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Strangled With Her Leg Warmers: 1984 Cold Case Murder Solved

The killer of 21-year-old Mary Jane Thompson has finally been caught.

Verity Partington
2 min readFeb 20, 2022
Mary Jane Thompson, who was killed in 1984 (Image: nbcdfw.com)

Detectives in Dallas have solved a murder dating back almost four decades through DNA technology, it has been announced.

Mary Jane Thompson, 21, was found murdered and sexually assualted along the city’s Irving Boulevard on February 13th 1984.

She had been working at a florist’s shop and a restaurant, but was also an aspiring model who had previously lived in Los Angeles before relocating to Texas about six months prior to her death.

Her body was discovered behind a warehouse and detectives realised she had been strangled with her own leg warmers. Although every effort was made to catch the person who committed the crime, the case unfortunately went cold.

In 2009, Dallas Police reopened the file and carried out DNA testing on the crime scene evidence using new technology that had become available. Again, although a male DNA profile was successfully extracted, no suspects were identified and the case once again stalled.

Then, in 2018, the Dallas County District Attorney Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) decided to take another look at Mary Jane’s murder, this time using the same forensic genetic…

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Verity Partington
Verity Partington

Written by Verity Partington

A writer and author of crime thrillers living in the UK. Partial to books, stationery, papercrafts and walking. You can find her books on Amazon here: https://a

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