- In 1958, William Leslie Arnold killed his mom and father and buried them in his once more yard.
- After escaping from jail in 1967, he fled to Australia and have develop into a family man.
- His grotesque earlier was discovered this yr, after DNA testing led investigators to his son.
It took 55 years and an at-home DNA check out, nevertheless US Marshals have lastly closed a cold case after a very long time of monitoring a murderer who killed his mom and father and escaped from jail.
In 1958, then-16-year-old William Leslie Arnold fought alongside along with his mom and father over taking their automotive to the drive-in sooner than fatally taking footage them every and burying them inside the yard of the family’s residence. After serving a decade of his life sentence, he and one different inmate escaped from the Nebraska State Penitentiary.
The other inmate was caught. Arnold fled, lastly ending up in Australia, the place he married and commenced his family, claiming that he was an orphan, CNN reported.
Arnold’s darkish earlier would have in no way been discovered have been it not for that lie, because the individual’s son later went in quest of further particulars about his father’s unknown earlier – and ended up with larger than he bargained for.
In 2020, in cooperation with US Marshal investigators nonetheless on the lookout for the fugitive, Arnold’s brother James, who was not residence on the time of the murders, submitted a DNA sample using an at-home check out bundle to a major database comparable to AncestryDNA or 23AndMe, though investigators haven’t specified exactly which service was used.
The Guardian reported that AncestryDNA, 23AndMe, and My Heritage, an important household tree web sites, often forestall laws enforcement from putting crime scene DNA into their strategies nevertheless, with a member of the household’s permission, comparable to Arnold’s brother, they are going to submit samples and run searches.
James Arnold’s DNA sample sat unmatched for two years when one different at-home check out bundle was submitted, lots of of miles away, and the thriller was lastly solved — an in depth familial match appeared, and had reached out wanting to know further about their relative.
“I’m on the lookout for out further particulars about my father. He was an orphan from Chicago,” CNN reported Arnold’s son, who stays anonymous, talked about in an email correspondence to his uncle when the match was present in 2022.
Matt Westover, Deputy US Marshal for the District of Nebraska, didn’t immediately reply to Insider’s request for comment.
Arnold’s son helped investigators piece collectively the individual’s life after he escaped from jail. After escaping in Nebraska, Arnold assumed the establish John Damon, and jumped from Cincinnati, Miami, and Los Angeles, sooner than shifting to New Zealand inside the Nineties, then Australia years after. He met his partner, raised his 4 kids, and died in 2010 at age 69 with a legacy of a businessman and doting father, per CNN.
“There’s no warning label on the DNA check out bundle telling you that you simply simply might not like what you uncover,” the son talked about, per CNN. “Nevertheless I don’t regret doing it, and I’m glad I now know the truth about my dad. Although it’s gorgeous to know that his life began with a horrible crime, his legacy is quite a bit larger than that.”