even 20 tion for attempted second- officer and unlawful posses- in 1998 for trying to break
(48 kilometers) northeast years later, he never con- degree murder, along with sion of a weapon. He also into a woman's home.q
of Paragould in an area of sidered the Scherer killings
southeastern Missouri that's a cold case — his officers
wedged between Arkan- were constantly investigat-
sas and Tennessee. ing and re-investigating
"Make no mistake about leads "because it was too
this gentleman: He is a se- important to this family and
rial rapist and a serial killer, the community of Porta-
but no more," New Madrid geville."
County, Missouri, Sheriff Ter- Anthony Scherer returned
ry Stevens said at a news from farm work on March
conference. 28, 1998, and found the
Brashers killed Genevieve bodies of his 38-year-old
Zitricki of Greenville, South wife and his daughter on
Carolina, in 1990. She was the living room floor. They
beaten and strangled in her had been shot.
bathtub, authorities said. Less than three hours after
The year after he raped the killings, a man stopped
the Tennessee girl, Brashers at a home in Dyersburg,
killed Sherri Scherer and her Tennessee, asked the
12-year-old daughter, Me- woman who lived there for
gan, in their home near Por- directions and then tried
tageville, about 155 miles to force his way inside. He
(250 kilometers) southeast shot her in the arm during a
of St. Louis. He also sexually struggle, but she survived.
assaulted Megan, police Ballistics testing showed
said. that the same gun was
The standoff in which used in both crimes. But
Brashers killed himself be- DNA at both crime scenes
gan when Kennett police lacked the markers neces-
sought to question him in a sary to place the informa-
stolen license plate investi- tion in a national database
gation. known as CODIS, the Mis-
He was not a suspect in the souri State Highway Patrol