Lawyer Andy Hale doesn’t know yet how many more hairs still in evidence from the Starved Rock murders case can be tested for DNA. He’ll file papers next week asking to have an Elgin company, Microtrace, examine them.
One hair from the crime scene yielded DNA from a still unknown male. Hale says that profile doesn’t appear in a state database, but it’s no surprise since the database didn’t exist until almost 40 years later. He’ll try to do ancestry comparisons to find close matches.
Hale will also get to look at papers from the original investigation in 1960. Judge Michael C. Jansz today said there are 18 or 19 things from local author Steve Stout’s collection that are relevant and appropriate for Hale to see. Stout wrote a book about the Starved Rock murders. He obtained papers from Harland Warren, now deceased, who was the LaSalle County State’s Attorney when the case began.
Jansz said Warren conducted at least some of the investigation. Normal practice today is to leave investigation to police. Hale believes that was likely the normal practice in 1960, which means Warren did something unusual.